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Maybe I'm in the minority but I've generally had very good -- or at least, "good as I expected" -- experiences at AirBnbs, even recently. Sometimes I've stayed

Maybe I'm in the minority but I've generally had very good -- or at least, "good as I expected" -- experiences at AirBnbs, even recently. Sometimes I've stayed with rich friends who book nice places, and the experience is, as expected, very nice. Many other times I have stayed at bottom-of-the-barrel places, which were, as expected, bottom of the barrel flophouses. But tolerably so, and true to the advertisement (funny how they all have that exact same fake black leather futon though). People say hotels are as cheap, but they never have the same amenities, and the location in town is often worse. An AirBnb with a kitchen is essentially $20-30 cheaper per day than a hotel without one. Add to that laundry, more privacy, and other perks and it's not really a fair comparison. It does seem like there are more hotel resellers and leasing companies using it as a stopgap between tenants, which I understand, but hate. I get why they want to be an "everything app" (rich people have more money to spend on "experiences"), but other commenters are spot-on regarding the dangers of taking their eye off the ball. Seems like a better use of company attention would be to really boost and reward the genuine hosts that put their heart into it, and at least put in a modest amount of friction to slow down the corporate resellers with barebones apartments in half-remodeled buildings.

lacker 1y ago
Yeah, I've had pretty great experiences with Airbnbs. I'm usually traveling with kids, hotel rooms are small, it's really nice to have a kitchen with kids, and a lot of airbnbs have amenities that the kids like.
- jajko 1y ago
  Hotels try to milk parents with kids and either force you to take basically another booking, or have few 2-bedroom (or 1 bedroom and living room = parental bedroom) ones, often for almost double the price. Most were designed in another era, and it shows - booked rooms are basically just caves for sleeping. We only use such if there are no other options in given area or if we want food prepared (this quickly becomes another chore with small kids). I've never seen a well rated airbnb place with many reviews being bad. They may not be stellar in some aspect, ie small maintenance may be lacking but otherwise having a full kitchen with wash machine is pretty amazing for any type of trip, and one has a wide variety of locations and prices. Also it allows you to experience the place a bit more, compared to hyper sterile and uniform hotel experiences. Lets not forget airbnbs would never become a thing if they werent cheaper than hotels (or at least provided much better experience at similar price).
jrowen 1y ago
I think the core value prop of Airbnb is (or should be) to provide a different experience than a hotel. It may have been "cheaper than a hotel" at one point and idk what the numbers are on how people are using it but in my experience it excels for larger groups or for people just looking for a more house-like experience than a hotel. Being able to stay in a nice house with a bunch of friends in any city is an amazing thing they made a lot more accessible. Doesn't really make a lot of sense to me to just shop on price and then compare the experience to booking a hotel room, it's totally different.
- ghaff 1y ago
  Which has been VRBO to a large degree. Not sure how common that is for Airbnb as a use case. A lot of what I see is looking for a cheaper room.
  - jrowen 1y ago
    Anecdotally I've never heard anyone say "VRBO." Maybe they are using it but just saying "yeah we stayed in an Airbnb" kind of like if you use Lyft but call it Uber cause that's the more common noun. So I feel like they did successfully establish themselves as the noun for that kind of thing, which to me speaks to the power of the idea and the marketplace they created because the name doesn't exactly roll off the tongue. But overall I think the hotel room market is just much larger than the "boutique group stay" market so they have to maintain position as a direct hotel competitor (but I think it is an issue vis-a-vis people complaining here about things like having to coordinate with an individual even though they willingly chose that route).
    - ghaff 1y ago
      I agree with all that. One or two people mostly looking for a decent place to stay in the right location without hassle probably describes most travelers under most circumstances. I know it does me and I've travelled over 100 days a year at times. And that's probably not atypical of a lot of business travelers. Even these days I'm not mostly looking to deeply research my overnight stays much of the time and often default to my hotel chain of choice or a hotel/Aparthotel that I have previous experience with.
ramesh31 1y ago
They've gotten much much better in the last 5 years. After all the small time would-be "empire builders" who overcharged for shoddy units and abused residential real estate laws got cleaned out of the system, it seems like what's left is a decent middle ground of professional operators running full time rental units, with a few of the original style unique experiences left here and there. The standards have gone way up, and it's generally better than a hotel at the same price point again, which it was absolutely not for most of 2015-2020ish.
- fireflash38 1y ago
  Depending on the location you get a bunch of people basically who own a vacation home they get priority to use and rent out the rest of the time. Which is honestly rather nice for both the guests and the hosts. That was my preferred experience too - well maintained and lived in just enough to make sense. Some places do cheap out on "perks" that seem there only to boost themselves in rankings/filters, but otherwise been a pleasant experience.
