Here’s the scenario — I was planning a trip to San Francisco and I wanted to spend one evening in the city with friends that live there. We planned to get dinner and, I’ll just say it, do some drinking. I wanted to be able to stumble back to my bed when we were done. I used the map on Airbnb to find a place very close to where my friends live. I wanted to use public transit to get there — I did not want to rent a car.
It was easy to find a place that met all those requirements — and for about 100 dollars, and that’s a bargain in San Francisco. There’s just no way you can get a private room for that kind of money in the city.
The room I booked was in the heart of the Castro in a second floor walk up railroad flat. It was shared by three guys — a couple and their roomie. My room was at the front of the house overlooking a quiet street; the room was great, it was immaculate and comfortable and pretty cool, actually. And the location was amazing, it was exactly where I wanted to be.
I’m not sure what I expected, but I had almost no interactions with the guys that live in the house save to get the key when I got there and then, a little chatter in the morning. It was all very “find what you need in the kitchen” and “if you buy groceries, here’s where you can stack them.” But there was no breakfast with my bed and I wasn’t offered access to shared coffee or tea. I don’t know if this is standard — probably every stay is different.
It hadn’t occurred to me that I would need to share the loo and the shower with the residents, or that I could end up in a four person house with only one bath. Luckily, these older apartments commonly have the loo separate from the bath, so it’s not a complete bottleneck in the morning, but I hadn’t anticipated that I would need to share at all; that was an oversight.
I don’t mind padding down the hall in my jammies at midnight but I wasn’t crazy for the rooming house/hostel lineup for the shower in the morning. If I were to do this again, I’d pay closer attention to what the listing says about the shared bath. I’m not that fussy about sharing, but I think I’d look for a place that has more than one bathroom. For a little bit more money, I’d have been able to book a place with a private bath and still saved a pile of dough over what a hotel room costs.
I loved being able to pick a place in a specific neighborhood, I loved being in a place that was the opposite of a generic hotel room, and when the other options are 400 dollar hotel rooms, well, it’s hard to argue with the price. My guess is that you can never tell exactly what you’re going to get, but the risk seems pretty low, easy to mitigate with a well placed questions, and hey, travel is an adventure, it’s nice to have a few unknowns. I will absolutely book another Airbnb stay.
Total cost of my stay: 114.00
Yeah, most of those things can be sussed out by closely reading the description provided by the homeowner, carefully checking out photos, & reading through the feedback left by previous guests. I’ve now stayed in 3 Airbnb places, & they’ve all been wildly different in terms of what’s offered food-wise, whether it’s a shared bathroom, & whether the homeowners even live there.
Yup. Lessons learned and all that. A great experience — don’t get me wrong — but I’ll be a more educated shopper next time around.
I just booked my first two AirBnB stays for December and February but opted for the “whole house/apt” option instead of a shared room option. Still super reasonable in price – but I’m also curious to see how the experience actually turns out.
I completely agree that Airbnb is awesome. I’ve had two great experiences, one in Madrid and one in Sonoma. Although I rented the entire place and didn’t have to share. Like you said I love the anti-hotel feel. I always read the reviews and the owner’s responses very carefully as they are telling.
Hi Pam,
Haven’t yet done Airbnb. Definitely open to it though. My sister is thinking of Airbnb for a two-week stay in Japan. I’m curious what kind of questions she should ask the property owners and if there are any things to watch out for. Let me know if you have any ideas.
Thanks!
Amanda Halm
Absolutely my first choice anywhere I go, these days. The prices are absurd compared to hotels, I love the quirkiness of staying in someone’s home (and the storymaking conversations that can result) – and it’s a cinch to book, usually with plentiful choices. There’s also a kind of agony scale that you can align your budget with: all the way down to $next-to-nothing for a piece of sacking on someone’s roof (I exaggerate, but that’s the essence). There’s an element of bargain-hunting that really appeals to me.
My first Airbnb stay was insane – in the insane way. It was a converted warehouse in London that had been taken over by an artist commune (run by a professional architect), and one wall of the main open-plan area was something like a Japanese capsule hotel constructed by a lunatic with a lot of plastic on his hands. I crawled into my “room” – little more than a slot with a plastic-sheet door – and slept soundly, surrounded by around 10 others squirreled away in their own cubicles/capsules/drawers/crypts. It was the strangest place I have ever stayed in, and I really must go back and photograph the crap out of it.
That’s Airbnb for me. You can get really nice rooms for next to no price (and I’ve never had a bad experience with rooms or people), and very occasionally you get the chance to choose to stay somewhere that would even freak out Tim Burton. I’m calling it a win.
I absolutely love AirBnB for my stays — it’s revolutionized the way I visit cities; I always want to stay much longer and hang out like I’m a local. But never do the share an apartment with someone thing, always get the whole apartment. Cost is often competitive with a cheaper hotel but you get so much more and are in a real neighborhood, not some boring hotel/tourist zone. The main thing to keep in mind there is the difference between professional rentals (much less well equipped but often cleaner and less cluttered) and people renting out their own apartments (no need to buy oil, salt and pepper generally but quality is much more variable). In either situation the reviews are the key to telling the difference.
I also am a convert to airbnb. We have recently utilised their services to stay on a houseboat on the Prinsengracht canal in Amsterdam – nothing short of awesome for centrality, space and shabby chic cosiness. Then we selected a b&b in Ghent – also central, quirky and brilliant. Seamless service and goods delivered as – most happy with.
I don’t know precisely where in San Francisco you were aiming for of course, but…
Why not couchsurf? I just did a quick search and there’s more than ELEVEN THOUSAND hosts in the SF area. Surely a few fall within your chosen neighborhood.
I’ve hosted folks from all over the globe (when I lived in Seattle, before I moved to Asia) and I’ve couchsurfed now up the Australian coast, in Singapore, and now have a great host who’s agreed to take me in for the Sapporo Snow Festival in Japan next February (clearly lodging for the festival would otherwise be both sparse and very pricey). Couchsurfing, I’ve often had my own room with private bath – all for free.
Airbnb surely is an option I suppose – but why would you spend $100 to share with 3 strangers, when you could easily couchsurf (and pick your host) for free?
Because I wanted to. Seriously. Not everyone is looking for the *cheapest* solution.
Well geez Pam – couchsurfing isn’t about “cheap” (though you DID say you were looking for “a bargain” in SF).
AIS, Airbnb is surely an option, but so is couchsurfing. Besides, you mentioned that you were somewhat disappointed that you had so little interaction with the boys, and in fact half-expected at least a smidge more friendly camaraderie.
Such factors can of course vary greatly both with Airbnb and Couchsurfing. But generally (as there’s no money involved) the latter folks are in it more for the sake of meeting travelers to their city, so I just thought it might be a better fit for what you seemed to be after.
I don’t say I was disappointed. I state a fact, as follows:
“Iām not sure what I expected, but I had almost no interactions with the guys that live in the house… probably every stay is different.”
FWIW, I wasn’t looking for locals to connect with, I had that part covered, in fact I chose that location to be near friends.
There are dozens of other factors that could determine what my experience was like — it was a weekday and everyone in the house worked. I had a full schedule. I only stayed one night. The place suited me just fine.
For the past two years, we have used Airbnb almost exclusively when traveling and I’m not on assignment. And we’re batting about 900, which is better than my hotel record!
My husband’s from San Francisco and we recently went back to the Bay for the first time as non-residents (we relocated to the South) and stayed in the most awesome, spacious 1BR place on Page and Central for about $140 a night (with parking!). A total steal and the place was lovely with a lot of character–there are no hotels in that area so it was great being able to “live” (for a week) in Hayes Valley (the neighborhood we always wanted to call home when we lived in the city). If you go back with your husband next time and want an Airbnb place all to your own, message me and I’ll send you the link of the place we stayed…
Oh! And while I was there, an Airbnb rep messaged me randomly and invited me to lunch at their new SoMa pad. You should try and swing a meet-and-greet while visiting purely because the facility is awesome. I’m not sure they’ve had their official grand opening yet (they wouldn’t let me take pics) so I don’t want to spoil anything, but worth a peek if you have an hour to kill. And the lunch is delicious–and healthy, too š
I had lunch there with friends — I actually had a meeting scheduled with their editorial crew. There was kale.
I’ve used Airbnb three times and two of the three were excellent stays. The first was a whole apartment for $150 in San Francisco’s Hayes Valley and it was total overkill for one person, but fantastic. Gigantic bedroom, living room, dining room, kitchen….plus free wifi, and she left maps & coupons for me on the counter. I could go on and on and on and on about how fabulous the stay was and the fact that I booked it out of desperation because there were no hotel rooms for Bay to Breakers made it an exceptional deal.
The second one was a room in someone’s home in LA. I had my own bathroom and they were lovely women with cute pets. They let me eat their snacks, but I was too shy so I never did…although I did eat breakfast with them, and that was fun.
The third was an apartment in San Francisco and it was just OK….but you get what you pay for. I wouldn’t have even booked it in the first place, but I was staying with 2 other girlfriends and one of them was adamant that we go as cheap as possible. We didn’t share the apartment with anyone else but the host & her mom weren’t the greatest.
I like AirBnb, though. It’s a great option in expensive cities.