🏡 Finding Apartments for Slow Travel

Airbnb, Booking, Facebook… Our techniques to find apartments at -50%.

In slow travel mode (1 to 2 months per city), the accommodation search strategy is very different from a simple weekend Airbnb booking.

📅 Book by the month, not by the night

On both Airbnb and Booking, hosts almost always offer a monthly discount (often 20 to 40%) that only shows up once you select dates covering 28 days or more. A lot of travelers never see it because they don’t push the search that far.

👥 Local Facebook groups

In most major cities/touristy regions, there are Facebook groups like “Expats in [city]” or “Long term rental [city]”. That’s often where the best prices are, direct with the owner, no platform commission.

💬 Negotiate directly

Once you’ve found a place you like on Airbnb/Booking, nothing stops you from contacting the host to ask if they have an equivalent place available directly (so no platform fees, ~15-20% less). Many say yes, especially for longer stays.

🔍 What we systematically check before booking

• Actual internet speed (ask for a speedtest screenshot, not just “wifi available”)
• Proximity to shops/market (to cook at home and cut the food budget)
• Recent reviews (less than 3 months old) rather than the overall rating

💰 Potential savings

€200 to €500/month compared to a standard nightly booking, depending on the destination.

How long are you going for? Tell us your destination, we can share our take if we’ve been there: romain.steph@ourlifeabroad.com