  - genewitch 1y ago
    We did this in the 80s and 90s so this is not something unique to airbnb, airbnb just did it "on an app". When I say "did this" I mean rented a duplex or house for a couple weeks for a vacation.
    - snowwrestler 1y ago
      VRBO did whole-house vacation rentals in the U.S. well before AirBnB. Still around and works well. I’d say we book about half the time through VRBO and half the time through AirBnB. AirBnB’s differentiator on launch was “rent just one room” in an owner-occupied dwelling. Remember when it was “the sharing economy”? There are still listings like that, but I think most of the money is in whole-dwelling rentals now.
      - thoughtpeddler 1y ago
        I genuinely love that 'rent just a room' (or even just a bed!) function of Airbnb, and continue to use it till this day. Have met many interesting people (or as I heard another comment on here say "weird in a non-dangerous way" lol), and it's always felt like a safe and quality experience to me (so long as I always do the due diligence and use common sense to stay with hosts that have tons of positive reviews, etc). IIRC Airbnb had a push a few 'releases' ago to revive this core part of their founding purpose, but now it seems they've moved on to 'services'.
sheepscreek 1y ago
Chesky is having a Jobs moment, when Apple went from making Computers to smartphones and much much more. It didn’t happen in a day though. More importantly, by that time, Jobs had already built Next from the ground up, and supported and funded the growth of Pixar into an animation powerhouse. He had all the additional experience shaping his perception on what people want and how people will react to something. I think Airbnb will have a branding issue. By transitioning from rentals to offering a wide range of services, they might dilute their brand before people have the chance to fully embrace and experience the new offerings. Perhaps they should reinvent themselves as a platform that manages travel and stays, emphasizing that their “airbnb certified experience” includes access to specific facilities and guarantees. This way, users can choose from other service providers in their marketplace with their own standards. That way, expanding to more services over time would seem like an organic expansion. Essentially, Airbnb could transition from managing services to a marketplace model that also hosts managed services and other providers. However, by maintaining a focus on “stays” or “travels” and slowly adding more ancillary services would prevent dilution before their metamorphosis is complete.
- dmurray 1y ago
  There will be a rebranding in the next ten years. Airbnb will get a slightly more blocky or rounded version of the same logo and ads everywhere announcing how "Airbnb is now Air". I can't tell who owns air.com, but the website it hosts is a tiny landing page from someone who would obviously sell. The rebranding will be met by a slew of astonished articles asking "they spent how much?" and almost as many apparently-thoughtful midwit counterpoints saying no, it looks obvious in hindsight, but it took real marketing genius to conceive of this in advance.
plorkyeran 1y ago
I don't even really understand the concept of comparing AirBnB prices to hotel prices? Unless you're literally just looking for the cheapest place to safely spend the night with zero considerations beyond that they just aren't the same product. Staying in an apartment or house and staying in a hotel are vastly different experiences.
- jterrys 1y ago
  There's also...apartment hotels! Want hotel quality and safety with apartment perks? Just go to an apartment hotel! It costs more than a hotel/AirBnB but you're also not at the whims of random hit-or-miss listings and shady shit. And they clean your room if you want them to!
  - zo1 1y ago
    The problem I've seen with those is that all those places have turned to using Airbnb to manage guests and bookings. The whole little industry that spawned is beyond bizarre to me. Like everyone wanting to hyper optimize and the uniqueness disappeared.
  - jksflkjl3jk3 1y ago
    > There's also...apartment hotels! They're not nearly as common as Airbnb apartments in most countries. I also trust Airbnb listings and reviews more than what I find on most booking sites.
    - distances 1y ago
      I don't trust AirBnb reviews much at all. When I've found the same place on AirBnb and Booking, the difference was always clear: AirBnb has only glowing reviews with nothing wrong at all, while Booking reviews were much more realistic with also some critical but fair observations included.
      - robocat 1y ago
        The AirBnB review system feels fairly useless. I've had some pretty poor experiences with AirBnB, but I am loath to give severe ratings or write anything too awful. I would like to give fair warnings to subsequent guests but it never feels like it would help. Instead I do try to give direct feedback to hosts if they are available. Maybe some way to secretly write problems, and get next guests to agree/disagree with each concern? Repeatable patterns of problems (rather than one-off bad luck) are what I'm most interested in avoiding. I find booking.com has been more reliable, and less risks of unexpected costs. AirBnB is usually way less professional.
freddie_mercury 1y ago
I think the people who say hotels are better than AirBnb aren't traveling with kids. Having an actual kitchen when you travel with kids is great. Having actual separate bedrooms so we don't have to go to sleep at 8pm when the kids go to sleep is great. Being able to do laundry without tracking down a laundromat or pay exorbitant hotel prices is great. Having a living room or similar area with at least a few square metres of floor space where kids can sprawl is great.
