My first Airbnb experience was in an amazing apartment in San Francisco in the Cow Hollow neighborhood. Cute & Clean Cow Hollow Apartment was the title on the listing and it really did live up to the beautiful pictures on the Airbnb site. I did a lot of research and wrote a post about tips for booking your first Airbnb here but in this post I’ll share a few things I learned from my first Airbnb stay.
What to Expect on Your First Airbnb Stay
- You’re going to want the app. From the time of booking to the actual stay, I communicated several times with the owner. The app was very handy and easy to use if I ever needed to give an update or ask a question of the Airbnb hosts, Annie and Garrett.
- I get the sense that Airbnb hosts are usually really helpful. Annie did a great job of letting me know they were available for questions or neighborhood recommendations. Don’t feel shy about using your host as a resource for your trip. It’s always fun to get a local’s recommendation anyways.
- This apartment was straight out of a Crate & Barrel catalog. Similar to online dating, sometimes pictures online don’t match the in-person experience. My tip for that is to be really diligent when you read reviews. You can often find a comment from a past guest that will tell you whether or not the pictures were accurate.
- If noise level is an issue, the same advice from the last point stands. Read reviews to get a sense of street and apartment noise. This apartment was on street level so it was naturally a little noisier than what I normally experience in hotels in San Francisco. That being said the location and beautiful apartment made up for early morning street cleaning.
Let me know in the comments if you have some tips to add for Airbnb first-timers.
If you’re interested in booking a stay through Airbnb, feel free to use my referral link to get $25 off your first booking! Just sign up here to get your $25 credit.
Happy travels,
@laurylkitson