How To Get An Airbnb Discount 2026: 9 Easy Tips & Tricks
Trying to figure out how to get a discount on your next stay with Airbnb?
After recently completing our two-hundreth stay with Airbnb, we thought we’d tap into a popular topic: how to get an Airbnb discount and save money on your future bookings.
From coupon codes to month-long Airbnb hacks, we’ve got you covered!
How To Get An Airbnb Discount 2026
A common travel resource is Airbnb. As full-time travelers, Mike and I frequently use Airbnb for month-long rentals around the world.
Airbnb is convenient and allows travelers to customize their vacation to fit their needs and budget. You can book an entire apartment for yourself, an entire vacation home, or even just a private room.
In this blog post, you’ll learn the seven easy tricks to save money on your next Airbnb rental. This list will continuously be updated as we learn new Airbnb tricks and tips. Be sure to bookmark this post for future reference on how to get an Airbnb discount.
1. Book An Airbnb By The Week
One of the easiest ways to earn an Airbnb discount is by booking a rental property for an extended period of time. The majority of Airbnb hosts will start giving discounts to guests that book their property for a week or longer.
Weekly discounts range in percentage from 5% to 20%, depending on the individual host. These discounts will automatically show up on the reservation when you select a period of time that is one week or longer.
2. Book An Airbnb By The Month
For an even better price, consider booking an Airbnb for a month or longer. By booking a rental property for a month or longer, you’ll likely see discounts ranging from 25% to over 50%.
Again, this discount is automatically added to the reservation and is based on the hosts’ discretion.
Note: It is rare to find a host that doesn’t offer weekly or monthly discounts. Keep this in mind when searching for an Airbnb to stay in.
If you come across a host that doesn’t offer lower rates for weekly or monthly stays, I recommend finding another Airbnb listing that does offer some sort of discount.
3. Book More Nights Than You Need
Another great way to save big on Airbnb stays is by booking more nights than you need. This seems counterintuitive, but it actually works! More often than not you’ll get larger discounts.
For example, perhaps you’re planning a long trip abroad. Notice in the picture below that I’m in the process of booking an Airbnb for 25 nights. The total price would be $846, which includes a 10% weekly discount.
Now, look at the picture below. This is the same rental property but instead of booking for 25 nights, I decide to book it for 30 nights. A 50% monthly discount is now added to our reservation. Instead of paying $846 for 25 nights, I am paying $546 for 30 nights, saving us $300. Isn’t that a great deal?
The same technique can be applied to shorter stays, too. Notice in the picture below that I’m looking to rent an Airbnb for 6 nights. Since this isn’t an entire week, I am not given the weekly discount. We would pay a total of $252 for this stay.
The same property is shown in the picture below, except we intend to book it for 7 nights. Regardless if we actually stay the extra night, we still pay less because we are given a weekly discount.
If you are planning a holiday with Airbnb, I highly recommend playing around with dates of your next trip, to see if you can pay less by booking a stay for more nights than you need.
4. Ask The Host For An Airbnb Discount
This tip can be controversial, but asking the host for a special discount can also save you a LOT of money on your Airbnb stay.
Before I get into this tip on how to get an Airbnb discount, keep in mind that this should only be done with tact and respect. Airbnb hosts are offering up their homes for travelers; they do NOT need to give discounts.
Personally, I feel that you should only ask Airbnb hosts for discounts if you have a valid reason. For example, when I book long stays (one month or more), I politely ask if they would be willing to discount the price.
You could also ask for a discount if you are making a short notice Airbnb booking.
Some Airbnb users ask for a discounted price on every stay regardless if they have a valid reason. Personally, I wouldn’t suggest this because it can come across as rude and offensive.
Why Would Airbnb Hosts Offer A Special Discount?
An Airbnb host might agree to a special discount if they can benefit from it in return.
In particular, if someone plans to book a long stay, an Airbnb host is more likely to offer a special discount.
Longer stays benefit the host because they only deal with one guest during an extended period of time. They will also be certain that their property will be rented out and making money during that time.
An Airbnb host may also give a special discount to a guest that is booking a last-minute stay. Rather than not making any money at all, an Airbnb host will offer a discount so that their property is booked and earning money.
How To Ask An Airbnb Host For A Special Discount
Again, I must stress that asking an Airbnb host for a discount should be done with respect. Telling an Airbnb host that they should give you a discount because their property is overpriced? Yeah, that’s not going to fly.
Instead, approach the Airbnb host politely.