- analog31 1y ago
  Indeed, hell is being cooped up in a hotel with kids -- for the kids, the parents, the rest of the occupants, and the staff. I think this is a huge factor in why my family always camped when I was a kid. And to be frank, I don't like being cooped up in a hotel either.
  - black3r 1y ago
    Hotels aren't designed to be cooped up in. Hotels are designed for 2 things: Housing many people at the same place, and giving you a comfortable place to sleep, shower and have a breakfast in. And they're great at those.
- chii 1y ago
  For the same price, airbnb usually provides more than hotels (but with higher variation in quality). Hotels tend to be pretty consistently good when it is over a certain price point, and at any higher price point, all you get is better views/location (and may be some amenities such as gym or pool) - aka, quality caps out and just becomes expensive. Airbnb prices are quite correlated to quality. High priced airbnb (for example, a holiday lodge) can be _very_ good for the price. But airbnb is a sort of buyers beware type deal.
  - freddie_mercury 1y ago
    Hotels also provide tons of variation in quality. Just look up hotels in, say, Bangkok or Ho Chi Minh City where the options are much more than just the typical Western chains. Or compare the many non-chain "motels" in North America. I think what you mean is "chains" tend to be pretty consistent. Which, yeah, that's always been the main value prop of a chain. You go to McDonald's in Tunisia and you have a pretty good idea what you're going to get.
csomar 1y ago
It is really location specific. For some locations, the hotel experience is better/cheaper and hotels (serviced apartments) can have kitchens/privacy. The problem is not much of the hotel/apartment but rather the platform. AirBnb manipulates search results, prices and UX to squeeze harder. It now wants to up sell "experiences" that it puts in your face every-time you open the app. It is just exhausting as the rest of everything on the internet that is taking the same path.
jksflkjl3jk3 1y ago
I think we're just the silent majority. I've been a digital nomad for the last 9 years. Airbnb is a huge reason why my experience has been so great. How else can I show up in a city in a new country , spend 5 minutes the day before I arrive, and end up with a nice furnished apartment in a great location for a week's stay?
- hansmayer 1y ago
  Oh, how lovely it is so convenient for you, e.g. the "silent majority" while the residents of those cities foot the direct and indirect bill from reduced availability of the real-estate and the ever-increasing costs.
  - janosett 1y ago
    Anywhere you could build a hotel you could also build more housing, so they pose the same issue. There is necessarily some tension between using space for permanent housing and using it for tourism / short term stays. Tourism often keeps a city's economy healthy, and having short term stays is important for those visiting even for non-tourism reasons (e.g. in town to visit family, for work, etc). The housing issue is more complex than just Airbnb / short-term housing as well: is there enough housing investment? what is the effect of international or corporate investment? are local regulations supporting or sabotaging the effort to build more housing? is there a large speculation market?
    - hansmayer 1y ago
      But...why should some direct investment towards "housing" if they can direct them towards the day-rentals ? Its definitely in their economical self-interest. So as long as we allow these platforms (be it AirBnB, Amazon or FB) to amplify a single parameter at the detriment of everything else in the society as a whole, I am afraid all the philosophical discussions about "complex" aspects will not help.
      - wallst07 1y ago
deleted 1y ago
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bambax 1y ago
I used to like Airbnb. It's not better or cheaper than hotels, but when travelling with kids it makes a big difference. Until I had a bad experience, that turned horrible. I saw a side of the company that made me think "never again". I rented a place from a "superhost" that looked very nice on paper. It was in fact very bad. Everything in the description was misleading, photos were doctored to look nice, "windows" opened to a wall on the next building two feet away, there was mold everywhere, the shower flowed into the bedroom, etc. At this point it wasn't the end of the world; I stayed two nights and went home. Then I wrote a bad review. It was simply descriptive and contained no harsh language of any kind. The review was immediately taken down; I asked why, and received a barrage of emails from Airbnb (some automated, some maybe not) saying that they were very sorry, they understood this wasn't the outcome I expected, but they couldn't publish it. Turns out, Airbnb will go to extreme lengths to protect their hosts, because they are much more valuable to the company than one random customer. But if the reviews are fake or filtered, then I can't trust the platform. I went back to booking.com; they now have properties in addition to hotels, and are much more professional.
- earnestinger 1y ago
  Booking also gives you the final price in search results.
  - atlasunshrugged 1y ago
    At least in the US now all companies have to as the FTC put out a rule that went into effect. https://skift.com/2025/05/09/no-more-hidden-hotel-fees-new-ftc-rule-and-legislation-target-price-transparency/ https://skift.com/2025/05/09/no-more-hidden-hotel-fees-new-f...
- graemep 1y ago
  Not as bad as my worst airBNB experience. Everything from rats to exposed wiring next to a shower! Review got removed. Full story here: https://pietersz.co.uk/2017/02/airbnb-block-bad-reviews https://pietersz.co.uk/2017/02/airbnb-block-bad-reviews
