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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.
Very cool places. Are these always places always second homes for the host? If not where do they go when you stay there. Sorry if this is a dumb question but I've never heard of this before.
in amsterdam the host lived upstairs, in austin the host lived in the house in front of the little cottage (it was a converted garage), in portland it was a little apartment complex that the owner lived in as well in back. but we've stayed in apartments where the person had a significant other that they stayed with. or one time this woman had recently gotten married, but still owned her studio apartment and just rented it out for income. lots of different situations.
Not a dumb question. We've been using Airbnb for the past four years, so we didn;t want to assume it was new to everyone.
Some people have second homes and rent them out. Some people have an extra house on their property and rent that out. It's kind of all over the board. One couple traveled frequently so we rented their apartment while they were on along trip.
It's a fun site to browse to see what's available in your area. You'll get an idea of what people are doing. We'll be using Airbnb for our vacation rental we're finsihing up.
Thanks Ryanne and Jay. I did take a look at what is in my area. Started fantasizing about renting out my house during festivals and such…than I remembered my ebay room(s). LOL. Maybe some day. Can't wait to hear what your experience is like once you're up and running.
I've heard about airbnb and couchsurfing for a while, but always assumed it was more for singles or couples, not families. But I see that airbnb will definitely work for a family too. I definitely plan on looking into that when we travel in the future.
BTW, you guys are killing it on art sales today. Wow. Can't wait to see your numbers for this week! 🙂
Need you guys to do me a favor and interview Preacher Picker, I love this guy, so nice and always have great videos. Tell him dirtpoorpicker sent you. You have to love this guy.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCY4p116mmuA7w3GG699CgwA
I have been saving a ton with my new cell phone service, thanks so much!
So that got me thinking is there an Internet provider that I don't know about that could be just as awesome.
I've beev using TWC and they just went up again and their product is pretty poor in my area.
I don't have cable, I isuslly just watch Netflix or prime.
Thsnks!
I'm with you. I've been researching possible alternatives to traditional internet providers. We're pretty heavy users so it's going to be a challenge. Personally, I'd be willing to pay a little more than we do now if a company could guarantee faster speeds.
Crazy that people do this. I looked at a neighbor of ours who rented out a room for $55/night. I can make more than that with 1 or 2 eBay purchases that I re-sell, and I think it's a lot easier to do. I guess it's taking advantage of empty space and time you're not there (sometimes), but still, seems like a lot of work for little money if you're trying to make it a regular income stream. Glad that people who stay can take advantage of it though.
@Jon Internet is really the hard one for me. There's just such a gap in service from the low end to the high end. I don't need 30mb down but I'd like better than 2 or 3. If I could get 10 I'd be set, but that's just not an option in my area. Keep on crossing my fingers for Google Fiber…
Yeah, I'm not sure renting out a room in your home is worth $55. You get the hassle of having a constant strange guest. Less than $75 a night isn't worth that inconvenience. But it doesn't remind me of the old boarding houses I've read in the 1920-40's before small motels existed. My grandfather talked about driving into town and easily finding a person to stay with for a small charge.
The people who make money on Airbnb have an extra home or apartment. Either they bought it as an investment, or inherited it from a relative. But as you say, I love the service as a traveler because you get so much more value than a hotel. Be interested if anyone here at least compares to a hotel on their next trip.
when we stay places on airbnb, we always search for 'entire house' rather than a 'private room'. lots of people rent out small guest houses, some people rent little RVs even. so people are renting more private spaces that are separated from their living quarters. i think mostly younger people rent out rooms, but i've seen families who have guest rooms in big cities rent them out for extra cash many times. but i agree, renting 1 room for $50 a night might not be worth it, but if you have a little guest house or in-law apartment and can rent for $100+ a night, you're golden.
How much more would it have cost you to stay in a hotel in Amsterdam? I don't travel much anymore, but when I did I was extremely fond of both room and maid service. 🙂
Crystal
It's difficult to compare directly. As you see in the photo above, we had a huge living room with two couches and a dining room table. Plus a master bedroom, master bathroom, and full kitchen. You could only compare this getting a Presidential suite in a hotel for the amenities. Since we were right in a prime location by the train station, just a small hotel room would cost between $200-300.
Yes, maid service is nice. But we personally don't need our beds made each day. We're good at cleaning up after ourselves. Plus, have you ever really ordered room service? I'd never pay $25 for a cheeseburger! We always go buy food and shove it in the mini-bar fridge. Scavengers!
This is just a different kind of traveling. If you stay in a city for just a couple nights, it's probably cool to feel luxurious in a fancy hotel. But to really get to know a city, we like to stay at least one week+ so we can casually explore. Luxury is having time to sit in a cafe all day and just walk people walk by. And hotels aren't good for long stays because it's cramped. I hate when the bed is the only place to sit in your room.
