8 ms·

I guess I am in the minority, but I have never understood this business. You would have to pay me to stay in someone else's house vs a hotel.

switch007 5y ago
Many hotels, to me, resemble offices (in the UK cities at least). They're in buildings with glass fronts, no opening windows, because they want to offer A/C but want to save money^H^H^H^H^H^H^ "the planet". With A/C I get a sore throat, with it off, I suffocate. In my searches I reckon 95% of hotels don't have windows that open. I maintain a list of small hotels in cities that do have windows that open. I also reckon post-COVID they will continue with reduced housekeeping (on-demand/ever few day). So you also have to tidy up after yourself. And I've found hotels tend to have skeleton staff (pre COVID). Often nobody at the bar, nobody at the front desk, all the staff doing multiple jobs. They're stingy with toiletries, towels, pillows ("oh you can ask at the desk"). So if there are few staff, I clean up after myself, I can't breathe, ... I'd rather stay in an actual house designed for human habitation.
dannyw 5y ago
I prefer Airbnbs over hotels because it's more fun, and it's nice to have all the amenities in a home. Proper kitchens with pantries, washing machines, backyards or balconies, etc. Even if you're a team traveling to a conference or convention, grabbing a whole house is a great way to have a social 'home away from home'.
dcolkitt 5y ago
It’s really a nice option when traveling with a large family. If you’re spread across four or five hotel rooms, you really spend much less time together than in a large house with a big common space. Plus most AirBnBs are just dedicated rental properties. It’s pretty rare that you’re actually in anyone’s house anymore.
- Symbiote 5y ago
  The pre-AirBnB version is called an Apartment Hotel. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apartment_hotel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apartment_hotel
- noobermin 5y ago
  For some reason it isn't common in the US but elsewhere you can rent a flat specifically for this purpose usually with less ammenities like you'd expect from a hotel and hence not as expensive.
- ghaff 5y ago
  Or a group of friends. Pre-AirBnB, multiple times a group of us rented a house for a long weekend. Much nicer than being in a bunch of hotel rooms. AirBnB didn't pioneer vacation rentals but it did make it take off.
- acheron 5y ago
  But that has nothing to do with Airbnb. People have been doing vacation rentals for decades.
  - pitaj 5y ago
    ... and AirBnB provides a streamlined experience connecting customers with owners.
    - dorchadas 5y ago
      And they've also helped completely destroy housing for locals in plenty of locations in the process as owners over-leverage themselves to buy up more and more property since they can rent it on AirBnB for more than they can rent it to locals.
bognition 5y ago
Theres a bunch of reasons. If you have a group of people or a family the experience of having a place of your own in a real neighborhood is way better than being in a vanilla hotel.
GordonS 5y ago
Me and my family have used Airbnb a bunch of times in various countries, and every time has been a great experience. Biggest issues with hotels are lack of space, privacy and noise. I should note that we've never rented just a room from Airbnb, but the whole apartment/house/villa, and the ones we have rented are actual rental properties, e.g. the owners rent them out during a whole holiday season. One of the big bonuses of Airbnb is market segmentation - those same houses, apartments or villas on Airbnb are very often advertised with higher rates elsewhere!
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
francisofascii 5y ago
So you would never stay in a beach house, lake house, or mountain lodge? Also in urban environments, the locations of private houses are sometimes much better: near parks, neighborhoods, restaurants, etc.
- acheron 5y ago
  I remember doing house rental vacations with my family in something like 1987. Why do so many people seem to think Airbnb invented this? I feel like I’m taking crazy pills.
  - CryptoPunk 5y ago
    Airbnb provides more ratings, a standardized format for listings which makes it easier to review and compare them, and an easier online booking process that does a great job at handling currency conversion and different payment options.
  - weeblewobble 5y ago
    who said AirBnB invented house rentals? OP said they would never stay in someone else's house on vacation.
cainxinth 5y ago
Have you tried it? Prices have shot up, but back in the day, you could get a whole small house with a kitchen, laundry room, and multiple bedrooms, nicely appointed and clean for less than a three or four star hotel room. It was a pretty great value proposition. Still some bargains to be had, but much less so now.
Brendinooo 5y ago
It's less true now than it was a few years ago, but it's often a cheaper option.
cmrdporcupine 5y ago
I was always skeptical but once I started travelling with kids it became clear to me the giant holes in the hotel business model that AirBnB has disrupted. Want to find a place with a separate room / bed for your teenage daughter? A hotel's answer is to book a second hotel room, or you might luck out with multiroom hotels but good luck even searching for them. AirBnB makes it easy to search their inventory for that. Want a kitchen? Always a fun time searching hotel inventory for that. Oh, and about that teenage daughter many hotels consider anybody over the age of 12 an adult, so now you are required put in "3 adults" into your search and their search system returns 0 results. Etc.
- leesalminen 5y ago
  We’re also starting to find that out now that we have kids ;). There’s also just odd situations that don’t fit into the hotel model. Right now, I need a place to stay in Denver for 8 weeks with my wife, child, mother-in-law, and 2 dogs. We’re staying with my MIL for her knee replacement surgery recuperation. So, there can’t be any stairs, has to have a walk in shower, must have a kitchen and have 3 bedrooms. Impossible to find a hotel like this. We found a suitable AirBNB in about an hour.
- z0ltan 5y ago
  Sounds like an American problem.
hiidrew 5y ago
I enjoy it when traveling alone, I usually look for hosts that are more open to interacting with their guests. Have met loads of interesting people through the app, some I still talk to occasionally.
noobermin 5y ago
After doing airbnbs I since have usually decided to stay in hotels when I travel because I just like the reliability in having things provided as well as other things like location, services, etc. Airbnb is always a hit or miss honestly, despite the cheaper price.
lifeformed 5y ago
There are some extremely nice places available on AirBnb, far nicer than most hotels I've been to.
gquiniou 5y ago
Very often is not someone's house but a property that has been bought, renovated and furnished specifically to be rented on Airbnb.
- dorchadas 5y ago
  Which means another property off the long-term rental market in the area, further contributing to housing crises worldwide.
makecheck 5y ago
There’s really no other way to get an experience like a private pool away from home, for example. The surroundings can often be much more peaceful too, e.g. a house may be in a quiet street and not in the middle of downtown.
jnwatson 5y ago
Hotels are the sanitized way to visit a place, which is fine for a lot of folks. But when I visit a new city, I want to live as the locals, which means not in the tourist district, and not with fresh towels every afternoon and a dip in the hotel pool.
- dorchadas 5y ago
  > I want to live as the locals, You do this in AirBnB by actively harming the locals. You do realize this right? Every AirBnB in a 'local' area is one less house for the actual locals to live in. It's becoming a huge problem in many cities in the world.

