Airbnb First Impressions

After searching for hotels near the Dreamforce event and finding them quite expensive, Moe and I decided to search for an available location on Airbnb.  It was our first experience using the service.    

In case you’re not familiar with it, Airbnb was started in 2008, and is a community marketplace where you can book spaces from people who have rooms or houses to spare.  There are places available in 34,000 cities in 192 countries.  Pretty amazing!

Moe ended up finding a nice place about 30 minutes from the convention center.

Described as a “Lovely Historic Italianate House, ” we had a bedroom, family room, and bathroom to use for $99 p/night.  You can see it here along with more pictures.

We entered through a door with a security code, and basically lived in the house with the owners for the 3 nights of our trip.

Our hosts were very kind and friendly.  I ended up getting a stomach bug the first night of our trip, and the lady of the house happened to be an ER nurse.  She was very kind in helping me feel better, which obviously isn’t part of the Airbnb service, but goes a long way in establishing the value of the brand (at least in my mind).

After this experience, I think we’ll definitely consider using Airbnb for certain business trips as opposed to the traditional hotel.  It may save money and help make new friends.

What else?  What are your thoughts on using Airbnb as opposed to hotels for business travel?