Our Favourite Airbnb Stays. The Tiny House in Fridaythorpe

Last updated on September 16th, 2023 at 08:36 pm

We love a good Airbnb stay.

As you know, if you have watched our vlogs, we enjoy getting away, seeing new parts of the country (and world), and taking you along with us. Airbnb is a great way for us to do that and offers some really unique, interesting stays. We have used Airbnb for stays in the UK and outside, Florida, France, etc.

We were pretty late to the Airbnb party (During our time running our business in the early – mid-2010’s we didn’t go away that often) Airbnb started operating in the UK in 2009. Our first stay through them wasn’t until 2018 in York. You can see the video of our first Airbnb stay below

After that first stay through Airbnb, we knew what to expect, how it worked, and that it was something we would use again. We were frequent users of Travel lodges or Premier inns (both of which we still enjoy staying in). With Airbnb, we enjoyed the flexibility of choosing something small or having a larger place depending on our needs at the time. We loved having a living room, sofa, kitchen, and separate bedroom in the York house we stayed in. It gave us the option of going away with family and friends and staying in the same place all with our own separate bedrooms. We also like the unique stays you can find, want to stay on a houseboat? no problem, Do fancy a tiny pod in a field, they got it.

Read about another one of our Airbnb stays on this post

Signing up for Airbnb is simple. You can either download the app or use their website. Once you have signed in, just search for the location you want, number of nights, people, etc. as you would with any other hotel booking site.

Airbnb now offers experiences. These include such things as city tours, pottery workshops, food, and wine tours, or photoshoots in your favourite places. We have yet to try an Airbnb experience but when we do we will let you know what we think.

We usually try to choose a Superhost when booking. Airbnb describes a Superhost as “A Superhost is someone who goes above and beyond in their hosting duties and is a shining example of how a Host should be. You can easily identify one from the badge that appears on their listing and profile”.

You are usually always guaranteed a good stay if you tick the Superhost filter in the search settings.

We also always use the “Entire place” option so you get a whole place to yourself. You can also choose “Private room” or “Shared room” but that’s never an option we would choose but it’s there if you want that

We usually also choose the “instant book” option in the filters. This means you can book a place instantly and know it’s secured. If you choose a place without an instant book it can mean the Host has to approve the booking first. A host has 24 hours to approve your booking (but usually takes less time) If you don’t need the instant book option then it does open up more stays (we are usually too impatient to wait and like to know its booked)

You can also choose to filter by “free cancellation” (this option is useful if you are booking a place in another country, especially in Covid times, just in case the worst happens and you are unable to go)

If you prefer a self-check-in you can also choose that option. We have done self-check-in at all but one of our Airbnbs (so far). If you prefer the option of meeting someone when you get there you can choose a place where the host meets you, gives you keys to the property and they can usually be relied on to get some good local information and tips on good restaurants. We were met by the host at an Airbnb in Epernay, France. She was absolutely lovely, she and her husband showed us around the property, answered any questions we had, and provided a mountain of local information. We noticed in the visitor’s book they had even invited one of their guests to have dinner in their home. We usually just like to get into places on our own but that was a lovely meet-and-greet experience we had.

Airbnb’s are usually hosted by an individual or couple who own the place and want to earn some extra money from letting it out. Some hosts choose to rent their entire place out (the “Entire place” option. While others rent out a room in their house or a separate property within their larger property (a self-contained apartment at the back of their house for instance)

Airbnb hosts rely on good feedback and reviews for getting future bookings. This usually means the standards are high (especially with Super hosts) and you often see lots of little extras that you don’t expect from standard hotel rooms. We have had homemade loaves of bread, bottles of Champagne, Nespresso machines with pods, Chocolate, mini bottles of wine, eggs, fresh orange juice, etc. These things aren’t always guaranteed but we have seen them more often than not. It helps to add to the more personal feel of Airbnb stays

Our favourite stays so far

We have filmed each one of our Airbnb stays so we thought it would be a great idea to list them on a blog with some photos, a link to the video so you can watch our stay, and the link to Airbnb itself if you ever fancy staying in one. This will spread over multiple blog posts with a featured stay in each post.

We will start with one of our favourites below

The Tiny House in Fridaythorpe

Not long after lockdown 2, we fancied getting away for a night. Somewhere a little different but not too far to travel. We had always wanted to try a tiny home and this one looked just perfect. Big enough to have all the facilities we like (our own toilet, shower, and kitchen) but small enough to feel unique and cosy. The host refers to them as “Glamping pods” but we thought of ours as a tiny house.

The seaways cafe was on site which is where we bought breakfast in the morning and just a short drive is one of our favourite little villages, Stamford Bridge. We took along some food to heat up in the microwave (the site had a separate pod with further kitchen facilities if you wanted to cook a little something fancier and also had a BBQ area) We enjoyed a relaxing glass of wine on the outside table in our own little garden area

The pods are just a few minutes away from the Yorkshire Wolds Way, a 79-mile walking route in the chalk landscape of the Yorkshire Wolds, and 26 miles from Filey.