You all know that I worked on this MASSIVE project for Airbnb this year – a real dream project actually. But when I went to New York to work on Joanna’s makeover Sam and I decided to do our first stay in an Airbnb. I hadn’t done it before so I figured I’d walk you through the process and show you some options.
1. First, you set up your profile (you can just use a lot of your Facebook profile). Its pretty crucial to put in as much info as possible because since you are staying at actual homeowners houses they want to make sure that you are a real person and not a sociopath that eats hair with milk for dinner. We got rejected four times before we put in enough info to book a place (because it was our first time).
2. You shop the site, by plugging in your requirement – location, price range, dates, # of bedrooms, etc. For us it was Manhattan, under $400 a night and a 2 bedroom.
These were a couple of our options:
I love the top one but it became unavailable at the last-minute. Sad because that person has good taste and photographed it well. No surprise it was hard to lock down.
Greenwich Village Designers’s Suite | Cottage in the Village | Soho Contemporary Designers Loft | Charming Studio in Soho Loft
These two also got snatched up before we could book them too. It’s almost like we needed to plan more than 4 days in advance. Whoops.
So ended up going with the Cottage in the village which was had so much potential that I was freaking out (it had a huge garden in front of it and was double story), but it needed some secrets from a stylist for sure. *Note to homeowners – just provide white sheets and nice bedding. Nobody really wants to sleep on brown sheets … too much mystery, especially in New York.
The place was pretty great for a group of people to party at for sure. A little big for just the two of us, but still way homey-er than a hotel.
These were the stairs that I climbed to go to bed (because the bedroom upstairs had its own bathroom and I’m high maintenance right now).
And naturally a porthole in the bathroom as a window. As you do.
Our needs were few:
1. Separate rooms. Since I’m pregnant I’m a terrible sleeper and get up about 42 times a night to use the restroom.
2. In Manhattan. I knew that we would be cabbing it a lot because we had so many bags to schlep so it wasn’t cost-effective to stay in Brooklyn.
3. Space for stuff. It needed to act as a makeshift design studio. We framed art there, and stored all of the bags after days of shopping.
4. Wifi. Obviously. We needed to be able to shop/source and coordinate from there. Most everywhere has it now, so that’s not unusual but there were a few places that didn’t and that wasn’t an option for us.
All in all it was a good experience and it made me want to rent out our new place. I wouldn’t if I couldn’t control who stays there. And I wouldn’t if I wasn’t in control of WHEN they stay there, but I’m very tempted to make some extra dough in this new house. Now to convince Mr. Henderson and to figure out what to do with one Bearcat, one General Meow and this infant that is about to pop out.
So have you guys used it before? Do any of you rent out your houses or apartments? Would you use it again? Would you recommend it? I don’t think I’ll be traveling for a while, but I’m curious about the homeowner experience, too.
Dish ….