Well, generally hotels overbook their rooms regardless -- they know with 90% confidence that X% of people will no-show on a given day, so they can overbook (air

Well, generally hotels overbook their rooms regardless -- they know with 90% confidence that X% of people will no-show on a given day, so they can overbook (airlines do this too). Generally when using the guaranteed room feature, you ARE displacing someone. But you're right, you do have to pay the rack-rate (which is often $500 or more) Airbnb hosts can't do any of this because they don't have enough rooms, so there are some definite advantages to the traditional hotel model. I like Airbnb and I have used it many times, but I do consider the rooms I get off Airbnb as less "guaranteed" than a hotel room.