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AirBnBs are fantastic until you have a bad experience. When that happens, you realize how little recourse and options you have; you're basically screwed and nee

AirBnBs are fantastic until you have a bad experience. When that happens, you realize how little recourse and options you have; you're basically screwed and need to scramble for solutions. This is not so bad when you're on a vacation and have some flexibility. It is 100% a total nightmare when traveling for work and have other responsibilities to attend to. Hotels have the advantage of: 1) Consistent product quality 2) Established process and channels for addressing complaints 3) Recourse when things go wrong AirBnBs have the advantage of: 1) Cost, cost, cost 2) Uniqueness in accommodation environments 3) Greater flexibility (especially as it relates to cost) in terms of location and specific accommodation needs (kitchen, multiple beds, etc.) Those who rave about AirBnB, I suspect, have never had a really bad experience. I used to AirBnB all the time, but a few bad experiences really turned me off on the whole platform. You get what you pay for, and with hotels, that extra cost provides "insurance" for when things go south. These days I'll occasionally AirBnB when on vacation if the costs are significantly lower than a hotel (and this is only ever the case if you're booking relatively last moment). Never on business trips - only if there are literally no other accommodations (at sane prices), which is only ever the case when booking last minute in specific cities (SF, NYC, Tokyo, etc.).

Arwill 9y ago
This is exactly the feeling i've got too. After a couple of weeks in various apartments i stopped using AirBnB and went back to staying in Hotels. This was in 2015, it might have changed since then, but then AirBnB wasn't issuing an invoice. Since i was travelling for work, good documentation of costs is necessary, and i don't wan't to argue with my accountant each time i tried to pass some printed page from AirBnB site as "invoice" or "receipt". Ryanair also does not issue an invoice, and i've only once done the mistake of buying a ticket from them. I have not yet had a hotel so far that refused to issue an invoice for the company when i requested it so. On a side note, both AirBnB and Ryanair had the "company name and address" fields on their web-forms, which made me believe those data will be used for printing an invoice, but those are not used nor displayed ever after being entered. What a deception. This is some kind of misery that Irish companies do. Companies that are based in Ireland operate by Irish law, and it seems that Irish law does not require them to issue an invoice. I don't know how much money AirBnB and Ryanair are saving by not providing a printable PDF invoice on their sites, but they might just be losing customers from other EU countries where the invoice was and is the basic document of business transactions. Then there is the rest of the problems with AirBnB. I absolutely needed an apartment with stable internet connection, to be able to work remotely. I was promised that, but when i got there it wasn't working. I was told to "restart the router", well it didn't help either. So i had to buy a 50EUR data-stick with crappy slow internet to be able to connect. Most hotels are not better in this regard either, but with hotels i can at least avoid the bad ones. With AirBnB each apartment is a new unique situation. Maybe it has bad wifi, maybe its smelly, maybe its without air-conditioning, maybe the neighbors are noisy. Like the previous poster wrote, hotels provide a more consistent service.

Arwill 9y ago

This is exactly the feeling i've got too. After a couple of weeks in various apartments i stopped using AirBnB and went back to staying in Hotels. This was in 2015, it might have changed since then, but then AirBnB wasn't issuing an invoice. Since i was travelling for work, good documentation of costs is necessary, and i don't wan't to argue with my accountant each time i tried to pass some printed page from AirBnB site as "invoice" or "receipt". Ryanair also does not issue an invoice, and i've only once done the mistake of buying a ticket from them. I have not yet had a hotel so far that refused to issue an invoice for the company when i requested it so. On a side note, both AirBnB and Ryanair had the "company name and address" fields on their web-forms, which made me believe those data will be used for printing an invoice, but those are not used nor displayed ever after being entered. What a deception. This is some kind of misery that Irish companies do. Companies that are based in Ireland operate by Irish law, and it seems that Irish law does not require them to issue an invoice. I don't know how much money AirBnB and Ryanair are saving by not providing a printable PDF invoice on their sites, but they might just be losing customers from other EU countries where the invoice was and is the basic document of business transactions. Then there is the rest of the problems with AirBnB. I absolutely needed an apartment with stable internet connection, to be able to work remotely. I was promised that, but when i got there it wasn't working. I was told to "restart the router", well it didn't help either. So i had to buy a 50EUR data-stick with crappy slow internet to be able to connect. Most hotels are not better in this regard either, but with hotels i can at least avoid the bad ones. With AirBnB each apartment is a new unique situation. Maybe it has bad wifi, maybe its smelly, maybe its without air-conditioning, maybe the neighbors are noisy. Like the previous poster wrote, hotels provide a more consistent service.