Find the Best Airbnb Apartments in Punta Cana 2024

Airbnb is one of the most popular and useful online platforms for travelers! It provides a unique opportunity to search and book apartments worldwide online. Here you will find the largest selection of holiday homes for both short-term and long-term rental according to your taste and preferences, from a small room to a huge beachfront villa.

Airbnb, Inc. is an online marketplace for arranging or offering lodging, primarily homestays, or tourism experiences. The company does not own any of the real estate listings, nor does it host events. It acts as a broker, receiving commissions from each booking. The company is based in San Francisco, California, United States.

The company was conceived after its founders put an air mattress in their living room, effectively turning their apartment into a bed and breakfast, in order to offset the high cost of rent in San Francisco; Airbnb is a shortened version of its original name, AirBedandBreakfast.com [Source].

Main Airbnb Advantages

• You can save money by booking with Airbnb. You can easily find great deals incomparable with hotel accommodation. Apartments can cost less and still have better location, design and amenities, more living space. It is especially noticeable if you travel with a family or a large group. You can save money without losing quality.
• Comfort and home atmosphere. Often apartments are fully equipped. They have everything you need, including washing machine, dishwasher, kitchen with appliances and utensils, etc. You can really feel at home away from home. Moreover, many accommodation options on Airbnb have a unique design or features, for example, big terraces with unbeatable views that typical hotel rooms can’t offer.
• Communication and cultural exchange. Airbnb is not only the way to find accommodation, but also an opportunity to communicate with locals and learn more. You will deal with a local host who knows the country from the inside, and therefore can tell a lot of interesting things, give advice and recommendations. You will be able to get a unique local experience. At the same time, of course, if you need privacy, you can enjoy it.

Our Best Airbnb Apartments

Airbnb History

• Computer programmer Paul Graham invited the founders to the January 2009 winter training session of his startup incubator, Y Combinator, which provided them with training and funding in exchange for a small interest in the company. With the website already built, they used the Y-Combinator investment to fly to New York to meet users and promote the site. They returned to San Francisco with a profitable business model to present to West Coast investors. By March 2009, the site had 10,000 users and 2,500 listings.
• In March 2009, the name of the company was shortened to Airbnb.com, and the site’s content had expanded from air beds and shared spaces to a variety of properties including entire homes and apartments, private rooms, and other properties.
• In April 2009, the company received seed money from Sequoia Capital. In November 2010, they raised financing from Greylock Partners and Sequoia Capital in a Series A round, and announced that out of 700,000 nights booked, 80% had occurred in the previous six months.
• In June 2012, Airbnb announced its 10,000,000th night booked, doubling business in the previous five months.
• At the 2011 South by Southwest conference, Airbnb won the “app” award. In October 2011, Airbnb established an office in London, its first international office.
• Due to the growth of international end-users, in early 2012, Airbnb opened offices in Paris, Milan, Barcelona, Copenhagen, Moscow, and São Paulo. These openings were in addition to existing offices in San Francisco, London, Hamburg, and Berlin. In September 2013, the company announced that it would establish its European headquarters in Dublin.
• In November 2012, Airbnb opened an office in Sydney, Australia, its 11th office location, and announced plans to launch the service in Thailand and Indonesia. In December 2012, Airbnb announced its strategy to move more aggressively into the Asian market with the launch of an office in Singapore.
• In November 2012, Airbnb launched “Neighborhoods”, a travel guide of 23 cities that helps travelers choose a neighborhood in which to stay based on certain criteria and personal preferences.
• By October 2013, Airbnb had served 9,000,000 guests since its founding in August 2008. Nearly 250,000 properties were added in 2013.
• In July 2014, Airbnb revealed design revisions to the site and mobile app and introduced a new logo. In April 2015, following the Obama administration’s easing of restrictions on U.S. businesses to operate in Cuba, Airbnb expanded to Cuba, making it one of the first U.S. companies to do so.
• In the summer of 2016, at the request of three members of the United States Senate, the Federal Trade Commission began investigating how Airbnb affected housing costs. In October 2016, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed a bill charging Airbnb fines for violations of local housing laws. The New York Times reported that these events were related and part of a “plan that the hotel association started in early 2016 to thwart Airbnb”.
• In January 2017, Airbnb led a $13 million investment in restaurant reservation-booking app, Resy, along with serial entrepreneurs Gary Vaynerchuk, Ben Leventhal and Mike Montero.
• Airbnb first became profitable during the second half of 2016. Airbnb’s revenue grew more than 80% from 2015 to 2016.
• In February 2018, the company announced Airbnb Plus, a collection of homes that have been vetted for quality of services, comfort and design, as well as Beyond by Airbnb, which offers luxury vacation rentals. By October 2019, two million people were staying with Airbnb each night.

