When Trev and I start looking for AirBNBs, I’d like to think we aren’t fussy. We have a list of items that for us are non-negotiable, and then things that are nice to have but not deal breakers.
Have-to-Have: Clean Place
Yeah, who wouldn’t have this at the top of their list. Photos can be deceiving but the reviews make a difference. In fact, if we don’t find reviews that mention it was very clean, we often pass. When we leave reviews of places we try to include our assessment of this so future renters can benefit from our experience.
I have to say so far we’ve picked pretty good. There was one place in Austin, called a ‘cabin’ that was shockingly bad. That was an early experience with AirBNB and perhaps drilled the point home that this one is a must. We actually only stayed there one week and I took photos in case we ended up with a dispute.
Aside from that one, there have been a few others that weren’t stellar, but on the whole most owners understand this is a priority. This place in Lisbon is great. Very clean and he provides refills of soap and the vacuum is handy. As at home, we like to tidy our space and appreciate having that option in a long term rental.
Have-to-Have: Internet
This one is non-negotiable. Since we both work online and are sometimes simultaneously in online meetings, there is no wiggle room here. It must be fast and consistent. We search reviews, recent reviews, of the places we want to stay. Even if an owner says they have fast internet, we want to hear that from people who have been there. Ideally, it is someone who comments that they also are digital nomads and are pleased with the connection.
And again, we do our best to mention this in our own reviews of places. Paying it forward so to speak. This place in Lisbon checks that box in spades. It is wonderfully fast, no hiccups.
Have-to-Have: Good Location
Again, perhaps this is a no brainer but I feel it is worth mentioning. We consider heavily where a place is located because we like to be in older, walkable parts of a town/city. A big part of this digital nomad journey we are on is to soak up the locality. I suppose this perspective has been mostly informed by experiences in the U.S. For us, that is architecture and neighborhoods and parks. We prefer not to drive if we can help it and having cafes, restaurants, museums, parks, and bars in a safe and walkable distance is important.
View out our front door. Great bar behind the painted door. Great restaurant to its right.
Translating that to this European trip, we are predominantly in cities. So we wanted to be in older parts of these places with character. We considered comments in AirBNB reviews about how quiet a place is. We aren’t youngsters so being in the hip, bar and club scene not only doesn’t interest us, those locations mean noise and revelry that might make it tough to sleep. (Ah, youth)
Save the Uber ride from the airport, we’ve yet to be on a form of transit in Lisbon, and there are many. Tuktuks abound, there is a trolly, buses everywhere, and a metro. I think it just feels easy to start by exploring on foot. We have found a few places we now want to visit that are too far for that. We are looking at the best way to get there, be it a tour, a rental car, or an Uber.
Where we have landed in Lisbon seems bloody perfect. There are plenty of small shops for groceries in the hood, coffee shops, pastelerias and padarias are seemingly on every street, and we can walk easily to the aforementioned river and to several museums. Within an easy distance are two larger grocery stores and a crazy, amazing farmer’s market on Saturdays, a post office, and pharmacies. What more does one need?
An odd side note on location relates to time alone. Affordability combined with practicality dictates that we go for one bedroom places. When we both have a work meeting, being able to close the door between us to control volume and disturbance is nice. Also, lets face it, even the best of couples need space. Being able to take a nap with a closed door, or being able to have one person head to a cafe for a block of time is important.
Have-to-Have: Kitchen
We like to cook. Even when we are in amazing places with wonderful food choices, we like having the ability to make our own food. It isn’t all about the cost, though certainly it helps not to eat every meal out. This one is mostly about nutrition and secondly about convenience.
Personally, I was a vegetarian for more than a decade and Trev and I maintained a vegan diet for about two years. I’m only mentioning that because we still lean heavily on vegetables, a lot of vegetables. We both also like being able to control the amount of fat and salt in our food. Isn’t aging fun.
For us, too, shopping in locations with good grocery and produce is an enjoyable activity akin to other recreational or touristy endeavors. Notice I qualified that statement with the ‘locations with good’ statement. We’ve rented in one remote location where the local IGA left a LOT to be desired. It made food shopping a big downer and we opted to make a 40 minute drive to a better grocery in the next larger town.
Don’t get me wrong, I love IGAs. The main grocery in Eastport is an IGA and it has spoiled me. Shout out to the R&M Foodliner as I’ve found jars or organic capers, more than one brand of almond milk, Guittard dark chocolate, bronze cut pasta, and Botanist Gin. (If you haven’t tried the latter, I highly recommend it.)
