Why I love Airbnb

Let's talk accommodation, just because you simply cannot sleep under a bridge during your trip, right? Well, I've sleep in the airport, bus station and train station several times, that wasn't too bad either. Let me introduce my most favourite word for accommodation : Airbnb.

Airbnb offer locals who have spare rooms to rent their room to fellow traveller at a cheap price. I think it's really brilliant considering how high hotel or hostel rate in a famous city like London or Rome. You can open airbnb through their website at airbnb.com for your convenience, you can also download airbnb application in Apple store and Google play store.

A few things need to considered when using airbnb:

1. It's not a hotel reception, they are just locals with spare room to rent. Don't expect lavish welcoming party during your arrival.
2. Introduce your self in the initial email, as I said in the first point, it's not a hotel reception, you need to introduce your self, where do you come from, how long you intended to stay at their house, why you want to stay at their place, things like that. 
3. Be nice, I knew some people want privacy but it will be considerate if you talk and mingle with your host for a bit, if you're staying with them, during your stay.
4. You can get rejected, yes no one aware of this, but you can be rejected. You will stay at someone's place and if he or she doesn't like you or your profile, they can simply reject your booking.

So compare to booking a hotel or hostel, using airbnb is a little bit need more effort, which I personally think really worth it.

There are several features which I think really useful when I use airbnb:

1. Simply put your destination and date, it will give huge range of accommodation.
2. There are 3 room types to choose, an entire home for a real privacy, private room means you will get your own bedroom but share other facilities or a shared bedroom.
3. Thing I really like the most is how I can set my price range to match my budget. The price will be per room for a night, usually for 2 person or for how many person you put in the guest column.
4. There will be a map on your right hand side, showing the location of the room, it really comes in handy when choosing the right location for your accommodation. I always tend to choose a room centrally located or at least very near to a public transport.
5. When you see a lighting symbol, it means that you can book the room right away without need to  mail back and forth with your host, love this symbol!
6. Need more time to think? Just click heart symbol and the room will be added into your wish list which you can access any time.

Insider tips and why I love using airbnb:

• They usually include fully equipped kitchen, really convenient to cook and lower your budget, best bet is the kitchen already have main amenities like salt, sugar, oil, etc which the host are happy to share with you. Just ensure the kitchen is tidy after using it.
• Getting a key to your room can be really easy or it can be really tricky. The host will give you detail direction to their house once they accepted your request, some of them already have special place where you can take the key anytime you want but some places you need to arrange a meeting with the host to take the key from them and let them show you around the house.
• So far I've experienced 2 types of airbnb: the one where the house have several rooms and they all rented out to guest, so you don't meet the host but usually this type is fairly easy to check in and check out. The second one is when you really living with a local, they live under the same roof with you, you might need to take the key directly from them, but they usually very nice and want to share their knowledge about the city the lived in or just have nice chat.
• When searching an accommodation make sure to read the house description, what kind of facilities they offer and what's really important for you to have during your stay, it's free wifi for me, check the location from the map to ensure you choose the right neighbourhood, and read past guest review. Review usually is the most honest one, so you can trust them if someone say that the house located in shady place or if the hot water is not running, things like that which you will not find in the description. It may take more effort, but trust me it will be worth it.
• After your stay it will be very polite to leave review for your host, how you feel about staying at their place. On the other hand, the host can also leave a review for you, how happy or not happy they are having you in their house. More review for the host means more likely to get more guests coming to their home, having more review means you will get better chances to get accepted when you requested a place to stay on your next trip.

Grab your bag, and explore the world!