East Village - My first Airbnb Experience

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An Ideal Apartment in Upper West Side, Manhattan 

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Back in December, I was concerned about the accommodation alternatives available in Manhattan. Although our budget constraint is higher than when we were students and would be enough to pay for a hotel or bed & breakfast in some cities, it certainly wasn't enough to pay for it in Manhattan. Wrong, let me rectify - it certainly wasn't enough to pay for it in nice and safe Manhattan. And, in my opinion, this should be top priority, specially when visiting big cities that you don't know very well.  

This is when Airbnb gained caught our eyes. AirBnB is a community market place where you can wist and book anything from a shared room to a private island, in over 160 countries worldwide. 

Airbnb Main Page

How does it work?

1. Search. As a guest looking for a place to stay, you only need to write in the city or country of destination, dates and the total number of guests looking and hit the search button. Once you are led to the list of results, you can narrow down your matches by specifying what kind of accommodation you're looking for (a whole house, a shared apartment or even a shared room),  preferred neighborhoods, a minimum (or rather maximum!) price per night, or particular amenities you can't live without (in my case, WIFI !!).
2. Choose. Once you've chosen a short list of the accommodations that match what you were looking for, you can contact the host directly through the website confirming if the listing is available for your dates and asking some further questions about the area, the apartment etc. 
3. Pay. When you have your final pick, you need to provide your credit card information to the website and wait for the host to "accept" you. Payment will only be transferred 24 hours after your check-in date. 

How do you know, as a guest, if the apartment i for real?

Well... you don't. However, there are a couple of tips that may be useful to spot possible fraudulent advertisings. Check out my previous post on Budget Traveling!

My Experience

The beautiful apartment we stayed at in East Village, Manhattan

Source

I had never used this site before, neither did I knew anyone who had employed it. But I was willing to give it a try (specially because Manhattan's boutique hotels were far out of our price range!). 

Our budget was of 100$ per night (50$ per person). Given that even hostels in Union Square start with around 42$ per person in a shared room, you can imagine that this wasn't much. However, when searching in Airbnb under this one constrain, there were still many housing offers! Now came the difficult part - where to stay? A friend of mine recommended Lower East Side - East Village, which shrank the number of available locations within our budget significantly. Among the final results was this artsy beautiful apartment, which matched exactly our expectations. 

We exchanged a couple of e-mails with the host and soon afterwards had booked our 4-nights in their spare bedroom. 

Of course in matters of payment, it always goes smooth, right? My main concerns from then onwards: what kind of people were we going to live with? what if we do not come along well with each other? 

I don't easily trust people, at least not up to the point of staying over at some stranger's house. But Airbnb made me feel (a bit more) secured. It's not a simple Ebay for apartments, but a strong community that connects people from all over the World. Reading other people's feedback on my hosts and the apartment itself felt comforting. 

On the day of arrival, the remaining fears simply swept away when we met our hosts. Both of them gave us tips on places to visit and where to eat in the East Village, as well as how to come around in Manhattan (and how to get best to JFK!). 

What I liked most (besides from our hosts and their great tips!), was the fact that you spend your time in a real home, which, unlike many hotels and hostels, feels warm and cozy - and believe me, when it's -15ºC outside, you would die to feel warm and cozy. 

So, what do you think? Would you give it a try?