A better getaway? Tennis pros tuck into Airbnb.com

Nick McCarvel | Special for USA TODAY Sports

PARIS — At this year's French Open, American Irina Falconi has amenities that include blackout blinds on the windows and a bathtub for post-match soaks, as well as a Parisian garden to wake up to every morning.

Her commute to Roland Garros is just 10 minutes by foot in this well-to-do area of the city's leafy 16th arrondissement. But Falconi, 25, is not staying at a five-star boutique hotel. Instead, she booked her apartment on the accommodation website, Airbnb.com.

Worn down by weeks of staying in non-descript hotels at tour destinations around the world, tennis players are using Airbnb (and other websites like it) more than ever to save money, tailor stays to their needs and feel more at home while on the road.

"Airbnb is key," said doubles No. 1 Mike Bryan. His wife, Lucille, booked their place in Paris as they rode in on a train from London last week. "Most everyone on tour is using it now."

"With any place of your own, if you like to cook and you don't need fresh towels from a maid everyday, it's perfect," said Falconi, who qualified for the third round Thursday. "It's like your own little getaway. It makes you feel like you're at home. My place here, it feels very French."

Players travel upwards of 30 weeks a year in a schedule that is increasingly global. While most ATP and WTA tour events provide them with hotel rooms, the Grand Slams, which are sanctioned by the International Tennis Federation, hand out daily allowances for housing. At the French Open, it's 300 Euros (about $328) for players in the main draw.

Bob Bryan, Mike's twin brother and doubles partner, brings his wife and two kids along, making travel more expensive — and complicated.

"One of the tournament hotels here was charging $380 a night. It's way better to stay on our own," he said. "It's more economical if you want to cook or if you have a coach and trainer that stay with you, too."

The cooking part is key. Professional athletes follow very specific diets, and for players like the Bryan brothers and Australia's Sam Stosur, runner-up here in 2010, the ability to make and control their own meals is appealing.

"Not having to go out all the time to eat ... that's big," said Stosur, who won the U.S. Open in 2011. "You can have breakfast in your pajamas if you want. Those simple, easy things that, yeah, it feels you're more at home."

Wimbledon is perhaps the tournament where competitors stay at apartments — or flats, in Britain — instead of hotels the most, renting places in the surrounding village of London's famed SW19 neighborhood. Former player Leif Shiras remembers Ivan Lendl as one of the first to rent a house close to the All England Club.

"We would all stay in the city center, in hotels," said Shiras, a Tennis Channel commentator. "It was standard. Now, the tours are aged older, so you have more families traveling. They want a place more than a hotel room to set up camp."

"I love it," added American Tim Smyczek, the world No. 73. "We have an apartment just five minutes from here. I'm paying less than half than I would for a hotel."

It's not for every player, however. American Sloane Stephens said she prefers hotels ("I'm just used to a hotel setting," she said), and Taylor Townsend, another American, told a story of a questionable Airbnb host in New York at the U.S. Open last year.

"(Our host) walked outside and he greeted us and he had no shoes on," a laughing Townsend said, before explaining that there were specific instructions for the apartment's cat. "After that I was like, 'I think hotels are a safer (option).'"

Budget-conscious players like Falconi and tour friends Nicole Gibbs and Shelby Rogers have found larger three- and four-bedroom places around Wimbledon for rates of $200 to $300 a night. The houses allow players to bring along family and friends.

"If you have a coach, then you need a second bedroom, but if your parents or boyfriend are coming, a third or fourth," said Falconi, who earned around $119,000 in prize money in 2014. An average player spends around $150,000 in annual costs associated with being a traveling pro.

"Those costs can really pile up," said Falconi, the world No. 85. She'll play Germany's Julia Goerges on Saturday. "I've learned the tricks of the trade now. I want a grocery store nearby and to be in a nice neighborhood. I'm pretty specific on what I go after."

Airbnb stresses a sense of belonging on its website. In an email to USA TODAY Sports, a company spokesperson said Airbnb "allows players, and the groups they travel with, to feel at home everywhere they go."

This week Falconi's experience has again been positive. "The gentleman that I booked with, he's already calling me a Roland Garros champion, asking me why I didn't book for two weeks. I told him it didn't work like that," she said, laughing.

But if she needs to, she can extend.

"At the end of the day, you're still saving money," Falconi said. "But you also build relationships with the hosts. They cut you some slack and let you make changes last minute. If I book for longer, shoot, I can enjoy Paris for a couple of days."