My husband and I love to travel. We love to find out of the way places off the beaten path. Just as I like to try local diners instead of restaurant chains, I like discovering real people running their own business rather than increasing the coffers of multimillion dollar hotel franchises.
We first tried Airbnb a couple of years ago on the advice of complete strangers. We had taken part in a mystery dinner theater and you get seated with a group of people wherein you all interact and try to solve the mystery being served along with the dinner. In this case, we were seated with a young couple from a small town about 100 miles away. In the course of the evening, they told us they had taken a short get away trip and they were staying at an Airbnb there in St Louis. We had never heard of this and they were happy to explain.
Ordinary people rent out space in their home in the same manner as a hotel. It can be just a spare bedroom and some shared common space. Sometimes it is a basement or attached area with a separate entrance. There are different levels of accomodation, of course, the same as there are different levels in hotel chains. Just like there's a big difference between a Motel 6 and an Embassy Suites room, you can find the level of accommodation you want in an Airbnb booking. You can also reserve unique homes, apartments or resorts in exotic places. For instance here are some very reasonablably priced lodging options from all corners of the world:
And if you're looking for something even more exotic, how about one of these:
There is a certain level of trust required to make this work on both sides. As a host, you are inviting complete strangers into your actual home. As a guest, you are going to someone's private home - you need to trust that it will be safe, clean, and as advertised. So to keep both parties on the up and up, there is a rating system. Both hosts and travelers are subject to various verifications when you create an account. But after every stay you rate the host, and the host rates you. If as a traveler, you go to a home and you trash the place, you'll be reported and lose your good rating as a traveler. The hosts will not accept your reservation if you have a bad reputation. By the same token, if you stay with a host and the accomodations weren't satisfactory, you would report that.
I will show the actual reviews from our last airbnb stay just this week.
This is the review that was written by our hostess about us:
source is a snippit from my own email account
And here is the review that I wrote about our stay with this host:
source is a snippit from my own email account
When we went to Belize in 2018 (as my retirement celebration gift!) we stayed the whole month of February in an Airbnb in Amberis Caye on San Pedro Island. We had the nicest hosts imaginable and came away not only with fond memories of the vacation but also two new dear friends. Brian and Lisa were way above and beyond hospitable in ways that you would never experience simply staying at a chain hotel or resort.
We have stayed in Airbnb lodgings a total of 17 times since opening our account (which by the way is free) and we have not had a single bad experience. The only negative thing that occurred was on one of the stays this particular home was a large three story home and they rented out 4 bedrooms on the 3rd floor. There was a shared bathroom on that floor for the 4 guest rooms. I don't care for that, and now when I book a lodging, I make sure the description includes a private bath. The booking itself was not misrepresented by the host, I just had not learned to look for that detail.
Not only do you save money over high priced hotel chains, you meet friendly and interesting people who are looking out for you like your own personal conceirge! And I feel good about helping ordinary people make their mortgage payments or save for their retirement or whatever motivates them to open up their home. It has been a pleasurable experience so far for us.
If you haven't tried Airbnb yet, you can use my link below to sign up for your account. By using it Airbnb will give you $40 off your first travel expense. As I stated above, there is no fee involved with having an account. If you register with my link and book travel, I will receive a $20 credit on my next travel. Win-win for us both! I hope you found some useful information here, and happy travels!
[credit@EdibleCthulhu]