Staying in people's houses ?

dereksbicycles

dereksbicycles

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I would like to save on hotel when I travel. I recently found about this site bnb.com. I plan to give them a try. I was wondering if you stayed in people's houses before. I'm not talking about hooking up with old friends, but rather hooking up with online services for place to stay in. What was your experience renting out or renting in ?

Also, I was curious about cost of staying in house? Why would someone pay $65 to stay in a person's house when they would stay in hotel ? I would think hotels are safer than staying in a stranger's house. Few advantages of staying in a person's house that I can think of are improved networking, possible cheaper stays, and flexible check out times.

What do you think?
 
Oh heck no! You don't know if they have bed bugs or are creepers or whatever! At least in a hotel you have your own private room and you can look and usually tell if it's going to have bed bugs or something terrible like that. I wouldn't stay in someones house I didn't know especially that I found online! :shock:
 
dereksbicycles said:
I would like to save on hotel when I travel. I recently found about this site bnb.com. I plan to give them a try. I was wondering if you stayed in people's houses before. I'm not talking about hooking up with old friends, but rather hooking up with online services for place to stay in. What was your experience renting out or renting in ?

Also, I was curious about cost of staying in house? Why would someone pay $65 to stay in a person's house when they would stay in hotel ? I would think hotels are safer than staying in a stranger's house. Few advantages of staying in a person's house that I can think of are improved networking, possible cheaper stays, and flexible check out times.

What do you think?
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I'll be logical. If I'm staying at someone's house, I would prefer it be with family or a close friend-- I'm not staying at a friend's house from 20 years ago-- that was way back then, and I've lost contact with them, anyways. Plus, I don't exactly know what I would be getting into if I stayed at a stranger's house-- I don't know what they do, or how they do it. I would much rather stay with people whom I know, and can trust. Strangers? No way. Not happening, especially if they're bent on killing you and robbing you. Family or close trustworthy friends are better, plus I get free room and food.
 
No, I would rather stay at a relative like my Aunt when I used to travel by train to Chicago and learned that I had to wait one more day before boarding another train for Albuquerque, New Mexico back then. If I don't have relatives or friends, then I rent a hotel room for one night to sleep in. I would not be comfortable in strange people's houses. No way. **shaking my head**
 
Bebonang said:
No, I would rather stay at a relative like my Aunt when I used to travel by train to Chicago and learned that I had to wait one more day before boarding another train for Albuquerque, New Mexico back than. If I don't have relatives or friends, then I rent a hotel room for one night to sleep in. I would not be comfortable in strange people's houses. No way. **shaking my head**
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And this is why I don't venture outside of IL.... most of my relatives are here in the state, with the exception of an uncle, aunt, and younger cousin in Missouri, but I've never ventured there to visit them, although I'd like to some day.
 
What a coincidence, a few days ago or maybe even weeks ( times flies, lol) I have watched Jeopardy, and if you don`t know this show,
after the first commercial Alex always asks contestants to tell a personal interesting bit about their selves.
One lady said, she let strangers sleep at her house from allover the world
so they can save on hotel expenses!
I suppose this is what you are talking about, Derek!

However , the lady said she is getting married soon,
so she won`t do it anymore because her future husband doesn't like it.

btw Alex asked her isn`t she scared`? she said no :)
yikes! I don`t know how I feel about it.
certainly I would love to be able to save money on hotels but you never know
what the person is like, right? what if it is a serial murderer? right?
you never know...

Fuzzy
 
dereksbicycles said:
I would like to save on hotel when I travel. I recently found about this site bnb.com. I plan to give them a try. I was wondering if you stayed in people's houses before. I'm not talking about hooking up with old friends, but rather hooking up with online services for place to stay in. What was your experience renting out or renting in ?

Also, I was curious about cost of staying in house? Why would someone pay $65 to stay in a person's house when they would stay in hotel ? I would think hotels are safer than staying in a stranger's house. Few advantages of staying in a person's house that I can think of are improved networking, possible cheaper stays, and flexible check out times.

What do you think?
Click to expand...

I use airbnb.com and it's great! very homely and cheaper. no problem.
 