switch007 5y ago

Many hotels, to me, resemble offices (in the UK cities at least). They're in buildings with glass fronts, no opening windows, because they want to offer A/C but want to save money^H^H^H^H^H^H^ "the planet". With A/C I get a sore throat, with it off, I suffocate. In my searches I reckon 95% of hotels don't have windows that open. I maintain a list of small hotels in cities that do have windows that open. I also reckon post-COVID they will continue with reduced housekeeping (on-demand/ever few day). So you also have to tidy up after yourself. And I've found hotels tend to have skeleton staff (pre COVID). Often nobody at the bar, nobody at the front desk, all the staff doing multiple jobs. They're stingy with toiletries, towels, pillows ("oh you can ask at the desk"). So if there are few staff, I clean up after myself, I can't breathe, ... I'd rather stay in an actual house designed for human habitation.

dannyw 5y ago

I prefer Airbnbs over hotels because it's more fun, and it's nice to have all the amenities in a home. Proper kitchens with pantries, washing machines, backyards or balconies, etc. Even if you're a team traveling to a conference or convention, grabbing a whole house is a great way to have a social 'home away from home'.

dcolkitt 5y ago

It’s really a nice option when traveling with a large family. If you’re spread across four or five hotel rooms, you really spend much less time together than in a large house with a big common space. Plus most AirBnBs are just dedicated rental properties. It’s pretty rare that you’re actually in anyone’s house anymore.

Symbiote 5y ago
The pre-AirBnB version is called an Apartment Hotel. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apartment_hotel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apartment_hotel
noobermin 5y ago
For some reason it isn't common in the US but elsewhere you can rent a flat specifically for this purpose usually with less ammenities like you'd expect from a hotel and hence not as expensive.
ghaff 5y ago
Or a group of friends. Pre-AirBnB, multiple times a group of us rented a house for a long weekend. Much nicer than being in a bunch of hotel rooms. AirBnB didn't pioneer vacation rentals but it did make it take off.
acheron 5y ago
But that has nothing to do with Airbnb. People have been doing vacation rentals for decades.
- pitaj 5y ago
  ... and AirBnB provides a streamlined experience connecting customers with owners.
  - dorchadas 5y ago
    And they've also helped completely destroy housing for locals in plenty of locations in the process as owners over-leverage themselves to buy up more and more property since they can rent it on AirBnB for more than they can rent it to locals.

bognition 5y ago

Theres a bunch of reasons. If you have a group of people or a family the experience of having a place of your own in a real neighborhood is way better than being in a vanilla hotel.

