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b"Les and Kathe talk about their AirBNB Experience!\\nWhy did they use AirBNB* and why is it a great hotel alternative?\\nLes' brother invited us to watch his team play in the Rose Bowl. It was last minute.\\xa0 Right after his time won.\\xa0 We said yes, and immediately started looking for a hotel room.\\xa0 But, oh no…all of the hotels were fully booked. EVERYTHING was sold out.\\nThe nearest available hotel was in Los Angeles, which was WAY to far! We had to find a hotel alternative if we wanted to see our family.\\xa0 As a lark, I started checking AirBNB as a hotel alternative.\\nI was really nervous because it was our first time in using this service.\\xa0 We weren't sure what to expect.\\xa0 Would it be dirty?\\xa0 Would the owners be lurking around?\\xa0 What kind of people would let us stay in their spare bedroom? And…Les is VERY private.\\nThe first few places I found on the website were whole apartments.\\xa0 Those looked great!\\xa0 The bad news was that they were $800.\\xa0 That's right… $800 for one night.\\xa0 Ouch!\\xa0 A bit pricey for us.\\nFinally, after a lot of searching, we decided that it would be OK to stay in someone's spare bedroom. We found a room in someone's house.\\xa0 It looked cute, like maybe it was built in the 1940s.\\xa0 And just like the house, the owner seemed cute too. She looked very artsy. But to be honest, it was the fact that she played the harp that sealed the deal for me.\\xa0 So I submitted my request.\\nWe had a great online conversation about harps and she wanted to know who I knew that played the harp. It's funny that I know two people!\\nOur First Stay:\\nWe drove to Pasadena and found her house.\\xa0 We had made arrangements to park in her driveway so we wouldn't get a ticket.\\xa0 That was another way we saved money…no parking fees!\\xa0 A hotel would have charged us to park on premise.\\nOnce there, we “checked in”.\\xa0 She wasn't home, but had a combination lock on the back door.\\xa0 After entering the home, we followed the signs to our room.\\xa0 Painless.\\nOutside her house was a very cute “library”.\\xa0 Another thing we never would have seen if we stayed in a hotel that weekend.\\nThe first thing we saw inside the room was a small mini-fridge.\\xa0 two wine glasses and a bottle of wine sat on top of the fridge. Fresh flowers brightened up the corner of the room.\\xa0 We took a peek inside our mini-fridge and we found almond milk, coconut water, eggs, and blueberries for our breakfast.\\nOur initial observation was that we felt very welcomed and attended to, just like you would feel at your grandma's house! This was a very different experience from a hotel.\\nWe met her later that day and she gave us some tips on the Rose Bowl.\\xa0 We were so glad that she allowed us to stay in her home for a reasonable fee (I think it was around $200 a night.\\xa0 Still pricey, but not $800!)\\n\\nSo now that you know that we were adventurous enough to stay in someone's bedroom, let's talk about the service that allowed us to go that.\\nWhat is AirBNB?\\nAirBNB*\\xa0is an American company which operates an\\xa0online marketplace\\xa0and\\xa0hospitality service\\xa0for people to lease or rent short-term\\xa0lodging\\xa0including\\xa0holiday cottages,\\xa0apartments,\\xa0home stays,\\xa0hostel\\xa0beds, or\\xa0hotel\\xa0rooms, to participate in or facilitate experiences related to\\xa0tourism\\xa0such as\\xa0walking tours, and to make reservations at\\xa0restaurants. The company does not own any\\xa0real estate\\xa0or conduct any tours; it acts as a\\xa0broker.\\xa0 They receive a percentage of the cost of each stay.\\xa0 Like all modern sharing services services, AirBNB* is an example of\\xa0person to person sharing.\\xa0This company has over 4 million listings in 65,000 cities and 191 countries and has helped with ..."