bwagy, the blog of Ben Young

Last week I made the big move to New York, one that was decided a while back but came together pretty quick.

My wife Esther and I are here now – naturally moving to a new place, everything is new – especially coming from New Zealand to New York.

One of our first considerations, is places to live, so we’ve come up with this plan. We’ll test different neighbourhoods.  Lets stay there for a week, get a real feel, wander the streets, dine and meet the locals.  An experience you can’t if you just wander over for a half day.  Ideally it helps us settle in faster – and if we don’t like a place a weeks not too long before we’re off.

Using AirBNB we can stay in different neighbourhoods each week, first week is Chelsea, next week is Williamsburg. Then not sure week after that.

AirBNB allows people to rent out their apartments online, we’ve used it before as gives a nice local experience but also I’m not always up for hotels. You can often check in/out at odd times, we don’t have to tip and generally a bit more laid back.

Anyway, it ends up about 20-30% more expensive than renting straight away, but we think it’s worth it – in fact I’m surprised it’s not more expensive (but older rent controlled apartments real rental is probably way below market so the owners are killing it).

Just a wonder of using the internet to create a market by connecting travellers with locals.  To do the equivalent only three years ago would have been a nightmare. If you haven’t tried AirBNB give it a go, it’s a real experience.