Travel mechanics: Six weeks in Europe, one night in a hotel

Travel Mechanics:  Six weeks in Europe, one night in a hotel

Nether Craigwell Brewery, our AirBnb in Edinburgh

This post is about accommodations, principally about our use of AirBnb. We ended up paying for a traditional hotel room only once in six weeks. Catching up with old buddies was the biggest part of this trip, and they hosted us 25 of the 41 nights. They made this trip possible. They were also the best places we stayed, and awesome company. We took a friendship back live after years of virtual, occasional communication- priceless. Mark and I are very grateful to Tim, Peter, Gerard, Patrick, Fernando and Ramon. We dare them all to take us up on our offer to visit New Mexico.

Here is the breakdown on how we stayed:

Buddies:     25

AirBnb:      14 (Venice, Split, San Sebastian, Edinburgh)

Hotel:          1 (Ravenna, Italy)

Ferry Cabin: 1 (Ancona, Italy- Split, Croatia)

 AirBnb- We are no longer AirBnb virgins, having used it in Florence, Vienna and Prague last year. AirBnb and its brethren (VRBO, et al) suit us. We like to economize not only on the accommodation, but also on meals. Until Edinburgh we rented apartments. We enjoy landing somewhere, dropping our luggage, taking our shopping bag and hitting the local market. Mark is forever in search for great yoghurt and weird soda pop. We usually pick up food for breakfast and lunches and lots of beverages, including whatever format of coffee we might need. (espresso, capsule coffeemakers, etc.) We stock the fridge then head off in the city.

We try to locate ourselves as close as we can afford to the sights and activities we're planning. Time in transit cuts into activity time. It is a balancing act. For example- you can find very reasonable AirBnb places on the mainland, close to Venice, but then you're day-hopping on buses and trains to get to the focus of your trip, the islands of Venice. Tick-tock, And commuting is a bit wearying. You can walk though St.Mark's Square late at night if you're staying a couple of vaporetto stops away. We found a tiny AirBnb apartment in the middle of everything for less than a hotel would have been. Part of the fun for us is the immersion in places like Florence or Venice, where every corner is a postcard. We get to live out the lil fantasy of actually residing in these places, imagining daily life.

Like the airfare, we booked and paid for our Airbnb's in advance, at least partially. In the midst of our planning AirBnb began permitting lodgers to pay 50% upfront, then the remainder a few weeks before travel. We were able to take that option with two of our gigs. AirBnb has a huge range of refund options, depending on the property. You have to read up. We only had one with a strict policy, in San Sebastian. I started to waver on that leg of the trip a couple weeks before going, but the room at that point was non-refundable, so we went ahead- I am so glad we did. You have to consider your need for flexibility.

AirBnb would like you to believe that theirs is a person-to-person service. Occasionally. In Europe tourist apartment rentals have been big business for a long time. In many cities the established guest apartment businesses just became 'superhosts' on AirBnb, with multiple properties and a staff that does the direct client contact. Initially, I found this folksy insincerity off-putting but now I understand that this is part of doing business. You're also expected to review your host and they review you (double-blinded). Until we got to Venice, we wrote innocuous commentary but honestly, we had only had great experiences.  Our Venetian stay did not end well, and our host's review of me has had me rethink my approach.

outside of Ca' Nene, our Venice AirBnb

The place in Venice was a tiny ground-floor apartment near the San Toma vaporetto stop on the Grand Canal.  We were not met by our host, Elisa, but by Luca, her contact person. We now recognize this as standard in European tourist settings. Luca led us back through the alleys to our place. Wow. The ad said it was small and indeed it was. But who needs space when you have Venice right outside your door? He then asked if we could get out early on our check-out, as they had a quick turn-around. We agreed, as we had plans in Ravenna on our check-out day. He gave us the instructions on where to leave the keys, etc.

We were happy if cramped in our lil place. One the third morning of our four we awoke to sleeping on a slight slant... A leg at the foot of the bed had buckled. I immediately contacted Luca to let him know what had happened. I told him I thought that we would be ok for our last night. He agreed, and said he would look at it when we had checked out. We scooted out to the train station at 9:30am.

I dutifully scrawled my review into my phone while on the train to Ravenna. We did love the location and while it was small it was fully appointed for our stay. 5 stars. A few days later Elisa had written my review, so AirBnb unblinded both. Elisa  had slammed me for leaving before they could review the damage. Ugly. And we had 3 more AirBnb stays planned... I did not want any trouble. Of course I had dealt with Luca. I wrote Airbnb to complain, then saw that they allowed for me to write a response. With all of the diplomacy I could muster I told our side of the story, offering a chance to review the time-stamped text exchange with Luca. And that was that. We later were advised that Elisa's response is very Venetian. Venetians can be very haughty in business and have quite the reputation...

