Airbnb and Uber on holiday: The good, the bad and the lessons

I SWAPPED hotel rooms for Airbnb, was yelled at by strangers and hugged by Uber drivers. This is what I learnt from a four-week trip abroad.

Cooking up a feast in our Airbnb in Oakhurst, California. Picture: Brian Nakayama.

BEING hugged by strangers, yelled at by strangers, and driving through Vegas with a fledgling magician are all part of the fun of travelling overseas with Uber and Airbnb.

My friends and I recently took a trip down the west coast of the USA, each armed only with a suitcase of clothes for the wrong season and a smartphone loaded with peer-to-peer apps.

The first thing we did when we arrived at LAX was order an Uber — running back and forth between the “ride share pick up point” and the boundary where the airport’s free Wi-Fi cut out — and take it straight to an Airbnb apartment.

We spent the next four and a half weeks discovering the good, the bad, and the lessons of holidaying in the share economy.

AIRBNB SCAM COULD RUIN YOUR HOLIDAY

30 TRAVEL EXPERIENCES TO HAVE IN YOUR 30S

This Chiloquin, Oregon property had plenty of space for us to be together. Picture: Brian Nakayama.

THE GOOD

If you are the type of traveller that likes to live like a local, among locals, there is no better way to do it than with peer-to-peer apps.

Uber drivers point out their favourite parks and bars and tell you which neighbourhoods to avoid.

After a few trips you have a good idea of local personalities, humour, prejudices and political views and get a better understanding of why a country is the way it is.

You have also gotten to meet interesting people — a resentful divorcee, a part-time magician, a transgender Mexican, a great-grandmother with pink rims on her SUV — rather than just hang out with the same Aussies but in a new setting.

Uber brings a local insight that doesn’t come with a hire car or tour bus and Airbnb is the same.

Unlike in a hotel, hosts let you into their cosy homes often full of photos of their family and open your eyes to places outside the main tourist strips.

Airbnb also has a lot of really unique properties.

On our trip, one home had a chicken coop and another was themed as fire escape cabin with novelties like toy fire trucks, dalmatian salt and pepper shakers and a lamp made from a vintage fire extinguisher.

The biggest drawcard for us, though, was the price. We had as many as six people at some points so were able to book big homes and split the cost.

Big homes also meant big kitchens where we could cook up communal feasts and save money on the odd meal rather than eat out.

Saving money on meals by cooking in our kitchen in Oakhurst, California. Picture: Brian Nakayama.

THE BAD

Uber drivers and Airbnb hosts are regular people — teachers, lawyers, tradies, retirees — not tourism professionals, so your experience can be a lucky dip.

One driver spent the entire trip flirting with my friend then upon dropping us off for the night gave us each a hug and tried to kiss her.

Another started to take us on a 2.5hr trip to get the two kilometres to the beachfront. That wasn’t malicious, just a bug in his GPS but potentially expensive, nonetheless.

The worst experience, however, was checking into an Airbnb in San Diego, California.

My friend and I arrived to an empty lockbox — no key to get inside.

In most situations, this wouldn’t be a big deal as most hosts are great with communication. But unfortunately our host was not like most.

After four hours trying to contact him via the app, phone call and text, the sun was going down and we were two girls in a foreign country with nowhere to sleep the night.

Luckily, we were able to book into a motel at a decent last-minute rate and of course we then finally received a message from our host.

“Oooops”, it read.

At no point did he offer an apology or explanation and two days later when I asked how the refund was coming along I was accused of having actually stayed at the apartment after all.

This host was bad, but Airbnb was great. Calling them directly, they organised a full refund without hassle.

Noone expects their Uber driver to give them a peck after dropping them off. Picture: iStock.

THE LESSONS

Number 1: Check local Airbnb regulations.

New York, for example, has banned short-term rentals altogether. In Klamath County, as we discovered, there is an 8 per cent transient room tax on top of the listed price.

Number 2: Book a private Airbnb if you plan to stay up late.

In Portland, Oregon, we made the mistake of staying on the bottom floor of a house with elderly owners on top.

Their friendly welcome turned sour when we came home from a night out and were yelled at like children.

To be fair to them, it was 3am on Saturday morning but lesson learned, get your own place if you don’t go to bed straight after dinner and don’t want an awkward check-out in the morning.

Number 3: Embrace the chaos.

Some seemingly negative experiences turn out to be the best.

Our Chiloquin, Oregon property had us imagining crazy killer clowns. Picture: Brian Nakayama

On our way to a cabin in the woods in Chiloquin, Oregon, the night-drive through the dark, empty, boarded-up ghost town had us considering skipping the stop altogether.

Chiloquin seemed like the ideal place for one of the knife-wielding clowns dominating the media at the time and after being approached by a man with a samurai sword in a car park, we were sufficiently scared of being robbed.

The road to the cabin was a dirt trail surrounded by thick forest that seemed like it would never end and the cabin itself looked to be lifted straight from a horror movie with its cathedral ceilings and dark nooks — so we slept with one eye open.

But when we woke in the morning, the place was magical.

We looked out towards the mountains, and the forest was transformed from frightening to beautiful.

We spent the morning at nearby Crater Lake playing in the (surprise) snow and that stop turned out to be a highlight of the trip.

To think the night before we had considered just driving on to San Francisco! Little did we know that is where we would actually be robbed ­— but that’s another story.

Crater Lake National Park, Oregon. Picture: Barton Rijsdijk.