Kristen Bell Shares Her Hack For Picking the Perfect Airbnb
If the stress of 2020 has you looking for a quick escape, you might find yourself browsing through Airbnb listings with longing. Of course, every rental on the site is going to sound fantastic, and it’ll be filled with pictures taken from just the right angle to hide the horrors that could be lurking right around the corner that you can’t see.
There are some real gems available on the property rental site, but finding them is something of an art form. Luckily, the always-helpful and hilariously transparent Kristen Bell is willing to share her tips for finding the perfect Airbnb rental.
Kristen Bell has built a great personal rapport with fans
Some celebrities like to keep a low profile and avoid social media entirely in order to avoid having prying fans too far into their private business. Bell is not one of those celebrities.
The actor who is best known for her television work on series like Veronica Mars and The Good Place and providing the voice of Anna in Frozen has a reputation for sharing honest — and hilarious — glimpses into her life with fans. Bell, who is married to fellow actor Dax Shepherd and has two daughters, frequently takes to social media to share less-than-perfect moments of parenting and marriage.
Recently, Bell and Shepherd opened up about Shepherd’s relapse with drug addiction, and fans were largely supportive of their efforts both to manage the addiction and to provide awareness around the issue. In less serious moments, Bell frequently showcases her parenting mishaps as a way to demonstrate her down-to-earth nature.
Kristen Bell opens up about traveling tips
In an interview for Travel + Leisure, Bell extended her honesty about parenting to traveling tips. Interviewer Lindsay Tigar called Bell “every bit as optimistic, bubbly, and funny” as she’d imagined her to be.
Bell shared about her and Shepherd’s efforts to keep their family entertained during the pandemic. While this included picnics in the backyard and their suburban alley, they also booked Airbnb rentals that were within a quick drive of their home.
Their pandemic explorations have included several places that were new to them around their Californian home. They’ve visited Lake Arrowhead, Indio, Fallbrook, and Temecula, staying in a rental house for each trip. Bell has created a “quaranpod” with another family, and they’ve become travel companions.
Picking the perfect Airbnb takes skill
Bell had plenty of tips to share with would-be travelers. She suggests stickers and snacks to keep kids busy.
To de-stress during a trip, she relies on an eye mask and CBD. She has plenty of jet-setting plans once travel opens back up, but in the meantime, it will be more of the short jaunts to local Airbnbs for her family.
When it comes to picking the perfect Airbnb, Bell shares that the most important thing is making sure that the size fits the group. One rental they used in Indio had lots of space to spread out.
“It had little rooms situated outside around a little community swimming pool that all the apartment areas could use,” Bell explained.
They also look for unique properties that are going to give them a memorable experience. Their Lake Arrowhead rental, for instance, was a mansion with secret passageways where they could crawl to other rooms through trapdoors.
Maybe a real-life version of the Clue board isn’t necessarily what you’re looking for, but Bell’s suggestion to really consider the size of the rental helps ensure that the experience will give everyone the space they need to truly spread out and relax. After all, isn’t that what a vacation is for?
