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Our First Airbnb Experience and Why It Was Exceptional

In this post about our first Airbnb experience, I break down a half dozen reasons why using Airbnb for our Switzerland trip could not have been a better choice. I’m sharing how much we spent per night, how our chalet aided our travels with children, and more. Also, there’s a code at the bottom of the post for $40 off your first Airbnb booking for those of you who are newbies like we were! Enjoy! (Oh, and no, this is in no way sponsored by Airbnb. I genuinely couldn’t wait to share our positive experience.)

Though Airbnb has been around for years and is generally raved about, we were slow to give it a try. I’m pretty stuck in my ways via using TripAdvisor to steer us in the right direction regarding hotel and resort needs (this website never fails me!), which is exactly the route I took when we initially started planning our trip to Switzerland.

In this post about our first Airbnb experience, I break down a half dozen reasons why using Airbnb for our Switzerland trip could not have been a better choice. I'm sharing how much we spent per night, how our chalet aided our travels with children, and more.
{Our Airbnb superhost owns this entire chalet and lives in 75% of it; She uses the other 25% as the Airbnb. It’s completely separate from her living space, as you most go outside and around to get to her front porch.}

I discussed this a little bit in my Europe planning post, so if you read it, you know how and why we eventually decided to cancel our hotel and go out on a limb with booking our first Airbnb.

Fast forward a few weeks to actually settling into our Airbnb, and we couldn’t have been a lick happier as we nestled into our long weekend home. It was perfection.

In this post about our first Airbnb experience, I break down a half dozen reasons why using Airbnb for our Switzerland trip could not have been a better choice. I'm sharing how much we spent per night, how our chalet aided our travels with children, and more.
{The girls bolted into the house and couldn’t contain their excitement; Neither could we!}

Reasons we loved our first Airbnb experience

The cost was literally half of what we were going to pay at a hotel.

Switzerland is known to be a very expensive country, but utilizing Airbnb for our lodging saved us a good chunk of dough. Including taxes and fees, we paid $601 for three nights. We once paid $250 for a dinky hotel room a mile from Broadway Street in Nashville for crying out loud, so to snag an adorable waterfront home in a desirable area of Switzerland for $200/night knocked our socks off.

In this post about our first Airbnb experience, I break down a half dozen reasons why using Airbnb for our Switzerland trip could not have been a better choice. I'm sharing how much we spent per night, how our chalet aided our travels with children, and more.

We were able to select a home that was child friendly.

Airbnb allowed us to search for homes that were child friendly, which was time-saving and helpful. After skimming a few, we found one that pictured a toddler bed with rails! Score! After reading the positive reviews from other families that traveled with children, we knew this would be a place Hadley and Sadie would feel comfortable relaxing and playing.

In this post about our first Airbnb experience, I break down a half dozen reasons why using Airbnb for our Switzerland trip could not have been a better choice. I'm sharing how much we spent per night, how our chalet aided our travels with children, and more.
{her favorite place to color}
In this post about our first Airbnb experience, I break down a half dozen reasons why using Airbnb for our Switzerland trip could not have been a better choice. I'm sharing how much we spent per night, how our chalet aided our travels with children, and more.
{Hadley had the entire bed to herself, while Sadie slept nearby in the toddler bed.}

We had so much space.

We had a full kitchen, massive bathroom with a washer and dryer, separate toilet room, a toddler bed for Sadie next to a king-sized bed for Hadley (what a life for a four-year-old!), and a spacious living room with a surprisingly comfortable futon-type bed for Jamie and me. We also were able to utilize the grounds outside, which included a pond filled with fish that thrilled the girls, a big picnic table, a lovely bench to sit and sip coffee, and more.

In this post about our first Airbnb experience, I break down a half dozen reasons why using Airbnb for our Switzerland trip could not have been a better choice. I'm sharing how much we spent per night, how our chalet aided our travels with children, and more.
{Our Airbnb was stocked with all kinds of coffee and tea to brew. Jamie really enjoys tea and took advantage of making some each evening.}

Our lodging felt very personal to us.

Airbnb allows you to safely communicate with your host ahead of time. Beate, our superhost (<—-a high ranking on the website), knew the ages of our children and had chocolates on their pillows when we walked in. This won them over immediately. She also made sure all of the toys were out for them to immediately play with. After a full day of traveling from Germany, her warm hospitality was such a treat.

{Sadie making herself at home rummaging through the toy closet}

We enjoyed supporting a small business.

Beate told us that originally listing her property as an Airbnb was risky because she was nervous no one would book with her; Now she stays busy year round! She loves to host people from around the world and shared with us that she’s so glad she took on this small business venture.

The reviews were spot on.

We got exactly what we were expecting, plus some. The whole reason I canceled our original hotel was purely because the Airbnb’s reviews won me over. Many reviewers stated that staying at this specific Airbnb made their Switzerland trip the wonderful experience that it was, and I couldn’t agree more. When we book many of our hotels/resorts, I generally look for a 95% 5-star review. If that many people say it’s wonderful, it usually really is awesome. We studied the reviews for this Airbnb like crazy, and we were beyond satisfied.

{my happy place}

Traveling to Switzerland?

You would enjoy this specific Airbnb in Gersau if you…

  1. are traveling with or without children.
  2. are traveling with 2-4 people.
  3. will have a car.
  4. desire a scenic waterfront view of Lake Lucerne.
  5. are okay driving daily to your outings and being 30-60ish minutes from bigger cities, such as Lucerne or Zurich (we thoroughly enjoyed each day of driving because we were able to see so many more places!)
  6. have a schedule that allows you slow mornings in order to enjoy Beate’s home-cooked breakfast (soooo affordable, too!)
  7. enjoy running, walking, or biking during vacation (the sidewalks and bike lanes along Lake Lucerne go for miles and miles in either direction).
  8. are interested in trying home-cooked traditional swiss dinners made by Beate (we didn’t like to stay out too late since we have young children, so this was perfect for us, plus YUM.)

PS: When I was on the website searching for the link to our exact Airbnb, I noticed that they have a referral program. If you use my Airbnb link to create an account, you’ll receive $40 off your first booking of $75 or more. (Score!! Wish I would have asked a friend for their link before we booked our trip! Darn.) In full disclosure, I’ll also receive $20 toward a future trip. A definite win win for all of you Airbnb newbies like me!

Let’s chat!

What holds up back from booking an Airbnb?

What is your general opinion of Airbnb?

More: Do you have any annual vacation traditions? & Our 2017 family vacation to Disney World

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