On to Paris + Airbnb Interview

(Katherine) Our journey in Paris began last night when a cab picked us up at our Ipanema apartment at 4:00 in the afternoon. We were worried that we wouldn’t be able to even get a cab since it was during the middle of the World Cup, but luckily the Brazilians didn’t really care much about the Holland/Spain match up and we didn’t have an issue. It was an overnight flight which was pretty brutal because the TAP airline seats were extremely cramped and we didn’t sleep at all. Upon landing, we had to complete a complex series of tasks: pull some Euros from an ATM, get on a train, transfer on a Metro, find a ticket booth to purchase Metro tickets (our American credit cards didn’t work) get off at the right stop, find a café which had our apartment keys, find the apartment building, and then figure out the right codes to get into the apartment - all with no sleep. We managed to pull off all feats without too much drama - a great test of a relationship!

We were also in a bit of a hurry to check into our Paris apartment (thank you May Family for the Honeyfund gift!) located in Montmartre because we had an appointment lined up for that evening. The San Francisco based company that we are using to book most of our lodging, Airbnb, had contacted us to see if we would like to give a testimonial about our experience as customers. We had just missed a social event for their Parisian clients the night before, so we had arranged our own personal appointment for our arrival date. Thus prompted the final stage of complexity to our travel schedule - trying to figure out how to navigate from our new home to our meeting point via Metro with no sleep. I have never been to Paris before, so I had no baring for any directions yet (I’m normally a human compass). The fact that Robert and I didn’t exchange too many heated words during the frustrating 45 minutes we walked in circles to get to our destination was also another test of the relationship!

We showed up late, but we finally made it to Hotel du Nord, located in the 10th arrondissement (neighborhood). We met with three Airbnb employees - Venetia, who is the host of Airbnb TV on their website, Lisa, who focuses on client development, and Dillon, who is contracting with them to do their video work. We chat for quite a while over a glass of rosé and learned that Venetia is originally a Hoosier who went to my alma mater IU and currently lives in LA but is moving to SF for work. Lisa is a native of France who currently lives in Vancouver but is also moving to SF for Airbnb. They came out to Europe and met Dillion to film footage of various European apartments and hosts within their network. In case you’re not familiar with their company (and you should be!) it’s a listing service that partners people who want to travel with people who own rooms or entire apartments that can be rented out on a temporary basis. The cool thing is that then you have a local resident that you can rely on for references and information, and you enjoy a much more “homey” feel to your stay verses staying in an apartment. It’s also MUCH more cost effective than hotels, especially for a long term stay.

After finishing our glass of wine, they asked us to walk over to a bridge overlooking a canal to shoot video footage of our interview. They asked about our overall experience on Airbnb, why we were using it, etc., and we tried to look as awake and perky as possible for the taping. We have had an extremely positive experience using their service and hopefully that came across in our video despite our droopy eyelids!  Once we wrapped up, we all exchanged info, and then Robert and I started to wander through Paris.

We made our way down towards the Seine River and then towards an area called the Latin Quarter. This place is incredibly adorable. There is definitely a touristy aspect to some of the streets, but there is a also a genuine charm because it is actually the oldest part of the city. We settled on a place called Le Latin for dinner and enjoyed a prefix meal (set price for starter, main + dessert).  We later wandered to a piano bar called Le Relais de la Hachette where the pianist was playing American classics from the 60’s and 70’s. After a while we finally decided it was time to call it quits and get some sleep, but I had already decided that I was going to love the next 30 days of living in this city.