I feel like I should be doing better at keeping you updated on the haps with my Airbnb life, so I’m going to just start posting more frequently about the normal day to day things that happen around here. Sometimes I feel like if nothing significant happens, then it’s not worth writing about, and quite honestly, I am realizing that’s not quite how blogging works. I find I’m really intrigued by the journal entry type of blog posts just as much as the posts about a specific topic.
So with that said, I’ll craft my first “Life Around the Airbnb” post and let you know what’s going on in my Airbnb life.
So here goes…
Today we are about two weeks away from checking out of this home, and here’s what we’ve been up to this week.
We are currently renting a nice two-story townhouse style condominium in a modern development in Frederick. We positively love the home, and we love the area so much, but we absolutely do not love the neighbors. More on that later.
We initially rented the home for a month, but we decided to extend another month because we really felt like there was more to do and see here in Frederick. Due to the pandemic combined with the cold March weather, we were limited with how much exploring we could do, and there is so much in this area to explore. In addition, I had a few appointments in the Maryland area that required me to stay fairly local for a couple weeks. So, despite the neighbors that we don’t care for, we decided to stay put for another month because we love the home and the area.
A majority of this week was devoted to looking forward.
One thing about starting each rental at an Airbnb when you’re of no fixed address—it isn’t long before you have to start thinking about where you will go the following month. So we like to get going with that search pretty soon after we move into a home. While being able to hop around is quite freeing, the research involved in selecting your next home can be quite daunting. And here are a few reasons why:
Price considerations – As you can expect, we have a monthly budget for our rentals. We wanted to keep the price at or below what we’d spend on a rental or monthly mortgage payment if we stayed in one fixed location. What we’ve discovered is, while there are a lot of great rentals that would be wonderful for a weekend trip or a family vacation, they aren’t feasible for monthly stays when you multiply out the daily rate by 30 days and then add fees. We just are not paying $6,000 a month for an Airbnb. Just not doing it. So that whittles down our prospective homes quite a bit, and makes us negotiate wants versus needs. Though there are monthly discounts (more on that later), once you add in fees and such, the prices can still rise quite high.
Monthly inventory – There are a lot of homes that are available for a weekend or for a week or two, but the inventory of monthly rentals is definitely significantly smaller than the inventory of homes that you may find when you’re researching places for that weekend girls retreat or the family beach trip. Sometimes we have looked in certain cities and the inventory for a monthly rental for our dates is less than 5 homes.
Our criteria – Anyone renting or buying anything has a set list of criteria, which includes your non-negotiables as well as the things you’re willing to be a little more flexible on. Sometimes our options significantly decrease just by filtering out ones with no kitchen. For a space to be our home for a month, there are definitely things that are important to us. We have learned that we operate best when a home has two bedrooms and two bathrooms at the very least (no adorably chic tiny homes for us!). For one reason, we both work full time from home, and we both have meetings and make calls. Many times our meetings and calls are at the same time, so another bedroom or a designated office with a door is crucial. And the bathroom…well…lol…I’m sure no explanation is needed for this one. We rented a home with one bathroom, and it worked fine, but our preference is two if possible.
Seasonal aspects – Some areas are more popular based on the season, so working around the price hikes for certain areas can be tricky. Yes it sounds awesome to be at the beach for a month, but guess what…you will definitely pay a premium price for a monthly stay at a beach during beach season. And who really wants to be there in off-season? Well…some may, but…the point usually is to enjoy the weather and the water, and to do that, you will pay higher prices. And same is true for mountains during ski season. So navigating those nuances can add to the trickiness of selecting a home. You may want to be somewhere in off-season, but if it’s 10 below and you only do outdoor dining, or if the area is shut down because it’s non-peak, is it really a place you want to be?
Working the Airbnb system – The great thing about monthly rentals on Airbnb is that there is typically a discount for longer stays. We have found that in some circumstances, extending our stay by a few days can decrease the price by a few hundred dollars. So even if we don’t need the extra days, we may reserve them just to get the cheaper price. But figuring out which homes that applies to, and what the right length of time needed for the best price, this can be time consuming and somewhat frustrating.
Because picking our next spot can be sort of challenging, we typically start working on that within a week of moving into a new space. This week we searched, whittled down, selected, and reserved our next home. Can’t wait to tell you about that!
So now that that’s done, we feel like we can breathe a bit and enjoy the remainder of our time in our current space.
And that’s what’s been happening around the Airbnb this week.
Have any questions about airbnb life or what we’ve been up to while in Frederick, Maryland, comment below or send me a message at justamarylandgirl@gmail.com! Also follow me on IG at justa_mdgirl!
Just a Maryland Girl 
Published by