Would you stay in an AirBnB?

BAN OP....Go get a therapist who will listen to your every meaningless whim...

Not anymore. Airbnbs have gotten too expensive, the apartments are soulless IKEA dumps, often poorly or not soundproofed.

They were wonderful in the beginning, but now I prefer a hotel.

I guess if I had to, but the idea isn't appealing to me at all.

I don't worry about the AirBnbs as much as the money laundering assholes who buy shit and leave it empty just to turn it over for even more. Most of them need to die

Yes, Airbnb was great in the past but now is full of scams and fraud.

Usually not worth the hassle. Frequently something wrong… difficult to find, hot water doesn’t work properly, scratchy bedding, inconvenient checkin cut off, tedious booking process, etc., etc. I think hotel prices have dropped relative to AirBnB too.

I have in the past. I make sure I do my research. I’ve only had good experiences. There’s one place I really like when I visit family up north. It’s a small cabin with a private hot tub in the woods. The only drawback is a lengthy to do list before I leave. Like put on a load of laundry. Strip the beds. WTF?

R7 I hate when they do that! That’s what the cleaning fee is meant to cover. If it was significantly cheaper than a hotel then fair enough maybe. It’s usually not cheaper anymore and they don’t tell you before you book. If you don’t do it then you will likely get a bad review.

Also: the hidden fees.

Service fee.

Cleaning fee.

Only visible AFTER you select a place for more details, never included in the price shown upfront. It would take less than two hours to display the actual, final price on the front page.

But nope — Airbnb wants to resort to cheap “gotcha!” tricks.

I’ve had good luck with VRBO as well.

-- Signs posted all over the place with dos and don'ts, like some Soviet-era hostel.

-- Often rigid check-in rules making a work-around for a delayed flight impossible.

-- Finding out the toilet is three floors down, and often occupied.

-- Having to read very carefully between the lines of the reviews. "And the owner's cute dog can be so playful!" = "Watch out. He bites!"

Unregulated, so, no, i wouldn't stay in an air BNB

I've stayed at airbnbs. I only stay at SuperHost places, people with a track history. I like Airbnbs as opposed to hotels because I can take things at my pace on vacation. I can stop and shop for breakfast items, linger in the morning if I want to before going out. In a hotel, you always have to be up and at 'em so they can get in and clean the room. Everyday that's a hassle. I like living like a local in the places that I travel. And if you do you research, I have had nothing but good experiences.

Dl faves Joel & Lia are always renting them in cities all over America I always think how depressing and echoey they look - I'd rather stay in a cheap motel on the highway, personally. Maybe if it were for weeks I'd do it.

True, R13, you can still find gems. This goes for not-too-touristy destinations, in particular. Also: The Airbnb accommodations in Asia tend to be very nice. My friend and I rented a lovely villa near Chiang Mai for €40 per person per night.

For city trips I go with hotels. There's something so rewarding about coming back to your hotel at the end of the afternoon, having walked for miles and miles through, say, Sevilla, and everything is taken care of. The bed is made, fresh towels delivered, it's quiet.. Wonderful!

It depends on the city. I stayed in an $80 a night Manhattan airbnb where the hallways smelled like garbage and the shared toilet was in some horrible little closet in the hallway. I probably saved $70 by not staying a in hotel. I've had better experiences in less touristy cities like Helsinki. I think airbnbs are useful but you should always check them against the price of a hotel and ask yourself if it's worth it.

Agree with R13 and R15. It depends on the nature of the trip whether I would consider an AirBnB, but often o prefer hotels.

It does take a lot more search filtering and effort to locate an AirBnB that's more than just its location. Too many are simply investment properties with Ikea furniture, poor maid service, costs cut everywhere on furnishings, useless kitchens beyond maybe a refrigerator, and a lot of logistical hurdles at check-in and check-out, and increasingly a lot of house rules everywhere that come from a place of "don't".

In years past AirBnBs were quirkily personal, from the basic shared flat to a luxury pied-a-terre rented out when the owners were not using it; often they were solutions with what to do with the guest house, or how to pay the mortgage while on assignment in another city for a year. Now it seems a huge middle ground of small ill-furnished apartments fitted out in worn Ikea furniture, not about "experience," and not about "live like a local" unless by that you mean a tourist.

If I'm visiting a city with friends for a long weekend, AirBnB can be a good option, maybe better than a hotel suite. If I'm more than a few days in a city and want to explore a particular neighborhood or area, especially more residential neighborhoods it's a strong possibility. If it's a city where all the hotels are in a financial district that's geared to business people, AirBnB may be a good choice. It's rarely a cheap choice, finding a better choice among the huge middle ground comes at a price, a price that in many cities is comparable to a good, well located hotel with a sitting room and maybe a small kitchenette for coffee and storing cold drinks, and a stack of plates and glasses and silverware.

It's not that AirBnB is horrible, it's that it takes money and effort to find the places that offer a good experience, that make you feel welcome as a guest rather than chastised with do's and don'ts at ever turn and text messages reminding you to hurry out early so the maid can turn over the place in 20 minutes for the next arrivals. The AirBnB personal 4xperience is now likely to ignore your repeated advance request for 2 sets of keys to a 3 bedroom €450+/day apartment and then tell you "impossible" in person when you arrive.

I've used AirBnBs for years, probably 50 different ones, and I can honestly say I've never had a bad experience.

I typically travel with a couple of friends or family members, rather than just with my partner, and for that purpose, AirBnB is so much better than a hotel: you can get a place with multiple bedrooms and a private common area to have breakfast or drinks in the evening. Plus, I prefer actual privacy rather than walking through a hotel lobby full of people (this was even more important to me when I had young kids whom I didn't want to be herding amid bunches of strangers).

It's like everything else: you need to look carefully at what you're booking and do your research, just as you would do for a hotel: you don't want the hotel to give you the room next to the elevator and opening onto the busy street, and you don't want your AirBnB to be that way either.

R18 absolutely: When travelling in groups, AirBnB is wonderful and surprisingly cost-effective.

I've never had a bad experience either, in medium and large European cities, and have rebooked apartments years later.

For a short stay, no, it’s not worth it. Especially in the US. But I have been traveling around Latin America for the past year and when you get a monthly discount, then it can be a good deal. Of course one must be very diligent about reading the reviews and checking the location. I had a couple bad experiences when I started, but 90% have been fine or even better than the pictures.

This is the view from my Airbnb in Capri. I have stayed there four times since 2017. If any hotels had the same view, they would be three times as much a night, I am sure. I would go grocery shopping for breakfast foods and enjoy a nice leisurely morning at home then head out into town when the day trippers had come and gone.

Stunning. Heaven on earth.

Gorgeous, R22!