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| This is where we stayed in Amsterdam for 10 nights. It was great! |
We’re working on another interview this week. In the meantime, let’s talk about traveling.
We love being at home and are essentially homebodies, but you guys also know that we love to travel. In 2014, we’ve been on the road for at least twelve weeks, visiting six different places. Because we make our living selling on eBay, we have the luxury of time. We like to spend at least two weeks in a place so we can get to know the pace of an area.
Renting hotels rooms would be ridiculously expensive for these long trips. Plus affordable hotels are often cramped and soulless. This is why we always rent apartments and houses on Airbnb. Many of you probably know how this site works by now: you rent directly from the homeowner so you can stay in neighborhoods instead of in the boring hotel areas. Who wants to hang out with the tourists? We always do some research so we find out where the cool neighborhoods are. Usually there will be cafes, restaurants, and grocery stores within blocks of the place we rent. You can rent a room in someone’s house, but we always like to rent an entire place so we have our privacy. We meet the host, get the keys, and then the place is ours.
Here’s where we stayed in Amsterdam.
Here’s where we stayed in Austin.
Here’s where we stayed in Portland.
Each was in walking distance to everything we needed.
Since we stay for long periods of time, we usually negotiate a cheaper price like any scavenger would. (The listed price doesn’t have to be the price you pay!) We choose places that have a kitchen so we can cook most of our meals to save money. We make sure there’s washer/dryer to wash clothes. And of course, any place we rent must have fast WiFi so we can monitor our eBay store from the road. Sometimes we forget we’re on vacation because it feels like we’re in our new home. It’s so luxurious having a living room, bedroom, full kitchen, and a walkable neighborhood.
Running an eBay store for the past six years has allowed us the flexibility to get up and go. We keep our store turned on, extend our handling time, and ship when we come home. We always make a profit on our vacation even after paying all our traveling expenses. Next time you take a vacation somewhere, check out Airbnb and compare to what you’d pay at a hotel. If you use that link, you get $25 off your first reservation (we get $25 off too). Or just visit their site directly.
It’s a fun site to browse to see what’s available in your area to get an idea of what people are doing. We’ll be using Airbnb this Spring for our vacation rental that we’re finishing up. Sell old shoes, buy a rental, make another stream of income.