How to travel using Airbnb, the right way.

I am a big proponent of couchsurfing, but I understand that it's not for everyone. Airbnb tends to be the alternative for budget travelers. I have spoken with a couple friends that use Airbnb and I have noticed they are making the same mistakes I did when using the website. Fortunately, early on in our travels we came across another couple from California making a trip around the world in 1 year. They explained how they are using Airbnb for their whole trip and how they use it, which is different from the norm.

The best Airbnb we've had. St. Goar, Germany

Here is what they said. When you go on Airbnb and you find accommodation you like, you typically request to book with your dates and such. This locks your funds to that particular place until they have said yes or no. This can be difficult if you are road tripping or backpacking because sometimes, you do not know where you will be until a couple hours before. So instead of sending requests to book, Airbnb also allows you to message the host. This is going to be the way that you book. You can send messages to as many hosts as you like. When you message them, airbnb will ask you to put in your dates and then you can personalize your message from there. We ALWAYS ask for a discount in our messages and we have always gotten them. Once your host says they are available, they can send you a special offer for your dates with your discount. They will not be able to see the fees that Airbnb includes on the traveler's end, so keep that in mind when you are asking for a total price.

The town St. Goar

A note about Airbnb fees. Airbnb charges a conversion fee when your currency used is not the dollar that is 3%. Airbnb also charges a booking fee which is about 10% additional on to the accommodation price. Some hosts also charge a cleaning fee which should be listed on their description. With all of these fees, often times, airbnb is not the cheapest option, so make sure you are shopping around with traditional travel websites like expedia.com or booking.com who don't have any hiding fees.

You can help offset the fees by using referral credits. If you have not signed up for airbnb yet, make sure you sign up using this link so you get $25 off your first stay of over $75 or more. That will basically take care of your airbnb fees. Then, if you are traveling in a couple, set up another account for your partner with your referral link. That will get you an additional $25 off through their account. After you have used their account for one of your stays, you will get an additional $25 off for having referred them.

I hope you have enjoyed learning how to work the system on airbnb.

Hiking from our Airbnb to the castle behind us

Signing off for now.

Introduction to Travel Hacking- using credit cards to your advantage

This post is just an introduction to the world of travel hacking, but please, only do this if you can be successful at using credits cards and paying off the full balance. Basically, you usually need at least 6 months ahead of your planned travel time to make this work for you.

Credit card competition is fierce in the US so many credit cards will have sign up bonuses to get you use their credit card instead of others. So here is how you save a ton of cash on your trip, find the credit card with the airline you would like to use or some other equally rewarding system. Usually, the minimum spending is $3000 in 3 months for you to get the sign up bonus. Spending $3000 in 3 months is not that difficult, especially if you are a family of 2 or more. My recommendation for meeting the spending criteria is putting everything that you pay on a regular basis on your credit card.
Pay close attention to these bills:
Cable/internet bill
Insurance
Cell phone bill
Health insurance
Water bill
Any recurring donations
Gasoline

For me, these already add up to more than half of the monthly requirement. The rest, usually, will get spent on food and other necessary expenses. These are things you pay each month anyway, so why not make your money work for you?

If you have a lot of time before you are planning to travel, you can pick two and have your accommodation and flight purchased with credit card rewards.

Pick a card that is with an airline that has a high sign up bonus (50,000 is a good number to start) and them or their code share goes where you want to go. Try to avoid the cards with very high annual fees, those fees are not usually waved the first year. For airlines, I like the American Airlines card, but you can look here for other easy comparisons. You have enough miles for a national round trip and it has rewards shopping and dining if you sign up through their website.
My favorite travel card is the Capital One venture card. The miles are easy to understand and the card has benefits for all kinds of travel, train, rental car, bus, hotels, hostels, airbnb, etc. I will talk more about this card in another post about not spending money on fees while traveling.

Here is an example of how to use these benefits.

You have now earned your free flight for your New York vacation by strategically planning your normal expenses and putting them on your credit card. In order to not have too many credit inquiries all at once, I recommend your partner to take out the next credit card although you can too, just give yourself a break after this as far as credit inquiries go. I recommend taking out one like the Capital One venture, that allows you to use the miles for other parts of your trip.

Don't use the miles right after you book your accommodation or tour. You can use these miles up to 90 days after your purchases, so why not continue racking up these miles while traveling and use even more?
After your travels you may have around $500 worth of miles to use up for account credit. My husband and I had time for our travel plans and I already had the venture card with enough miles for $500 of purchase erasing, so my husband took out his card and then we had more than $1000 off of our trip budget. I hope you can too.

Preparing for travel financially

Unfortunately, there is no such thing as a free lunch. The same goes for your travel plans. Whether it is a two week trip or a 1 year trip, you are going to have to make some plans ahead time to get your travel funds in order. Here are my recommendations.

You need to have a rough picture of what you are going to spend. If eating out is not that important to you, do an online search of what an average grocery shopping trip costs. If eating out is important to you, take a look at some guidebooks to see what they say about meal prices. If you know what kind of place you would like to stay in, take a look at how much rooms are costing. If you know that you must see X Y or Z, take a look at how much tours go for and definitely shop around for this kind of thing.

My travel budgets for a 2 month trip and a 2 week trip have been about the same because of the huge difference in activities and accomdation, so make sure you have an idea.

