Airbnb
Posted on 15. Jan, 2010 by Natalie Ross in Blog, Travel
Yes, “no smoking” means inside the house. Uh… no, I don’t think it’s ok for you to bring your Great Dane. We’d rather you didn’t try to convert our neighbors to your religion of choice, thanks! Although I’m sure your knitting is spectacular, I’m not really interested in bartering lodging for handmade socks.
Any of these sound familiar? If so, you must have tried to arrange vacation lodging via Craigslist. It seems that paid and swap opportunities alike are difficult and sometimes risky. You really don’t know anything about these people and let’s face it, Craigslist isn’t exactly known for it’s reliable and trustworthy followers – just ask anyone who has ever tried to sell anything there. So how does the creative traveler avoid the exceptional cost and impersonal nature of a hotel stay?
*Drumroll* : Airbnb! This killer site allows you to create a listing of your place and set up a calendar showing when it’s available. Why not make a little extra dough while you’re out of town anyway? You can list your entire place or just a private room – depending on your situation. You provide pictures and a description of your place – Airbnb provides a Google Map for would-be guests to check out the approximate location. Your guests leave ratings, which create a sense of trust and reliability for you and your place, similar to feedback on eBay. Your friends can also vouch for you with their feedback and you can link to your Facebook page, so people can get more of a sense of who you are. Same goes for people who don’t want to offer up their own place, but would like to be guests
And you better believe the available places aren’t your average scuzzy apartment. In fact, they’ve created a Top 40 list for the sweetest digs available for rent! They offer everything from castles to igloos to treehouses, with everything in between! The list is inspiring and might just make you think outside the box for your next trip! You can check out my listing here on the off-chance I have any readers who don’t live in PDX and might want to visit!
UPDATE (1/28/10) – While we were in Maui this month we had two different guests rent our place through AirBnB. It worked out phenomenally. Both were super clean, respectful of our place and our neighbors, and were super easy to communicate with. As soon as they booked, they called to organize details with us. It was an awesome first experience and has solidified my love of this site. Hopefully being able to generate some income while we’re traveling will allow for more travel!!
Nat’s Best Nine of 2009
Posted on 24. Dec, 2009 by Natalie Ross in Blog, Food, Travel
Inspired by the many “best of” posts, articles, and tweets I’ve been seeing lately, I’ve decided to post my top nine favorite things the impending year-end!
1. Best Album
Draw the Line - David Gray – the first and only pre-order I’ve ever bought on iTunes. Worth the wait. Some new tracks and some classic tunes as well! – This album is currently on sale on Amazon for $5! As of 12/28/09
2. Best Movie
An Education – This movie was great because we talked about it for weeks afterward. I just couldn’t stop thinking about it and feeling differently about each character and situation. Lead actress Carey Mulligan is nominated for a Golden Globe, which I think is totally deserved. She did an AMAZING job!
(I have to give honorable mention to The Twilight Saga: New Moon – I’m not even going to try and sell you on this. The Twilight series is like sushi: you either love it or hate it. Either way, my recommendation is not going to convince you.)
3. Best Blog
The Art of Non-Conformity by Chris Guillebeau – This blog changed my life this year. It sparked my interest in blogging, reading blogs, Twitter, etc. It also excited and renewed my interest and devotion to travel and making decisions that allow me more time to do things I want. THANK YOU to Chris for posting these unconventional ideas for consumption by all non-conformists!
4. Best Money Tip
Mint.com – This budget site is killer for couples because you can both access all your checking/savings/credit accounts with one log-in online, from anywhere! That makes staying on track SO much easier and helps you stay accountable for your purchases! For those of you paranoid about putting your financial info onto a free site, it’s owned by Intuit the makers of Quicken and TurboTax, so relax, it’s safe!
5. Best Book
How to Love by Gordon Livingston M.D. – This recommendation should really be for ALL books by Gordon Livingston because the man is a genius. He offers truly eye-opening insight about relationships, emotional awareness, and all things feelings-related. I am constantly stopping to read things out loud to my husband because the ideas are so fantastic, I just can’t keep them to myself!
6. Best Technology
Netflix – Streaming through PS3. I love any kind of technology that further encourages my laziness. As if entering movies into a queue and having them delivered straight my door wasn’t lazy enough… I can now stream movies instantaneously through my PS3. Without even getting off the couch!
7. Best Meal
Peter Luger Steakhouse – Brooklyn, NY – Tom and I split a rib-eye and a side of broccoli for lunch. I am confident that no other steak will EVER taste as good. I could eat one everyday for the rest of my life and never get sick of it. Eating here again is definitely on my bucket list.
8. Best Trip
New York City – We stayed in Brooklyn and made SERIOUS use of our unlimited ride Metro cards. This was also the first trip Tom and I have taken where I split off and wandered on my own for a few hours. I was making my way back to the subway from shopping at the discount designer mecca Century 21 in the Financial District and stumbled across this hidden little street blocked off and filled with tables for the neighboring restaurants. I don’t know what it was that struck me but that find alone made the trip for me.
9. Best New Experience
Being an Aunt – I never knew I could be so attached to this little person who isn’t even mine. I’m now worried that when I have my own children I will smother them with love and kisses a la Elmyra.
How we earned over 230k frequent flyer miles in under 2 weeks!
Posted on 01. Dec, 2009 by Natalie Ross in Blog, Travel
We’re always trying to add more miles, vouchers, discount coupons, etc. to our ever-expanding bag of tricks! Here’s what we’re working with right now and how we got them:
- $500 Jet Blue Airlines voucher – Won on Twitter from a trivia contest put on by @fareologist
- 31,500 American Airlines miles – 30k of which were earned by signing up for a CitiBank AAdvantage card. You can apply here. The spending requirements for this card: $750 on the card in the first 4 months. The remaining 1500 miles were earned by signing up for email notifications (1000) and getting an auto insurance quote (500).
- 10,447 Hawaiian Airlines miles – We just cashed in 35,000 miles for two one-way tickets to Maui in January 2010. We used to put all our monthly expenses on our Bank of America Hawaiian Airlines card and pay it off each month. Now we’ll be switching those around among our new cards to meet the spending requirements.
- 14,306 Alaska Airlines miles – We earned these through our Bank of American Alaska Airlines credit card.
- $50 companion ticket on Alaska Airlines - This is a bonus offered by the Alaska Airlines card.
- 200,000 British Airways miles – This is our newest addition to the chest. Tom and I both signed up for a British Airways Visa, which nabbed us 100k bonus miles – EACH! The card is through Chase, you can check it out here. Here are the spending requirements: 50k miles with first purchase and an additional 50k miles when you spend $2000 in the first 3 months.
I’ll be adding details about how we use all these and info on anymore miles we score so you can add to your travel arsenal too!