It’s been 3 years since I sold everything I owned and started living in Airbnbs. Every year, my thoughts, revelations and strategies for being a full-time nomad seem to change, so I like to record them here for posterity and in case they can help anyone else take full advantage of the awesome-ness that is long term stays. So let’s get into it!
As I’ve mentioned before, I have strict criteria for all of my Airbnbs and I think this is one of the reasons that I’ve never had a bad stay. This is my Airbnb criteria:
- Superhost
- Rating of 4.75+
- 100+ reviews
- Free cancellation
- 1+ bedroom
- $2,350/month total on average
- Note: I increase this each year with inflation
- Our own space (aka no shared apartments)
- Full kitchen with microwave
- In-unit washer/dryer
- Walkable to city center and grocery store
- Fast Wifi
- AC/heat
And in the last year I’ve lived in Airbnbs in these locations:
USA
International
- Montréal, Canada🇨🇦
- Sydney, Australia🇦🇺
- Near Cairns, Australia🇦🇺
- Auckland, New Zealand🇳🇿
- Queenstown, New Zealand🇳🇿
- Puerto Vallarta, México🇲🇽
- San José, Costa Rica🇨🇷
- San José, Costa Rica🇨🇷 (Again 🙂 )
A lot of those locations were part of my normal nomad travels, but everything Down Under was a holdover from my Retirement Victory Lap that was supposed to happen in 2020 – and obviously didn’t 🙂 . That trip was fancier than my usual life and since then, I’ve been living in LCOL areas to compensate.
Anyway, I’ve written a lot of posts about my Airbnb experiences and things I’ve noticed, such as how I’m now a lot better at instantly relaxing into a new place and falling asleep, but in case you want all that info, it’s here:
- How I Choose Great Airbnb Stays: A Peek Inside A Full-Time Nomad‘s Travel Planner
- Lessons Learned After 2 Years Of Airbnb Nomad Life
- Lessons Learned After 1 Year Of Airbnb Nomad Life
- What’s It Like Living In A Monthly Airbnb?
The main tip that I still always use from those posts is to take advantage of Airbnb’s weekly (7+ day) and monthly (28+ day) discounts, which can be substantial. Our record this year was the 43% monthly discount that our first Airbnb in Costa Rica offered. Understandably we stayed there for 6 weeks.
The other tip I still use is going to airbnb.com.au to search for stays because they have a law in Australia that Airbnb has to show the actual cost including all taxes and fees upfront instead of only revealing the actual cost after several clicks. If only the US would embrace such transparency 🙂 .
But instead we’re going in the opposite direction. The US site used to clearly show you the weekly or monthly discount you receive, but I’ve discovered that now it’s usually hidden behind another “Price Breakdown” click through. So heads up if you’re looking for that info.
Clicking “Price breakdown” leads to…
The last tip I still use is taking full advantage of staggered payments. A lot of Airbnbs don’t require that you pay everything you owe when you book, but instead pay basically a deposit and the rest is due closer to the trip date.
I find this really helpful since I find myself booking farther and farther in advance out of excitement of seeing Airbnbs I like 🙂 . In this case, I also always take advantage of choosing places with free cancellation up until the trip date in case anything changes.
So those are the tips I still always use, but I’ve also learned more during this extra year of experience 🙂 .
Overlap Days
Following the trend of me getting bougier as my retirement goes on, I have noticed that more and more, I value comfort and ease over anything else. Previously I would reserve an Airbnb for the day we are leaving that city and find somewhere to go if there was a gap between my Airbnb check out and my flight. Sometimes that would mean chilling at the airport, which can be fine, but also greatly depends on the airport.
But no longer 🙂 . If I have a flight in the evening for example, I just book an Airbnb for an extra day so I can leave whenever I want. When I was in my frugal phase, this would have made me wince a little since I would be ‘wasting’ money on a night I don’t sleep somewhere, but I no longer see it that way. Instead, I’m paying about $50 to be able to relax in my space until I’m ready to leave instead of hanging out in an airport or coffee shop with my luggage. Nice 🙂 .
I’ve even started doing this when I move within a city because then there is no gap between my reservations with check out usually being in the morning and check in being in the afternoon. For a few extra dollars, I can move in a leisurely fashion and that means the world to me at this point 🙂 . Sweet freedom!
A Costly(?) Discount
So this year I realized that Airbnb offers a discount if you pay with your bank account instead of a credit card. They usually offered me about $50 off if I did this. So I tried it for a few stays before realizing: this isn’t a great deal for me 🙂 .
Since I use my Chase Sapphire Preferred to pay for Airbnbs and my ‘rent’ is the vast majority of my spending, booking these Airbnb is basically how I still accumulate points since I’m not actively churning credit cards right now.
So I would save $50, but give up a potential 2,000-6,500 Chase points in the process, which are valued at $41-$133.25 according to one of my favorite travel hacking resources, The Points Guy. If I want to make that trade off in the future, it’s good to be aware of exactly what I might be giving up.