Source: wikipedia.org – Airbnb

Airbnb Development Timeline

Period & Development summary	Details
2007-2009: Conception, bootstrapping	The initial concept is created by Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia. They launch the website. To raise money, they sell cereal boxes for Barack Obama and John McCain, candidates for the 2008 United States presidential election.
2009-2010: Angel and venture funding, beginning of business takeoff	Airbnb becomes part of the Winter 2009 Y Combinator class. The company raises $600,000 from Sequoia Capital, with Youniversity Ventures partners Jawed Karim, Keith Rabois, and Kevin Hartz participating. The business grows steadily. Brian Chesky moves out of his own apartment to live off Airbnb for three months. In November 2010, Airbnb raises $7.2 million in venture funding.
2011-2014: International expansion, more fundraising, steady growth	Airbnb begins operations in many cities around the world, and continues to grow steadily in usage.
2014-present: User experience, peace with the law, partnerships, more fundraising	Airbnb redesigns its logo, launches new apps and an improved user experience, and strikes deals with city authorities in San Francisco and other cities that would make its service legally recognized while also requiring it to tax rentals. Airbnb also begins offering $1 million in insurance to both parties in its rental transactions. By June 2015, the total money raised by the company to-date is $2.3 billion, of which $1.5 billion was in the most recent round. It also starts partnerships with Handy, Concur, and Deutsche Telekom.

Source: wikipedia.org – Timeline of Airbnb

Airbnb Funding

• In January 2009, the company received $20,000 in venture funding from Y Combinator. In April 2009, the company raised $600,000 from Sequoia Capital, with Youniversity Ventures partners Jawed Karim, Keith Rabois, and Kevin Hartz participating. In November 2010, it raised $7.2 million in a Series A round led by Greylock Partners and Sequoia Capital.
• In July 2011, it raised $112 million in financing led by Andreessen Horowitz. Other early investors included Digital Sky Technologies, General Catalyst Partners, and A Grade Investments partners Ashton Kutcher and Guy Oseary.
• In April 2014, the company closed on an investment of $450 million by TPG Capital at a company valuation of approximately $10 billion. Additional funding was provided by Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, Dragoneer Investment Group, T. Rowe Price and Sherpa Capital.
• In June 2015, Airbnb raised $1.5 billion in a Series E funding led by General Atlantic, and joined by Hillhouse Capital Group, Tiger Management, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, GGV Capital, China Broadband Capital, and Horizons Ventures.
• In September 2016, Airbnb raised $555.5 million in funding from Google Capital and Technology Crossover Ventures, valuing the company at $30 billion. In March 2017, Airbnb raised $1 billion in funding, bringing total funding raised to more than $3 billion and valuing the company at $31 billion.

Source: wikipedia.org – Airbnb

Airbnb Product Overview

Airbnb provides a platform for hosts to accommodate guests with short-term lodging and tourism-related activities. Guests can search for lodging using filters such as lodging type, dates, location, and price. Guests have the ability to search for specific types of homes, such as bed and breakfasts, unique homes, and vacation homes. Before booking, users must provide personal and payment information.

