Airbnb is the biggest accommodation provider, and ironically, it doesn’t own any real estate. It works like this: users can offer their own houses, being able to choose the price per night and the guests they are hosting. It requiers previous contact and messaging, so they can filter who is staying in. They can offer a shared room, a separated room or even the entire house (perfect for second residences). The website charges a commission, and that's why some hosts appear to cancel their reservations last minute: they host you, but they don’t take the payment through the site. In this way, they save this commission. If you like the idea and want to register now from this link, you can have an 18€ discount for your next reservation!
Laura and I used AirBnb in Ireland, where we went to celebrate my birthday (near St Patrick's Day). While looking for cheap hostels and hotels, we saw how the prices were rising per minute, so Airbnb turned out to be our best ally. First, we visited Galway, and we met our first hosting family. The apartment was exactly in the centre, and it was lovely. Our room was huge and our hosts, a young couple, were really nice. They gave us maps of the whole city, they marked the best places to go based on our interests, and they gave us very useful advice and tricks. The breakfast we had was delicious, and we had nice chats with them when we came home after visiting the city. The bed was amazingly comfortable, and although we shared the bathroom with them, we never had to wait, so it wasn’t a problem. Our first time couldn’t have been better.
For these kind of experiences is vital to have an excellent first contact, as it will determine the following. With an unbeatable feeling we headed up to Dublin, where we had another rented apartment. This was relatively cheap for being Dublin and those dates, and we were right in the city centre. According to Google Maps, we were in the middle of the b of the word Dublin. We were supposed to have a middle-aged woman as host, that seemed very kind.
We arrived to drop our luggage, and after a while wandering around the exact street and house number, we were unable to find the door. It was so tiny and thin, that we barely could enter without turning to a side. Laura’s face was epic. But hey, we were right in front of the Temple’s Bar Pharmacy, and the building right next to us was the Temple Bar itself. We couldn’t be better located.
A twenty-something-year-old boy opened us. His name was Tristan, and he looked a bit weird. He showed us the apartment, which was filthy and unattended. Our bedroom was really tiny and had two micro-beds. One of them was right next to a locked door, but there was a small space between the two bedrooms. Nobody slept there. The other occupant was Tristan’s smaller brother, a few years younger than us, who worked while he studied. He was very nice, but we barely saw him. We didn’t see the oldest one very often as well, as he spent the whole day in his bedroom. We would discover afterwards that he was there smoking joints since 9 am. We didn’t even see the lady we messaged on AirBnb.
The breakfast was expired, so it we had to buy ours - the only non-toxic thing was the tea. The apartment had a rooftop, and I’m crazy about them. We went up to it, and it was impossible to be there (although it looks really cool in the final video). Anyhow, we couldn’t be in a better place. We did whatever we wanted to, we could even go home to the bathroom when we were partying. We heard all the city buskers while having dinner, so we were singing along Oasis, Ed Sheeran, or Robin Williams. All the places to visit were walking-distance, and we didn’t spend any time at the flat - I devoted myself to make Laura hit every single street of Dublin.
We panicked out the last day. We found drugs in the house, and we ran away, starring a dramatic scene worthy enough for a Hollywood movie. Include there an unnecessary and expensive journey to the airport and several unrealistic situations. Finally, we managed to find a 24h drop-in luggage service right next to the bus stop for the airport. We spent the rest of the day (from half past four in the evening until 2 am) in a pub called Dicey’s, where every drink was 2€. We took a nap in the airport and we came back home. Here I’m displaying the aftermovie I made, so you can see the whole trip!
If something like that happened to us again, for sure our reaction would have been completely different. When I see the rest of the videos I think that we overreacted a bit, but it is necessary to take into account that we were paying (pretty much) for that. During the whole stay the boys were nice and respectful, and we never had any problem. It was their home, so they were entitled to do whatever they wanted as long as it didn’t bother us. It’s a lesson for the next time, and we had a master class on how to react in extreme situations. The apartment wasn’t what we were expecting at the beginning, but I wouldn’t change it for any other accommodation. In fact, I’m coming back this year and I checked its availability, just in case (but it was already booked).
Now that we are over-connected, the ways of travelling and the experiences offered are completely different. I’m sure that we wouldn’t have fallen in love with Galway the way we did without our hosts’ advice. Our plans were not in any random internet guide. I can’t say the same thing about Dublin, because we actually ignored all the guy’s recommendations. First of all, we couldn’t understand his Irish accent. Secondly, it was all about going out and who knows the places he frequented. Anyways, we couldn’t laugh harder remembering that day, and that cannot be taken away from us as a part of our travelling experience. If you haven’t tried it yet and you seek a cheaper and innovative way of travelling, you have my 100% recommendation!