- 1y ago
benjaminwootton 1y ago
I started out loving AirBNB. Then I had quite a few bad experiences and flipped back to hotels as the price equalised. In the last year or two I’ve gone back to AirBNB as the hosts seem to have professionalised and hotel prices have headed north. Hotels.com also cancelled a brilliant loyalty programme of buy 9 nights get the 10th free which was another motivation to look elsewhere.
dizhn 1y ago
I am currently on vacation in the Mediterranean and find a hybrid model to be the best of both worlds. We strictly use booking.com (we need to find a hotel at 6pm and check in at 7. Same thing the next day.Airbnb would never work.) Booking.com lists apartments too. I would imagine there's a huge overlap with airbnb properties. This way you're using the better company (they helped me out a bunch of times. And the listers are more inclined to behave on booking.com.) but staying in the same apartments with all the positives you listed. It's all self check in now too. I have yet to see any owner or manager.
- neves 1y ago
  Booking costumer service is a lot better. In it you find a great ally in negotiating with the property. But Airbnb...
  - dizhn 1y ago
    This has always been my experience as well. And like I mentioned above, the people listing places on booking.com are much more likely to try to deal with you properly. I think on AirBNB the renters can even look at your prior reviews to judge how likely you are to give a positive review before they accept the reservation. And they can cancel at any time even after you've paid.
SwtCyber 1y ago
I get the ambition behind the "everything app," but if the core product gets diluted, none of the shiny extras will matter.
- wnc3141 1y ago
  markets are, by and large, too competitive for the "everything" app to ever exist. Air BnB works because they have figured out managing search and and a network of "hotels". This may not translate to other services in a way that other platforms could not do better. 'Why doesn't Uber do hotels?' - type of thing.
eadmund 1y ago
My issue with Airbnb stays is privacy. I don’t trust that the vendors (they’re really not ‘hosts’ nowadays) have not placed cameras and microphones throughout the rooms. I do trust that most (not all!) hotel owners don’t.
- shlant 1y ago
  is this even a widespread problem? kind of reminds me of the tiktoks of "hotel safety tips"[1]. Makes me think these levels of paranoia are unique to the US [1] https://www.thrillist.com/travel/nation/hotel-safety-hacks-tiktoks-essay https://www.thrillist.com/travel/nation/hotel-safety-hacks-t...
  - throwaway2037 1y ago
    Agree. OP is weird. Google tells me: > Airbnb prohibits indoor security cameras and recording devices, including audio, in most listings globally. It should not be difficult to find a security camera. (Microphone is a different matter.) If you find one, you can report to AirBnB, and I am sure the renter will be immediately delisted. And, it is probably just plan illegal in many jurisdictions.
    - theshackleford 1y ago
      > And, it is probably just plan illegal in many jurisdictions. Yes because of course nobody would ever do anything illegal.
      - throwaway2037 1y ago
        This is not a useful response. The intent of my comment was to say: If you are renting an AirBnB and you find "hidden" cameras, then you can first complain to AirBnB. If the local jurisdiction prohits cameras, then you can call the police to report it.
        theshackleford 1y ago
WhyNotHugo 1y ago
Prices are pretty close to hotels, but laundry and Kitchen always tilt the scale in favour of AirBnb. When travelling for a week, I don't want to each out every day. I appreciate having a couple of things in the fridge for lazy moment, or being able to cook breakfast if I want to stay in late. And I can wash a bunch of clothes instead of paying €8 to wash a single shirt.
devoutsalsa 1y ago
I was a digital nomad for 4 years. The ability to do your own laundry is why I prefer an Airbnb over hotel, especially when you’re only living out of carryon luggage with a few days of clothing. Relying on hotel laundry is hard to time and is not cheap.
- MyPasswordSucks 1y ago
  If you were an analog nomad for 4 days you would have encountered a laundromat.
  - int_19h 1y ago
    How widespread those are depends very much on the country. There are some in which most people haven't seen a laundromat in their life outside of American movies.
    - mvdtnz 1y ago
      Laundromats are commonplace in every country I have visited, none of which are in America.
      - int_19h 1y ago
        I didn't say that they are unique to America. And yes, many countries do have them in abundance. Many others do not, or they are rare enough that you might not have one nearby. I'm from Russia originally and the first time I have ever seen one outside of a movie was when I moved to Canada. Russia does have them, but, generally speaking, only in large cities.
golly_ned 1y ago
Yeah, this is way too snarky for what Airbnb actually is.
pixelatedindex 1y ago
The whole cleaning routine for these places is getting pretty ridiculous though. I have to pay a cleaning fee, get the sheets from the bed and put it in the laundry, and whatever arbitrary stuff is in the checkout list. It never felt turnkey as a hotel. I think I’m the wrong audience though, as I’m happy as a clam with something like a Best Western or a Motel 6.
socalgal2 1y ago
Rented 25 Airbnb’s . half were bad. by bad I mean they were not as advertised. Claimed to have parking for my car. didn’t. claimed to have wifi. didn’t. claimed to be at a particular location on a quiet street, were actually several blocks away on a busy street. been to ones who’s hvac was so loud as to be unusable, etc… I stopped using them. will not got back

