Living The Semi-Retired Life: My Girlfriend Convinced Me Of A Better Way To Book Travel

And an update on our travel planning for Spain and France next February

We love to create monsters in our society by going all-in on a good idea. Then, when that good idea produces unintended and unforeseen dark sides, we love to vilify them.

We did this with Airbnb.

We have made Airbnb a poster child for all that’s wrong with travel and our cities and communities.

It’s expensive to travel—blame Airbnb.

It costs too much money to rent an apartment—blame Airbnb.

Too many tourists flooding the world’s great cities—blame Airbnb.

And, in the true spirit and function of social media, we distort and falsely portray reality to create the image that not only is Airbnb a monster, but it has suddenly become a failing business.

In today’s story, I’ll briefly show you that Airbnb is not a failing business. Far from it. In fact, it’s doing better than ever. I follow Airbnb because I frequently write about the company in a newsletter I produce for a freelance client. I suggested buying the stock in that newsletter. So far, in 2023, it’s up about 65%. Of course, I didn’t personally buy it!

However, it’s not the only option for booking travel, particularly lodging. It’s still a viable option I continue to use, but not the only option.

I must admit, I was an ardent Airbnb user. Even stubborn. Because I like the way I can travel—and experience cities—while using Airbnb. So I fell into a comfort zone that my girlfriend recently—and rightly—ripped me out of.

Inside our Airbnb in Madrid