I don't understand the whole value proposition of Airbnb; and would never use it willingly myself. The prices are often more than what you'd pay for a hotel, the security and reliability is often less, and then if these sorts of things happen, you then have to haggle with case managers for a he-said-she-said type of situation.
Same thing with Uber — at least there, you get the convenience compared to having to call a taxi. What exactly do you get from Airbnb?
I travel for business lots, and the last thing I need to worry about is having to deal with these sorts of issues. Having a hotel and a car rental is so much easier and reliable.
I never understood appeal of AirBnB. We used to travel a lot and thought AirBnB would be cheaper to equivalent hotels but it usually is about same or more expensive but with less amenities.
For example:
* There is no room service. You can order delivery but room service has certain charms especially at 2AM.
* In hotels, you come back to a clean room at the day's end.
* There is cleaning fee for many AirBnB. With hotels, you just leave a tip but no need to leave the place in perfect condition to avoid cleaning fee.
* If you have any issues with your room, hotel will relocate you to new room quickly.
* Concierge services, shuttle services, pools, etc are really nice to haves even if we don't use them.
* You are with other travellers in hotel. Very easy to meet new people and share some experience or tips.
Some of my friends get AirBnB in suburbs to save money but then they are renting cars or taking Uber everywhere which probably adds up to same price. Also when traveling I don't want to feel like I am back in 'burbs.
- Want to rent an entire house in some specific area
- Want to rent something as cheap as possible / on a strapped budget.
Very cheap travel/plane tickets and accommodation has made international travel very accessible for a lot of people around the globe. So I can absolutely see why some people swear to using airbnb - but for me? I'll rather pay the extra $50 for a hotel room. That's chump change for peace of mind, IMO.
I cannot understand the high appeal of AirBNB. It is obviously quite popular but it doesn't seem useful for much more than certain niches.
My major gripe is that if I want to stay somewhere that has a high number of reviews and a superhost the cost per night from my experience is comparable to a mid-low end hotel (e.g Holiday Inn Express). Otherwise I'm stuck rolling the dice on a newly listed property with very little assurances of safety and cleanliness.
I also feel like in someone else's home I have an obligation to walk on egg shells and treat their home much better than I would a hotel. I've spilled wine in a hotel or created other damage and I've never been fined for it. At an AirBNB this would be an issue I would fret over.
I used to be a big fan of Airbnb, but have gone back to hotels. Cost is one thing, but honestly, the entire Airbnb experience is shit now:
- Used to be very personal/unique. You’d stay in someone’s house while they were camping/whatever for the weekend, they’d meet you to handover keys, give you tips about the area, etc. Now it’s just some landlord with 17 properties that you never see
- You almost always have to go to some random storefront far from the apartment to pick up the keys
- When things go wrong, there’s no front desk to help you out. For example, I stayed at an Airbnb with very sketchy wiring, power went out in a snow storm and the place became freezing cold, took a full day before the host would do anything
- Hosts often try sketchy things, like making you pay off platform damage deposits
- Not only are there no cleaners, if you don’t clean to their satisfaction, they charge you extra
- Hotels offer so many things that Airbnbs generally don’t: late checkout, watch your bags, gym, pool, etc.
- And yeah, it’s very, very often more expensive than a hotel
I also don’t like that it’s contributing to making longterm rental markets worse worldwide, by eating up already scarce rental properties. I’m very, very bearish on Airbnb longterm.
I've never had a good Airbnb experience. There is simply no incentive for hosts to provide good accomodations. On the flip side, hotels that cost as much as typical Airbnbs provide a drastically better experience. After paying a fortune for yet another lousy Airbnb a couple weeks ago my wife and I agreed we'd never use Airbnb again.
I don’t really see the value of AirBNB anyway. At least in Europe it takes hours to find a nice one, then you rate them and they rate you so hardly any rating is very accurate, the places never match exactly the description, and you need to book well in advance to not need a credit card.
My hotel experiences, on the other hand, are usually much nicer. On arrival I look at the maps app on my phone to find hotels near where I want to be at, I see ratings and price ranges, I walk in and can ask to see the room, talk to someone who’s always polite and often speaks good English, and pay with debit card and have 0 emails or texts or accounts from anyone about my stay.
AirBNB might be nice if you want a ton of space or for long durations. This is purely as a comparison to hotels. Does anyone have different experiences?
I'm done with airbnb after realizing it was similarly priced to hotels but came with a ton more rules. I don't really want a 10pm bedtime when I'm out visiting friends in LA. Thanks though. At least with a hotel you can come and go as you please and not have to stress about getting there by check in time of whatever the host decides.
Airbnb is worth it if it's significantly cheaper than a hotel, but once the prices became similar imo totally not worth the hassle. With a hotel you know what you are getting upfront.
