In recent years, Kim, Lucas and I have enjoyed staying at places listed on Airbnb from time to time. Find out about our (first) awesome experience in Singapore here.
The main reasons we like using the site are reasonable prices for rooms in good locations as well as getting a closer look at the where people live and more interaction with locals at the destinations.
Last November there was a deal with Amex Offers for $50 off $100 with Airbnb.
With the Amex Offer, I bought $400 in gift cards for only $200! I used some of the credits to book some stays during our trip to Cuba over winter break 2015/16.
I still have a good amount of credit left on my account but I just came across a way to earn 5X miles or points with Airbnb when my credits run out.
Like many of you, I head over to Staples with my Chase Ink card to buy gift cards to earn 5X points. (The Chase Ink card earns 5X points at office supply stores for those of you unfamiliar with the card.)
I typically purchase Amazon, Shell and Whole Foods gift cards at Staples.
On a recent visit, I came across Airbnb gift cards for sale!
If you’re planning to book a stay and you have an Ink card, you might as well head over to Staples to buy some gift cards to pay for your bookings! Why not get rewarded 5X if you can!
Have you ever stayed with Airbnb? If so did you have a positive experience?
Get a $35 Airbnb credit: If you’ve never used Airbnb before and are thinking of signing up for an account, please consider using my invite link. You’ll receive $35 off your first stay! In return, I’ll receive a $35 credit once you complete your stay.
At the near end of 2018, are these gf’s still for sale and viable? From other vendors besides Staples?
HeavenlyJane- Interesting that you had such troubles. I’ve used some of my Airbnb credits without issue. Hopefully there aren’t problems in the future.
Cody- I don’t really bother with Ebay much but I might need to check the site out more in the future.
WhyNaomiTravels- Awesome and good tip!
Started doing that about 3 months ago 🙂 Word of caution is that you don’t have protection of credit card for cancellations…so make sure to look for flexible properties. I’m in DFW.
Any reason why you wouldn’t simply grab some from ebay/PPDG – still using Ink to get 5X ? Especially today given bonus bucks offer.
Adam- That really stinks! It’s probably best to load cards here and there to Airbnb once you know you’ll be booking rooms with them. The problem there is potentially having too much credit in your account. If that happens, it’s an excuse to book more stays!
JB- I saw them in Brooklyn, NY. It was the first time I ever saw Airbnb GCs at Staples.
Michael, even if you load your GCs to Airbnb, they still remain stored as individual credits. Airbnb still has a problem when you try to use multiple credits on a single reservation. All this tangled mess is invisible to the user, who only sees the total sum of all their credit on their account. Their system is pretty antiquated for such a new company.
I had to undergo a huge “Trust and Safety” audit when I tried to use my Amex Deal credits from last November.
What city/state did you see the Airbnb GC’s? Haven’t seen them in MN yet.
Word of caution: Been attempting to do this for about $700 for a trip to Madrid. The Airbnb website has a hard time adding cards in amounts above $200 or so as it considers it a fraudulent attempt and will block you from adding more cards. Airbnb support has been friendly and understanding, but ultimately useless in lifting the fraud alert block. It has taken about 10 days to load all the cards into the account, during which time the place we wanted was scooped up by someone else. Very frustrating and disappointing.