lacker 1y ago

Yeah, I've had pretty great experiences with Airbnbs. I'm usually traveling with kids, hotel rooms are small, it's really nice to have a kitchen with kids, and a lot of airbnbs have amenities that the kids like.

jajko 1y ago
Hotels try to milk parents with kids and either force you to take basically another booking, or have few 2-bedroom (or 1 bedroom and living room = parental bedroom) ones, often for almost double the price. Most were designed in another era, and it shows - booked rooms are basically just caves for sleeping. We only use such if there are no other options in given area or if we want food prepared (this quickly becomes another chore with small kids). I've never seen a well rated airbnb place with many reviews being bad. They may not be stellar in some aspect, ie small maintenance may be lacking but otherwise having a full kitchen with wash machine is pretty amazing for any type of trip, and one has a wide variety of locations and prices. Also it allows you to experience the place a bit more, compared to hyper sterile and uniform hotel experiences. Lets not forget airbnbs would never become a thing if they werent cheaper than hotels (or at least provided much better experience at similar price).

jrowen 1y ago

I think the core value prop of Airbnb is (or should be) to provide a different experience than a hotel. It may have been "cheaper than a hotel" at one point and idk what the numbers are on how people are using it but in my experience it excels for larger groups or for people just looking for a more house-like experience than a hotel. Being able to stay in a nice house with a bunch of friends in any city is an amazing thing they made a lot more accessible. Doesn't really make a lot of sense to me to just shop on price and then compare the experience to booking a hotel room, it's totally different.

ghaff 1y ago
Which has been VRBO to a large degree. Not sure how common that is for Airbnb as a use case. A lot of what I see is looking for a cheaper room.
- jrowen 1y ago
  Anecdotally I've never heard anyone say "VRBO." Maybe they are using it but just saying "yeah we stayed in an Airbnb" kind of like if you use Lyft but call it Uber cause that's the more common noun. So I feel like they did successfully establish themselves as the noun for that kind of thing, which to me speaks to the power of the idea and the marketplace they created because the name doesn't exactly roll off the tongue. But overall I think the hotel room market is just much larger than the "boutique group stay" market so they have to maintain position as a direct hotel competitor (but I think it is an issue vis-a-vis people complaining here about things like having to coordinate with an individual even though they willingly chose that route).
  - ghaff 1y ago
    I agree with all that. One or two people mostly looking for a decent place to stay in the right location without hassle probably describes most travelers under most circumstances. I know it does me and I've travelled over 100 days a year at times. And that's probably not atypical of a lot of business travelers. Even these days I'm not mostly looking to deeply research my overnight stays much of the time and often default to my hotel chain of choice or a hotel/Aparthotel that I have previous experience with.

ramesh31 1y ago

They've gotten much much better in the last 5 years. After all the small time would-be "empire builders" who overcharged for shoddy units and abused residential real estate laws got cleaned out of the system, it seems like what's left is a decent middle ground of professional operators running full time rental units, with a few of the original style unique experiences left here and there. The standards have gone way up, and it's generally better than a hotel at the same price point again, which it was absolutely not for most of 2015-2020ish.

fireflash38 1y ago
Depending on the location you get a bunch of people basically who own a vacation home they get priority to use and rent out the rest of the time. Which is honestly rather nice for both the guests and the hosts. That was my preferred experience too - well maintained and lived in just enough to make sense. Some places do cheap out on "perks" that seem there only to boost themselves in rankings/filters, but otherwise been a pleasant experience.
- genewitch 1y ago
  We did this in the 80s and 90s so this is not something unique to airbnb, airbnb just did it "on an app". When I say "did this" I mean rented a duplex or house for a couple weeks for a vacation.
  - snowwrestler 1y ago
    VRBO did whole-house vacation rentals in the U.S. well before AirBnB. Still around and works well. I’d say we book about half the time through VRBO and half the time through AirBnB. AirBnB’s differentiator on launch was “rent just one room” in an owner-occupied dwelling. Remember when it was “the sharing economy”? There are still listings like that, but I think most of the money is in whole-dwelling rentals now.
    - thoughtpeddler 1y ago
      I genuinely love that 'rent just a room' (or even just a bed!) function of Airbnb, and continue to use it till this day. Have met many interesting people (or as I heard another comment on here say "weird in a non-dangerous way" lol), and it's always felt like a safe and quality experience to me (so long as I always do the due diligence and use common sense to stay with hosts that have tons of positive reviews, etc). IIRC Airbnb had a push a few 'releases' ago to revive this core part of their founding purpose, but now it seems they've moved on to 'services'.

