Hi all,

The wife and I are planning a trip over to the dam and as we are staying for 8 nights we was thinking about renting an apartment this time

I was wondering if any of guys have used airbnb at all and if you have i was wondering if you could share what the experience was like.

Also, i usually change all my spending money up before i arrive in the dam and then store it in the hotel safe but ive noticed that the apartments dont have safes in them, so i was wondering what you guys did. Obviously the bulk of what i spend the money is cash only buisness so using my bank card wouldnt be appropriate most of the time. Ive never used ATM's over there so i dont know if you get a better or worse exchange rate and wether you end up paying more in fee's. Have also considered using travellers cheques.

Any input would be great guys.

Don

i was in the same exact situation as you. exchange the money at home for better exchange rates at the time i travelled they exchanged to me at home at 1.1335 dollar for each euro as opposed to 1.1415 that i would be paying at pot exchange in amsterdam, so do it at home. for my bank i had to withdraw money when i was there and they took about 3.5% extra money as fees, note that my bank account is lebanese and is in the dollar currency. i was going to take airbnb which my friends did, my friends found the airbnb appartment to be really nice but i just couldnt leave all the money lying around in my wallet or in the appartment without a safe and how would i know the appartment dude wont take them or something, to be honest it was a huge amount and i was paranoid so i booked a hotel. word of advice if its more than 5k just book a hotel, better to pay 500 euro more on a hotel than to lose all your money in the middle of your trip.. just my opinion though

You might have solved your problem already, but I'll add my input; Airbnb is great, as a matter of fact I'm staying in one right now. All different prices, all differnent locations. Pay attention to the guests' reviews though, they're usually pretty accurate. As far as money goes, you don't need to change anything before you go, if you don't want to. There are ATMs everywhere, and they give you the best exchange; they might charge a fee, as in the states, but there's no commission or any of that bullshit. ALL the airbnbs I've stayed in are TOTALLY safe, no need to worry about leaving anything lying around; you really need to carry only little cash, and just get more when you need it. Also, MasterCard and Visa are used, more rare is AMex.. hope this helps...

If you are carrying around enough money that you are worried about it, you are doing something wrong. ATMs are fine and you are on vacation, so save the hassle and the worry and pay the fees and exchange rates otherwise you are going to waste a lot of effort when you could be relaxing and enjoying your vacation. Sure it is a cash business, but there are ATMs everywhere these days and they are up to task.

P.S. although I have not used Airbnb in Amsterdam I have used VRBO with great success.