Home Away From Home with Airbnb

Because we travel so often, and because hotels can get expensive very quickly, Airbnb has become our go-to when it comes to finding lodging. For our recent Europe trip, we knew that being gone almost three weeks meant we had to balance our budget and not stay in hotels every night. Plus, when you're traveling for long periods like that, being able to stay somewhere that's a bit more home-like and offers the ability to cook a meal or lounge on a couch is really nice. And we love the way staying in an Airbnb apartment or house puts you right in a local neighborhood, giving you the feeling of living like a local and being much more personal than a cookie-cutter hotel.

Founded in 2008, Airbnb is a collaborative hospitality service, offering worldwide rentals. Whether you're looking for a long weekend getaway or months-long rental, you can find it here. The homes are privately owned, and each host sets their own rates and rules for their place. It can actually be a little overwhelming, especially if you're staying in a big city. So I thought it might be helpful to share a few tips on my own methods of finding that perfect Air BnB for every vacation.

Research:
Once you've figured out your destination, do a little research on neighborhoods and where exactly you'd like to be. You can google "best neighborhoods in X city" and find out a lot, with info on things like transportation, shopping and crime statistics. You might want a certain part of town based on sights you want to see, or something close to the airport if you just have a quick layover. Websites like Trip Advisor, Yelp and Travelocity can provide reviews of certain areas, things to do and the best restaurants in any given city. It just depends on what you want for your particular visit. When we were in Rome, we knew we'd only be there a couple days and we wanted to be close to Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps,  two sights I really wanted to see. So we made sure to look in neighborhoods that were within walking distance of these places. The apartment we chose was so cute, and in a great location. We were also literally steps from the Pantheon!

 

Set your price point:
Like most of us working peeps, we travel on a budget. I try to keep our nightly rental costs as low as  I can, without it meaning we'd have to sleep on some strangers couch. Depending on our destination, I usually set my maximum price between $100-150 a night. I've also found that sometimes it's worth it to nudge that price point up to the next level. Increasing your budget by as little as $25 a night can sometimes make a huge difference in the caliber of rentals that open up. On our recent trip to Barcelona, we were having a tough time finding a place we liked, so we bumped the price point up and ended up finding a place just $10 more per day than the original price range we'd been looking at:

 

Look at that view! In regards to price points, keep in mind that prices can fluctuate and even the price you see when you first look on the website can vary. Always click on the link to a place you're interested in, because the price shown tends to be an "average" price. When you click on the link to a place, the actual rental price is often at least a few dollars cheaper than the "average" price shown on the main page.

Set your filters:
Do you want a one bedroom or two bedroom? Apartment, condo, house? Certain amenities you can't live without? Do you want to share space (yep, you can rent a room, super affordable and a great option for solo travelers!) or have the entire home to yourself? You can select a myriad of filters to accommodate your individual preferences. We aren't co-habitators by nature (well, except with each other!) so I always make sure to set my filter to "entire home or apartment". Depending on where we're going, I also might set perimeters for things like a pool, full kitchen, washer-dryer, etc. Each rental will have a list of amenities, including things like kitchen supplies, bedding and hair dryers. The place we chose in Madrid, another really nice, central location, did mention that guests should be able to climb stairs. What wasn't mentioned was that these stairs were kind of the stairs of death...

But look at the adorable balcony and amazing view we got!

 

 

Check out host reviews:
While I don't base my decision 100 percent on travelers reviews, I definitely read them and consider them when booking a place. Having worked in the travel and hospitality industry for many years,  I totally get it that you can't please everyone and sometimes people are going to complain no matter what. But I do take note of those reviews that might say a host was very hard to communicate with, or a place that was less than clean, especially if there are multiple reviews that say this.

Follow the Rules:
Be sure to read all the rules and regulations as listed by the individual hosts and abide by them. It's important to remember that you're often in an apartment building, and there are other people living there. If a host says no noise after 10pm, that's what they mean. If they ask you to please take the trash to the curb when you leave, show respect and do so. We always try to make a point of leaving a place as clean as when we went in (sometimes cleaner!) and as an Airbnb guest, you should also remember that those reviews go both ways. Hosts can review their guests and if a host leaves YOU a bad review, other hosts might not want to rent to you.

Airbnb has opened up a whole new world for travelers, making accommodations more affordable and convenient than ever before. While we love our stints at great hotels, using Airbnb helps us keep our travel costs down, which means more money for our other favorite things in life; wine and food!!