sheepscreek 1y ago

Chesky is having a Jobs moment, when Apple went from making Computers to smartphones and much much more. It didn’t happen in a day though. More importantly, by that time, Jobs had already built Next from the ground up, and supported and funded the growth of Pixar into an animation powerhouse. He had all the additional experience shaping his perception on what people want and how people will react to something. I think Airbnb will have a branding issue. By transitioning from rentals to offering a wide range of services, they might dilute their brand before people have the chance to fully embrace and experience the new offerings. Perhaps they should reinvent themselves as a platform that manages travel and stays, emphasizing that their “airbnb certified experience” includes access to specific facilities and guarantees. This way, users can choose from other service providers in their marketplace with their own standards. That way, expanding to more services over time would seem like an organic expansion. Essentially, Airbnb could transition from managing services to a marketplace model that also hosts managed services and other providers. However, by maintaining a focus on “stays” or “travels” and slowly adding more ancillary services would prevent dilution before their metamorphosis is complete.

dmurray 1y ago
There will be a rebranding in the next ten years. Airbnb will get a slightly more blocky or rounded version of the same logo and ads everywhere announcing how "Airbnb is now Air". I can't tell who owns air.com, but the website it hosts is a tiny landing page from someone who would obviously sell. The rebranding will be met by a slew of astonished articles asking "they spent how much?" and almost as many apparently-thoughtful midwit counterpoints saying no, it looks obvious in hindsight, but it took real marketing genius to conceive of this in advance.

plorkyeran 1y ago

I don't even really understand the concept of comparing AirBnB prices to hotel prices? Unless you're literally just looking for the cheapest place to safely spend the night with zero considerations beyond that they just aren't the same product. Staying in an apartment or house and staying in a hotel are vastly different experiences.

jterrys 1y ago
There's also...apartment hotels! Want hotel quality and safety with apartment perks? Just go to an apartment hotel! It costs more than a hotel/AirBnB but you're also not at the whims of random hit-or-miss listings and shady shit. And they clean your room if you want them to!
- zo1 1y ago
  The problem I've seen with those is that all those places have turned to using Airbnb to manage guests and bookings. The whole little industry that spawned is beyond bizarre to me. Like everyone wanting to hyper optimize and the uniqueness disappeared.
- jksflkjl3jk3 1y ago
  > There's also...apartment hotels! They're not nearly as common as Airbnb apartments in most countries. I also trust Airbnb listings and reviews more than what I find on most booking sites.
  - distances 1y ago
    I don't trust AirBnb reviews much at all. When I've found the same place on AirBnb and Booking, the difference was always clear: AirBnb has only glowing reviews with nothing wrong at all, while Booking reviews were much more realistic with also some critical but fair observations included.
    - robocat 1y ago
      The AirBnB review system feels fairly useless. I've had some pretty poor experiences with AirBnB, but I am loath to give severe ratings or write anything too awful. I would like to give fair warnings to subsequent guests but it never feels like it would help. Instead I do try to give direct feedback to hosts if they are available. Maybe some way to secretly write problems, and get next guests to agree/disagree with each concern? Repeatable patterns of problems (rather than one-off bad luck) are what I'm most interested in avoiding. I find booking.com has been more reliable, and less risks of unexpected costs. AirBnB is usually way less professional.

freddie_mercury 1y ago

I think the people who say hotels are better than AirBnb aren't traveling with kids. Having an actual kitchen when you travel with kids is great. Having actual separate bedrooms so we don't have to go to sleep at 8pm when the kids go to sleep is great. Being able to do laundry without tracking down a laundromat or pay exorbitant hotel prices is great. Having a living room or similar area with at least a few square metres of floor space where kids can sprawl is great.

