As someone who has lived in Berkeley for the last few years, you’d think that I’d be able to call San Francisco my backyard. But this past summer, I was asked by several people who were staying in the Bay area for just the summer what were the best places to see and I was drawing a blank.

When my recruiter generously gave me some credits to use Airbnb, I saw it as a great chance to try Airbnb for the first time and to explore the city from the eyes of a native.

I eagerly perused Airbnb’s SF offerings and fell in love with a charming loft in the Mission. It looked like the real San Francisco experience, complete with artwork I didn’t understand and creative uses of barrels. I excitedly booked the place and sent my host a quick message.

Come Saturday, I headed over to San Francisco with some friends looking forward to working on my Blueprint project and enjoying the day.

We headed over to Philz Coffee but not before stopping to grab some delicious waffles at Little Skillet.

Unfortunately while working I got a call from my Airbnb host telling me that he wouldn’t be able to host me today. Bummer. While he was canceling my reservation, I decided to look for another place to stay for the night. I was a little worried that I wouldn’t be able to find a place on such short notice, but fortunately Airbnb seemed to still have a plethora of options. I found another great place and sent a request to book it.

In the meantime, I received an unsolicited call from Airbnb inquiring about my two reservations for the night—my previous host hadn’t cancelled my reservation before I booked the new one. I explained the situation and she told me she would resolve this for me. I was really surprised by this. Honestly I was a little shocked. Normally customer support is something I try to avoid like the plague. But here, they called me and were more than helpful.

Shortly after, I received a confirmation message from my new host letting me know that everything was good to go. Whew.

After getting some solid work done and listening to Philz’s surprisingly good playlist, we decided to head over to Tacolicious, a trendy taco bar in the mission. Once again, the food was amazing!

As a San Diegan, I wholeheartedly approve! The food was excellent and we had a great variety of tacos.

After dinner, I headed over to my host’s apartment. I was warmly greeted by her wonderfully playful dog. Her apartment was lovely and was very tastefully decorated. We had a nice discussion about living in San Francisco, which I am considering after graduating next year. I especially loved the interesting, personal artwork that she had all over the apartment.

My host made me feel very welcome and the experience was far better than any hotel I have every stayed in. I felt like I got a really great sense of what living in San Francisco is like, which is exactly what I was looking for.

I later received an email from Airbnb telling me that my entire trip had been refunded because the last minute cancellation! Wow! I’m not sure what I enjoyed more: the day in San Francisco or the excellent customer support that Airbnb provided. In either case, I can’t wait to use both again! Airbnb ❤