We love staying in B&B's, with a homey atmosphere and a big, fancy breakfast; we have a favorite one in a small Amish town where we get away for a weekend. Next to that, if we aren't staying in a luxury resort paid for by my husband's business meeting, we prefer "Boutique" Hotels–small, tucked away, in the middle of a city. I love the Amsterdam location you found.
Definitely true Jay. When we went to Thailand, we stayed in a fancy hotel in Bangkok for 3 nights (presidential honeymoon suite, did our laundry, tons of food for us, restricted access to those floors etc.) and this was for $125 a night! We splurged there.
Once we went up north to Chiang Mai (via overnight train, so neat), we stayed in a little family owned place where they cooked us breakfast with their own! They sat down with us and talked. It was a blast. The owner of the place ended up taking us to the airport when we left to go to Phuket because she had to go shopping anyways. Getting to interact with local people instead of just the usual city folk made that leg of the trip the best!
I totally agree with Chris. We own a very small place in a summer resort area and most of our neighbors rent their places during the peak of summer. I would rather sell on eBay so I don't have to rent my little place during the prime time when I want to enjoy it myself – after all, that IS why we bought it. Plus, ebay selling is so easy to do during those long weekends – just reply to offers and questions; then come home & pack everything that sold while I was enjoying myself.
Is anyone else dealing with Ebay issues like these? 1. Sometimes when I got to reply to a question from a buyer on my App when I hit "Send", it responds with a sign that says, "Recipient is not the seller of the item," and it doesn't let me respond. What the HECK–I AM the Seller of this item! SO annoying–I have to get to my computer to respond. 2. I listed 10 pairs of shoes yesterday, but only 8 of them show up on my Active Listings in My Ebay, but the missing two pairs DO show up when I click on my store and go to the shoe category–so can anyone see them or not??? 3. I closed a non-paid item yesterday, just went to relist it, and it was GONE. I had to find it in my email folder and relist it from there–thank heavens I found it there. EBAY IS A MESS!!!
Thankfully I haven't had any of those issues! With eBay spinning off paypal and revamping the site, I'm expecting lots of weird glitchy problems over the next year.
Oh, yes, that is also a problem. My paid items sometimes show up as PAID on my Sold Items in My Ebay, but don't show up when I go to print labels page, and visa-versa!
Linda, I sometimes have the problem where I answer a message on my phone and get the error: "Recipient is not the seller of the item". Happened only a couple of time, but extremely annoying.
I just wanted to share a ebay customer service rep story…so today I called ebay because I was having trouble getting final value fee credit for a cancelled transaction. The girl on the phone was nice and said she would do it but then said "Wait, actually let me ask my supervisor I don't want to get fired. I need my job." I thought this was odd. In the end the problem got fixed and I got my final value fee credit. But what I'm getting at here is that it seems that the customer service reps on the phone are scared of making mistakes and losing their jobs over it. Maybe this explains why there is so much inconsistency when you call and ask a question or ask for help. This was also the call center that was located in the Philippines. I don't know if the same goes for the US call center, but I've only talked to a US rep once in the time I've been selling. Anyway I just wanted to throw this out there, maybe others have had the same experience.
AirBnB is great for finding places to stay nearby for my visiting family members. My wife and I live in a 1 bedroom apartment so, other than for one night or so, we just don't tolerate house guests. If some friends want to visit and they have a kids… forget about it.
But we have found so awesome little apartments through AirBnB that are just a few blocks away. Much cheaper and homier than a hotel and perfect for someone visiting the area for an extended stay. Plus, most have kitchens, which also help the visitors save $ on meals.
That's a good example. If we still lived in NYC, we'd definitely push our friends and family to rent a place close by.
As Peter says, we like to rent entire apartments, but really it's like the internet is allowing old time Boarding Houses to return.
We love Airbnb! We have family just outside Eugene Or. We wanted to stay in Eugene, particularly in the Whiteaker neighborhood. http://www.airbnb.com/rooms/1297671 This is the place we stayed for a week August. With the help of Facebook, everyone knew we were in town and anyone who wanted to see us just let us know where to meet them. Mostly we saw everyone during the day and in the evening take a stroll to any one of the three brewery within three blocks of where we were staying. We had a nice time sampling microbrews and finding new eateries that have popped up since we left. We were in thrilled to stay in this loft above the hostel and it was just like a tiny apartment that met all our needs for the week. We didn't even hear the folks staying downstairs. In this particular hostel, you could rent the loft we were in or a room for yourself, a dorm room for you and other travelers, and there were 5 spaces outside in the yard that were for setting up a tent. I walked into the yard and saw these tents and was thinking, "What's up with that?" Then someone walked up and crawled into their tent! We had a nice time there and you can see our review of the place and our little story of ourselves that the perspective owner would see before they decide to rent to us. Our Airbnb experience has been nice!
Interesting article about airbnb.
http://betabeat.com/2014/11/airbnb-finally-adds-a-dont-secretly-film-guests-policy/