When I was first started travelling, especially on my own I always expected to stay in hotels. My assumption was that hotels were just better. I never thought once of using Air BnB or “Bed and Breakfast”. For some reason when I heard the term “Bed and Breakfast” I thought of staying in some creepy guy’s room while he watches me sleep.
I also had a fear of when travelling to another place where I didn’t know the language or culture, finding myself in some trouble. You see, whenever I go on vacation I really like to walk around and explore the place. I was scared that renting an apartment in the middle of nowhere would mean I could get lost and not find my way back, or walk into a bad area. Hotels are usually in popular and safe places. At least I thought so until 3 years ago. Basically, I booked a hotel and when I went outside to walk around, some guy just followed me and wouldn’t leave me alone unless I gave him money. So, the idea of hotels being safer was thrown out the window. One thing about hotels is that most of them have gym facilities. Even though I am on vacation I still like exercising especially in the morning. With an apartment, I will not have access to a gym.
An issue I had with hotels are kitchen amenities. Normally hotel rooms do not have these. Being a somewhat healthy person, I like to cook my own food most days of the week. When I stay at hotels I end up eating McDonalds a lot, which I don’t mind every now and then but not 2-3 times a week.
My experience with Bed and Breakfast came when me and my friends were planning a trip to Montreal. We were looking for hotels and we just couldn’t find a cheap hotel for that weekend. Finally, one of my friends said lets just rent an apartment with Air BnB. I had no experience with this before but I figured I’m going to be with 3 other guys so the chance that a creepy guy will be stalking us would not be an issue. When we arrived, I was pleasantly surprised at the apartment. It had everything we needed for our stay. The owner of the apartment was not there but he provided his phone number to allow us to contact him anytime during our stay. We received the key through a lockbox and basically the apartment was ours for the weekend. There were some guidelines provided but we found everything we needed plus the price was a lot cheaper than a hotel. Although none of us cooked during that weekend there were a lot of places to buy healthy food around the apartment. As for exercise, I just went out for a run every morning. I’ve now purchased some resistance tubes and I think I can mimic most of the exercises that I normally do at the gym. Even though the weight will not be the same I still can get a good workout with these.
After that trip, my eyes were opened to renting apartments. I tried to rent an apartment by asking a friend who lived in Morocco to find one for me. This proved to be a mistake. Although they did find me an apartment, there were many missing amenities that I would have liked (like wifi). The next time I decided to go to Morocco, I tried to find a place through Air BnB. I’m just going to say this right now, Air BnB is the best. The prices I found were very good. I could find all the amenities that I wanted. Also, everything was done online so I didn’t have to bring a lot of cash to pay for the place. The app had the contact information for the owner so I could contact them with any concerns I might have before purchasing. So, after booking the apartment, travelling to Morocco, and arriving at the apartment. I was greeted by the owner’s Father (the owner lives in America). He then showed me the apartment and gave me his number. He then called his son who spoke to me. This man was very nice and told me about all the places I should check out and all the things I could do (even though I travelled to Morocco a bunch of times). He even offered to ask his friends in the area to hang out with me. One of the fears I had was that being a tourist, people will take advantage of me being in an apartment. Although this can happen, with Air BnB you can read reviews that others have written. Another benefit to renting an apartment is that most apartments have kitchens. For someone like myself trying to learn the Darija language, it helps when I must take a taxi to the grocery store and then buying the groceries and taking a taxi to return home. These situations help me practice conversing with the locals. I can’t stress enough how much Air BnB has not only saved me a ton of money but also made my vacations better. In the future I may choose to book a hotel depending on the circumstance but Air BnB will always be my first choice.
If any of you are thinking about taking a vacation anywhere in the world, I highly suggest you choose Air BnB. At the very least at least look at the app and see what options they have. If it helps your decision I can provide a $50 credit towards your first trip. You can access the $50 credit by clicking here. I have used Air BnB three times now and based on my personal experience, I have had an excellent experience every time and I plan to continue to use Air BnB in the foreseeable future.