Couch, Cave or Castle, Airbnb Has You Covered

I absolutely love to travel. Whether it’s backpacking with friends or relaxing on the beach with the family, I love to encounter different surroundings, cultures, food, and lifestyles. As with most hobbies, the greatest restraint to traveling is money, at least for me. Traveling can be expensive and even when you go cheap, it’s still not free.

At the beginning of Summer, I wrote an entry about how utilizing vacation rentals while traveling can save you boatloads of cash. Thanks to Scott Saunders (my boss and the CEO of Payoff.com), traveling just got cheaper. No, he’s not offering free vacations or free garage space, he simply sent me a link.

His name is Brian Chesky and he’s the co-founder of a website called Airbnb.com. Called the “eBay for space” by Time Magazine, Airbnb is an online marketplace allowing anyone from private residents to commercial properties to rent out their extra space. Sounds sketchy right? Well it’s not. Brian and his gang have done an incredible job building a trustworthy platform that hosts living and working space all over the world. The result is a mini-Candyland in which you get to browse through hundreds of potential pads for your next vacation, business meeting, or weekend getaway.

At this point some of you may be kicking yourself (or wanting to kick me), wishing you had discovered Airbnb before you took your Summer vacation this year. For that I apologize, there is always Thankgiving, Christmas, Easter, or even next Summer.

What may seem like another vacation-rental website on the surface, turns out to be something much more day-to-day, especially for Brian. As a testament to his belief in his company, users, and the fact that Airbnb needed more office space, Brian decided that for the next eight weeks he was going to live solely by means of Airbnb’s network. That’s right, for eight straight weeks Brian will be house-hopping around San Francisco, avoiding a new lease and getting to know his users (see the promo video below).

Airbnb has in one sense redefined travel. As described best by their tagline, Airbnb allows you to “Book anything from a couch to a castle, by the night, in over 6,000 cities and 150 countries.” Whether it’s a ranch in the Riviera or a futon in Frisco, Airbnb not only provides relief from dull hotels but opens the door to ultra-cheap lodging for travelers and an extra source of revenue for those with an extra bed, room, office, house, or mansion.

Now about halfway through his journey, Brian has kept a video blog, documenting the stories of those renting out space in San Francisco. It’s amazing to hear how Airbnb has provided some with an extra revenue stream in a down economy, given other’s the means to go home for Christmas, and even inspired people to start new companies.

Whether your taking a vacation, a weekend adventure, a business trip, or you’ve got an extra room or three, Airbnb may be a great resource for you. Payoff is most definitely a fan, primarily because it’s a real cash-saver. While I’m not sure I have the perseverance to house-hop like Brian, I wouldn’t mind saving some cash on my next adventure.