Airbnb is a marketplace for renting travel accomodation from locals. Their open platform accommodates a ‘couch to a castle’, including vacation rentals, bed and breakfast, private rooms to entire apartments or houses. Travelers typically save money and get a local experience, while hosts have an easy way to earn extra cash and meet new people. Airbnb is a safe, secure, and reliable system that includes online credit card payments, rich user profiles, and user reviews. Launched in 2008 by three San Francisco based entrepreneurs, Airbnb connects people through peer-to-peer traveling in over 1700 cities around the world. This is an awesome alternative to hostels or hotels.

According to the Daily News:

AirBnB co-founder Nathan Blecharczyk, 26, said he and two friends came up with the idea in 2007, when they realized they could rent out spare rooms in their San Francisco apartments to attendees at a big design conference held there. Business is booming, fueled by residents hoping to make extra cash and visitors in search of bargain digs, he said. AirBnB’s biggest market is New York, Blecharczyk said. The site has some 800 listings in the city, with as many as 50 new ones put up each week. “New York rents are really expensive,” he said. “This is allowing people to hold on to their places.” And for travelers, $100 is a pretty good deal for a night in a New York penthouse, even if it’s just a tent on a rooftop.

I was very impressed with a lot of the spaces I saw, when browsing some of the options for Madrid or Lisbon (my next couple of destinations in coming months). Most apartments were centrally located, with all what you need: spacious bedrooms, full kitchens, TV’s and of course WiFi internet access. Each description of the accommodation, along with great photos and maps gave me a good overall sense of the apartment where I would be staying and its neighbourhood. AirBnB.com handles the financial side of things, so that guests do not need to hand over cash or credit card numbers to the hosts. Also, the money isn’t released to the host until 24 to 48 hours after you check in, assuring a bit more protection if the accommodations aren’t what was promised. This makes the process of renting less stressful and more secure for the traveller.

There is some neat short term rental options for places normally known to be expensive cities like New York. I found some great little studios in lower  Manhattan for about $100/night, a real bargain for New York City when you consider how usually expensive New York can be when it comes to renting a place. In most cases you get to see photo of the owner who is renting the place and have an option to contact him or her if you have  any additional questions. There is review section below each property where those who have stayed already in a place leave short comments about the location, apartment or the owner itself. Check it out at AirBnB’s website when you are planning to get away, it is a great alternative to often impersonal  hotel chain. May be this time around you will consider renting a boat house or a yacht (these are available there as well) to make your trip even more interesting!