Last Updated on December 16, 2024 by Ellen
We’ve lived in Airbnb monthly rentals since 2015, and we’re still at it in 2024 for three reasons.
First, Airbnb provides great value for budget slow travelers in early retirement. Month-long stays can give renters deep discounts. Second, Airbnb offers some protections and recourse if something isn’t right when we arrive at a destination. And the third reason: we have met some fantastic people!
Let’s take a closer look at these reasons in the ‘new normal.’
Why living in Airbnb is still worth it
Reason #1: The monthly discount
Airbnb owners can give a discount for a longer stay, by the week and/or the by the month. The owner is guaranteed a monthly fee, will have less wear and tear on the unit and no turnover hassles. The renter gets a good price, and the same ‘home base.’
Sometimes the discount for a month-long stay for us renters can be as much as 50 percent! That alone makes living in Airbnb rentals still worth it nearly 10 years after we started this budget slow travel lifestyle in early retirement.
Some of our rentals break down to just $15 dollars a night – way less than the cost of a hotel. In fact, our cheapest rental ever was in 2022 – just after Thailand reopened to travelers at the tail end of the covid nightmare.
The future
Before the pandemic, we booked Airbnbs pretty far in advance in order to ensure an entire month was available. A tourist on a weekend jaunt would prohibit our potential stay.
After the pandemic, Airbnb started “split stay” options as more revenge travelers, retirees, digital nomads looked to foreign countries. Airbnb will suggest two weeks in one property, and two weeks in a comparable nearby property, thereby splitting your stay if your first choice is not available as a month-long rental.
This told us two things. First, Airbnb expects growth, and it might get more difficult to find monthly discounts.
For now, those discounts are still out there – we find them often – but it does take a lot of work.
Hotels & hostels – both cost more
Hotels and hostels simply cost more than Airbnb monthly rentals. A hostel might be cost effective for a single traveler, but not a couple. Both hotels and hostels cost more, have smaller spaces, and we need our own kitchen and bathroom.
Generally speaking, we hardly use these options unless we need a night before a fight or ferry or something.
Our cheapest monthly Airbnb ever was in Thailand in 2022.
Reason #2 why living in Airbnb is worth it: Protection
We have not had to use this small protection/remediation route with Airbnb yet. But having it gives some peace of mind. If we ever arrive at a rental and it’s a dump, our rent money isn’t ‘gone.’
To stack the deck in our favor, we rely heavily on reviews left by other tenants. Our best rentals have been with “super hosts.” We’ve also had great experiences with regular hosts who have good reviews from other renters.
There has only been one Airbnb rental where we briefly stayed in Mexico that I wish had been a bit more detailed in the reviews. We ourselves leave detailed, honest reviews, because we rely on others to guide us to good rentals.
Reason #3: The fantastic people we meet!
Some of the Airbnb owners have been among the kindest people we’ve met on our travels. This is why we slow travel! To meet great people as we explore Earth.
Some Airbnb hosts have become friends. Like, real friends! If we were to return to their city – we would meet these people out for dinner or happy hour in a heartbeat – in addition to stay at their properties again.
This type of authentic connection during travel, is arguably as important as price value.
Airbnb is IT – for now
We keep waiting for some new service comparable to Airbnb. Some hotels are getting into the short-term rental market, and there are a few homestay start ups. Of course, booking.com is an option, and we’ve occasionally used that, but not for month-long stays. There are a few other services like VRBO and Flipkey.
Airbnb is hands down the most cost effective service – even with “guest fees” at six to 12 percent. That covers the customer service benefit if we ever found ourselves in a jam, as mentioned earlier.
The only method that is more cost effective that I’m aware of, is to rent fully furnished apartments from local landlords with short-term leases. We’ve also done that, twice. Each time we trusted the landlord. Once in Mahaual, Mexico (three months), and once in Malay, Philippines, during the pandemic (25 months). Both were great experiences! Each time we found the place by showing up and simply asking – and then going with our gut on whether we could trust the landlords.
But what about gentrification?
Some people refuse to use Airbnb because it has caused various measures of gentrification in cities around the world, and made it difficult for some locals to find affordable housing.
My view: overpopulation and underdevelopment are the greater underlying issues as to whether or not locals can afford decent housing. Too many people and lax urban planning are not things I can control.
I also cannot control what local owners do with their property. If an owner wants to rent living space in a city and we don’t rent it, someone else will.
So, for now, unless or until something better comes along, we will continue to mostly use Airbnb around the world. Meanwhile, we are always mindful of the struggles of local people, and make appropriate donations whenever we can. Plus we help support local economies with our travel money.
We’ve been living in Airbnbs so long, we have literally have hundreds of units behind us. Some stays we remember in great detail. Like the one in the video below. That unique place was in Guatemala, on Lake Atitlan, in a village called San Pablo la Laguna. It’s one of the villages with far fewer tourists than the others. You can read more about San Pablo on this oldie-but-goodie post, and see one of the early Kortn’s Cribs video tours below.
To see more video tours of month-long rentals we recommend around the world, tap here.
Disclosure: we are long on Airbnb stock.
Thanks for reading, “Living in Airbnb in early retirement.”
About Ellen
Ellen and spouse Tedly started a budget slow travel lifestyle in 2015. She was diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer while traveling in Europe in 2018 through an annual mammogram. She had a double mastectomy in Croatia, recovered from surgery, and kept traveling.
As a recovered alcoholic, Ellen seeks out spiritual growth opportunities in a variety of ways during her travel life, including service work, volunteering, and the occasional silent meditation retreat.
Thank you! We are both healthy. We will be watching your adventures!
We were wanting to do just this in retirement. We will be 46 and 47 when we stop working. We want to travel perpetually and use air bnb as a way to do that. We will have a yearly budget of $60,000. Do you think that is a reasonable figure to do this lifestyle on? Should we delay retirement further to increase our budget? Thoughts?
Hi Julie,
Congratulations on your plan to retire!
Our budget this year is just 24K, and we are having a blast and living a good life. Our focus so far in the last two years has been Mexico, Guatemala, and a little of Belize (just two months). Next year we will explore other countries outside of this hemisphere.
As far as if I think that figure for you is appropriate, I don’t know enough about your lifestyle preferences, health needs, where you plan to do this – abroad or in the U.S., etc. A lot of the pricing depends on what country you are in – and the dollar’s exchange rate.
I’m on social media if you want to connect further for private messaging.
Best wishes!