I have hesitated to use AirBnb because of a fear of the unknown. Is it as good as it looks in the pictures? Is it clean? Is it someone’s personal space? Is it safe?

Recently I had to go to Salt Lake City, Utah for the Outdoor Retailer trade show and the hotels in the area were either completely booked or $500+ a night. So out of necessity, I turned to AirBnB.

The AirBnB App worked great – you could filter by shared room/private room/entire place meaning I was guaranteed not to be sharing a bathroom.  There was a full range of filters including,  price, room type, # of bathrooms/bedrooms, amenities, facilities,  and even house rules.

We were coming to Salt Lake City at a VERY busy time of year so there was not a lot of availability left.  One apartment popped up called: ‘Cozy Oasis Close To Everything’ After reading the reviews on the unit, and all of them being rave reviews, I decided to go for it. (PS. This AirBnB is no longer available)

The hosts, Breeze and Derek, were great. They wrote right away to introduce themselves and to ask if we had any questions.  They followed up closer to the time with their address and further information about keys and house rules.

We arrived late evening during a thunderstorm, and to a neighbourhood without street lights.  The house number was not visible from the street, so this caused some confusion as to which unit to go to. We had to text Breeze and Derek, who were nice enough to come out into the street in the pouring rain to hail us down.

The unit set up was perfect for our needs. There was a separate private entrance so we did not feel like we were intruding on their personal space.

It was exactly as described – a sitting room, full kitchen, bedroom and full bathroom. Although it was modern back in the 70’s, it was super clean and comfortable. There was also a fruit basket and tea for us to enjoy!

The bed was really comfortable and the bedroom space was dark and quiet. All the things that truly matter when you are somewhere on business and sleep is important were checked off the list.

Thanks to Breeze and Derek for making our first experience at an AirBnB a success.