I’ve spent most of the day scouring airbnb looking for a flat in Paris for a work trip in September. For a group of my work colleagues, it ends up being so much cheaper for us to rent a nice flat rather than individual hotel rooms. We also end up saving on food because we do a big supermarket shop and have what we call our “Anthro girl dinner” (salad, cheese, bread, hummous, and other annoyingly healthy things) instead of going out to a restaurant every night. Over the past year we’ve stayed in three or four incredible apartments in Paris and Nice. The all white one above was tucked away down a cobbled mews and had a sunken living room perfect for after work wine and chit chat.
In my opinion the best ones are the family homes, but of course a very stylish family! They have just enough bits on display to be interesting, but not too much that it becomes a bit gross. I definitely want them to put away their spare toothbrushes thank you very much! You want it to feel like a quirky, interesting hotel. Interesting knick knacks to look at, but really clean sheets and bathrooms. I don’t mind family photos on display because it gives you a glimpse into their lives. We play a game where we try to guess what they do for a living based on what we see on their bookshelves.
One of my favourites was this great big loft where a family lived who seem to travel a lot (judging by their family photo gallery and their cool souvenirs dotted around). My work mates and I staged a ‘family’ portrait of us, each randomly clutching something from the home (there may have been wine involved), printed it, framed it and added it to their family gallery wall. We never did hear if they discovered it. I’m still hoping for a confused/amused email from the homeowner one of these days…
Unfortunately today’s airbnb flat hunt has been a total failure so far. I feel like someone needs to give airbnb hosts advice on how to take pictures for the website. Some of them are just shockingly bad: unmade beds, clothes everywhere, really weird angles or taken at night. Make an effort people! (Said the stylist who claims to like life unstyled).
In case you’re wondering, this is what sometimes goes to Paris with me.
Has anyone else had luck with airbnb? Or is hotels all the way for you?
Btw this is NOT a sponsored post 🙂
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