When your holiday plans are to stay in the cheapest rooms you can find, it's a good idea to keep your expectations low and your mind open. And then you get the kind of delightful surprise we had at Lefteris's place.
Set in the cobbled streets of Chania's old town, about a minute's walk from the fabulous harbour, the room is a spacious high-ceilinged affair with antique furniture and a great view of the neighborhood from its first-floor window.
The whole ground floor is a sitting area in what used to be the family home and now feels a little bit like a museum, with vintage photos of great grandparents and the same sofa that Lefteris was born on.
There's a rooftop view as well but we didn't venture up there because when we we arrived close to midnight in early January there was a terrible storm. So we made ourselves cosy in the room and enjoyed the takeaway food which Lefteris magically made appear, washed down with a bottle of wine which he decided we'd need to make the meal complete and which he didn't charge us for.
We would've stayed another night but the place was already booked, so Lefteris phoned some friends and found us an alternative which he negotiated at the same price we'd paid him.
I'm giving 5 stars for the place, and 10 stars for the hosting. Airbnb is often a bewilderingly impersonal and lonely way of visiting new places, presided over by impatient and sometimes quite resentful hosts. But Lefteris's approach made it feel more like we were in a lovely hotel sometime in the 80s.