AC Always
Until a trip to Seattle, I made it a requirement that all of my Airbnbs have air conditioning, which I know is not always readily available around the globe. However, during that stay in Seattle I broke my own rule – and our stay just happened to align with a heat wave because of course it did 🙂 .
So after that, I told myself that I would once again only book places with AC, even if we never ended up using it. And I’ve kept my promise so far.
However, I recently learned that basically nowhere in Auckland (that I can find) has AC. So my current Airbnb booking doesn’t have AC and we are there during New Zealand’s summer. Based on what I’ve read, the wind off the water makes it easy to go without, but we’ll see if my weak body agrees 🙂 .
Even though finding a place with AC was rare in San José, Costa Rica, I booked us two places that had it, but I might be ‘failing’ on my quest in Auckland. We’ll see how it goes 🙂 .
Workplace Considerations
During the first two years of Airbnb life, all of our places had either dedicated workspaces or large dining room tables where my Partner could comfortably set up and work. As a result, making sure he had a workspace wasn’t really something I thought about simply because there always was one…until now 🙂 .
Our first apartment in San José, Costa Rica didn’t have a standard dining room table for his set up, but he is an adaptable person and created a standing desk out of a casserole dish, a box and a footstool. He’s innovative like that 🙂 .
However, while reflecting on that stay, I realized that having a set workspace is something I’ve just been lucky with but now, I want to make sure we always have one. So I’ve added that requirement to my checklist going forward. Airbnb also has a “dedicated workspace” filter that I’m going to start using.
Conclusion
And that’s what I learned in my third year of being an Airbnb nomad! I continue to be amazed at how much I love this nomad life. I originally thought it would be something I enjoyed for a year and then stopped after I got the urge to settle down, but that urge never came 🙂 .
Next up I’ll be exploring Airbnbs in more of the USA as well as Canada🇨🇦, Iceland🇮🇸, Switzerland🇨🇭, Italy🇮🇹, The Netherlands🇳🇱, Japan🇯🇵 and New Zealand🇳🇿. Here’s to Year 4 of exploring the world!
What are your best accommodation booking tips?
This is really thorough. Being careful when booking accommodation is so important, accommodation can make or break a trip imo. You’ve chosen some amazing ones, I can hardly believe places like those exist in the world (as I stare out my apartment window at the rain-soaked beige building opposite mine).
I completely agree – that’s why I’m so careful with longterm accommodations. And thank you! There are some gorgeous places out there. I hope the rain clears up soon for you 🙂 .
Great insight! This is useful for even short trips. Thank you!
Awesome! I’m so happy it’s helpful. Thank you for reading.
Have you compared Airbnb against booking.com? I’ve been using booking.com more recently internationally because it’s cheaper and you can get to different levels to unlock discounts. They have apartments now on booking.
I haven’t used booking.com, but I checked them out a while ago and the places I saw didn’t have enough reviews to meet my criteria so I wasn’t comfortable using it for a month long stay. I’ll check again though to see if that’s changed.
Just wondering if you pay the total charge for the place and your partner pays you back in cash for his half of if he pays for another line item totally.
The former. We charge each other for anything we’re splitting with the other person.
Thank you Purple! Really appreciate these detailed explanations. Question: do you ever share the actual link for these specific Air BnBs? (i.e., so I can find the same spot & see if it’s available when I’ll be in Costa Rica)? Or should I just try reverse image search?
Thank you for reading! I do share links if people ask for them via DM or email. I don’t share them on the blog since it can be a privacy concern while I’m anon online. I can email you the CR links if you’d like though. Let me know.
Hi Purple,
I enjoy reading about your thought process 🙂 Do you consider it fun to book the perfect place or is it more of a chore?
I also tend to book appartements while travelling – it’s just convenient to have a kitchen and space. I am sometimes wondering if I should feel (more) guilty for “taking” appartments from the locals and thus making rent more expensive… What are your thoughts on this?
Like Vio I also tend to book appartments on booking.com.
Hi – I find it fun, but it’s not something I always feel like doing, which is usually why I ‘accidentally’ book months of places at a time because I get excited.
I do think about that. Currently the pros obviously outweigh the cons for me. Generally I don’t consider booking an Airbnb as taking an apartment from locals necessarily because if I don’t book it I don’t think the owner would turn it into housing for locals instead of something short term. However, I always vote to extend affordable housing through building zoning, allowing higher buildings for more housing to be built etc.
I’m obviously not an expert, but that’s how I think about it currently. I’m also a little comforted that I’m not taking up two places by having a home base that sits empty while I still book Airbnbs and travel most of the year for example.
Great idea with booking an extra airbnb day during days of travel! Good way to transition mind from scarcity to abundance.
Yeah it’s been really helpful!
Awesome post Purple as per usual, so many nuances I would never think of but in case I ever travel Air BNB, I’ll reference this
Haha thank you – I’m happy to hear that.
