Find the ideal apartment, hotel or house for rent for vacation or travel can be tricky, but a couple had a five-star experience when a woman rented a room on Airbnb.
Jim Gonzales credits the popular vacation rental service for meeting his wife, and in a viral post on LinkedIn who saw thousands of reactions, he shared their heartwarming story.
The online short-term vacation rental service Airbnb was founded in 2008. Today, it has listings in more than 220 regions and more than 6 million active listings around the world.
Gonzales hosted a room in his parents’ house in San Diego. Described as a “clean minimalist room,” it attracted hundreds of guests and was often fully booked — after all, it only cost $39 a night.
Jim Gonzales
But one guest was about to change everything. Priscilla Nianhezi Liu, a recent graduate student, was looking to show her parents around California on a trip from China.
When they booked the room for the night, Gonzales was about to turn down the reservation because he had been very busy, but eventually agreed because he needed the money.
But this one night stay would eventually lead to a beautiful relationship and marriage.
Gonzales said Newsweek: “I tease Priscilla that it was ‘love at first sight.’ .”
After Liu and her parents stayed in the room for one night, Gonzales texted a few days later to ask how the trip was going.
“She didn’t answer me for a few days because there was no reception in Sequoia,” he explained. “She eventually responded, and the texting started to happen.”
The couple exchanged messages about travel and food, something they are both passionate about. After texting daily for a few weeks, Gonzales called Liu on his birthday.
“It was always easy for me to talk to her and it never felt awkward on the phone,” he said. “Eventually she told me she would be moving to Los Angeles and we had planned to meet.”
Exactly a month after they first met, the couple went on their first date.
“Every time we went on a date, it felt like we had known each other a lot longer,” Gonzales said.
A relationship quickly blossomed between the two, and three years later they booked an Airbnb together in New Orleans.
“The plan was to come full circle,” Gonzales said. “I messaged her through the app and told her how I felt, then I came downstairs, knelt down and said, ‘Do you want to travel the world with me and marry me?’ She said yes, and the rest is history.”
The unusual love story delighted LinkedIn users, with commenters writing that the meeting was “fate” and wishing the couple well.
“I had no idea I would meet my wife through Airbnb,” Gonzales said. “But I’m grateful to have met my soul mate in the most extraordinary way.”
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