Airbnb is the new craze, and if you haven’t already stayed in an Airbnb while on vacation then you’re truly missing out. It is an app/website that offers temporary rentals of apartments, entire homes or individual rooms within households for customers to rent for a temporary period of time. Airbnb is a hybrid of the rental and hotel experience because it offers the ease and convenience that comes with buying a hotel room with the comfort of renting a private home. Their recent ad campaign proclaims, “Don’t Go There. Live There.” This slogan is extremely fitting to the experience involved in renting with Airbnb.

Instead of being in a stuffy hotel room you are able to live in someone’s apartment for a few days and live like a local. The apartments/houses are usually in more residential areas and they give you the feeling like you are truly living wherever you are staying instead of vacationing as an outsider. Airbnb allows you the comfort of having your own kitchen, which is hard to come by in a hotel, along with amenities like a washer/dryer which makes it possible to pack light. Another added bonus is that the prices on Airbnb are usually much less expensive than renting through a vacation rental company or buying a hotel room.

Through the app/website you are able to go online and search the city or location you are looking to stay in. Then you select different requirements that you are looking for, including, if you want to stay in an entire home/apartment or if you want to rent an individual room within a household. You can also choose your check-in/check-out date, price range, number of beds and guests. You are able to communicate with the host of the place you are interested in before booking in order to ask them any questions you may have about the property and you can get pre-approved to book. All hosts have a homepage where you can find various reviews from previous renters, house rules and any other information about the properties amenities and location.

I used the app for the first time this summer while traveling abroad. After a few hours of browsing, consulting my boyfriend who I would be traveling with, and contacting a few hosts we booked two apartments.

The first place we stayed in was the most adorable, pristinely clean apartment located in the heart of Reykjavik, Iceland. The host was extremely easy to contact, left the keys in a key box on the front door and a list of different instructions about the rental including the wifi code and recommendations for some of her favorite restaurants and places to visit in the city was waiting for us on the kitchen table. We never ended up meeting the host but we left the place as we had found it and the keys in the box and were in an out with complete ease. After you stay in an Airbnb both the host and the renter write reviews about their experience and both parties are able to read the review before it is posted. I was pleased to find out that our host wrote a lovely review about the experience of renting to us. We had successfully stayed in our first Airbnb without a hitch!

The next location we stayed in was an apartment in Frederiksberg, a high-end residential area of Copenhagen, Denmark. Before booking this property we were not aware of the fact that Frederiksberg was one of the higher end places to live in Copenhagen. This apartment was located on the top floor of the building and was spacious, with chic decor, and big open windows with a small balcony. We met with the man from the couple who were hosting the apartment. He was extremely friendly and let us know how the keys, WiFi and other amenities within the apartment worked. He also informed us that he and his girlfriend have two apartments in Copenhagen, one in the heart of the city and one in Frederiksberg. They rent whichever property they are not currently staying in on Airbnb, this way they are always profiting from one of their apartments. Hey, if you have the money to do so, more power to you!

I recently booked a small studio style cottage in Kennebunkport, Maine for a weekend getaway this fall and I am already so excited for my next stay with Airbnb!

Next time you are booking a vacation, consider staying with Airbnb and truly immerse yourself in the culture, customs and accommodations of wherever you are traveling!