Hey guys,
Has anyone had trouble staying Airbnb in China before?
I'm taking couple mates to SiChuan in April and a few hosts have rejected me because my mates aren't Chinese!
I've stayed at places such as Japan where there are signs like Airbnb should not be allowed but never encountered certain race aren't allowed haha…
A bit of turnoff for my friends…
Thx!
White people can't claim racism these days
The contents of the link may not be appropriate for people with heart conditions.
Who needs magic mike when there's that guy.
White people claiming racism are like adults claiming abuse when bratty infant kids hit them, or like straight people claiming it's unfair there's no straight pride march through Oxford Street every year.
Do you have a Chinese passport?
I know China (quietly) introduced new laws that meant foreigners have to register with the police. Your normal hotel will do this for you. Maybe air bnb won't
Yeah I'm Chinese so no issues for me.
I just did some further readings and you are absolutely right.
Some says the host will need to register foreigners with the local cops.
You might have a issue if you try and stay on a Aussie passport. AFAIK you can’t have dual Chinese /Australian citizenship.
I would find a hotel/hostel.
Oh nah sorry I didn't explain it well. I've only got PR here,so I'm still holding a Chinese passport. My friends, however, are holding OZ passports.
Yeh we ended up just booking a hotel.. Similar price in the end.
Went to beijing in august 2017 and stayed in airbnb with no problem.
I'm not sure about China but Russia is a bit confusing and I'm guessing China is quite similar.
Before applying for a Russian visa you need too get a 'letter of invitation', once you get the letter from the hotel that you've booked you can then apply for the visa.
There's actually a few websites where one can buy a 'letter of invitation', you can stay anywhere within the region of the city (which is very large) including Airbnb.
It's just a lot of left over bureaucracy from the Soviet times, there was a lot of suspicion of spy's during the child war and the government just wanted to keep tabs on where foreigners were staying.
China - you just need a visa
That's so much more easier than Russia.
But as part of the visa application process, you need to show proof of having booked accommodation and air tickets.
Whether or not you actually end up staying at the booked accommodation/booked air tickets is another matter…
All foreigners need to register with the local PSB. Usually hotels will do this for you. I presume hosts on Airbnb will not, therefore leaving it up to you. I guess the hosts do not want to take the risk of foreigners not registering.
Yet Australia turns the other cheek, so long as they buy our dirt.
We got nothing else but dirt here anayway.
it's okay though they can purchase properties in aus while leaving them vacant
Unrelated but i used to airbnb my place, i had some chinese guests that were surprised when i told them i wasn't going to be their live-in butler.
Hahahahaha what the.. So random
Story time?
Well basically what happened was my partner and i used to airbnb my spare room as a live-in apartment owner. These guests arrived and they just started to request strange things that made me think that they thought i was supposed to be a butler.
The day they arrived they handed me their washing, they would ask if it was ok to use mine and my partners thongs to go to the beach in, they'd ask what was for dinner when i was making it, like i was making their dinner too.
Then they started ask me about booking attractions which i'd then explain how to do it, but they'd seem confused like i was supposed to be doing it for them.
Luckily they were only staying 3-4 days but it was really awkward haha.
Thats hilarious!
I guess they came from a rich family.
I'm sorry to hear what you met on looking for accommodation in Sichuan. I think it might be because of the worry on language obstacle. I think you can use the fliter for more options like the language spoken by the host. Haha. Or you can choose to take a trial of Couchsurfing. Now more Chinese people also accept couch surfing and would love culture sharing.
Well, it's not about the race…….all none Chinese citizens (ie everyone that don't have a Chinese ID) needs to be registered with the local police, that's what the large hotels who have affiliation with the local police do on check-in. They scan your passport and it's sent to the police station. That's also why alot of the smaller motels/air bnb/hostels don't accept foreigners (even if you're Chinese without the ID). If the police catches a business offering accommodation to a foreigner without being licensed/pre-approved, it's a pretty hefty fine.
Side note….just from a couples years back, China's also keeping a record of all foreigner's bio-metric data (fingerprint + face) on entry as well.
How comforting…
I would recommend being very careful about this.
Went to Beijing last year and stayed in an AirBnb. Everything was fine until my phone was stolen (while on the train). I had travel insurance but knew I would need a police report to make a claim. Went to police station to report it. They asked for my address on the police report and I mentioned I was staying at a AirBnb, big big mistake!
They legit threatened to arrest and deport me. They wouldn't let me leave the police station until the owner of the AirBnb came down to the police station with proof of ownership of the flat. He then had to go the local council (or equivalent of) and register us as staying there, he had to bring proof of this back to the police station before they would release us.
He was lucky they decided not to fine him but he did have to take 2 days off work. Pretty sure he stopped renting his flat out on AirBnb afterwards. It really wasn't worth the hassle. If I went again I would stay at a hotel.
The owner may now expect a visit from the SAT.
Damn that's horrible.
Yeah we ended up booking a hotel in Chengdu but the Airbnb we booked in Xi An is good to go because the owner said she's going to register us.
wow - crazy. Airbnb is a minefield in many cities / countries, with lots of competing agendas and risks. Personally, I stay away from it except domestically, too stressful if something goes wrong!
Airbnb in general is great, authoritarian governments who want to know the location of every foreigner in the country are the problem in this case.
Also, police does random checks on streets and bars, if you have not registered you will be arrested.
One guy travelled to China visa free 72hrs or similar, did not register. He was refused entry the next time he tried to come visa free. Rather big inconvenience.
thats racist