After I showed you pictures of our houses in Beverly Hills and San Francisco, a lot of you were curious on where we booked them, and how to go about it all. So I thought I’d share everything with you guys, as this tip really can change your whole travel experience. My first experience with AirBnB was when I was in Miami with Ulrikke, and we stayed in an apartment with the most amazing view. The view itself would make it super expensive if we were staying at an hotel, but not with AirBnB!

The concept is simple: People rent out their homes to travelers. It can either be just a bedroom, parts of an apartment or a full house. In Miami we had the whole apartment to ourselves, but in San Francisco the house owner lived there too (she was the sweetest lady ever). I think this is so great, because it’s a much more authentic way of traveling. You get to know people in the places you visit, you get great tips that not every tourist know about, you live in a more real neighborhood as supposed to meeting tons of other tourists in the hotel lobby every day.. There are so many upsides to it. And of course, it can be much cheaper than a hotel. If you just want a bedroom, it can be really cheap. We wanted at least a private bedroom and bathroom, and we payed around 1000kr a night in both San Fran and Beverly Hills. We could use the whole house as much as we wanted to, which is another upside. When traveling, it can be so expensive to eat out for every meal. Now that we had a kitchen at our disposal, it was no problem to fill up the fridge with breakfast and snacks just like we would’ve done at home.

The site itself is very easy to naviagte. You type the city you plan on visiting in the search bar, and you can adjust the search according to what you’re looking for, like if you want a full apartment to yourself, only a bedroom etc. When you find a place you like, all information you need to know is there, and most imporantly; feedback from other guests. That was the most important thing to me, to see if the room was clean, the host was nice etc. Here are the places we visited..

In San Francisco we stayed with Natasha in Palo Alto Avenue, in a huge, modern and gorgeous home on the top of a hillside overlooking the city. We got tons of maps and tips from her, she was so nice! The house must be one of the coolest ones I’ve ever seen. We had a huge bedroom and a private bathroom with everything we needed, and could use the rest of the house as much as we wanted. I definitely recommend staying here, but you should have a car, as there’s some really steep hills to overcome to get there (like everywhere else in San Fran).

In Beverly Hills we stayed with Leslie, and had the whole house for ourselves. She stayed in the house next to ours (this is her guest house), and we even had a house keeper at our disposal. She made us delicious breakfasts served in the garden, and let us know that she would do anything that we asked. The whole house keeper concept is so strange to me, being Norwegian and all, so even thought we had tons of laundry that needed to be done, I didn’t dare to ask her, haha. Poor thing! She tidied up our room every day when we were out, which really gave me a hotel vibe. So nice! Our host, Leslie, was super helpful and nice, and I got to cuddle with her dogs as much as I wanted to (which was a lot). The location couldn’t have been better! We had a parking space right outside our house, and the neighborhood was super quiet with Beverly Hills High School as our closest neighbor. Within five minutes of walking was the famous Rodeo Drive, extravagant hotels, fancy restaurants and all you could wish for. I really recommend staying here!

The apartment in Miami wasn’t exactly pretty, hah. It was clear that it was a bachelor pad, but Ulrikke and I had so much fun there. It really doesn’t need to be pretty, as long as it’s clean and has a comfy bed. The reason we booked this apartment was of course because of the view, I mean.. Imagine having breakfast in the mornings with this view, or a glass of wine and girl talk during sunset on the balcony.. I loved it! The location was awesome too, we stayed in South Beach and were right by the famous shopping street Lincoln Road. 

I will definitely use AirBNB for future travels. Remember, if you book a place through the site, and especially if you stay with the house owner like we did in San Fran, to be very respectful. Keep your room tidy and don’t be too loud. The hosts leave feedback for you too, which is another reason to be respectful. When you apply to stay somewhere, the host needs to accept your application, and will for sure check out your previous feedback. 

I hope you appreciated this little tip, I can’t recommend the site enough! I’ve gotten some questions on how we planned the rest of the roadtrip, where we stayed etc. We didn’t use AirBnB for that, but I will for sure do a post on it if you guys want me to?