Some hosts also require a scan of government-issued identification before accepting a reservation. Guests have the ability to chat with hosts through a secure messaging system. Hosts provide prices and other details for their rental or event listings, such as the allowed number of guests, home type, rules, and amenities. Pricing is determined by the host, with recommendations from Airbnb. Hosts and guests have the ability to leave reviews about the experience.

In addition to lodging, Airbnb provides the following services:

• Experiences. Guests may book activities with local guides, including cooking classes, guided tours, and meetups.
• Airbnb Plus. Hosts that provide a verified level of conditions including a clean refrigerator, full cooking equipment, stocked toiletries, fast Wi-Fi, and strong water pressure. Airbnb Plus listings are marked with a badge to differentiate from standard listings.
• Airbnb Collections: Options include Airbnb for Families, Airbnb for Work, as well as homes for weddings, dinner parties, and other gatherings.
• Niido. A brand of apartment communities designed for tenants to rent out their units for up to 180 days per year on Airbnb, in which profits are shared with the landlord. Each Niido-branded property features a “master host” that oversees guest check-ins and cleaning services, while hosts can receive on-site help with setting up their profiles, apply for permits, and paying local occupancy taxes. Niido currently has two buildings in Nashville, Tennessee and Kissimmee, Florida.
• Natiivo. A brand of condo hotels designed to encourage home-sharing. Natiivo buildings, which carry hotel licenses, feature amenities such as 24-hour concierge, valet parking, co-working spaces, and other amenities. Homeowners can choose to list their units on Airbnb independently, or allow Natiivo to manage their listings for an additional fee.

Source: wikipedia.org – Airbnb

Airbnb Review System

Linguist Mark Liberman has criticized the extreme length of the legal agreements that Airbnb members are required to accept, with the site’s terms of service, privacy policy, and other policies amounting to “55081 words, or about the size of a short novel, though much less readable”. Its 69 pages have been summarized by a lawyer.

Airbnb features a review system in which guests and hosts can rate each other after a stay. Hosts and guests are unable to see reviews until both have submitted a review or until the window to review has closed, a system which aims to improve accuracy and objectivity by removing fears that users will receive a negative review in retaliation if they write one. However, the truthfulness and impartiality of reviews may be adversely affected by concerns of future stays because prospective hosts may refuse to host a user who generally leaves negative reviews. In addition, the company’s policy requires users to forego anonymity, which may also detract from users’ willingness to leave negative reviews. These factors may damage the objectivity of the review system.

In August 2017, Airbnb cancelled numerous bookings and closed accounts belonging to attendees of the white nationalist Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, citing its terms of service in which members must “accept people regardless of their race, religion, national origin, ethnicity, disability, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, or age.” The move was criticized by Jason Kessler, organizer of the rally.

Source: wikipedia.org – Airbnb

Airbnb Controversies

1. Fair housing implications and discrimination

In July 2016, former Attorney General Eric Holder was hired to help craft an anti-discrimination policy for Airbnb after the company faced many complaints related to racism, including a study by Harvard Business School that showed widespread discrimination by hosts against guests whose names suggested that they were black. Airbnb has also faced complaints of racial discrimination in China.

2. Housing affordability

Airbnb has been criticized for allegedly resulting in increased housing prices. Since the company’s globalization, many governments have passed various regulations limiting operations of short-term housing rental companies, such as Airbnb.

• In San Francisco, the issue led to protests in November 2015.
• Several studies found that rental prices in many areas increased due to Airbnb, as landlords kept properties off the longer-term rental market and instead get higher rental rates for short-term housing via Airbnb. Landlords have been accused of illegally evicting tenants in order to convert properties into Airbnb listings.
• A study published in 2017 found that increasing Airbnb listings in a given neighborhood by 10% leads to a 0.42% increase in rents and a 0.76% increase in house prices.
• A study found that on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, full-time listings earned hosts an average of two to three times the median average rent.
• A study by the University of Massachusetts Boston Department of Economics found that with every 12 Airbnb listings per census tract, asking rents increased by 0.4%.
• Similar concerns have been raised in other parts of the world such as Scotland, where, in 2017, an increase in Airbnb listings alarmed the local community. Airbnb has carried out extensive lobbying of Scottish politicians to oppose a law which would restrict short-term lettings.