- Group get-aways where the point is being together at the place, not seeing the sights of whatever area you’re in.
- Families traveling, especially when not staying in a city core
- Trial runs at living in a place
- Areas poorly served by decent hotels
They’re bad for lots of other scenarios.
[edit] oh and the less time you’re staying the worse they tend to be—stuff like cleaning fees and having to tidy up before leaving really suck if you only stayed for a night or two, but aren’t a big deal if you’re there for a week.
I consider Airbnb to be a menace to society. The hotel industry exists for a reason.
I've been lucky and never had a truly bad experience with Airbnb, but I've had some lousy ones and never a top notch or even good one. Conversely hotels usually provide at least decent service and usually are great in my experience.
What I really dislike about Airbnb is the feeling of being an invader in a neighborhood. Doing something I shouldn't be doing, because, well I am. No one wants the house next door to them to become an Airbnb, so why do we support its practice by using them?
I’ve had nothing but bad experiences with Airbnb and hosts who are basically trying to rinse as much money as possible for as little effort as possible. I’m not sure after a long journey I want to wonder around the Edinburgh fringe again, trying to decipher Scottish, while the wind is going crazy and there are millions of people floating around just to get keys. I think Airbnb is great if there are 15 of you sharing a flat but a lot less good if you’re a couple who want their lives to be simple. I really do not get why it’s so popular, it’s barely cheaper than a hotel after cleaning and service fees - and 100% less convenient.
I’ve had way too many abysmal experiences with Airbnb. To the point where I’ll only stay at hotels or actual BnBs. It’s not that much more expensive. Airbnb prices aren’t what they used to be especially with all the taxes, fees, tips, and other BS hidden charges added and I’d rather pay 10–20% more for a no hassle vacation than spend two days sorting out Airbnb’s shit.
In regards to AirBnB not solving a problem...I remember before AirBnB when I traveled to NYC and looked for apartments to rent for a weekend or a whole week. It was kind of scary because I didn't know if the people were legit or would come by and try to kick me out. AirBnB provided confidence that you were actually getting what you wanted--an apartment as opposed to a hotel.
I love AirBNB for finding a place to stay. Here are thoughts on how I might feel in other roles:
* landlord: I'd have an issue with a high volume of non-tenants coming in and out of my building without permission.
* hotel operator: I'd rather the supply of hotel rooms be limited. The fewer rooms, the more demand for my rooms!
* insurance company: guest of AirBNB guest does something bad and the cost of dealing with it is high. What a mess.
* mayor: publicly I'm against it because hotels fund my election campaigns. Privately, I stay in AirBNB rooms while in vacation because civil service doesn't pay much (albeit it wouldn't surprise to find mayors are rarely broke)
* neighbor: there's too much noise coming from that place down the hall. They are rude and have no vested interest in being nice because they don't live here.
AirBNB is a fabulous service to use and I understand why it has opponents.
I'm genuinely baffled that so few people in this thread see no value in Airbnb providing cheaper options for travelers. As a software engineer, one way I could advance my career would be to move back to the Bay Area. An imperfect substitute, though, is visiting regularly to maintain the relationships I built when I lived there. (Indeed, I'm writing this from a plane while flying there.) Being able to stay in an Airbnb for half the cost of the hotel makes that more feasible.
Why would anyone believe that an Airbnb offers the same security, privacy protections, safety, and comfort of a hotel? I have only stayed in an Airbnb a few times ever because I can never justify staying in one over a hotel for these reasons. The product is so unpredictable in the sense that you really never know what you're going to get until you get there.
From the host perspective, I am still amazed that Airbnb has normalized letting complete strangers into your home.
Airbnb is a roll of the dice every time. No idea if it will be canceled the day of, the quality inside, hostile neighbors. We only use Airbnb for rural places without hotels, where our money is appreciated and there aren’t other options. In cities, hotels of known quality are just as expensive and much more reliable.
I used AirBnB when it first launched and was absolutely floored that people would actually want to spend the night(s) in a random strangers house with them present. This was after me experiencing it first hand. It was quite terrible.
Fast forward to AirBnB becoming what it is today where the majority of users select “entire house” and it makes more sense.
The problem now is that they are essentially the same price as a cheap hotel, which for my money is the far superior option (the hotel), so we’re back to AirBnB making no sense to me again.
Perhaps I’m an outlier and the whole couch surfing market is that big, but it seems like AirBnB is balancing being a hotel (entire house) without really being a hotel. That’s a tricky spot to be in when regulators come knocking.
Same thing with Uber — at least there, you get the convenience compared to having to call a taxi. What exactly do you get from Airbnb?
I travel for business lots, and the last thing I need to worry about is having to deal with these sorts of issues. Having a hotel and a car rental is so much easier and reliable.
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