Inspiring You to Travel: An AirBNB Review
I'm incredibly lucky to have been able to come to some of the items in my list this year. Every morning during my trip, I would always wake up to the thought of "Where am I?" in the dark. After several seconds, I'd get my bearing and realize I'm in Europe with my family. I'm a lucky girl.
When our plans for Germany was all solid three months ago, I realized that my return to the Philippines coincided with not one but two holidays. I had a wild thought: Amsterdam.
I was taking a KLM flight so naturally, I was passing through. What perfect time but to stop over to what most adults call "The Disneyland of Adults."
After I was done with my flight arrangements, I went on to research about where I was going to stay. At this point in time, I was on an adventure high and I was giving myself the opportunity to try out real traveler experiences such as staying at hostels {I am scared still, to this day, and yet to try}. Every single hostel I checked out was at €60 {PHP 3,483} per night, which I deemed too much for a hostel. And then I had a brilliant idea: airBNB.
Surely, it was a fairly new concept: A local rents out his/her house/room and you get to stay for a much cheaper price. The catch is that it doesn't operate like a hotel so most likely no elevators, cleaning entails more fees and breakfast is optional.
The photo above is the actual room I stayed in. Prior to arriving to Amsterdam, I had asked several people who have done airbnb {thank you Patty and Angela!} and both have given satisfactory feedback. If not, I could always charge it up to experience.
AirBNB:
Airbnb has got one of the best user interfaces I've ever tried in my life. The typeface choices, motions, photo selections is just perfect. I'd think my credit card information is safe and my payment is fairly quick to go through. I love that one can hide personal information until both host and guests agree about the booking. Each host and each guest gets a review so your host can also choose whether or not to accept you.
As for my airbnb host, Sophie's BNB, her listing had very accurate directions so I reached the place without hassles. To arrive to a conclusion though, I enlisted the help of my cousin who lived in Amsterdam to know whether this was central enough to Amsterdam. As it turns out, it was the perfect residential neighborhood where kids biked and all that.
As a bed and breakfast, these are my comments:
- As a local, Sophie was very helpful in recommending where to go and how. The bnb comes with a bike for free since Amsterdam is a city that has more bikes than people.
- The bed was soft and firm, the towels smell fresh and clean, the linens are washed well.
- The bathroom is spacious, had shampoo, conditioner and body wash as well as a blowdryer.
- There's wifi, which is a necessity when you're traveling, especially if you're traveling alone and need to update several people like your family.
- The only thing to expect would be the steep stairs, which is normal in Europe :)
Overall: I am definitely doing airBNB again, in fact I'm all set to do this in both London and Paris in a few weeks. Of course, getting involved in an unregulated business is always something needing of constant caution {ie. sleep with your passport if you need to}, conduct your research, ask around and pray. I asked around before booking my first airBNB but now I am more comfortable with it. Always check it out on Google Maps and search outside airBNB, which I did for Sophie's BNB. As for the prices and safety, it will always be a different case for each and everyone and I recommend to always err on the side of caution whenever booking, whether it's a hotel, a hostel or an airbnb :)
Am I coming back? You bet I will :)