The Nomadic Life - AirBNB Catfish Edition

I've been a digital nomad for a good 10-15 years now.

I can't say with accuracy how many years as I've found myself living in one place for a couple of years at a time before I'm back on the road. Additionally while being nomadic across the world I have also gotten myself a full time apartment, that I furnished and owned things in. The prices were so agreeable and it was nice to have a place to come back to every few months.

Then I met my wife, she was my girlfriend then. I met her months after she purchased her house. I had to chose between being nomadic and being with her. Well that was an obvious decision, but I knew that I could have both, eventually. This summer we sold the house, got married and have been traveling since.

We both work from our laptops and usually don't need to be in any one location, if we do we just travel there and setup in an Airbnb.

For the past 6 months we've been living, almost exclusively in Airbnb's. Not the spare bedroom Airbnb, we go for the whole enchilada, the entire home/apartment.

So far our travels have taken us to:

-Orange County, CA
-San Francisco, CA
-Los Angeles, CA
-Palm Springs, CA
-San Diego, CA
-Calgary, Canada
-Reykjavik, Iceland
-Helsinki, Finland
-Prague, Czech Republic
-Florence, Italy
-Paris, France
-Toronto, Canada
-Lake Louise, Banff, Canada
-Whitefish, Montana

...and currently, Mexico City, Mexico

With that we've become rather effective at the Airbnb lifestyle and have developed a pretty good understanding of how to make it work.

Airbnb does a fantastic job of keeping all sides of the marketplace in check, I believe. Sure there are always issues as you are dealing with one-off individual situations, but as a whole I can't imagine the amount of work that goes into making such a great experience.

Let's talk today about some of the things that we've learned about using Airbnb around the world.

Catfishing Both Good and Bad

Catfishing is definitely a thing on Airbnb. Catfishing is simply the pictures/description doesn't match what you get in real life. I get it, it is marketing. If you have crappy pictures taken from a Blackberry in 2009 and post a brief summary like...

2 bedroom 2 bath in apartment building by grocery store

...you probably won't get many people staying in your Airbnb unless its Super Bowl weekend or Coachella and you are near the venue.

Airbnb hosts that do better use professional photographers, so when you actually show up, often times it is a bit underwhelming.

However, I have had the luxury of being reverse catfished. On one marvelous occasion we needed a place in Orange County for a week. We have some very specific requirements and we often times will travel to places just based on the availability of a specific Airbnb.

We were looking for a 2 bed/2 bath with kitchen in a general area. What we got was a 5 bedroom 6 bathroom with kitchen and a second butlers kitchen. The furniture was not your typical Ikea furniture, it was luxurious. Mattresses and bedding were of the highest quality I've ever been in.

(not actual kitchen but pretty darn close)

Being so new, they didn't have a coffee solution or a wine opener. This is something that I've taken full responsibility for, traveling with my own coffee, grinder and press, I just can't rely on someone else's version of being a coffee nut is all about. As for the wine opener, as long as there is no air travel (never check bags), I can hold on to a wine opener. If traveling by air it's usually 50/50 that I will need to buy one when I'm out picking up groceries.

Everything was in perfect condition, brand new. Which is likely why we were charged a rate even under market rates, they were likely looking for some reviews to get going.

The Reviews

As a rule, I expect all Airbnb's to under deliver vs their photos. I get a better idea of what the place is going to be like in the guest reviews. Often times you will get a gem in there that will keep you from wasting your time.

Here are a couple of my recent favorites...

"Overall the apartment was as described, but the neighborhood has a couple of really aggressive dogs that start barking at 5AM and never stop until midnight. If you need to get work done while there, bring headphones."

"There is a beautiful balcony right outside the living room, full of sun and fresh air. Unfortunately there is a padlock on the door and you can't get out to it. The next door neighbor uses it for smoking all day long, and has a cat that will jump in to your apartment if a window is open, and then you have to wait for the neighbor to come out and smoke to hand him back the cat otherwise you'd have to drop the cat through the window and well, I don't want to incur a cat."

"The place was nice, very clean and organized. I only had to show the house to potential buyers a couple of times while I was there. Apparently they are selling the condo???"

Being catfished is both challenging but also it adds experience to your travels. Who on earth doesn't want to hear crazy catfish stories of people being catfished?

That's not a world I want to live in!