The Best of Airbnb

There was a warm brick-oven pizza waiting for us when we reached Syl’s apartment in Paddington late in the evening after a long and eventful 15 hour flight. A petite lady with a beaming personality, Syl is a designer having her studio on the ground floor of a hundred year old one-storey building on a heritage street.

The apartment itself is a very cozy one for our family of four, but Syl’s hospitality more than made up for it. She had stocked up her kitchen for us with fresh vegetables, fruits, milk, bread and most of the other essentials. And she had got books and toys for the kids, and even slippers and pre-loaded Opal bus and ferry cards.

Over the course of our stay she surprised us with a dinner voucher for one of the best Italian restaurants in the town, a pretty dress that she designed for Thing 1, and a Japanese scarf that she designed for Deepa. She offered to do our laundry, not once but multiple times. Who does all of that?

She has set the bar really high. It’s now to see if any other Airbnb hosts come close in matching her hospitality.