GordonS 5y ago

Me and my family have used Airbnb a bunch of times in various countries, and every time has been a great experience. Biggest issues with hotels are lack of space, privacy and noise. I should note that we've never rented just a room from Airbnb, but the whole apartment/house/villa, and the ones we have rented are actual rental properties, e.g. the owners rent them out during a whole holiday season. One of the big bonuses of Airbnb is market segmentation - those same houses, apartments or villas on Airbnb are very often advertised with higher rates elsewhere!

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

francisofascii 5y ago

So you would never stay in a beach house, lake house, or mountain lodge? Also in urban environments, the locations of private houses are sometimes much better: near parks, neighborhoods, restaurants, etc.

acheron 5y ago
I remember doing house rental vacations with my family in something like 1987. Why do so many people seem to think Airbnb invented this? I feel like I’m taking crazy pills.
- CryptoPunk 5y ago
  Airbnb provides more ratings, a standardized format for listings which makes it easier to review and compare them, and an easier online booking process that does a great job at handling currency conversion and different payment options.
- weeblewobble 5y ago
  who said AirBnB invented house rentals? OP said they would never stay in someone else's house on vacation.

cainxinth 5y ago

Have you tried it? Prices have shot up, but back in the day, you could get a whole small house with a kitchen, laundry room, and multiple bedrooms, nicely appointed and clean for less than a three or four star hotel room. It was a pretty great value proposition. Still some bargains to be had, but much less so now.

Brendinooo 5y ago

It's less true now than it was a few years ago, but it's often a cheaper option.

cmrdporcupine 5y ago

I was always skeptical but once I started travelling with kids it became clear to me the giant holes in the hotel business model that AirBnB has disrupted. Want to find a place with a separate room / bed for your teenage daughter? A hotel's answer is to book a second hotel room, or you might luck out with multiroom hotels but good luck even searching for them. AirBnB makes it easy to search their inventory for that. Want a kitchen? Always a fun time searching hotel inventory for that. Oh, and about that teenage daughter many hotels consider anybody over the age of 12 an adult, so now you are required put in "3 adults" into your search and their search system returns 0 results. Etc.

leesalminen 5y ago
We’re also starting to find that out now that we have kids ;). There’s also just odd situations that don’t fit into the hotel model. Right now, I need a place to stay in Denver for 8 weeks with my wife, child, mother-in-law, and 2 dogs. We’re staying with my MIL for her knee replacement surgery recuperation. So, there can’t be any stairs, has to have a walk in shower, must have a kitchen and have 3 bedrooms. Impossible to find a hotel like this. We found a suitable AirBNB in about an hour.
z0ltan 5y ago
Sounds like an American problem.

hiidrew 5y ago

I enjoy it when traveling alone, I usually look for hosts that are more open to interacting with their guests. Have met loads of interesting people through the app, some I still talk to occasionally.

noobermin 5y ago

After doing airbnbs I since have usually decided to stay in hotels when I travel because I just like the reliability in having things provided as well as other things like location, services, etc. Airbnb is always a hit or miss honestly, despite the cheaper price.

lifeformed 5y ago

There are some extremely nice places available on AirBnb, far nicer than most hotels I've been to.

gquiniou 5y ago

Very often is not someone's house but a property that has been bought, renovated and furnished specifically to be rented on Airbnb.

dorchadas 5y ago
Which means another property off the long-term rental market in the area, further contributing to housing crises worldwide.

makecheck 5y ago

There’s really no other way to get an experience like a private pool away from home, for example. The surroundings can often be much more peaceful too, e.g. a house may be in a quiet street and not in the middle of downtown.

jnwatson 5y ago

Hotels are the sanitized way to visit a place, which is fine for a lot of folks. But when I visit a new city, I want to live as the locals, which means not in the tourist district, and not with fresh towels every afternoon and a dip in the hotel pool.

dorchadas 5y ago
> I want to live as the locals, You do this in AirBnB by actively harming the locals. You do realize this right? Every AirBnB in a 'local' area is one less house for the actual locals to live in. It's becoming a huge problem in many cities in the world.