Airbnb, a budget traveler and adventurers dream* – terms and conditions apply.

Forrest Gump’s famous quote, “life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re going to get,” is much like Airbnb, you just don’t know what’s around the literal corner.

There are so many reasons we chose to book an Airbnb in Hollywood.

• The low cost in comparison to hotels and apartments in the area. AirBnb gives you the option of renting an entire apartment/house, renting a room in a share house, or, sharing a room in a shared house. This makes it great for backpackers and the budget traveller alike.

• Convenient and central location options.

• Convenience of a kitchen/kitchen utensils/car parking

• Good choice of filters to narrow down your search including wifi, kitchen facilities including microwave, stove etc, air conditioning, pool, even down to the fire extinguisher and option of an indoor fireplace.

• Local Knowledge, in most cases your host, if around, will be willing to share some insight tips about the area and local hotspots.

• A system based on reviews means your host will be working to keep you happy.

• The comfort of Airbnb’s payment system that supports many currencies and several types of payment methods. Airbnb collects guest payments from the moment they make a reservation and waits until 24 hours after arrival before releasing funds to the host. This way, guests Airbnb will process and deliver payments when a reservation is honoured.

• The comfort of a ‘home’ rather than ‘hotel’/ the experience of living like a local.

CONS

• Changes in the host’s plans mean changes in yours. (If accommodation is cancelled you get your money back but it can be inconvenient to be without a place to stay).

• If you’re squeamish you may not like the idea of sharing someone else’s things. But in my view it’s the same as a hotel or hostel. Pack a sleeping liner if you’re worried about any bed nasties (again you risk this in a hostel, even a hotel).

If you’re wondering if Airbnb is for you, start by asking yourself these two simple questions.

• Am I willing to be flexible with arrival/departure times, host’s requests, minor changes to your daily itinerary?

• Do I mind sleeping in someone else’s bed (with assumed clean bedding)?

If either of these bother you then you’re probably the kind of person that wants the reliability of a hotel and its amenities, if they don't then Airbnb can be the adventurers dream.

Our first 'time'

Your experience with Airbnb depends on the experience of your host.

Someone who has been operating for some time should have most kinks ironed out while newbies may still be trying to work out the organisation of getting people in and out and the placed cleaned in the same day.

Every AirBnb is different, as is every host.

We booked with our host as he was new to AirBnb and so the price of the apartment was low (we watched the price increase over the months before we arrived as others booked and stayed and the host realised the potential of the apartment).

We paid under AU$800 for the apartment with a great location compared with hotels outside of the metro area and without kitchens for closer to AU$1200.

The place from the pictures looked clean and the apartment was in a great location right beneath the Hollywood Sign and a few streets from Hollywood Boulevard.

A week before our arrival we received a message that the landlord was coming to inspect the apartment on the day of our arrival which meant we couldn’t check-in until after 6pm, after a 6am arrival and 24hrs of travel time – we had read several reviews across Airbnb where this had happened to other people. Ultimately the host takes a big risk with the landlord finding out in these cases. If you’re thinking of subletting through Airbnb read up on the websites ‘permissions’ section here.

When making our way to the apartment our host greeted us on the street with a smile and walked us up to the room where he gave us a tour of the place, wrote down the wifi password, combination to the safe and gave us some handy tips about the area, where to shop, where to see a local show and what areas to avoid at night!

Before leaving we asked what we needed to do before our departure and our host told us they were leaving on a business trip the same week, before exclaiming ‘oh! If I gave you guys some money would you clean the place?’… Looking around the small one room apartment…. ‘sure why not’. And that’s how we made some dough for an hours work to sweep and mop, change the linen and clean down the bathroom and kitchen.

It did make us wonder if he’d pulled the same trick on others before us… and who had cleaned our apartment… Eh! Add it to our list of experiences.

The rest of the stay went without a hitch, apart from being wary to avoid the landlord, and we enjoyed the convenient location and kitchen facilities for a much lower price than a hotel.

In my point of view, the Airbnb pros outweigh its cons and is worth the experience.

We still compare hotels when we book AirBnb, but mostly we don’t find the same facilities for the price. – we didn’t book Airbnb for Vegas simply because we want a small bit of pampering for the next two nights.

Our tips when booking an Airbnb

My first tip would be to stay flexible with plans as not all terms and conditions of your stay are set in concrete when you book. Variables include check in and check out times and amenities available when you get there.

Compare hotels in the area to find ‘a standard price’.

Read the host’s bio and reviews.

Look for a host who lives close by, some hosts work away and rent their place for the time they’re away, this means if something goes wrong they’re harder to contact.

Along the same lines if you stay in the place of a transient worker and their work schedule changes after you book, you may be stuck without a place.

Use the booking filters.

Might seem obvious, but book a place with pictures! And good pictures where you can fully see the layout of the place.

Share your Airbnb experiences, the good the bad and the ugly.

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