Public Transport

[Ursina-Raffaele0]

There are people out there who travel without own vehicle. They need to know, if the place is reasonable accessible by public transport or not. This needs to be integrated in the filter options.

If you prefer to go on holidays without a car, it's impossible to find a suitable place. I have been in that situaiton many times myself. (Finally had the brilliant idea to only search for a place on a traffic free island - worked perfectly well and I knew that all listings on that island will be ok! But would also like to go somewhere else sometimes 😉 )

Thanks for listening to our experiences.

[Andrew157]

So are you suggesting that airbnb adds a filter that says public transport accessible. Maybe, but how do you define it?

Our place is 1.5 miles from the railway station. Is that public transport accessible? Our new place will be 50 from the bus stop with summer open top bus to the station and through central Lakes. But that does not run in the winter. Is that accessible?

Some people will walk the Pennine way on holiday some will not walk 20m to an alternative parking space 

[Anonymous]

This makes sense to me. If you look deep in the Amenities tickboxes, under "Location" the options include "Ski In/Ski Out" and "Lake Access." With options as rare and obscure as these, there's no reason they couldn't add one along the lines of "car-free access."

But the difficult thing, as the other @Andrew157 points out, is clarifying the parameters of accessibility. For virtually every host here in Berlin, it's easy to guarantee car-free access because the entire city has extensive 24-hour public transport. But I've traveled plenty of places where the only transit links are seasonal, or don't run every day, or aren't technically "public" (like in Mexico, where truck drivers go up and down the road collecting passengers in the flatbed for a small fee). 

My proposal would be "Guaranteed Car-Free Access" option that hosts outside of major cities could use to offer assurance that guests travelling without a car can reach their property at any time. For some hosts, this would mean physically picking their guests up from a station, giving detailed walking directions, or helping arrange some other form of delivery - which would of course have to be disclosed in the listing. This would be a useful filter for carless guests travelling outside of urban centers, who might be interested in a region (such as an outdoor recreational area) more than a specific town. 

Perhaps a broader topic worth discussing here would be other tools Airbnb can offer to improve the searchability of hosts outside of big cities and major tourist destinations. 

[Ursina-Raffaele0]

Thank you to both Andrews for joining the conversation. You are right, the specification is difficult. But it's like with all the Tick-boxes: they are seldem 100% right.

I have lived and traveled for many years without a car. As for me, guaranteed access is not quite the right thing, because I might also want to go to a restaurant in the area, go groceries shopping or on a day out. For longer stays it's not enough to reach the place and be able to leave it again when you check out. But I think people without car, especially when they travel to a rural area, dont expect 24-hour public transport. As for me, I am willing to walk about 1 km between apartment and public transport and I'd bee happy enough to have a schedule with a least say five times daily transports.

I think somebody just has to specify the Tick Box and then the hosts and guests can clarify exactly how its ment. But at least you don't have to read through all the listings that are completely out of the area of public transport.

[Dave248]

How is this not already a feature!?! I'm searching for places endlessly and find it imporssible to identify and filter based on how each place is accessible. The worst is thinking you've found a good spot then reading in the 5th or 6th review and the house is only accessibly by car!?

[Ursina-Raffaele0]

Thank you Dave for your thoughts. I will keep fighting for this but we need to be a lot to change something. Please raise the topic also with your friends and your community. I believe the AirBnB-Management can't even think of going on a holiday without a car.

[Hannah226]

Thank you for raising this! I am trying to plan a trip around Tuscany without a car and am finding it really challenging to ascertain where is suitable to stay save for staying the in centre of each city. 

I hope AirBnb provides this filter option soon!