Resources for Traveling Freelancers #1: A Place to Call Home Base
Photo credit: Foxtongue@Flickr
I did my first trip as a traveling freelancer in June and July, spending 35 days traveling around Spain and Portugal. The traveling part was great but the freelancing part was much, much harder than I thought. I had read plenty of articles about freelancing while traveling but being on the road is a whole different thing. And so I’ve put together some resources for the traveling freelancer. This first article is about finding places to live that feel like home, mostly spending less than one would at hotels.
Hostels have been the traditional option for long-haul travelers because of their low price and sociable atmosphere but they’re not known as the most secure places for gear and usually don’t offer the most peaceful of spots for sleeping and working. They also don’t feel much like home . When the traveler’s on the move for a long time, he starts getting homesick. There are some options worth looking into where you can find real, welcoming homes as well as potentially friendly hosts who will give you tips and share insider knowledge of their cities.
Renting other people’s rooms and homes
AirBnB is one of several sites where hosts post short-term and vacation rentals, from couches in their living rooms to full mansions – prices vary from a few dollars to more than $1,000 per night.
When you rent someone else’s place you can negotiate the price and check out time. You can also cook if you like to without having to use the often gross pots and utensils of a hostel. If you’re renting a room in someone’s place it can take a bit of time to get used to the idea but you can get some great advice about the city you’re visiting that you might never get otherwise.
But there are downsides to renting from an individual as opposed to a company. Often, you have no idea who the owner is and whether they’re trustworthy for your needs. In addition, you never have the same guarantees a hotel might give you–though in some countries hotels aren’t any more reliable than a lady with a spare room. In my experience, a person with a spare room isn’t any less reliable than a four star hotel in Portugal in guaranteeing that you’ll have wi-fi in your room.
Other room and home rental sites
Crashpadder. Easy to navigate, includes a map of listings with your results. Listings are mostly for anglophone countries.
Roomorama. Lots of listings for full apartments. Limited number of cities.
Homelidays. Full home rentals around the world.
iStopOver. A portal of rentals for vacationers, travelers over 50 and special events such as the World Cup. A bit impersonal. Also lists B&B’s.
Pros of Home Rental
- Guests get to meet some local folks
- Guests potentially have a room of their own for less than a hotel room’s price
- Price is negotiable
- The site keeps the guest’s credit card or Paypal information and payment isn’t processed till 24 hours after the guest’s arrival time. If the guest arrives at his host’s home and the place is not as described (i.e. the “private bedroom” is actually a hammock in the garage) the guest has 24 hours to report this to AirBnB and cancel the reservation so that his credit card won’t be charged.
Cons of Home Rental
- You always need a plan B in case you arrive at a place that’s not what you expected.
- Many times, bed & breakfast businesses are also using the site to post their rooms, which defeats the purpose of such listings.
- On many sites, anyone can leave a review for a host, even if the reviewer was never a guest but is a friend or relative.
- Reviews often aren’t available.
- AirBnB charges as much as a 6% fee on top of the rental asking price.
Tips
- Never book a listing that doesn’t have photos. Look for listings that have at least 3 or 4 photos, including that of your presumed sleeping space.
- Speak with the host on the phone, preferably through video call, before booking.
- Don’t ever do transactions outside of the site! If a host wants to finish a transaction via email or phone don’t even book with that person. Though the site doesn’t take much responsibility for what happens to its users and it charges a percentage off transactions, going outside the site raises safety issues for both host and guest.
- Never, ever give your credit card information or pay a host in cash under ANY circumstances! You’ll already have given your credit card number to the site, there’s no need for a host to ask for it again.
- Don’t leave your valuables lying around.
- Under all circumstances, trust your instincts. If something’s telling you something’s not right then it probably isn’t.
In the continuation of this list of resources I’ll go into a little more adventurous experiences with Couchsurfing and WWOOFing.
If you’ve used any site of this sort please let us know about your experiences and share some tips in the comments. Your tips can help the next traveler embarking on his or her journey!
Photo credit: Foxtongue on flickr.
Those are very excellent tips and suggestions when traveling with a work load.