analog31 1y ago
Indeed, hell is being cooped up in a hotel with kids -- for the kids, the parents, the rest of the occupants, and the staff. I think this is a huge factor in why my family always camped when I was a kid. And to be frank, I don't like being cooped up in a hotel either.
- black3r 1y ago
  Hotels aren't designed to be cooped up in. Hotels are designed for 2 things: Housing many people at the same place, and giving you a comfortable place to sleep, shower and have a breakfast in. And they're great at those.
chii 1y ago
For the same price, airbnb usually provides more than hotels (but with higher variation in quality). Hotels tend to be pretty consistently good when it is over a certain price point, and at any higher price point, all you get is better views/location (and may be some amenities such as gym or pool) - aka, quality caps out and just becomes expensive. Airbnb prices are quite correlated to quality. High priced airbnb (for example, a holiday lodge) can be _very_ good for the price. But airbnb is a sort of buyers beware type deal.
- freddie_mercury 1y ago
  Hotels also provide tons of variation in quality. Just look up hotels in, say, Bangkok or Ho Chi Minh City where the options are much more than just the typical Western chains. Or compare the many non-chain "motels" in North America. I think what you mean is "chains" tend to be pretty consistent. Which, yeah, that's always been the main value prop of a chain. You go to McDonald's in Tunisia and you have a pretty good idea what you're going to get.

csomar 1y ago

It is really location specific. For some locations, the hotel experience is better/cheaper and hotels (serviced apartments) can have kitchens/privacy. The problem is not much of the hotel/apartment but rather the platform. AirBnb manipulates search results, prices and UX to squeeze harder. It now wants to up sell "experiences" that it puts in your face every-time you open the app. It is just exhausting as the rest of everything on the internet that is taking the same path.

jksflkjl3jk3 1y ago

I think we're just the silent majority. I've been a digital nomad for the last 9 years. Airbnb is a huge reason why my experience has been so great. How else can I show up in a city in a new country , spend 5 minutes the day before I arrive, and end up with a nice furnished apartment in a great location for a week's stay?

hansmayer 1y ago
Oh, how lovely it is so convenient for you, e.g. the "silent majority" while the residents of those cities foot the direct and indirect bill from reduced availability of the real-estate and the ever-increasing costs.
- janosett 1y ago
  Anywhere you could build a hotel you could also build more housing, so they pose the same issue. There is necessarily some tension between using space for permanent housing and using it for tourism / short term stays. Tourism often keeps a city's economy healthy, and having short term stays is important for those visiting even for non-tourism reasons (e.g. in town to visit family, for work, etc). The housing issue is more complex than just Airbnb / short-term housing as well: is there enough housing investment? what is the effect of international or corporate investment? are local regulations supporting or sabotaging the effort to build more housing? is there a large speculation market?
  - hansmayer 1y ago
    But...why should some direct investment towards "housing" if they can direct them towards the day-rentals ? Its definitely in their economical self-interest. So as long as we allow these platforms (be it AirBnB, Amazon or FB) to amplify a single parameter at the detriment of everything else in the society as a whole, I am afraid all the philosophical discussions about "complex" aspects will not help.
    - wallst07 1y ago

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bambax 1y ago

I used to like Airbnb. It's not better or cheaper than hotels, but when travelling with kids it makes a big difference. Until I had a bad experience, that turned horrible. I saw a side of the company that made me think "never again". I rented a place from a "superhost" that looked very nice on paper. It was in fact very bad. Everything in the description was misleading, photos were doctored to look nice, "windows" opened to a wall on the next building two feet away, there was mold everywhere, the shower flowed into the bedroom, etc. At this point it wasn't the end of the world; I stayed two nights and went home. Then I wrote a bad review. It was simply descriptive and contained no harsh language of any kind. The review was immediately taken down; I asked why, and received a barrage of emails from Airbnb (some automated, some maybe not) saying that they were very sorry, they understood this wasn't the outcome I expected, but they couldn't publish it. Turns out, Airbnb will go to extreme lengths to protect their hosts, because they are much more valuable to the company than one random customer. But if the reviews are fake or filtered, then I can't trust the platform. I went back to booking.com; they now have properties in addition to hotels, and are much more professional.

earnestinger 1y ago
Booking also gives you the final price in search results.
- atlasunshrugged 1y ago
  At least in the US now all companies have to as the FTC put out a rule that went into effect. https://skift.com/2025/05/09/no-more-hidden-hotel-fees-new-ftc-rule-and-legislation-target-price-transparency/ https://skift.com/2025/05/09/no-more-hidden-hotel-fees-new-f...
graemep 1y ago
Not as bad as my worst airBNB experience. Everything from rats to exposed wiring next to a shower! Review got removed. Full story here: https://pietersz.co.uk/2017/02/airbnb-block-bad-reviews https://pietersz.co.uk/2017/02/airbnb-block-bad-reviews
1y ago

benjaminwootton 1y ago

I started out loving AirBNB. Then I had quite a few bad experiences and flipped back to hotels as the price equalised. In the last year or two I’ve gone back to AirBNB as the hosts seem to have professionalised and hotel prices have headed north. Hotels.com also cancelled a brilliant loyalty programme of buy 9 nights get the 10th free which was another motivation to look elsewhere.

