She’s made Airbnbs across the country her home and office

When Nataliea Abramowitz’s lease expired in October 2020, she traded her cramped Los Angeles apartment for life on the road.

“I had been working from home since March, and it had been really difficult,” said the 25-year-old entertainment industry professional. “My roommate and I felt so much better for each other, and I was just trying to find a way to make my life a little more bearable in these really confusing and weird times.”

This brought her to the Airbnb short-term rental site.

“I first looked at Airbnb as a kind of joke, I didn’t really expect to find anything in my price range,” she said. “Before I knew it, I had made a list called ‘TTG’, which stood for ‘time to go’, and it had 50 houses.”

Abramowitz said she researched Airbnbs about nine hours away, offering more space than an apartment in Los Angeles at somewhat comparable prices.

“I was trying to find places that had yards and lots of space for my dog,” she said. “I realized there were all these different options of where I could live because I was working from home for the first time in my entire life.”

Abramowitz said she always contacted the hosts ahead of time to make sure her dog, Olive, was welcome. At 11 pounds, the “pure mutt” doesn’t take up much room anyway.

His first stop was Burly, Idaho. She then stayed at Airbnbs in Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Tennessee, Georgia, North Carolina and Ohio.

Round trip she covered about 6,485 miles, “not counting all the little side adventures I had,” she said.

The mix of work and travel has been a boon to Airbnb’s business. The company reported record income in the third quarter of 2021, largely driven by longer stay bookings. In a recent Press releaseAirbnb said 1 in 5 nights booked were for stays of 28 days or longer.

“For many Airbnbs, if you stay longer than a month, you get a 30% discount,” Abramowitz said. “So I was generally trying to always get to the point where I could get the cut.”

After about eight months of traveling across the country, Abramowitz’s employers solidified their plans to return to the office.

“I booked it from Columbus [Ohio] to make sure I was there to communicate with my team when we finally did,” she said.

Although her team’s in-person meetings are once again suspended, Abramowitz said she was hesitant to leave Los Angeles with so much uncertainty.

For now, she has joined the ranks of young adults who live with their parents, a club that grown up significantly during the coronavirus pandemic.

“I’m tentatively looking for new places to live, but it’s really hard for me to commit to LA after going through this experience,” she said. “I have so many other places I would like to see.”

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