Ana, I’ll likely be going to Spain for several weeks in late spring, and I’ll need to do at least some freelance writing along the way, so I really appreciate all the good advice here.
Another suggestion: see if you can house-sit. I’m currently near the tail-end of a 2.5-week house-sitting gig in San Francisco. It’s a really fancy home on a hill looking over the entire city and the bay, and all I really have to do is feed and walk the dog.
Hi John,
Thanks for your comment. In the US I did lots of house sitting but in Europe it’s way harder, especially in the Latin countries where people tend to be much more closed than in the US. If you find any sites you like please do share.
There are sites where you can register to find house sitting gigs and the ones I’ve seen for Europe included a lot of country homes where the owners asked house sitters to take care of the property in exchange for a free place to live.
If you have any questions about traveling through Spain just send me an email.
That’s a great tip! Do you know of any resources for finding house sitting opportunities? How perfect would that be? … to house sit for people while you’re on vacation! I like it.
Great article Ana, Thanks!
I’m glad you are writing this series! I just spent two of the best months of my life living and working in Bogota, Colombia and you are so right that unexpected challenges crop up. I’m looking forward to seeing how you coped!
As for finding a home base – I took language classes and stayed with a host family. But one of my roommates there had a smarter idea – he didn’t take language classes, but he needed a place to stay because he was doing some import/export in Colombia. He called up my language school and had them help him arrange for a host family but without the expense of taking classes. Some schools are happy to help match even non-students up with families (they make money off this, obviously). Plus, the schools vet families, so you have that extra layer of protection if you should run into a problem.
This was a great resource. I’m thinking very seriously about taking my design biz on the road with me to Asia this winter. Most likely a long stint in Thailand. Working from my laptop.
I don’t expect it’ll be easy.
Any other graphic designers have experience with this?
I’ve heard about weekday lettings, but never anything like this on such a large scale. It’s nice to see smaller landlords joining forces instead of going through expensive estate agents and then offer poor service.
Thanks for the informative post! I’m a freelance web designer who has recently moved to Vancouver and is staying with friends until I find rental accommodation (hopefully for November). These tips are very useful.
Anna, Im so pleased I stumbled across your blog. I’ve just completed a 5 week drive across Australia in a van whilst trying to study and do contract work at the same time. I can totally relate at how difficult it can be if you don’t have a stable place to plonk into a comfortable seat for a few hours a day. Freelancing whilst traveling and living in a van wasn’t the easiest, we stayed at caravan parks along the way every few days as most camping places in between were too rural with no wireless reception. If you’re going to do Australia, add extra time to your trip as distances between destinations can be much farther than expected (particularly from East to West coasts). I can’t wait to travel to Europe and the idea of freelancing along the way has always excited me, so thanks for your travel tips!
Cynicdesign – it’s probably best to check areas that have reception if you’ll be using wireless, but most hotels will have internet.
Ana, great article. I’ve just completed a 5 week drive across Australia in a van whilst trying to study and do contract work at the same time. I can totally relate at how difficult it can be if you don’t have a stable place to plonk into a comfortable seat for a few hours a day. Freelancing whilst travelling and living in a van wasn’t the easiest, we stayed at caravan parks along the way every few days as most camping places in between were too rural with no wireless reception. If you’re going to do Australia, add extra time to your trip as distances between destinations can be much farther than expected (particularly from East to West coasts). I can’t wait to travel to Europe and the idea of freelancing along the way has always excited me, so thanks for your travel tips!
Cynicdesign – it’s probably best to check areas that have reception if you’ll be using wireless internet before you go.
Great info! Thanks for the article.
This is very good post for travelers. They can get plenty of information about their journey from this post.
Update: The October after this was posted I did end up going on that trip to Asia. After a couple of months freelancing from the road I worked myself into a permanent design position in Bangkok. Been in Asia 8 months now.
It can totally be done.
Create a mobile desk in your backpack, load up the laptop with all the resources you need and get to it.
I went the budget hotel/guest house route. You’ll be amazed how productive you can be hunched over a folding table sitting at the end of a lumpy mattress, once you get a rhythm going.
Good luck!
-CD