When I go on long trips, I stay in a good motel and I check their consumer reviews on how their service is. There's no way I would stay in strangers house that I do not know.
 
No, I wouldn't stay at strangers' houses. I am very independent when I go traveling. I don't want to worry about mannerism and making small talk with people I don't know.
 
I will be asking people who I know for reference on the area. I would like to think that airbnb is much safer than craigslist. It may be scary, but what about people that rents out their space ? I am sure they put a lot of thought into this.

I will be asking a lot of questions. The more questions I ask the safer I would be.
 
I have not looked at the site referenced but BnB usually stands for Bed and Breakfast. These are businesses often run in what started out as mansions years ago. It is not just staying with a stranger.
 
We either stay in our tent at a campsite, in a hotel, or with family.
 
I also think "BNB" could mean"Bed and Breakfast", which in my experience is another type of commercial lodging operation, like any hotel - except the building happens to be an actual house - like Jane was saying.

My folks and I have stayed in Bed and Breakfast places and generally had a good time.

Like any hotel, motel, whatever - check out the place, see what kind of reviews they have, how long they've been in business and other similar questions.

As for literally staying at a stranger's private house - in college I did that. It was one of those things people often do in college - not the best idea.
For a weekend, I went to a feminist conference at a campsite. I was about 19. I checked in at the registration and honestly had no idea where I was going to stay.
People were going around asking if anyone needed sleeping or lodging arrangements and I said yeah - so some woman in her 40's who was also at the conference - said, sure I live around maybe half an hour from here and you can come stay the nights. So - I did. I'd never met her before. She drove me to her place and I crashed there while at the conference. We would drive to the conference in the mornings.
 
dereksbicycles said:
I will be asking people who I know for reference on the area. I would like to think that airbnb is much safer than craigslist. It may be scary, but what about people that rents out their space ? I am sure they put a lot of thought into this.

I will be asking a lot of questions. The more questions I ask the safer I would be.
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You could also call the local police department and ask them if there been any breakins the neighborhood. The problem with staying in a total stranger house you have no idea who else has keys to get in. I would not leave any large sum of $$$ or other valuables in the house if you're going to away from the house for most of the day. I am sure there people that case homes that are rented out this way.
 
I don't think I would just for the weird awkward factor.

It's probably no more dangerous than being in a hotel surrounded by strangers. These places are registered on a website, your transactions are probably traceable. They have be pretty damn stupid to do anything to someone who rents from them, they'd be the first people the cops would look at if you turned up missing. It's not like hitch hiking, where nobody knows who picked you up.....
 
If money is an issue, look into a hostel. They are usually age segregated and you can sometimes even get separate rooms.
 
My partner had a couple of training classes she attended in 2012. She used a service, had a small room, and saved a lot of money.

Bedbugs can be anywhere. If you stay in a motel/hotel, search the internet for bedbugs motels hotels.

She was going to maybe PA for a visit and stopped at a motel and asked about bedbugs. The clerk said they were on the first floor and taken care of but she could stay on the second floor. She left.

Whether alone or together, we bring flashlights and thoroughly check under the mattress cover and liner, linens, by the impossible to see areas by the headboard and every place else. Nothing but our feet land anywhere until we know we're as safe as we can be (no assurances). I check the bathroom first and Marcus stays locked up until the coast is clear. It's not the best way to ensure he won't pick up anything but it's safer.

It's one reason we stay at one specific motel in Nashville. They are consistently free of bedbugs.

-- Sheri
 
I was thinking that if someone is able to afford to own or rent a house, they've to be doing something right. I would want to learn a thing or 2 from them. They've to be smart people to be able to do that.

When staying in hotel, you will often meet the same people at front desk over time. If choosing to rent a house or something, you would meet different people. Hopefully improve networking from that. We all want to surround ourselves with more intelligent people. Sure, there may be some weird people, but there are also intelligent people. Hopefully, it would rub off.

Remember that clerks at hotel are often paid hourly. No commission for hotel people. People that rents out house get paid if you stay. They want to have you back. If they are intelligent and would want smart people, they would alway welcome you back and possibly meet other people through that person.
 
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