My First Stay with Air BnB - A Review

A couple of weekends ago, I traveled to the Eastern Shore for a quick getaway weekend. I've known about AirBnB for a while but hadn't gotten around to using it until just recently for this trip. Let me break it down for you.

What is AirBnB?

Through the AirBnB website, you can find local hosts willing to rent out their unique places to travelers. You can stay in someone’s spare room, stay on someone’s sofa, you can even stay in an entire condos, or bed and breakfasts (like I did). I stayed for a whole weekend, but you can stay any length of time from one day to up to a month!

If you know anything about the Eastern Shore, then you'll know that it is pretty undeveloped. There aren't a lot of hotels or motels (that are nice) and if you do find someplace it's crazy expensive. So we opted to look on AirBnB. I was so pleased. Not only did we find a nice local bed and breakfast that was on a beautiful plot of land, next door to a winery, but also took dogs at no extra deposit. Even at that, the price of the entire AirBnB was cheaper than any hotel/motel around the area. The one we chose was Green Valley Farm BnB.

The dogs who lived on the property and kept Starla company throughout the weekend.

What the process was like

Finding your host is pretty easy. The website has lots of categories you can choose to narrow down your search. There is also a map so you can see where the houses are located and a cost bar so you can set your price range. I set our total price, looked at the map, and decided from there. 

You can read through the entire description and then send a personalized message to the host. You can also do an "Instant Book" if they are available. But I prefer to contact the host directly, ask any questions, confirm what they listed online, and go from there. 

There's also a references area which I think would be more applicable to one traveler who is staying in a room of a small house or apartment. But since we were staying in an actual bed and breakfast, this didn't really apply to us. However, all the reviews on the BnB that we chose were positive and gave a great insight to what the stay would be like.

Conclusion for AirBnB

Overall, I was really satisfied with my AirBnB experience. I will definitely be using it for more short trips this upcoming year and maybe even stay in the exact same BnB for another weekend getaway!

AirBnB boasts 350,000 hosts in 190 countries, so there absolutely is a host out there for you. It really is a great way to travel like a local and to get a pretty unique experience at a good price. Why not try it on your next trip? If you use my referral code you'll get $25 off your first trip with AirBnB!

Have you ever tried AirBnB? How do you prefer to travel?

(Please note I was not paid by Airbnb to do this review. This is an honest review from my real experience using the site during a recent trip.)

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