It is never easy traveling, as much as I am a natural-born explorer with dreams of wanderlust adventures. There is so much thought, time and effort put into it. Planning where to stay, looking for flights, and the itinerary for the days.
Airbnb invited me their hosting and entrepreneurship event over at a gorgeous loft, with outdoor hot tub, summer-house in the heart of Shoreditch. I have heard good and bad things of Airbnb.
Airbnb is a website used to find accommodation from hosts around the world. Currently there’s over 1 million listings available, including villas, castles, boats and tree houses.
Many have been positive, my family from Australia have been on three month Europe holiday and have used Airbnb to find accommodation for each country they visited. They wanted that home feel, where they can wash their clothes and cook their own food.
I had my own fears of staying over at a total random strangers house, but after meeting the hosts and talking to them, my questions has been answered. Most of the hosts I met at the event wanted to rent out their rooms to make money, or simply want company. Tessa who is featured on the website was present at the event, having been struck down with ME, with her body shutting down, airbnb helped enable to do contribute and meet people from all over the world, pay the bills.
Some hosts, has made enough money to start-up their own companies. The Hampstead Kitchen catered the evening with luscious food was vibrant, colourful just like the founder and also airbnb host Saima. Saima brought tears of joy to our table with her stories; I will not repeat it here, all I can say is I was crying with laughter. The Konafah a light crispy pastry, with mascarpone cheese, infused with orange blossom was quite something. So unique I had seconds.
During our dinner course, we had a bit of role-playing, where we had to write descriptions of a guest, passing the bio to the next table. They then had to find ways to accommodate the guest, as best as they can. The key thing here is to communicate with your hosts and tell them as much information as possible, as some places may not have things i.e wheelchair access. To become a superhost you need to provide a warm welcome, make the guest feel like they belong, connect with the guest.
We ended the evening touring around the incredible Shoreditch loft talking to the owners.