You can do this by clicking “Contact host” below their rental property description. Start by introducing yourself and telling them a bit about you. Explain why you want to stay in their home using specific details. It’s also a great idea to reference your positive reviews and feedback from other Airbnb hosts.
Next, simply let them know that you’d love to book their home but it’s a bit out of your budget. Ask if they would be willing to give you a discount on your stay and politely suggest a figure.
Note: This figure shouldn’t be so low that you offend the host. I typically ask for an additional 25% discount on long stays, but this number changes based on the property and asking price.
What To Do If An Airbnb Host Gives You A Discount
If an Airbnb host agrees to give you a discount, they’ll send you a “special offer” on their rental property. Book your stay right away using the special offer link.
During your stay, always be respectful of the home you’re staying in and their house rules – it’s not a hotel room, it’s someone’s private property. This is especially true if the host gives you a special Airbnb deal. Being nit-picky and expecting a 5-star resort experience will leave a bad impression with the host.
5. Buy Discounted Airbnb Gift Cards
This isn’t a guaranteed easy win, but for travelers who book a lot of Airbnbs, learning how to find discounted gift cards can shave a few percent off your stays.
Sites like Raise and CardCash sell unwanted gift cards at a discount. People sell their unused gift cards to these sites and you can buy them at face value minus a small markdown.
For Airbnb specifically, the typical discount runs around 2% to 10%, depending on demand and supply. So a $500 Airbnb gift card might cost you $450 to $490.
It’s not life-changing savings on a single booking, but if you book a lot of Airbnbs throughout the year, those small percentages add up.
Watch For Occasional Retailer Promotions
Sometimes big retailers run promotions where they give you a bonus or extra rewards for buying gift cards. Costco has run Airbnb gift card promotions before where you save a small percentage off the face value.
Kroger and Safeway sometimes offer 4x fuel points on gift card purchases, which translates into discounted gas.
Stack With A Travel Rewards Credit Card
If you do find a discounted gift card on a resale site, you can stack the savings further by paying with a travel rewards credit card. You earn points on the purchase, then apply the gift card toward your Airbnb stay, then potentially stack on top of weekly or monthly discounts the host offers.
6. Compare Prices On Other Booking Platforms
Airbnb isn’t always the cheapest option, and sometimes the exact same property is listed for less on a competing platform.
Mike and I have been booking vacation rentals for over seven years and one of the biggest lessons we’ve learned is to never book the first listing we find. Comparison shopping across multiple platforms takes about 10 extra minutes and routinely saves us about 10% on the same stay.
Here are the platforms worth checking before you commit to an Airbnb booking.
VRBO
VRBO (which stands for Vacation Rentals by Owner) is Airbnb’s biggest competitor and often has the same exact properties listed at slightly different prices. Some hosts list on both platforms with different rates depending on which audience they’re trying to attract.
A few key differences worth knowing:
- VRBO bundles all fees into the listing price, so you don’t get hit with surprise cleaning fees and service charges at checkout the way you sometimes do on Airbnb. What you see is much closer to what you pay.
- VRBO is a better fit for entire-home rentals, families, and groups. They don’t list shared rooms or hosted experiences, so if you’re looking for a private apartment for a week, you’ll often find the same vibe on VRBO at a competitive price.
- VRBO has its own loyalty program called One Key, where you earn 2% back in OneKeyCash on bookings that can be redeemed across VRBO, Hotels.com, and Expedia. So if you’re already booking flights or hotels through Expedia, those rewards can stack.
Booking.com
Most travelers think of Booking.com as a hotel site, but it actually has over 6 million home and apartment listings. We’ve used it dozens of times for international trips and consistently found great deals on apartments, especially in major European cities.
The biggest advantage of Booking.com is the Genius loyalty program. As a member, you get automatic discounts (typically 10% to 20%) on a huge range of properties, plus perks like free breakfast and free room upgrades at participating properties.
The membership is free and you start earning Genius status after just two bookings.
Booking.com is also great when you want to compare an Airbnb against a hotel side by side. Sometimes a centrally located hotel ends up being a better deal than a vacation rental, especially for short trips of 2 to 3 nights where Airbnb’s cleaning fees inflate the total cost.
HomeExchange
If you’re open to a totally different way of traveling, HomeExchange lets you swap homes with another member instead of paying for a rental. The accommodation itself costs nothing. You stay in their home, they stay in yours.
