The 7 Global Truths of a Great Home, According to Travelers Who’ve Stayed in 50+ Homes Worldwide

One may think booking a homestay on a platform like Airbnb or Vrbo for a trip is just a smart way to save cash on a hotel while traveling. But when you think about it, these home-sharing platforms have actually done so much more for the average traveler. Homestays have done wonders in helping translate a place’s local lifestyle to short-term visitors. In staying in a real home, we see how the similarities and differences in everyday life due to place and culture can affect how we build, set up, and interact with our homes.

Before the current home-sharing movement, the average traveler had the option to stay in a vacation rent or a B&B, but usually both options were designed with guests—not the day-to-day dweller—in mind. The closest most people would get to peeking into the average person’s home was touring an open house on the market—and still, that was usually staged. Now, with Airbnb and the like, many more travelers have the opportunity to interact with another person’s space like they, too, lived there.

So just what can we learn about homes, everyday life, and hospitality through the lens of home sharing? We decided to pose this question to the experts: in this case, four seasoned travelers who have each stayed at 50 or more homestays around the world. Here, what they’ve noticed about what “home” means around the world—and what global lessons we can glean from their travels:

Note: While we asked about the traveler’s general homestay experiences, they exclusively responded with homes available on Airbnb’s platform.

Chelcie S. Porter, an artist and travel entrepreneur based in the U.S. Virgin Islands, has had plenty of memorable homestays. Her favorite? A house in Sri Lanka, built by a local architect Vijitha Basnayake.

“It had parts of the walls and roof that were only rebar so tiny birds would fly through the bedroom in the morning,” says Porter, the founder of Roots and Culture Travel, a socially-conscious-focused group travel agency.

At the Sri Lankan home, she experienced the excitement of sleeping outdoors, complete with lizards crawling over her.

Dana Hooshmand, who has stayed at more than 70 homestays around the world, says the best night’s sleep he got was in Jambiani, Zanzibar:

“The bed was great and it was so close to the beach that the waves were almost too loud. Falling asleep to the waves and the ocean breeze was paradise,” says Hooshmand, a startup consultant and travel writer, whose website Discover Discomfort is about cultural immersion and language learning.

Another one of Hooshmand’s other favorite stays was a house in Kenya that incorporated how the property overlooks a cliff. When the sun rises, guests get panoramic views of the mountains in the horizon and giant valley below. You can see Mount Kenya and lakes in the foreground, he says. The home itself has a beautiful thatch roof that arches like a tent.

When it comes down to the most memorable homestays, the travelers we talked to zeroed in on hospitality, rather than A+ interior design. 

Take, for instance, Porter’s favorite home was in Kerala, India. While it’s very aesthetically pleasing and unique, that’s not what made it memorable: When staying there, she became ill, and the host just happened to have a sister who was a doctor and paid a house visit. 

“The entire village was very kind and welcoming,” Porter says. “Our host had told several people in the village that we were visiting. We couldn’t go anywhere without someone letting us know that they knew we were visiting and welcomed at their house. It was really a heartwarming experience.”

Airbnbs in India are some of the best, she says. 

“Indians often say ‘The guest is like God,’ and this really comes through when staying in Airbnbs there,” Porter says.

Rachel Walla, a certified safety professional from Bozeman, Montana, prefers to stay in Vrbos, hostels, or Airbnbs when she travels. She also has a travel blog, A Map to Anywhere, and points to a Scotland stay as her favorite.

Because of visa issues, she and her boyfriend had to spend Christmas and New Years in Scotland, away from their families. 

“I was living in the apartment for a month, so the owner requested occasional inspections during my stay. He left little gifts for the holidays like champagne for New Year’s Eve. It was so sweet.”

Surprisingly, some “great” homes didn’t always conform to our ideas of comfortable. Often they put a community’s conservation needs above personal preference.

Walla recalls that she and her mom had some chilly nights in homes in Italy during the winter.

“They have some legislation that keeps them from using too much energy to heat homes,” she says. “We stayed in a ground-level apartment in a stone building and it was very cold.”

When Hooshmand travels, he seeks out places that don’t have air conditioning and takes note of how homes are designed to make the best use of air flow.

The beloved Popo House in Zanzibar that Hooshmand stayed at was entirely off the grid, with solar-powered fridges and lighting. There was no air conditioning, but it was built in a way that you could always catch a breeze from the ocean, he says.

A small or non-existent kitchen might signal that the take-out or street food scene is big. 

In Asian countries where Hooshmand has stayed—mostly in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Beijing—he’s noticed it’s cheaper to eat out than to eat in, so he found it hard to find homestays with kitchens. 

The best kitchen he came across was in Tel Aviv. He sensed the host liked to cook, and had left a lot of equipment for guests to use—sharp knives, non-stick pots and pans and there was open space to maneuver around the kitchen.

“Cooking there was a pleasure,” Hooshmand recalls. “I made braised beef. Tel Aviv has an excellent market.”

Walla recalls a small Belize bungalow with no living room—just a kitchen, bathroom, and bedroom. It didn’t feel small, though, because it was only built for two guests at a time and took advantage of additional outdoor lounge space: a patio to sit and stargaze or birdwatch.

Brandon Amoroso, owner of an L.A.-based digital marketing company has stayed at more than 50 homestays, and one of his favorite was a small, efficient one near Death Valley National Park. At $45/night, he and his girlfriend weren’t expecting much, but ended up being amazed at the use of space. It was a studio-sized guesthouse with a bed, small couch, kitchenette, television, and bathroom—all Amoroso wanted in a homestay, without all the excess space.

“It was the perfect fit for two, and it really showed me that if you’re able to design something well and fill it with items efficiently you can have an awesome place,” he says.

Porter recalls a space in Thailand that turned a rooftop patio into a cafe for those staying at the property. It was multi-purpose, with a garden complete with an outdoor shower on one side and a sitting area near the kitchen on the other side.

“There was also a separate space for just hanging out,” Porter says. “I made friends in that space that I’m still close to five years later.”

Porter recalls staying in a house in Prague that was straight out of the 1800’s and filled with antiques.

“I was in love at the turn of every corner,” she recalls. Meanwhile, a house she stayed at in Kenya had a soothing combination of seafoam greens, light blues, and warm grays.

Having a local feel enhances the experience, Walla says. For example, the homes she stayed in in tended to have a desert, boho, art theme that gave the home a sense of place.

Walla also loved an accessory dwelling unit Portland, Oregon that was homey and comfortable thanks to books highlighting the area and art from local artists, in addition to creature comforts like Netflix, a workspace, and luxe bedding. 

“I wanted to move in!” she says.

Seasoned travelers: Are there any similarities across the homes you’ve visited that, in your opinion, make a house great?

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