Your honeymoon will be a once-in-a-lifetime experience, a trip for just you and your partner that will create lasting memories. With this in mind, it’s no wonder that many couples are turning away from hotels and resorts in their destination city and looking towards Airbnb when thinking about accommodations.
Airbnb allows homeowners in cities all over the world to rent out spare bedrooms, lofts, guest or pool houses or even the whole home itself out to travelers staying awhile or just passing through. Instead of staying in a hotel that’s likely in the touristy area of the city, guests can get a feel for what it’s like to live there as a local while enjoying the creature comforts of a house. You may not have housekeeping services as you would at a hotel, but you get to enjoy the privacy of a house as well as any cool amenities that the house offers such as a pool, hot tub or private beach access. Because the house will be in a neighborhood, you can explore bars and restaurants off the beaten path and see the city not just from the tourist angle, but from a local one as well. Depending on the property chosen, renting on Airbnb can sometimes be cheaper than staying in a hotel, and you also send your money right to locals instead of the corporations that own the big-name hotels.
If you have your heart set on an Airbnb-based honeymoon, then you’ll need to create an Airbnb wedding registry to go along with it. Here’s what you need to know.
How to create an Airbnb honeymoon registry
The easiest way to create a registry grounded in Airbnb-related experiences is to build a honeymoon registry. A honeymoon registry, much like a traditional wedding registry, lets users add wedding gifts to a single platform, but instead of adding toasters and towels, you’re adding spa packages, dinners out on the town and Airbnb stays. Basically, your honeymoon registry will look like a traditional wedding registry, but all of the gifts will be related to your honeymoon.
The honeymoon registry grew in popularity as couples decided to wait until later in life to get married and as they began paying for their own celebrations. When people wait longer to tie the knot, they usually have the home goods basics already, and they don’t need replacements or upgrades. But now that they’re paying for their dream weddings, there needs to be a balancing act between wedding and honeymoon expenses — and that can be tough to manage as you don’t want to max out credit cards or overspend.
That’s where honeymoon registries like Hitchd come into play. With Hitchd, you can register for physical (think luggage), experience or cash fund gifts, and you can access your gift funds as soon as someone buys you a gift from your registry. In our research, we’ve found that most honeymoon funds receive the majority of their contributions within a few days of the wedding itself, but if you receive gifts earlier than that, then you can access your money when you need it to book Airbnbs or other experiences.
Here’s how to build an Airbnb registry in just a few simple steps.
Step 1: Create an account
Getting started with Hitchd, as well as other honeymoon registry platforms, is as easy as providing an email, password and the basic wedding information (your names and the date of the wedding). Once you have an account set up, you can start building a honeymoon registry that fits your needs.
Step 2: Write out an introduction
Your honeymoon registry introduction should cover three things:
- Welcome guests to your honeymoon registry and thank them for coming;
- Provide the very basic details of your wedding — the date, the location and the time, and;
- Include links to other wedding-related sites such as a wedding website or a small traditional wedding registry, if you have them.
If you’re hitting a bad case of writer’s block, don’t sweat it. Hitchd offers a number of introduction templates to help get you started. You can simply sub in your own information or use it as a starting point.
For those couples who are designing a honeymoon based around the Airbnb locations, then you’ll want to include a little more information in the introduction. Give a brief note as to why you’re choosing to stay in Airbnbs over a hotel and why that experience will be special or meaningful to you and your partner. Explain why this is important to you and how excited you are to be seeing your destination city like a local.
It’s not that you need to explain yourself to your guests, but providing more details can get them excited for you and encourage them to contribute to your dream honeymoon.
Step 3: Add your gifts
You to add as many gifts as you’d like to your honeymoon registry through Hitchd, and as mentioned, you can choose physical, experience or cash fund gifts.
Most honeymoon registries are primarily made up of experience-based gifts (Airbnbs, city tours, dining), but some couples find it helpful to add a few physical gifts and a cash fund. Most of the physical gifts are honeymoon-related, such as new luggage or airport essentials like neck pillows or headphones. Cash funds are essentially money pools in which guests can give whatever amount they would like. If they’re one of the last ones to buy a gift and the registry is looking sparse, then they can always add whatever amount they’d like to the cash fund. Even wellwishers not invited to the wedding can contribute to the cash fund. Coworkers, volunteer friends or other acquaintances who don’t know you well enough to go to your wedding but still wish you well will probably throw in a bit to the cash fund.
Step 4: Finalise your honeymoon registry
Now that all the gifts you want have been added, it’s time to set your honeymoon registry to live. If you’re using Hitchd, all that’s left to do is pay the one-time fee and set up how you would like to receive your gift money. Hitchd allows for credit and debit cards, cash apps and even bitcoins and cheques.
The dos and don’ts of an Airbnb honeymoon registry
When building an Airbnb honeymoon registry, you want to keep gratitude and thankfulness at the heart of every gift. Here are the dos and don’ts of creating a successful Airbnb honeymoon registry.
Do provide links to the Airbnb(s) where you’ll be staying
If you’re staying at more than one Airbnb, make each one a separate gift and provide a link to the home or property. This lets your guests live vicariously through you and see for themselves what fabulous accommodations you’ll be enjoying.
Don’t just ask for Airbnb gift cards
It may seem easier just to ask for Airbnb gift cards instead highlighting properties where you’ll be staying, but gift cards can be a problematic wedding gift. Some guests feel they’re impersonal and while others feel that asking for gift cards is as rude as asking for cash. Gift cards also tie your money to Airbnb, and if you need to cancel an Airbnb reservation or use a different home-renting service such as Vrbo, then you won’t be able to use the gift card at all.
Do send thank-yous
Hitchd keeps track of who gave you which gift, and the platform allows you to send emailed thank-you cards. Send those right away after someone has given you a gift — it’ll make them feel seen and appreciated — but don’t forget to send a physical thank-you after the wedding.
Don’t lump an Airbnb into just one expense — break it up into smaller amounts
A multi-night stay at an Airbnb will be an expensive gift for any guest. INstead of asking for a $400 or $500 gift, break it down into smaller amounts and let multiple people contribute to one gift. Five of your friends might pay $100 each or four unrelated guests might chip in to pay for the gift.
Airbnb can help you design the honeymoon that you’ve always wanted. You’ll be able to see your destination city like a local, and if your host is friendly, you might even make new friends on your trip. You’ll also be able to enjoy the comforts and privacy of being in a home as opposed to a hotel, and you can enjoy the amenities as much as you’d like.
Ready to get started with Hitchd? Here’s how to start building your Airbnb wedding registry.
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