Our first experience staying in an Airbnb apartment!

Last updated on March 4th, 2018 at 11:36 am

I’ve heard from friends who have stayed in an AirBnB apartment. Most were positive experiences. With Taiwan being a developed and safe country, I decided to finally try staying in someone else’s apartment! For this recent trip in fact, we used AirBnB to find apartments in TaiChung and Taipei. With these experience, I can share some general comments to shape your expectations better.

What we enjoyed!

Great Great Great location

AirBnB offers a wide range of units at great locations. An apartment block may sometimes have more than one unit up on AirBnB. For the Taichung Airbnb apartment, we chose one that was one right above the FengJia night market. Check 台中 逢甲 三人 剛剛好 Cozy 3Pax Room. Since we were reaching late and staying only for one night, we decided to cramp it out at a small unit and save money. There were no windows and no living room space.

Cheaper than hotel and possibly with home facilities

For the Taipei airbnb apartment, we chose one which was right above a major MRT station. Check F9浪漫滿屋. You can’t really beat that in terms of location! We stayed there for 3 nights and used it commute to various tourist parts in Taipei.

It’s ironic that AirBnB apartments seem to be no frills as compared to a hotel. Wasn’t BnB meant to be bed and breakfast? Haha.

If you stay in any city centre, it is likely that street food is readily available downstairs. What we realise through this experience was the benefits of having home facilities. In the Taipei apartment, the host was kind enough to provide a functioning stove and a FULL SET of kitchen equipment! There were knifes, pots, bowls and washing soap. It was quite easy to prepare meals for healthy food for our toddler (And keep him away from the salty street food haha…).

(This may be a key consideration to you)

This spacious unit cost us about $150/day which was more than some listed offers. However, it was still cheaper than a hotel. Look, it even came with a baby toy rocker!

Problems we faced =(

Small beds which were also not comfortable

While not all hotels provide King Sized beds, the beds tend to be of certain quality. Hotel chains usually bulk purchase from reputable bed manufacturers. I have a lingering suspicion that owners of apartments probably do not view investing in a good bed as essential to boosting guest experience. Hence, the beds in both apartments were quite poor.

Houses are impossible to find without the owner showing you to the place

Unlike a hotel, AirBnB apartment blocks may not be located on the GPS. Taxi drivers probably wouldn’t know the block you are staying at also. Thankfully, the owners of the apartments were contactable and we met them up at a pre-arranged place where they walked us up (through many small paths) to our units.

Please remember that there will not be a concierge for you to keep your luggage or a lobby for you to rest if you reach early. I have a friend who reached Tokyo at 6am from a red-eye flight. As the apartment check in was only after 2pm, he had to purchase luggage storage from the airport while waiting. It would be even more disastrous if you have children with you and no hotel lobby to wait.

In conclusion

I think we were quite pleased with our choices of apartments for this trip. We have left good reviews for the owners. If you are thinking of staying on AirBnB, link up with me through this Promotion code:

https://www.airbnb.com.sg/c/leej4883

There will be a $45 credit to you which you can use straightaway to try out this service! I (the referrer) will only be credited with a $25 referral once you have stayed there and there will not be any cost to you with using this code. You may also refer your own friends once you have tried it too!