But I digress. When we can pick from a variety of gorgeous local produce, organic being a bonus, it makes cooking fun. And that means we want to enjoy being in an AirBNB kitchen. So super tiny kitchens, meaning tiny sink, two burner induction, and small fridge all on a wall like a hotel kitchenette won’t cut it. We want some counter space, an oven if we can get it, decent pots and pans, etc. We will take an oven over a microwave and space/good arrangement over a dishwasher.
When we are staying in the U.S. and making roadtrips, we actually carry a small kitchen box with us. We’ve learned the hard way that places don’t always have vegetable peelers, wine openers (unbelievable), sharp knives, or a decent soup pot or skillet. We tote along a french press for our coffee and I’m not always confident in how clean a coffee maker is anyway. Of course, flying anywhere we can make do in the rental.
We are very happy with our Lisbon rental. It has both an oven and a dishwasher and the under-counter refrigerator is surprisingly spacious. The knives are decently sharp, dishes and glasses aren’t plastic and aren’t a crazy hodge podge, and pots are in good shape. Admittedly, the surface of the skillet looked a bit sketch so we did buy a 10 Euro pan at Aldi that we will leave.
I suppose as I write I realize most of the time we are renting places for several weeks to a month, or more. Having to have a good kitchen is non-negotiable for us long term. We have been at a few short-term rentals where the kitchen doesn’t matter at all. One our favorite tiny places was in Portland, Oregon. Basically, an attic loft space with a microwave, hotpot, and sink. But we were only there for a few days so that was workable.
Okay, clearly we are foodies because I’ve just droned on paragraph after paragraph talking about food and cooking and kitchens. Yeah, guilty.
Nice-to-Have: Laundry
It might be surprising we have laundry in the optional category. To date, most rentals we have had have machines in them. The smallest we’ve used is in a tiny place in Nashville, and even though loads were small, it was just if not more efficient that larger, older machines in other locations. In college, a laundromat was a common weekly or, ahem, once monthly, activity.
I sometimes ruminate, from a consumptive and environmental point of view, about the fact that almost every home and apartment in America has a washer and dryer. As a culture we are spoiled, and I count myself in that group. When we first moved to Eastport, we used the laundromat there, which sadly is no more. I actually met quite a lot of locals that way very early on which helped us integrate into the community.
In Eastport, we quickly installed a clothesline to take advantage of warm, summer breezes. Trev grew up with clotheslines but I was raised in typical middle-class suburban America where I think not having one was some statement about class. It was when we bought our mid-century Austin house with one in the backyard that I fell in love with line drying, not the least of which is for its environmental benefits.
Marble- and mirror-lined bathroom. Using combo towel drying rack and fan as improvised clothes dryer.
For us, if a rental ticks all the other boxes, then we can always figure out laundry. So far, we have done a lot of hand-washing of shirts, socks, and underwear in the bathroom sink. A real bonus with this Lisbon AirBNB is the towel drying heater/rack/thing in the bathroom. Turn that baby on, position the fan on it, and boom, clothes dryer.
We had already scouted out laundromats near this place before we left the States. The one closest, literally around on the next block, is quite nice. This morning I used the largest one to do a full load of sheets and towels all together. The machines even, somehow, have detergent and softener so all you do is load it, pay, and wait. It has wifi so I can write or check email while waiting. Easy peasy.
Nice-to-Have: Parking
To honor the spirit of this blog in how we choose an AirBNB, parking is one worth mentioning. Obviously, and mercifully, we don’t have to worry about that in Europe. There is something quite nice about relying on just your feet, Uber, or public transport.
When renting in the States, most of our experiences have been via road trips or involve a rental car. Parking isn’t a deal breaker, but is very much nice to have. In more suburban places, usually there is a driveway and ideally off street parking is the best. Second choice is dedicated on-street parking so we don’t have far to tote luggage and so we don’t have to play musical-spaces day to day.
In Montreal, we found a place that actually had a dedicated garage space from the alley behind. We almost didn’t get our Subaru in there, and once we did we didn’t move it until we left. We employed that same strategy on a trip we once took to Philadelphia. Since it wasn’t a long stay, we took the assurances and guidance of the owner that we would find a spot somewhere close in the neighborhood, which we did. Again, once parked we didn’t move the car. That seems to remove a stressor from the trip and means there is less to worry about. Here’s to supporting the local gig economy with Uber and Lyft.