dizhn 1y ago

I am currently on vacation in the Mediterranean and find a hybrid model to be the best of both worlds. We strictly use booking.com (we need to find a hotel at 6pm and check in at 7. Same thing the next day.Airbnb would never work.) Booking.com lists apartments too. I would imagine there's a huge overlap with airbnb properties. This way you're using the better company (they helped me out a bunch of times. And the listers are more inclined to behave on booking.com.) but staying in the same apartments with all the positives you listed. It's all self check in now too. I have yet to see any owner or manager.

neves 1y ago
Booking costumer service is a lot better. In it you find a great ally in negotiating with the property. But Airbnb...
- dizhn 1y ago
  This has always been my experience as well. And like I mentioned above, the people listing places on booking.com are much more likely to try to deal with you properly. I think on AirBNB the renters can even look at your prior reviews to judge how likely you are to give a positive review before they accept the reservation. And they can cancel at any time even after you've paid.

SwtCyber 1y ago

I get the ambition behind the "everything app," but if the core product gets diluted, none of the shiny extras will matter.

wnc3141 1y ago
markets are, by and large, too competitive for the "everything" app to ever exist. Air BnB works because they have figured out managing search and and a network of "hotels". This may not translate to other services in a way that other platforms could not do better. 'Why doesn't Uber do hotels?' - type of thing.

eadmund 1y ago

My issue with Airbnb stays is privacy. I don’t trust that the vendors (they’re really not ‘hosts’ nowadays) have not placed cameras and microphones throughout the rooms. I do trust that most (not all!) hotel owners don’t.

shlant 1y ago
is this even a widespread problem? kind of reminds me of the tiktoks of "hotel safety tips"[1]. Makes me think these levels of paranoia are unique to the US [1] https://www.thrillist.com/travel/nation/hotel-safety-hacks-tiktoks-essay https://www.thrillist.com/travel/nation/hotel-safety-hacks-t...
- throwaway2037 1y ago
  Agree. OP is weird. Google tells me: > Airbnb prohibits indoor security cameras and recording devices, including audio, in most listings globally. It should not be difficult to find a security camera. (Microphone is a different matter.) If you find one, you can report to AirBnB, and I am sure the renter will be immediately delisted. And, it is probably just plan illegal in many jurisdictions.
  - theshackleford 1y ago
    > And, it is probably just plan illegal in many jurisdictions. Yes because of course nobody would ever do anything illegal.
    - throwaway2037 1y ago
      This is not a useful response. The intent of my comment was to say: If you are renting an AirBnB and you find "hidden" cameras, then you can first complain to AirBnB. If the local jurisdiction prohits cameras, then you can call the police to report it.
      - theshackleford 1y ago

WhyNotHugo 1y ago

Prices are pretty close to hotels, but laundry and Kitchen always tilt the scale in favour of AirBnb. When travelling for a week, I don't want to each out every day. I appreciate having a couple of things in the fridge for lazy moment, or being able to cook breakfast if I want to stay in late. And I can wash a bunch of clothes instead of paying €8 to wash a single shirt.

devoutsalsa 1y ago

I was a digital nomad for 4 years. The ability to do your own laundry is why I prefer an Airbnb over hotel, especially when you’re only living out of carryon luggage with a few days of clothing. Relying on hotel laundry is hard to time and is not cheap.

MyPasswordSucks 1y ago
If you were an analog nomad for 4 days you would have encountered a laundromat.
- int_19h 1y ago
  How widespread those are depends very much on the country. There are some in which most people haven't seen a laundromat in their life outside of American movies.
  - mvdtnz 1y ago
    Laundromats are commonplace in every country I have visited, none of which are in America.
    - int_19h 1y ago
      I didn't say that they are unique to America. And yes, many countries do have them in abundance. Many others do not, or they are rare enough that you might not have one nearby. I'm from Russia originally and the first time I have ever seen one outside of a movie was when I moved to Canada. Russia does have them, but, generally speaking, only in large cities.

golly_ned 1y ago

Yeah, this is way too snarky for what Airbnb actually is.

pixelatedindex 1y ago

The whole cleaning routine for these places is getting pretty ridiculous though. I have to pay a cleaning fee, get the sheets from the bed and put it in the laundry, and whatever arbitrary stuff is in the checkout list. It never felt turnkey as a hotel. I think I’m the wrong audience though, as I’m happy as a clam with something like a Best Western or a Motel 6.

socalgal2 1y ago

Rented 25 Airbnb’s . half were bad. by bad I mean they were not as advertised. Claimed to have parking for my car. didn’t. claimed to have wifi. didn’t. claimed to be at a particular location on a quiet street, were actually several blocks away on a busy street. been to ones who’s hvac was so loud as to be unusable, etc… I stopped using them. will not got back