Eight nights in Barcelona

This post is brought to you by Airbnb.

MWC Barcelona is the biggest mobile tech show of the year, and for the past 7 years we’ve been making the long journey out to Spain to give you the best coverage possible. This year, we thought we’d share this journey with you so you can get a small taste of what goes on behind the scenes when we cover big events like these.

When we travel to big events like these, it’s usually an all-hands-on-deck kind of situation, which means we often go in a pretty big group of about six to seven people. And, when we do that, one of the most important things we need is good accommodation. That’s why we’ve always stayed in Airbnbs because they offer a wide variety of options, are good for big groups, and often fit within our budget. This year, thanks to Airbnb, we were able to get a really sweet apartment in Gracia, which was just perfect for our needs.

For starters, the location was awesome. It was a short three minute walk to the nearest metro station, with plenty of buses nearby. This meant that when the chaos of MWC begins, we wouldn’t need to worry about how we were going to get there. It was also important for us to have plenty of space, both to sleep in, and also to work, and our Airbnb absolutely delivered. We were able to leverage the huge dining table to get work done, and as a nice bonus feature, the space also came with a solid WiFi connection so we could always get online.

Food was easy to manage too because our Airbnb had a fully equipped kitchen. When we really hunker down and get to work, we often don’t have time to go out and eat, so it’s paramount that we have a place to cook. Something you just can’t do in hotels. Then, there’s the truly unique feature of our spot in Gracia: A rooftop patio. Not only did it have a killer view, the rooftop also served as a great set we could use to film our videos.

Our apartment in Gracia was really just the perfect hub for us to run our operations during the busiest week of our year. And this is an experience you simply can’t get outside of Airbnb. It was functional and convenient when we needed to work, but also comfortable and homely enough for us to wind down at night.

It’s the kind of home-away-from-home that you really can’t get anywhere else. And that’s why we always travel with Airbnb.

Photography by Zachary Yoong with the Sony A7 III.