airbnb Archives

Last week I wrote about Airbnb’s new nomad policy and the accommodation affordability crisis affecting digital nomads.

As expected, this past week Airbnb unveiled their Summer 2022 Release, which they describe as “the biggest change to Airbnb in a decade”.

In short, there are three main changes:

new search and browse options based on “Airbnb Categories”
the ability to book “split stays” (one trip split across two homes) and
an improved support program for guests (AirCover)

Watching CEO Brian Chesky’s announcement video, it’s clear that the company sees the new Categories feature as the most groundbreaking of the three.

Instead of simply searching for “a place to stay”, Airbnb now emphasizes (and allows users to browse and search) all of the different categories of homes available on the platform — from houseboats to vineyards to urban lofts.

With this new feature and announcement, Airbnb isn’t simply allowing customers to search for different types of homes, they’re actually making two bold statements about travel and their business:

As a digital nomad, you will generally have a much better experience if you stay in a private apartment or house, rather than a hotel, guesthouse, or hostel.

One of the major benefits of renting a private apartment is that, unlike hotels, apartments tend to be spread throughout the city, not all clustered in one or two main tourist areas.

This gives you a much better opportunity to experience the place you are visiting as a local, instead of as an outsider.

As a bonus, there’s a good chance that your apartment will be hosted/managed by a local who can give you a head start on finding the best places in the neighborhood.

Apartments typically have more space than even high-end hotel suites, and apartments almost always come with kitchens. Even if you are not planning to do any serious cooking, it’s nice to have space to prepare coffee, tea, breakfasts, and simple snacks.

I recommend using Airbnb for booking apartments. There are plenty of alternatives, but I like using Airbnb for the following reasons:

you can use the same website anywhere in the world
the cancellation and other policies are clearly spelled out, and
most important – you can read real reviews from other travelers and communicate with the host before you book.

Here’s the exact process that I have used to book hundreds of nights in Airbnbs all over the world since 2011: