Our first Airbnb experience

/ June 30, 2015 / 13 Comments / honeymoon, mini-moon, San Sebastian, Spain
Before I begin this post, a disclaimer: Mr A originally found this property on Airbnb. However on a further search of the Internet he also found it listed through another company People Rentals and *whispers* it was cheaper. Which just goes to show, it’s always worth that extra Google.

We decided to take our minimoon in San Sebastian for a number of reasons and after looking at some of the big, luxurious hotels on offer we decided they weren’t really right for us. After a very hectic few months we wanted somewhere we could totally chill out in. A place where we could get up late, lounge on the sofa reading a book and, of course, make a cup of tea whenever we felt like it (Ok, that last one was just my requirement!)

So we were really excited when Mr A found the perfect spot in The Plaza de la Constitutión. The square was used as a bullring in years gone by and the balconies which overlook it still display numbers from when people used to rent them out to spectators. The apartment’s quirky style was just what we look for in the places we stay and the fact that it was in the Old Town meant that we would be right in the centre of the action. As it turned out we were never more than five metres away from a pintxos bar in any direction – heaven!

AirBnB San Sebastian

Our home for the week

Thanks to the instructions we’d been sent from People Rentals it was really easy to find the apartment and we decided to walk the half an hour from the bus stop in order to get our bearings and immediately soak up the atmosphere of the city. While both Mr A and I love the great outdoors, we are also massive city fans and checking out unusual shops, making mental notes about places we want to return to eat at and people watching are all part of the fun for us.

We had a lovely welcome to our home for the week when we were greeted by David. We were led into the small hallway and then David opened the door of a tiny lift. He explained that he would take Mr A up first and come back for me. That was no problem and I waited with his colleague who made some recommendaitons of places to visit during our stay. Five minutes later David was back and I thought it was a bit strange that he just ushered me into the lift by myself and told me to go to the fourth floor.

But it all became apparent when I knocked on the door of our apartment and was welcomed by Mr A holding a huge bunch of my favourite flowers. Unbeknown to me he had arranged with David to buy some and have them waiting for me when we arrived. That was a huge Brownie point score for both Mr A and People Rentals.
AirBnB San Sebastian

My lovely welcome gift

The apartment itself was everything we had hoped for. The living room contained two huge sofas, a coffee table and a TV (Spanish channels only) and the cute kitchen was fully stocked with everything we would need during our stay. There was a bathroom – with a bath – and a second bedroom downstairs and our master bedroom was on a mezzanine overlooking the room. I loved the wooden beams and quirky touches everywhere and the way the patches of sunlight which shone through the skylights.

 The apartment faced out onto the square, where the main building served as San Sebastián’s City Hall until the 1940s. During our stay we discovered that it is still very much a focal point for both protests during the day and bar life at night. This wan’t a problem for us, as we can seriously sleep through anything! But it might be slightly noisy for light sleepers.

However the location for us was perfect. I loved the fact that we could step out of our front door every morning and immediately be at the heart of the action. We ate out every night – who can resist those pinchtxos – but had a few lazy breakfasts and home and sometimes made our lunch to take down to the beach. We also rediscovered the joy of afternoon naps on that comfy sofa!
AirBnB San Sebastian

Um…so this is pretty much what we ate every day…

We had no major problems with the apartment. At first the Wifi was really slow – a blogger’s worst nightmare. But after an email to David to see whether this could be rectified it improved drastically.

On the last day we were due to check out at 11am. Our flight wasn’t leaving until that evening, so we were trying to work out where to hang out with all of our stuff when we got a lovely message from David saying we didn’t need to check out until later as there were no bookings until the next day. We instantly headed to the beach, counting our good fortune.

It was little things like this that made the visit so special. Renting our own apartment was such a great experience and something I would definitely like to try again very soon. (hint, hint Mr A!)
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