Airbnb allows for travelling to be significantly more affordable, and creates a more authentic experience. The days of overly expensive hotel room stays are almost over. Travelling is not cheap obviously– airfare, hotel bookings, car rentals, food and getting from A to B all adds up, but travelling can be much cheaper when you consider saving on a few huge things like a place to stay with amazing ideas like Airbnb.
My boyfriend spontaneously decided that he wanted to hop on a plane and come see me (we’re in a long distance relationship), and with the crazy levels of excitement burning through my body, I immediately pitched that he try an Airbnb instead of a hotel like his last trip 2 months prior. The decision to use Airbnb at the time was less about actually saving money, but because we wanted to do everyday mundane things together, ‘play house’ and to be able to call a place ours for a bit because quality time like that mattered hugely to us.
I downloaded the app from the appstore, and started my search. In Jamaica, Airbnb shows listings of “entire apartments/condimoniums” starting as low as $25 per night for 2 guests. There are MUCH cheaper ways to travel to another country, and hacks to SAVE significantly and afford a trip to a country you’ve always wanted to travel to.
The app showed me a perfect little cozy home in a beautiful, safe, gated neighborhood that I thought was..incredible and in a very good price range. It included a fully air conditioned apartment–1 bedroom, 1 bathroom, kitchen, living room, balcony, pool-access with other important amenities like water heaters, washers, drying areas and wireless internet. I’ll enter a few pictures here:
The process was relatively easy as everything is finalized through the app, you can easily connect with the homeowner through the app as well, and payments are done there too. It makes it feel safe, reliable and documented, which was very important for us.
Once we arrived, an on-site security guard handed us the keys and we were on our way.
Day 2 of being there, we headed out to do some grocery shopping nearby. I was particularly happy about this, because I absolutely love saving money but that’s just me. I rather getting groceries and eating in, rather than eating out every single time. We’re also big fans of doing mundane tasks together because doing it with someone you love makes it..everything. Having mini debates in an aisle about which milk to get; boxed or bottled? (we got both)
or which brand Orange Juice is ideal, or deciding on how many snacks are ‘too much’. Being able to fill a kitchen up with your own food, movie nights with pizza, and microwavable popcorn or endless naps..anywhere is quite lovely.
Our little spot was located about 5-10 minutes from major spots that we needed to go, restaurants were literally adjacent and opposite to the neighborhood which meant we saved a lot on travel from A to B too. We had fun, with a beautiful view, and everything in between.
We made that apartment home, and we loved every minute of it–even our times of walking head first into the glass door which caused me complaining for 48 hours about my potentially broken nose or showering in extremely cold water because it was only by day 4 where I (the hero) noticed a switch on the wall that turned the heater on. Everything.
We loved this little spot, and I highly recommend trying out Airbnb. Save towards your trip, once the airfare is out the way — everything else is not that bad. I also recommend ‘playing house’ with your significant other because you’ll either fall deeper in love or argue everyday. I think that’s important to figure out early on haha.
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