3. Negative guest experiences

In 2017, travel blogger Asher Fergusson analyzed 1,021 incidents of negative experiences reported by guests. He found that there are ways for hosts to use fake information to circumvent Airbnb’s background checks. He noted several reported incidents including last-minute cancellations, moldy or rodent-infested lodging, theft, invasion of privacy, and even rape and murder. Airbnb responded that the 1,021 incidents are statistically insignificant compared to 260 million check-ins at the time and that the company tries to remedy any problems.

4. Bait-and-switch scams

A Vice News journalist reported in October 2019 on a bait-and-switch scam in which a network of fake accounts advertised stays at dozens of properties across eight US cities that once booked was said to be unavailable at the last minute. Substandard alternatives were offered in their place, including to the journalist, refunds were refused, fake positive reviews were left for the fake properties, and negative retaliatory reviews were left for customers who complained. Airbnb closed some of the accounts and the FBI began an investigation in response to the report.

5. Delisting of West Bank settlements

In 2018, Airbnb announced that it will remove the approximately 200 “listings in Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank that are at the core of the dispute between Israelis and Palestinians”. Listings in Israeli settlements in East Jerusalem or the Golan Heights were not affected. The move was praised by the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, Palestinians, Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty International. The move was criticized by the Israeli Tourism Minister and the Simon Wiesenthal Center, which decried the move as antisemitism. A class action suit in the Jerusalem district court alleging discrimination based on place of residence was filed against Airbnb by affected property owners. In April 2019 the company has announced that it “will not move forward with implementing the removal of listings in the West Bank from the platform” and that “Any profits generated for Airbnb … will be donated to non-profit organizations dedicated to humanitarian aid that serve people in different parts of the world”.

6. Lawsuits

In New York State it is illegal to rent out an apartment for less than thirty days unless the registered tenant is at home. In 2018, New York City passed legislation requiring Airbnb and other short-term rental/home sharing services to submit monthly reports to the city. Airbnb contested the law and in January it was blocked from taking effect pending further litigation. In May 2019, Airbnb agreed to turn over some anonymized information for approximately 17,000 listings so that the city could pursue illegal rentals. Similar cases have been settled in Boston and Miami.

Source: wikipedia.org – Airbnb

Airbnb Philanthropy

• In November 2012, Airbnb partnered with New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg to offer free housing for people displaced by Hurricane Sandy. Airbnb built a microsite, where victims registered for housing and property owners offered free housing. Service fees were waived, while the host guarantee was maintained.
• In 2013, Airbnb launched its Global Citizenship Champion program in cities where its offices are located.
• In January 2017, the company offered free housing to refugees and any others not allowed into the United States as a result of Donald Trump’s Executive Order 13769, which temporarily banned refugees from the United States.
• In June 2017, Airbnb launched Open Homes, to connect hosts offering free or low-cost housing to uprooted people, such as refugees and those fleeing natural disasters.
• In 2018, Airbnb employees provided “11,000 hours of service to 250 projects worldwide”, according to the company, as a result of its policy to provide employees with paid time off to be used for volunteering.

Source: wikipedia.org – Airbnb

Conclusions

Despite some controversies, Airbnb is is one of the most popular and useful online platforms for travelers in 2024 where you can meets all your requirements.

Filter available apartments by date, type, price, amenities and location. You can see all available options on the map and choose better location. In the ad profile you can get more information about the rules of accommodation and amenities provided. Look through the photos, read reviews of travelers about this host. Each guest can share impressions about the stay, so reviews can help you make a decision.

If you have any questions, you want to talk to the host, see more photos or ask something specific, you can always write a message to the host on the site. You can also exchange messages with the host during your stay. Airbnb gives the title of Superhost to the most hospitable and reliable hosts. You can choose the most guest-oriented host and have a perfect stay in Punta Cana.