AirBnB has received a lot of attention recently for an abuse of trust by a guest. The whole concept of hosting a stranger is a test of faith in your fellow person. So, recently I’ve decided to take the test on both sides to see what it’s like.

I used AirBnB to book an apartment in Barcelona for a few days. The host turned out not to be the next Norman Bates as I feared but in fact a sweet lady. She was flexible on the arrival time and greeted us with air kisses next to each cheek. Her hospitality was immediately felt and seen everywhere as she had put out a bottle of Spanish sparkling wine, fresh fruit, and clean beddings. She even made breakfast every morning. However, I quickly realized some of the shortcomings of my accommodations. No air conditioning was available. Some of the lighting fixtures didn’t work. The beds weren’t particularly comfortable. None of these problems were apparent from the AirBnB listing in spite of the favorable ratings of the host. I wouldn’t necessarily call it deceptive of her to hide these problems but it has made me wonder about trusting future AirBnB hosts with my precious vacation time.

I was convinced by my roommate and friends to try hosting travelers through Couchsurfing. Basically, it’s AirBnB but free (and the accommodation doesn’t have to even be a bed room).We were bombarded with requests from lots of people. I was fascinated to find so many people willing to stay at complete strangers’ places but perhaps I shouldn’t be given the price. I learned quickly that references still matter a lot since we would easily screen out any potential guest who didn’t have a lot of friends and references. Those social clues were what mattered more than other information like personality, goals, or country of origin. The first courchsurfer was a success and didn’t leave a wake of destruction, so we may host more. I guess what I learned from this is that you can’t necessarily trust a person you don’t know but you can trust a bunch of people you don’t know.