I must confess I was apprehensive about booking an AirBnB house in Las Vegas for a weekend with my family both in the U.S. and the Philippines. We were attending a family reunion with relatives coming all the way from different parts of the U.S., including Hawaii, Canada and as far away as the Phiippines. In my case, I had a brother and a sister, her husband and daughter flying halfway around the world to join the family reunion

The most convenient thing to do was book three or four hotel rooms for my family. But I thought renting a house might turn out to be a better experience, and cheaper, too. And so I dove into a search for a fitting house in Vegas through AirBnB.

I picked the house on Henderson NV based on the images and reviews I saw on the AirBnB website. It was a calculated risk. The website pictures could just as easily be the opposite as the reality on the ground. I had to make a positive impression on my family, most especially my 81-year old mother who is living in the East Coast.

I am glad I made the decision to go AirBnB and pick this house. I booked for 2 nights. I wish we stayed there for a week. Living there while in Vegas was a memorable experience in itself. Both inside and outside, the house was beautifully designed and well furnished. The ambience was almost like an expensive suite in a 5-star hotel. The refrigerator and cabinets in the kitchen were well-stocked. The airconditioning was excellent; even in the sweltering heat of Las Vegas last weekend, the interior of the house was so cool.

The bedrooms were neatly prepared. In a manner of speaking, it was a home fit for a royal family. And that’s how precisely my mother, siblings, I and my wife felt during the three days we were there. We had family who stayed in hotels, and when they came to visit us there, they remarked how lucky we were staying there.

Yeah, when we had to leave back for L.A. on Sunday, everybody felt a longing to stay longer. It was a weekend of discovery, not only in exploring the nightlife of Vegas but also the feeling that we were all at home in this house.