Airbnb: A room with a view into people's lives

HAVE you ever been in a house so rich with history, the walls seem to whisper their stories? My sister and I were in Nuwara Eliya in Sri Lanka two weeks ago, where we stayed in an Airbnb apartment. It was a beautiful one, too, a colonial bungalow near Gregory Lake and the town centre. I think we were sold by the house's fireplace that previous travellers raved about in their reviews. They said the owner of the house lit it for them on chilly evenings.

We were driven to the residence by its owner Asela, a jovial bespectacled businessman in his thirties, down a pebbled and meandering driveway.

Stepping into the house was like stepping back in time. The brass and wood furniture, old paintings and vases of daffodils felt distinctly English, but ethnic ornaments in…