Something in the air but not the usual B&B
Fancy relaxing with a glass of fizz in the grounds of a stately home? Or do you feel more at home wrapped up in a sleeping bag enjoying the great outdoors?
For those looking for a getaway and the chance to stay somewhere different, Airbnb is becoming an increasingly popular way to find the perfect holiday accommodation.
As well as providing alternatives to traditional hotels and bed and breakfasts, it has given homeowners to chance to make money from renting out everything from single rooms to entire houses or flats.
Hosts can list their room or property on the website and name their price. Travellers can then look through the available listings and choose where they want to stay.
Guests say the benefits include having a much wider selection, whatever their budget, when looking for somewhere to stay and being able to contact the owners directly through the website.
Airbnb launched in 2008 and now boasts three million listings throughout the globe in more than 65,000 cities and 191 countries across the world.
Many are modest homes but there are also many unusual properties such as a luxury treehouse in Georgia, Atlanta, a house boat in Amsterdam and a whole private island near Ottawa, Canada.
It recent years, Airbnb has taken off here too and last summer alone 1.6 million guests were welcomed for stays the UK.
And it has certainly been embraced by hundreds of homeowners across the Black Country, Staffordshire and Shropshire, who have listed everything from their spare rooms and family homes to gardens, shepherd's huts and luxury pads in stately houses.
