Our Amazing Thailand Airbnb

As great as the luxury afforded by miles & points can be, there is still something special about finding the perfect local (well, at least closer to the locals) experience.

Beautiful place!

Great Review as always!! Life isn't all about the points, I am glad you stepped back to enjoy some real local tourism (the best kind). This is what travel is meant for not to see the best buffet spread at a Ritz Carlton.

Airbnb has another positive attribute: competent, sensible problem resolution. I booked with a crooked airbnb host in Playa del Carmen and I declined to enter the suite upon arrival. But the crook had my money, paid uo front through airbnb.

Airbnb looked into my complaint conscientiously and I was repaid in full, plus a goodwill credit. I judge a company by how they handle exceptions and problems. Airbnb gets a higher-than-passing grade.

looks scary.

Which is a better trip option in November: Bangkok -> Chiang Mai -> Krabi or other way around?
Koh Samui and other gulf Coast breaches are out of question at that time?

So glad you all had a great time. AirBnb is definitely my go-to when travelling abroad!

@ YYZgayguy -- That's great to know! I haven't had any problems, but that certainly makes me more comfortable.

@ Credit -- Hopefully someone else will chime in, as I'm not really sure. Sorry. 🙁

@YYZgayguy- Your host didn't actually have your money. One of the best things about Airbnb is that the host isn't paid until 24 hours after the scheduled check-in time. So Airbnb didn't actually pay him/her, and just processed a credit card refund. This gives an incentive to hosts to be honest in how they present their properties and conscientious in dealing with guests- if things are bad enough like in your case, they won't get paid. It's not perfect, of course, but an important safeguard for guests

During the Bali volcano eruption last year. All flights were cancelled and airports closed. Couldn't check in and decided to cancel. Called Airbnb for refund. No problem they said, "We are aware of the situation" All money refunded within 5 days. Fantastic service also.

I'll chime in. I think the price ($129) is just about right, considering state of the room, location and the breakfast menu.

You probably can find cheaper place, but you might have problem with some bug and wildlife in house.

Tiffany - GREAT review and thanks for surfacing this alternative option for readers. When traveling with families, this can often be a better value overall than cashing in devalued points at hotel properties. Although we used HouseTrip (the UK-based version of Airbnb), it operates very similar to Airbnb. Our accommodations were OUTSTANDING during a 4-week trek through Europe for the four of us, including a 2-level apt in Venice, 3-br apt in Barcelona, a villa at a working farmhouse in Tuscany with vineyards literally right outside our door, and a 2-br apt in Paris in the Marais.

While one trades off the service of hotels, they gain the incredible value and experience of 'living' like the locals, going grocery shopping which arguably gives a traveler much greater connection to the culture of where they are.

So glad to hear your experience was incredibly worthwhile.

How did you arrange your transportation. Did you hire a different guy every day and paid him accordingly or you arranged something for the whole trip? and of course cost wise how expensive?

I love home stays but I always use HomeAway or VRBO to avoid Airbnb's 12% service fee. You got a great deal with the Amex offer stacked though. Hope they bring that back or HomeAway does something similar.

@Tiffany, you could have earned some extra points through Virgin America as they offer up 1pt per US$ spent through their Airbnb portal. I'm pretty sure Lucky posted about it a couple of months ago.

I do find the rates for similar properties on airbnb to be higher vs vrbo and the like. VRBO tends to have very high cleaning fees ($150 per stay is pretty common) and other misc fees (I've seen application fees for $35, 4% fee for using a credit card, a forced damage claim waiver (instead of a refundable deposit) for $50 etc.) but even then Airbnb still tends to be more expensive.

Also, I had a less than perfect response from airbnb when my host cancelled on me (thankfully a few weeks before but by this time all the decent properties were gone, it was new years eve in Prague) and all airbnb did was give me a 20% additional credit to find another place, which was nowhere enough as I had booked months earlier, I still had to pay quite a bit out of pocket to find a comparable place.

Another way to use "points" on airbnb is to use Barclay Arrival+ "miles".

Great review!

It sounds like you had 4 Air BnB accounts that earned sign up credits but were able to use them all. How do you use multiple accounts to pay for a single stay?

@ Jason -- Yep, we just told the host what we wanted to do to make sure they were okay with it, and then booked consecutive nights.

Beautiful spot - again you are a very very smart, clever, thrifty planner!

The most popular ways the local travel in Thailand is hiring a van for 6 to 10 passengers. The price per day is 1,800 to 2,000 baht per day with driver. They will be with you the whole trip. You will pay for gas and tipping. The other question is do you go north or south of Thailand. Both are high seasons in Thailand. The north is definitely cooler has a lot of festival, beautiful flowers. The south has clear water not merkey, again you can't predict the weather.

I like to travel not only because it's the best way to change the picture outside the window, and get rid of boring thoughts at least for a while. Travel is always a reassessment of values and an awareness of the life path. After visiting temples in Chiang Mai, I began to accept my life in a new, happiness became as accessible and tangible as it was in the childhood. So strange and very rich sensation, among my memories, are trips to the coast on a hired scooter in Cat Motors, and a fresh breeze that foretells a new warm sunny day. In truth, it was a great vacation!