As we pulled up to the modest, narrow three story home in the Pearl District of Portland, I was apprehensive. I’d never tried accommodation booked through Airbnb before, and I had no idea what to expect. Climbing the steep stairs, we found the front door and rang the bell twice. Just as we were concluding that our ‘host’ had forgotten about us, he rolled up in front of the house, honking his horn and waving wildly out the open window.
Quickly parking, the host leapt out of his SUV and then helped his ancient greyhound dog out of the back, sprinting up the stairs to let us into his home. Breathless, he introduced himself: “Dino Superfino”, he announced, with just a trace of an Italian accent, “Welcome to our home”.
Over the next couple of hours I gradually got used to the fact that I was staying in someone’s home, and the wariness I initially experienced evaporated. Dino and his wife, Maria, are likely not your typical Airbnb hosts. Dino is a shameless Airbnb promoter, talented, artistic, flamboyant, and genuinely caring. He is a master chef, gardener, and clearly an involved father to their 15 year old daughter, Luciana. He and Maria, an OR Nurse, have been Airbnb hosts for five years now, and they obviously know what they’re doing.
We had a modest but clean bedroom (with a much appreciated bouquet of fresh flowers on the bedside table) on the main floor of the Superfino manse, with a private bathroom. The family’s bedrooms were on the upper floor of the house, and there was another suite in the basement, where a woman from Turkey was staying. The communal kitchen and living room were on the main floor with our bedroom, and the family convened there in warm, noisy, fashion when they were home.
If you're uncomfortable with a communal set-up you can search the airbnb site for whatever set-up you want, from an entire castle to a spot on someone's floor beside some other snoring, farting visitor.
One of the things we quickly learned about Dino is that he loves to tell stories, and we heard several about his experiences as an airbnb host. He gushed about good friends they’ve made, ‘legacy guests’ (the repeats), and being a proud member of the sharing economy.
When probed, he related that he’d only had a couple of negative experiences, which he attributed to communication problems. “We had a couple of visitors who clearly hadn’t read the site, and were expecting a hotel like experience.” Both parties left early, to the satisfaction of everyone.
Further research into the airbnb phenomena bears Dino’s experience out. I looked hard, and only found a handful of nightmare stories, although they are doozies (see some of them here). Considering that airbnb has over 500 thousand homes around the world on it’s site, with some 18,000 some odd 'stays’ racked up, it’s remarkable that there aren’t more problems.
Part of the reason for this is that airbnb encourages feedback on their site for both hosts and guests, which is prompted by the site almost immediately following a stay. Any host not providing a good experience will be outed pretty quickly, likewise a guest who is a jerk while staying in the host’s home.
Airbnb charges 6 - 12% to guests, and 3% to hosts for the service, and all transactions go through the site. which is really easy to use. I don’t think Dino is getting rich renting out his home, but I can tell you that the guys who started Airbnb are. They didn’t make the Forbes top billionaires list this year, but they are billionaires, and they got special mention. (see Forbes article here)
Dino doesn’t like to talk about the money he’s making as an airbnb host, but he did acknowledge that it is a great mortgage helper. The Superfino family is into 'the experience', he says. “We learn something from everyone who stays with us”.
Have you used Airbnb? Thumbs up or Thumbs down?
