Booking Accommodation with Homestay
The first weekend of September had me venture 4.5 hours up on the train from London Euston to Glasgow, where I experienced HomeStay for the first time.
If you’ve never heard of Homestay, let me enlighten you.
This Dublin born company that launched in just 2013, pride themselves on offering travellers the chance to live and breathe the local culture of a destination.
Homestay offers a platform for both travellers and hosts to make friends, as well as memories, and too the opportunity for explorers to explore destinations in a truly authentic way.
For hosts, it’s an opportunity to make some extra money from a spare room in their property be it a house, apartment or houseboat.
I was up in Glasgow for 2 days exploring the city alongside Homestay themselves, the company that has over 50,000 properties listed in over 150 locations.
{All ready for you to book up}
If you’re already sold on the idea and fancy exploring the properties available, you can check them out here:
From the moment I arrived into my Homestay at Balbirs Apartment – I felt welcome. I immediately felt at home.
That’s one feeling you don’t get when you arrive to a perfectly placed, white sheeted empty hotel room.
Within minutes the kettle was on, and within half an hour we were walking along the nearby canal discussing the best corners of the city to explore, and the hidden gems that lay within it.
That’s 3 things already, that you don’t get when you book into a hotel.
My HomeStay Experience
Making a booking…
When choosing my accommodation on Homestay, I was first absolutely loving the low prices and the affordability the accommodation presented.
Seriously. Take a look for yourself…
Second though, I loved the ability to read a mini profile about the hobbies and interests of the host in question.
 
Quite obviously, a Homestay experience involves you staying in someones home, and so as much as you aren’t obligated to hang out with them {though you can}, it’s good to be living under similar standards / preferences.
For example: If you plan to have a crazy night out and come back at 3am each night…
1. You might rather stay in a hostel haha, and…
2. It may be more beneficial {and less conflicting} to find a host who enjoys nightlife too.
Perhaps someone in a younger age bracket and someone who doesn’t enjoy 6AM morning runs.
You get the jist.
I thought it was a great tool to enhance your experience and encourage perhaps a longer term friendship between you and your host.
Arriving at my Homestay…
Balbir, my host, was into health, fitness and mindfulness, 3 common areas of interest between us both.
Arriving home by bike from her day at work just before I arrived, Balbir greeted me warmly and showed me to my room.
After a quick tour of her clean, high ceilinged apartment, we went for a lovely 90 minute canal walk and upon our return, Balbir shared some of her books with me, one of which I read over breakfast the following morning.
My Homestay experience served the exact purpose IÂ required for my stay in Glasgow.
I had privacy when I was in, company if I wanted it, home comforts when i needed them, and the freedom to explore as much as I wanted – all under a low budget.
 
Homestay above all provides value for money and reduces the cost of travel… allowing you to travel more.
Happy, happy days!
I totally understand though that some of you guys don’t get much time off work and so when you do, you’re more than happy to splash out and would rather indulge in the luxury hotels, spas and all inclusives.
The concept of HomeStay isn’t going to suit every traveller, but it definitely suits me.
So, a little round up…
What’s so good about Homestay?
- If you’re going to be spending the majority of your time out exploring and don’t want to pay sky high fees for accommodation, Homestay will save you a load of money!
- Locals knowledge will uncover lots of hidden gems for you to explore
- Hosts will give you advice to avoid tourist traps and save even more money and time
- Not sure if every host does it, but Balbir had put a booklet together with advice on transport, city recommendations, places to get food and shop which was super handy.
- It’s even MORE affordable the longer you stay e.g. where I stayed…
Things to bear in mind about Homestay…
- There’s no guaranteed breakfast included like in a hotel, and if there is it could be more of a self service. At my homestay the were teas/coffee, bread, spreads, milk and a cupboard of about 5/6 cereals on offer.
- You don’t have a 24 hour reception for checking in. E.g. in my case, I had to wait until Balbir arrived home from work at 5pm to enter the property. {Totally understandable, but it did mean hanging around in the city for a bit}.
- You are in someones home and so there isn’t a communal bar / restaurant area to socialise in
- You must have respect for the host which will most likely mean not bringing people back to your room and not e.g. blasting music out of your speakers past a certain time at night.
All in all, the things to bear in mind aren’t that restricting and there are many alternatives to getting around them.
I absolutely loved my Homestay and will be most definitely adding it to my list of resources for booking affordable accommodation when i’m travelling the world.
Check out the properties and options available here…
Thank YOU guys for reading <3
Love as always + happy adventuring,
Mollie x
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