Using Airbnb for the First Time

I registered with Airbnb last year in anticipation of needing to use this service as I make plans to move to California. But as I was trying to set up my account, I was having huge difficulties in managing my profile and providing my credit card information. It was so bad, I was just about to cancel everything and walk away from using their services. However, I decided to reach out to their customer service to get their help. They were very helpful but puzzled by my problem to complete updating my profile. It took them almost a week to fix the problem, but they resolved the registration issue on my account. But, Airbnb went a step further, they apologized to me for the technical glitch and they gave me $100 credit to use towards my first booking. It was an extremely generous offer for an annoying situation and that made me really appreciative of how they respect their customer's time.

Well today I booked my first Airbnb reservation at a house in Los Angeles near Culver City/Venice. LA is a popular destination so if you want to use Airbnb, you need to book early. I am on an extremely tight budget so I had to find something within my $50/night range. I saw two places that were under $40, but one was literally a spare 'sofa' in a dark room, and the other was more like a hostel where they had bunkbeds in a large room. Look, even while I'm on a budget, I still have standards. However, I found this really cute room in a house for $53/night. I read the amenities, noted my preferred location in this vast city, and I read their cancelation policy. Everything else nearby was out of my budget range, and that's ok because I really got lucky in selecting this place.

The way Airbnb works is that people register with this company to host visitors to stay at their place. Some hosts have the bare minimum amenities for those on strict budgets, and others are quite luxurious. I'm smack dab in the middle. I get a private bed and bath in a 'cute and modern' home. So once you submit a request to stay at a place and the time you want to stay, the host will make the decision to accept your request or not. I almost forgot - it is extremely helpful to read the reviews of guests who stayed at properties, they can make or break your decision. Although the place I decided to stay at was new and had only six reviews, all six were 5-star reviews and the comments were very nice. To help the host decide to accept you, you're given the opportunity to write a message explaining your reason for visiting and needing a place to stay. Nice, simple and transparent. Not five minutes later, I get a text message from the host providing me with some updates about her home. I agreed and understood and in the next message, she approved me to stay. After applying my $100 credit to the payment, I only owed $102. Broken down for three nights, that is only $34 a night - totally within my budget!

The neat thing about staying at this particular residence is that it is only a 7 minute walk from an Enterprise car rental. I will rent a car so I can drive to my appointments, and of course, I got the most economical car. So, I'm really excited about my late September visit, which will be an opportunity for me to attend some important networking interview/meetings as well as check out places to live. Another cool thing about Airbnb is that most residences that host give a discount for monthly rentals. So that's something for me to think about as a temporary backup plan.

Thanks to those who have pledge thus far to make a donation by the end of my fundraiser. I really, really appreciate any donations made! xoxo