This was my first time using Airbnb. We needed a place to stay in La Jolla that would allow us to have kids but also still create a nice environment to be somewhere near the beach. A room near the water in La Jolla is about $250 a night. A big suite of rooms would be at least $400 to well over $1,000. A friend of mine recommended Airbnb so I went on it. Airbnb got its start when some guys in Austin, Texas who wanted to rent out their air mattress on their living room floor when there was a festival in town and so the joke became a bed and breakfast on an air bed hence Airbnb. Airbnb now has everything from renting castles in Scotland to renting the couch in somebody’s living room. In the meantime, it was just an awesome place to get a room.
We paid $130 a night for a quite large 2-bedroom condo and it had absolutely everything you could possibly imagine in it.
They had tons of fresh towels stocked and they had bicycles you could go on a ride to the beach with. They had a kid’s bedroom with 2 bunk beds that could also be slept in by adults.
There was tons of closet space. They had salt, pepper, and spices in the cupboards, all the silverware, pots, pans, and dishes you could need, and a great refrigerator. Everything was recently remodeled and scrupulously clean.
I wondered how it was going to work to get the key conveniently, but they used a lock box system like a real estate agent would use. Just as your heading out the owner is able to send a cleaning crew in for a couple hours and make sure the place is ready.
The girlfriend is a great housekeeper so the place was in wonderful shape when we left. We had to leave a $400 cleaning deposit, which was refunded to us 2 days after we left. I’m sure not all Airbnb experiences are going to be as perfect as this, but they have a great rating system so you can see how people rated the condo owner before and the people who stayed there get rated and referenced as well.
If you want a place to stay a little less then a mile from the beach in La Jolla and you got a couple kids with you, even if you don’t, I can’t recommend this place more highly.
We stayed the weekend before in the Embassy Suites in University Town Center (UTC), which cost us $200 a night for a much smaller place.
Embassy Suites – San Diego
4550 La Jolla Village Drive
San Diego, California, 92122
Phone: (858) 453-0400
Although you do have the advantage there of having someone come and clean your room every day and they do give you free breakfast for everybody, which did save a bunch of money.
Courtesy of Embassy Suites Website
Lobby - Courtesy of Embassy Suites Website
I complement the general manger of the Embassy Suites in UTC because we did have a very significant snag with the national reservation system and what could have turned into an absolute catastrophe he jumped in and saved the day. So, I am giving the Embassy Suites in UTC a double thumbs up if you prefer a more traditional hotel stay than staying in a condo.
Living Room - Courtesy of Embassy Suites Website
