Cheap Travel Accommodation – Airbnb

Wanting to travel the world while still maintaining a frugal lifestyle? Well, there are a few great options to choose from, with staying with friends or family often being a good way but what happens if you want to go to far off lands, where this is not an option? There are a few ways to get accommodation that is cheaper than the average hotel. One way that Mrs Frugal Prof and I tried more recently, for trips to Hawaii, central London and also to the Lake District in the UK was

Airbnb. Perhaps a sign of how popular it has become in the few years that it has operating is that now even the billionaire investor Warren Buffet is apparently going to mention using this approach to the shareholders of his company, to get around expensive hotel costs for his annual shareholders meeting.

Using Airbnb you can find a place to stay, which may be private rooms, apartments, boats, and even more obscure accommodations, such as igloos, castles or even private islands! Although I am not sure if the latter two are particularly frugal. There are about 1/2 million accommodations in 34,000 cities in 192 countries, so an extremely wide selection of places to choose from. To use Airbnb you have to register to create your personal profile if you want to secure accommodation, and if you want to host to gain extra income from your property, you have to make host profile, and this will containing reviews from your previous guests. Renters and Hosts can contact each other privately to secure the accommodation.

Some nice features include that the renter can often find really great accommodation that are much cheaper than a hotel. Mrs Frugal Prof and I were really happy with the three different accommodations that we stayed in so far, and would be happy to use this service again. A recent feature to the website is the Neighborhood section, where you can look at your city of choice, say Paris and look at the individual neighborhoods to determine which would be the most suitable, say for nightlife, shopping, green spaces or being quiet, etc. If you are thinking of hosting, the positives are that you are not obliged to host anyone, and also that you are now insured to rent out your place, at up to 1 million dollars of property damages, and at no cost to you. Seems like great frugal benefits all round to me. (Please note, I have no affiliation with Airbnb).

Here is a fun clip from Airbnb on their service: