By Lisa A. Robison, Guest Author
Expat Living in Spain
When I travel with family or friends, we like the comfort and convenience of staying in an Airbnb, where we can have breakfast before we start our day, or play cards and unwind after making dinner at home.
As an American living in Spain, I’ve used Airbnbs in both Europe and the States.
I usually start looking in the neighborhood I’d like to stay in. When I was a little confused about where to stay in London, I Googled different neighborhoods before I whittled it down to my favorite. Then I use the map feature to see what’s available in the area.
The prices are shown as you scroll around the map. When you click on an option, it opens the information in a new window.
I usually make a file and save my favorites to it for each trip. Once I’ve see four or five places that look like possibilities, I look over the photos, and I carefully read the comments from previous guests. There will always be people making complaints, but you can generally tell which ones will be O.K. when you read enough comments.
Then I send the best one or two options to my traveling companions to get the go ahead before I reserve.
I’ve only had problems a couple of times.
Once, I reserved a place in Seattle that was a new listing. It was a great price, much larger than other things I had been looking at. A few months later when I was getting ready to travel, I went back and read the comments and it turns out I rented something near an area that had prostitutes and drug addicts. It felt really unsafe and we were glad when we got out of there.
Another time I went for a weekend away in Huelva in the south of Spain with a girlfriend. The Airbnb was run by a company and they told me we could store our suitcases at the train station on our last day since our train was leaving in the evening.
When we showed up to store our suitcases at the train station, they told us they hadn’t had that service for years. It was pouring rain that whole day, and we taxied around town, to the bus station and to a place we found online to store luggage, but neither place offered the service.
I left a detailed review so other travelers wouldn’t be deceived like we were.
In spite of these two bad experiences, I’m a big fan of Airbnb.
I like staying in different neighborhoods and doing slow tourism – going to local parks and restaurants, taking long walks through my temporary neighborhood, and learning how to use the public transportation.
It’s always an adventure to see how the Airbnb is furnished, to discover what kind of dishes are in the kitchen, and to decide which bedroom suits each person.
I’ll be back on Airbnb again soon to plan my next trip to the States.
______________
Lisa A. Robison, my daughter, has lived in Spain 21 years. She lives in Madrid with her husband Rafa and two children.