Thank you so much for this post, Purple! It’s very helpful, specially for someone like me who’s never done AirBnB before (but want to dip my toes in).
I second the question/request above about information specific to the ones you’ve used before. My husband has always wanted to go to Costa Rica — and your post made me think “We can; we should! And I know exactly where to stay for a month!”
With my recent retirement (summer last year), we are slowly taking trips…and slowly doing longer ones. We will start with Europe for 3 weeks in a couple of months….then a 35-day cruise early next year. The cruise board I belong to have posts saying, “This is so much cheaper than renting a condo for a month!” but I disagree….since a very modest room (but of course with food and a drinks package thrown in) is over $14K for 2!! Ha! It’s fine for something every so often but would love to do a bit more of AirBnB like yours to stretch our retirement dollars.
Thanks again….
Thank you for reading! I’m happy to hear it’s helpful. I answered about the links above, but I’m happy to email you my CR Airbnbs. Just let me know.
Congratulations on your retirement and that sounds like a fun Eurotrip! Oh wow yeah I’m curious how they’re calculating for that cruise. That’s more than a lot of monthly bookings I’ve seen 😉 .
Where in Canada will you be in your upcoming travels?
Montréal!
I wonder if the seeming lack of AC in Auckland is because of the popularity of heat pumps in New Zealand? I’m based in Christchurch and use mine to heat my house during winter but they also have cooling modes to act as AC. (In fact many are _designed_ for AC and the heating mode is simply a bonus.)
I can’t say for sure, but I wouldn’t mind betting that a lot of Auckland Air BnBs will say ‘yes’ to heating and ‘no’ to AC despite having a heat pump which offers both modes.
That is a very interesting point! I wasn’t aware of the heat pump situation. I’ll definitely keep a look out if that’s what our place has. Thank you!
yeah I would say this is likely it! Either heat pumps (which can also cool), or nothing at all (possible with Auckland CBD).
Great article! Taking advantage of the monthly discounts on Airbnb is a game changer.
I’m curious if you have you ever looked into house sitting websites, like Trusted Housesitters? It lets you house sit and pet sit in exchange for free accommodation. Many listings involve minimal pet care (like a single cat) or just keeping an eye on the property. You can use filters to select what kind of pets you want to watch (dog, cat, rabbits, or even homesteads with horses, etc.)
I just created my account yesterday and already have a house sit lined up in my local area in a couple of weeks to try it outs. I’ll watch 2 cute dogs in a huge modern mansion that has been featured in architect magazines. It is wild! In the future I will look to use it internationally, preferably in high cost of living areas to save on accommodation cost (Switzerland, AUS, NS, etc.)
It is very similar to Airbnb, but for house sitters. It has similar profiles, filters, and accommodation types, plus a cool forum for connecting with fellow travelers. It looks like a community of likeminded people who enjoy traveling which is pretty neat. I like looking at accommodations that are 1 month or longer, because you get the same type of experience of having a “home base” while traveling in a new location.
The annual membership fee is only $129 (find a discount code online, like mine on YouTube – I have a couple videos coming out on it soon). This easily pays for itself after using it one time because that is about the average price of a 1 night stay in a hotel or Airbnb.
I will continue to use Airbnb and hotels but I view Trusted Housesitters as another tool in my toolbelt for accommodations while traveling the world.
Would love to hear your thoughts on it!
Thank you! And yeah it really is 🙂 . I have looked into Trusted Housesitters and one of my friends used to use them a lot to travel the world. And based on hearing about her experiences it sounded like a great way to save money while traveling, but didn’t appeal to how I like to travel currently. I’ve housesat for a few friends and family members and didn’t love it enough to do it again and that goes doubly for strangers’ houses and caring for their pets 🙂 .
That’s awesome you’re trying it though and I hope you love it. The community aspect does sound cool. Enjoy!
Your transparency and wisdom truly shine through, offering a beacon of guidance for fellow adventurers seeking to embrace the nomadic lifestyle. Here’s to many more years of enriching experiences and valuable lessons!
Oh wow – thank you so much!! That’s wonderful to hear.
You live an amazing life. I hope to get there someday. The rent isn’t much more than a nice apartment in the US and you get to see the world. It’s a great lifestyle.
Thanks for sharing!
You will Joe! And yeah it’s wild out there 🙂 . Thank you for reading!
Purple, you’re an incredible inspiration! Thank you for all you do! Apologies for the ick question but what are cleaning policies like for long-term Airbnb stays? Are you responsible for washing your own towels/linens, leaving apts as clean as you found them, etc?
Hi – that’s so kind thank you! The cleaning policy is the same as short term Airbnbs so it’s usually taking out the trash and returning the key. I leave an Airbnb as I found it regardless because I like to, but I’ve never heard of having to wash towels or linens for the host before you leave. At most I’ve seen people say stack towels in the laundry room and start the dishwasher. No big deal 🙂 .