Good usage of top AND left hand navigation?

I am trying to build a page that has search, a profile, a few pages and many sub-navigational pages within those pages. I was thinking of doing drop-down menus along the top, but felt a left side navigation may be better and allow the user to quickly jump through menus. Does anyone have good examples of this kind of navigation? I included the Airbnb screenshot as an example of what I am thinking. What are the best practices for this type of structure? Is there a better way of organizing the information? Would it be bad to have only 2 or 3 items in the left hand nav for some of the pages?

So many questions! Thanks for your help, all.