Split- Our kitchen window opened onto the flowery balcony

The places vary tremendously. In Split we stayed in a one-bedroom apartment in the middle of Emperor Diocletian's Palace, which functions as the 1500 year-old old town at heart of Split tourism. It was a bargain, probably due to the fact that they were restoring the stone courtyard facade. We entered and exited up and down stone stairs covered in scaffolding and draped with plastic. Our living room windows opened onto one of the main alleyway thoroughfares of the Palace. It was initially overwhelming but eventually it became a hugely convenient base of operations. The host had the 'cleaning person' let us in hours early. We later ran into her on a walk along the beach. More than being the 'cleaning person' I think she was the actual owner, a retired physician, now an artist, based on an opening announcement I found in the apartment.

Onderreta Beach, San Sebastian

I noticed that we didn't take any pictures of our home in San Sebastian. San Sebastian is an old-world resort town and in June not cheap. When I booked our accommodation I wanted wanted to be near someplace interesting and needed parking. Our AirBnb fit the bill. We were located in Onderreta, a cool beach neighborhood south of the center city. It was a sub-basement apartment, with parking in a garage right next door-- all as advertised. On arrival it became clear that this wasn't your average apartment. Apartment doors in the tidy building had a wood-finish with wide wood molding. Our door was a standard steel frame fire door. Inside, we had a full set of windows which opened onto the courtyard. It was essentially a studio apartment on the main level, sans bath. The bath was an upper level, a few steps up. That brought the ceiling to 6', and the doorway to 5'6". Both Mark (5'9.5) and I (6'3) thumped our heads numerous times on the first day. Eventually you do learn when to duck. We concluded that the 'apartment' is a storage space conversion and maybe illegal. The mattress was uncomfortable, too. The parking set-up was brilliant, however.

AirBnb has become a huge issue in tourist-overrun European capitals. Amsterdam is on the verge of banning them in the city center, and restricting them elsewhere. Many other cities are taking action to limit them, as they suck up available housing and bring in people who don't always respect the community and culture. One Amsterdam friend, who pays handsomely for a pair of parking places, has found them occasionally appropriated by AirBnb clients in his building. He had little recourse. In some cities you have to fill out registration paperwork on arrival, as you would at a hotel. The host often pay lodging taxes. This is a dynamic environment, and I expect there will be more limitations on capacity and availability.

Our last AirBnb stay was Edinburgh. We were to be there for 48 hours and opted for a room in an apartment instead of our own place. It was a perfect fit- Adam's place was a condo in a converted brewery, a block off the Royal Mile. We could insert ourselves into and extract ourselves out of Scottish tourism at will. Adam was genial- a veterinarian for the Edinburgh Zoo who began renting his place out for some extra cash during the annual Edinburgh Festival, and just stayed in the game. Many of the condos in his complex are being used as guest accommodation. Adam said that the AirBnb market has provided needed competition to the high-priced Edinburgh hotel market. 

We did only stay the one night in a hotel. We were going to be in Ravenna for one night, arriving and departing by train. I think I used booking.com, relying on a map. We opted for a cozy 3-star hotel across from the station-- a short walk with the bags. Ravenna is a small city, eminently walkable. We were able to see the impressive mosaic-filled sights all on-foot and ran into a local pasta festival for dinner. Staying in a hotel is a lot less hassle, but usually a little pricier. Anything is cheaper than Venice. We were able to check out in the morning then wander the city a while longer with our bags secured in the hotel office.

In the two-berth stateroom, SNAV ferry from Ancona

We then boarded a train to Ancona to begin our one other housing option-- a stateroom on the overnight trans-Adriatic ferry to Croatia. As Mark sleeps with a CPAP machine, I opted to drop some cash on a room so he could plug in and try to get some quality sleep. My justification was that 1) the ferry was relatively cheap as travel, city to city; and 2)we would have paid for a place to stay that night if we flew. It was a great decision and I recommend the whole experience.

Our vacation, away from our friends, was just 16 nights, like a big vacation. Our costs for the two of us came in under $90/night. You can do Europe cheaper, hostel-style but we were staying our way and it completely worked. It was almost entirely prepaid before we traveled. I would do all of it again. 

My next Travel Mechanics entry will be about the joys of driving on the continent, with advice to do a better job than I did with car rental.