There’s an annual membership fee (currently around $220), but once you’re in, you can book unlimited stays at any of the 150,000+ properties available worldwide. For travelers who take multiple trips per year and have a home worth swapping, this can be the cheapest accommodation strategy that exists.
The catch is that home swaps take time to organize. It’s not an instant booking like Airbnb, and not every member you contact will be available for your dates. So this works best for travelers who can plan ahead and stay flexible.
TrustedHousesitters
Another genuinely free option for the right kind of traveler. With TrustedHousesitters, you stay in someone’s home for free in exchange for taking care of their pets and home while they’re away. The annual membership runs around $150 to $250 depending on the plan you pick.
This one isn’t for everyone. You’re agreeing to actual responsibilities (feeding pets, watering plants, mail) and you need to be a reliable, trustworthy person who builds up positive reviews from past sits.
But for travelers who love animals and don’t mind a little home care, this can mean months of free accommodation per year.
We’ve done this MANY times and have had amazing experiences every time. Think multi-million dollar houses with cute puppies (not joking).
How To Comparison Shop Without Wasting Time
Mike and I have a simple system for this. When we find an Airbnb we like, we copy the property name and search for the exact same listing on VRBO. If it’s there, we compare the total price (not just the nightly rate, since fees vary). Then we run a quick search on Booking.com for similar properties in the same area.
The whole process takes about 10 minutes per booking and has saved us hundreds of dollars over the years. For longer stays, we always check HomeExchange too. The savings on a month-long stay can be significant enough to justify the small upfront effort.
7. Book brand-new Airbnb listings
This trick can be a little intimidating, so approach with caution..
When a new host lists their property on Airbnb, they often offer steep discounts on their first few bookings to attract guests and build up reviews. We’re talking 20% to 40% off the going rate for similar properties in the same area.
The host knows that having a few good reviews on a new listing is worth way more than charging full price right out of the gate, so they essentially trade discounted nights for social proof.
For travelers, this can be a goldmine. You get to stay in a property that’s often nicer than what you’d normally afford, the host is usually extra attentive because they want a glowing review, and you save a chunk of money in the process.
How To Find New Airbnb Listings
When you’re searching for an Airbnb, look for properties with very few reviews or no reviews at all. The listing might have a “New” badge near the title or a low review count (think 0 to 5 reviews) compared to other properties in the area.
You can also check listings by date if you’re being strategic. Newer listings will sometimes pop up at the bottom of search results because they don’t have the established booking history that bumps them up the algorithm.
How To Vet A New Listing
The catch with brand-new listings is that you’re taking a small risk. Without reviews to confirm the property is as advertised, you’re trusting the host’s photos and description.
Here’s how we vet a new listing before booking:
- Read the host’s profile carefully. Are they a Superhost on other listings? Do they have hosting experience elsewhere on the platform? An experienced host with a new property is a much safer bet than a first-time host.
- Check the photos for consistency. If the photos look professional, well-lit, and show every room of the property, that’s a good sign. Sparse photos or weird angles can mean the host is hiding something.
- Message the host before booking. Ask a few questions about the property and the area. A responsive, friendly host who answers thoroughly is a green flag. A host who takes days to respond or gives one-word answers is a red flag.
Mike and I have booked several new listings over the years and most of them have been great. The discount is the best part, and the hosts typically go above and beyond to earn that first 5-star review.
We’ve gotten incredible deals on properties that would have been double the price six months later.
One important thing to keep in mind.. if you book a new listing and have a great stay, be sure to leave a thoughtful review. The host went out of their way to discount the stay, and a glowing review helps them get future bookings at full price. That’s the whole point of the deal you both made.
8. The Gap-Filler Strategy
This is one of our favorite Airbnb tricks and almost nobody talks about it.
The idea is simple: find an Airbnb where the host has a small unfilled gap in their calendar (usually 3 to 5 days bookended by other reservations) and offer to fill that exact span.
Many hosts miss out on those short awkward gaps booked at full price, so they’re way more likely to give you a discount if you can take those exact dates off their hands.
Here’s why this works so well.. Airbnb hosts don’t make money on empty nights. If a host has a Monday through Thursday gap between two longer reservations, that gap is probably going to stay empty.
Most travelers book weekend stays or longer trips that don’t fit those weird mid-week pockets. So when you come in and offer to take those exact dates, you’re solving a real problem for the host. Some money is way better than no money.
How To Find Airbnb Calendar Gaps
When you’re searching for an Airbnb, click on a listing and look at the host’s availability calendar. You’re looking for properties that have other reservations on either side of the dates you want.
If you spot a 3 to 5 day gap that lines up with your travel plans, that’s your opening.
We’ve used this trick to save hundreds of dollars on stays that were originally outside our budget. One time we got a $250 per night Airbnb down to $175 per night because our dates filled in a 5 day gap the host couldn’t otherwise rent. That saved us $375 over the course of our stay.
If the host agrees, they’ll send you a special offer with the discounted rate. Book it right away before someone else snags those dates.
A few quick tips to make this work better:
- Have positive reviews from past Airbnb hosts on your profile. This is the single biggest factor in whether a host will say yes. If you have no reviews or bad reviews, you’ll have a hard time getting anyone to negotiate with you.
- Approach last-minute gaps for the best chance of success. If a host has empty dates within the next week or two, they’re way more motivated to fill them than gaps that are months out.
- Don’t push it on properties without obvious gaps. The whole reason this works is because you’re solving a problem for the host. If their calendar is wide open, this strategy doesn’t really apply.
9. Earn Extra Delta SkyMiles On Every Airbnb Stay
This is one of those tricks that costs you absolutely nothing extra and pays you back every single time you book. I honestly can’t believe more people don’t know about this, and I kick myself every time I forget to do it.
Most travelers don’t realize this, but Airbnb doesn’t have its own loyalty program. So unlike booking a hotel, you can’t earn points or status by staying in Airbnbs over and over.
The workaround is to book through an airline portal that has a partnership with Airbnb. The biggest one is Delta.
Through the Delta and Airbnb partnership, you earn 1 Delta SkyMile for every $1 you spend on qualifying Airbnb stays worldwide. There’s no minimum spend, no minimum stay length, and no cap on how many miles you can earn. You’re just earning miles on top of money you were already going to spend.
How To Book Airbnb Through Delta
The catch is that you have to start your Airbnb search from Delta’s portal, not from the regular Airbnb homepage. If you book through Airbnb directly, you don’t earn anything.
The link to use is: deltaairbnb.com
From there, you’ll click “Book Your Airbnb,” enter your Delta SkyMiles number, and click continue.
The site will redirect you to a normal Airbnb search page, but with the partnership tracked behind the scenes. From that point, you book your stay exactly like you normally would. The miles will post to your Delta account automatically after your stay is complete.
I’ve included a screenshot of how it will look on your Delta account after your stay.
A Few Things To Know Before You Book
- Enter your SkyMiles number BEFORE you book. Delta won’t add miles retroactively, so if you forget this step, you’ve lost the chance to earn on that stay.
- Keep your browser cookies enabled. The partnership tracks your booking through cookies, so if you have aggressive privacy blockers turned on, the miles might not register.
- Allow up to 8 weeks for miles to post. They don’t show up immediately, so don’t panic if you don’t see them right after your trip.
You earn miles on the accommodation cost and Airbnb’s guest service fees, but not on government taxes.
The Math
Let’s say you book a $1,500 Airbnb for a week. You’d earn around 1,400 SkyMiles (since taxes don’t count toward earnings). Award flights on Delta start at 5,000 to 10,000 miles for short domestic routes during sales, so a few Airbnb stays per year really can add up to a free flight.
If you also pay for the booking with a rewards credit card, you can earn even more miles (sometimes 3-5x more miles). The card earns miles on the purchase, and the portal earns miles on the stay itself. That’s the closest thing to free money you’ll find on a regular Airbnb booking.
Don’t Fly Delta? There’s An Option For You Too
If Delta isn’t your airline, British Airways has a similar Airbnb partnership where you earn Avios points instead of SkyMiles. Same general idea, just for a different loyalty program. So if you fly American Airlines or any of the British Airways partners, that’s the route to go.
FAQs: Airbnb Discount
Of course, I’m sure you have a few additional questions about how to get an Airbnb discount. In the section below, we hope to answer even more of your burning questions:
Does Airbnb Offer A Military Discount?
As far as I know, Airbnb does not offer a military discount.
Can You Negotiate Prices On Airbnb?
Yes, you certainly can ask for a discounted rate on an Airbnb. Whether the host will honor that discount is up to them. However, we have seen Airbnb rates rising lately, so we do believe there is some room for negotiation.
The Wrap-Up: How To Get An Airbnb Discount
Airbnb is our favorite travel resource. Being able to feel at home wherever we travel in the world is incredible. Being able to earn a discount on Airbnb stays is even more incredible. Use this guide to help you get a discount on your next stay and make the most of your Airbnb experience.
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