Originally Posted by iahphx

I'm still not a huge fan of Airbnb, but it''s grown so large that it's virtually impossible to ignore if you're visiting an unusual location or need a vacation rental. I have a couple of winter "island vacation" trips planned and Airbnb was pretty much the only game in town. Airbnb and the VRBO website seem to have driven some vacation rental realtors out of the game. I do like how I'm able to apply discounted airbnb gift cards for my stay -- usually at around 20% off -- but for longer/more expensive gift cards, it's sometimes hard to find the discounted cards when you need them (I'm reluctant to prospectively load hundreds of dollars in Airbnb gift cards to my account, since my usage of their site is erratic). I do like the fact that they now seem to let you pay 1/2 for your rental now, and half later (no fee for this). That gives me time to round up more discounted gift cards, which I assume I can easily use to pay off the balance of my rental when the bill comes due. I'm also using my Discover card bonus category spending (5% and 10% for $1500, usually with gift cards) to redeem for "free" airbnb gift cards when I need them, which they sell to you at a 10% discount.