Ok, now you should have a rough idea of how much you need to save to make your trip possible. Here are some tips on how you can get to that number regardless of income level you might have.

Set up an automatic transfer on your payday. Make it be a number that will get you to your goal in a set amount of time. Then, after you have transferred the funds, pretend like you never had it. Your friends invited you out for drinks and you think, oh it's ok, I know I have enough to cover it. NO! You have to change your mentality. You don't have that money until it's trip time!

You can rent out a room if you have one. Then after you rent out your extra room, you should still be paying the full housing payment. Now, you can use the rent money to fluff up your savings account.

You should probably avoid unnecessary material pleasures until after your trip. Do this activity, every time you are about to buy some big ticket item like a new TV, save that money instead, and again, pretend like you never had it to begin with.

Ok, now we need to start talking about money not coming out that doesn't need to. Do you have a credit card? Are you paying monthly installments or do you just use it to build credit then pay it off? If you are paying monthly installments on your credit card, you are wasting money. Even if you have 0 interest from a promotion, you never want to get into the habit of buying things you could not afford without that precious plastic. Credit cards ARE a good thing, and I will teach you how to pick the perfect one for your trip on a later blog post.

Do you have other monthly payments that you could rid yourself of? Maybe you can't pay off your student loans or car payments, but there are ways to delay them for a little.

Did you know that when you refinance your vehicle, your payments get put off for another 30-45 days? Car loans are out there for all kinds credit, you can look into it.

Did you know that you can suspend your car insurance for short period of time? There are certain conditions to do this, and I only recommend it for 1-3 month long trips, but that can save you $100. Call your insurance agent and ask to suspend (not cancel) your insurance.

Students loans can usually do something similar without any sort of effect on your credit. You can just call the student loan company and ask to suspend your payments for the month you are gone.

In Summary

To start the incoming flow of travel savings

1. Determine how much you need to save
2. Once you save it, pretend like you don't have it until it's trip time
3. Set up automatic transfers that coincide with your payday 
4. Save the $$ you would have spent on material goods
5. Get a roommate and save the rent 

To reduce the amount you will need to save for expenses while you are gone

1. PAY OFF YOUR CREDIT CARDS
2. refinance your vehicle right before you leave
3. suspend your student loan payment for the duration of your trip
4. suspend your car insurance for while you are gone 
5. stop buying things that are not related to your trip

Getting ready for travel, mentally

The first part of traveling is deciding to go, which is why it will be my first blog post. Sometimes you will take a leap of faith, and other times you will have to plan for your trip far in advance. The second always being the cheaper option. Typically, people will have hesitations about travel, especially extended travel, Will I be able to come back to my job? Will I be able to keep my place? What if I run out of money? I never will be able to afford it.  These are all fair concerns, but my recommendation to you is that you remember that all of concerns also apply to regular, day to day life. So, what do we do? We find a solution. There is usually a good solution and if you really want to travel, you will find it.

Will I be able to come back to my job?

Maybe, it depends. If you really love where you work, you should talk to your supervisor about using your vacation days. If its not enough, you may be able to secure an unpaid leave. New moms do this all the time, so you may be able to do this as well. It doesn't hurt to ask. If you are not too crazy about your job, maybe this is just the push you need so you find your new career. It certainly was for me. 

Will I be able to keep my place?

If you save enough you will! I will give you some tips later on this. There are ways to rent out your house or apartment given your landlord allows. Have you tried Airbnb? Maybe you should! Sign up here and get $25 off your first stay as a traveler, more tips on how to get referral credits later. You can use Airbnb to rent out your place for other travelers and it helps save money for your trip, or while you are gone if you have a friend or roommate that can help you greet your guests, you can still be renting it out. Word of caution, check with your landlord or HOA and check with your city regarding special tourism taxes you may owe on the income you make. If you have multiple rooms, consider renting out a room to tenant (with a lease) that way your house is not vacant and you will have some income to help cover expenses while you are away and you wont have to worry about tourism tax and fees. 

What if I run out of money?

Well, you probably should not just get up and leave with only $10 in your pocket, that would not give you peace of mind. You should save enough so you have some time to reacclimatize and find a new job, if need be. Never feel like it's enough? Think about all the places you may have emergency funds. This may be a useful exercise for other reasons as well. Do you have life insurance? Call your agent to see if it has a cash value account. Do you have a retirement fund? Check to see if you have funds there. Again, THIS IS FOR PEACE OF MIND, you probably should not use these accounts to fund your trip. You usually will not run out of money. 

I will never be able to afford it.

If you have that mentality you will not! You must change your way of thinking about your funds. Most people are spending more than they care to admit on material goods. Just say no to that TV, to that dress, to that latest devise and voila! You just found $1000 you would not have saved before! I will give you advise on working the credit card incentive system in a later post. That can also help greatly reduce your need for initial spending, but you have to do it right! Please do not go out and apply for any rewards card after reading this. Wait until I post helpful tips. 

If you know you are capable and have a little faith in yourself, you can make it happen. Sometimes, you just need to book the ticket (far in advance) and gather your funds as you go. You don't need to have it all ready to make the decision, you just need to make the decision!

I hope that I have helped you resolve some of your doubts about taking the first step and deciding where you might like to go.