It’s amazing to think that Airbnb turned 10 years old in August 2018. From humble beginnings, they’ve grown into a company that was valued at $31 billion in 2017.
The other day I shared seven ways you can save money when booking on Airbnb. However, I realized that that’s not useful if you’re not already booking accommodation through them.
There’s still a huge number of people – you might be one of them – who are either yet to hear of Airbnb or experience it. Even those that have used Airbnb before might not be familiar with quite how useful it can be for booking accommodation.
To be honest, until a year ago I hadn’t fully appreciated how useful it was either. Since then, Shae and I have spent 46 nights in 14 different Airbnb properties in Ireland, New Zealand, Australia and the US, with another 14 nights already booked for next month.
Over the course of those stays, I’ve discovered some benefits of booking accommodation through Airbnb. I wanted to share these with you, so here are 10 reasons to use Airbnb when traveling.
1) Unique Properties
Chain hotel brands can be very cookie cutter. This can be a good thing as it means you’ll tend to have a consistent experience, but their properties rarely have personality.
This is where Airbnb can shine. Sometimes you’ll be staying in a regular house. Other times you could stay in a wood stove cabin (that one’s on our list of places to stay in Alaska when we get there on our 5 year, 50 state road trip).
We also had an incredibly fun stay with a couple of friends in a horse caravan in Ireland. You won’t find a Hilton like this 😉
2) Various Ways To Save Money
Discounted gift cards. Bonus airline miles. Fuel points from grocery stores.
Those are all ways you can save money on Airbnb stays. Another method is to sign up through a referral link. When you join, you get $40 off your first stay and the person referring you gets $20 off their next stay. Here’s my link if you’re planning on using Airbnb and want to save some money.
3) Kitchen Access
Trying local cuisine when traveling is something Shae and I love doing. It can get very expensive though.
Seeing as most Airbnb properties are regular apartments or houses, you’ll usually have some kind of access to a kitchen. That can save you a ton of money on eating out, especially if you’re traveling as a family.
We’ve created our own portable kitchen that we can use in hotel rooms, but having a proper kitchen from time to time is wonderful.
4) Traveling With Others
If you’re traveling with friends or family and staying in hotels, you generally have two choices. One option is for all of you to stay in the same room; that can be cozy and isn’t great for the others if one of you snores. The other option is to book separate rooms, but that can be expensive.
This is where Airbnb can be a lifesaver. Simply filter the search results for properties with two bedrooms – you’ll have more comfort and you’ll likely save money compared to booking two hotel rooms.
This is what we did (most of the time) when traveling in Ireland with our friends, as well as when we spent a month in New Zealand and Australia with Shae’s mom and stepdad.
5) Extremely Low Prices
If you can find a hotel to stay at in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina for $29 per night, I hope you can also find some good ointment for those bed bug bites.
With Airbnb on the other hand, you might be able to find a gem of a property. We lucked out when staying at Joe’s as $29 per night is all it cost (plus a little extra in fees).
Although we were staying in the host’s spare bedroom, it had a comfortable bed, there were blackout curtains and he was an incredibly friendly host with such a sweet dog.
6) Local Recommendations
When staying at hotels, there’s no guarantee that the staff know the area enough to be able to give recommendations as they may have to commute to work.
If you’re staying at an Airbnb, the hosts should be able to give better recommendations. That’s how we ended up eating Hell pizza in New Zealand and loved it.
7) Cheaper In Big Cities
Shae and I love staying in big cities, but that’s an expensive proposition if you’re paying for a hotel.
Staying at an Airbnb property is an excellent way to save money when wanting to stay in a more central location. Our Airbnb in the center of Sydney, Australia cost $183 per night. That was for four people and included a kitchen; most comparable hotels nearby wanted $300+ per night.
8) Easily Search A Small – Or Wide – Area
Something I love about the Airbnb website is how easy it is to search properties. You can filter based on amenities, number of bedrooms and bathrooms, price, etc.
Another great piece of functionality is the ability to search over a wide area or drill down to view all the properties in a specific neighborhood.
Let’s say you wanted to stay in The Lanes in Brighton, England. That’s just round the corner from where we used to live and is a beautiful and quaint part of the city. On Airbnb, you can zoom in to view all the properties between West St to the west, Old Steine to the east and North St to the north.
If you decide you want to check out other properties in Brighton & Hove, simply press the minus button to zoom out. You can then click on the map and drag it around to view different areas, with the search results updating to only display properties within the area shown on the map.
9) Reviews That Are More Trustworthy Than TripAdvisor
I’ll admit – I do often check the overall TripAdvisor ratings for hotels before booking them. However, reviews on TripAdvisor can be gamed and there’s no guarantee that people leaving a review on there have actually stayed at the hotel in question.
With Airbnb on the other hand, the only people that can leave a review for a property are guests who’ve actually stayed there. In my opinion, that makes the reviews on Airbnb much more trustworthy.
We haven’t been steered wrong yet. For example, we booked a beach side cottage near Brisbane, Australia which had five star ratings across the board.
When we stayed there we could see why. The cottage was stunning and the hosts (who lived next door) were incredibly friendly.
10) Airbnb Properties Very Rarely Have Pet Fees
This factor won’t be important for everyone, but it’s important for us seeing as we have Truffles with us on our road trip.
Traveling with a dog can make life more tricky as not all hotels (or Airbnbs) allow pets. Hotels that do allow dogs often charge some kind of pet fee. This is sometimes a reasonable amount like $10 per night, but other times it can be $150 per stay; that’s not so bad if you’re staying somewhere for two weeks, but it can more than double the cost if you’re only staying one night.
Airbnb allows you to filter for pet-friendly properties, so that makes it easier to find somewhere you can stay at with your dog. When searching, I’ve seen a handful of properties state that they have a pet fee. However, we’ve never actually stayed at any Airbnb property that charged us for bringing along Truffles.
I mean, seriously – how could you charge money for this cuteness?!
Question
Those are my ten reasons to use Airbnb when traveling, but how about you? What do you love – or not love – about Airbnb? Let us know in the comments below.
And if you’re thinking about joining Airbnb, don’t forget that you can save $40 on your first stay.
Leave a Reply