Like A Local: To Airbnb or Not To Airbnb

I am curious about people’s homes. I often wonder what their life looks like from the inside of their home. Does their home represent their characters? And I get more intrigued when I travel to a new place; about the locals, their lifestyles, and day-to-day lives, including their homes.

This interest in other cultures’ homes started when I took a peek into the Parisian living quarters from the same street as our Eiffel Tower facing the hotel. I wanted to see what a typical French home looks like, and I even planned to master the French language to befriend a French girl who would invite me to stay in her apartment with her friends or family, not unlike the girl in Lessons from Madame Chic. This elaborate, and what I thought of as brilliant, plan stopped when I found out French words have genders in the 4th week of French class.

Thankfully, Airbnb was founded, and a whole new world opened up for me.

I love to Airbnb when I travel. When we went to Europe last year, I managed to turn my cousins into AirBnB-ers. We did the Airbnb Europe edition by staying in nine different apartments, from Germany to Spain. It also satisfied my curiosity about French living, though it wasn’t in Paris. I stayed in a walk-up old apartment building in Nice. I continued staying in all sorts of strangers’ homes from Shanghai to Queenstown.

Airbnb somehow makes the travel experience feel more authentic for me.

Saying that my Airbnb experiences haven’t always been pleasant. The worst experience that came to mind was the time I had to share the Sydney Airbnb I rented for me and Amma with crawling spiders. Another one was the time I had to drag my luggage to the fourth story unlit Longtang in Shanghai.

After these experiences and other not so great ones I have had before, I wonder whether I would use Airbnb in my future travel?

Honestly, even with the disapproval of my friends who have heard my stories, I think I will. I’m always curious about foreign culture and how locals live, and Airbnb gives me a taste of it.

Every Airbnb stay adds a story to my life

One of the best ones was from our Hong Kong micro-apartment when my best friend and I got back from Lan Kwai Fong at dawn totally sloshed and couldn’t remember the pin code to enter the apartment building’s main door. We tried every possible combination we could vaguely recall for a long time. We were finally in with the help of a tenant who just got back from her own rendezvous herself.

So yeah, I guess it will always be a yes for me.

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