My kids are coeliac so we have a greater need to cook meals for ourselves. So we prefer staying in rented apartments / villas etc when on holiday. There are some aparthotels where a kitchen and actual bedrooms are available and we’ll use those if they are affordable. Private accommodation also tends to be larger though and if airbnb seems sketchy there are also property rental companies - when we’re in Florida we tend to rent a villa from one of these and it’s been all fine. We’re going to Turkey this year and have rented a top floor apartment overlooking a marina.
Hotels don’t make you clean their rooms spotless before you leave or have a random pile of hidden fees either, those things always spoils the mood. Plus, you also get to see your points go up if you stay in a hotel.
Since I work at one, I stay at hotels free (within my brand) so I can’t say I have much experience with airbnb. I do feel they cater to very different markets though, I don’t necessarily begrudge the existence of airbnb, even if they are kind of our competition.
Nah. NIMBY-ass zoning laws, which prevent building and limit supply, are the root cause of unaffordable housing. It’s basic economics; zoning laws literally limit the production of a necessary good, and when that happens, prices increase. Fix zoning, and you will solve your problem.
Correct. But, providing temporary housing is a good people value, and abolishing it or meddling with its market forces will do more harm than good. Focus on the root cause.
I rarely go for airbnb if I don’t find a good deal, whether in terms of price, location, architecture etc. Sometimes there are good properties on airbnb. And yes, a lot of it is just run by buisnessmen and rich landlords. But there are also decently located cheap apartments sometimes.
If I travel alone and need to be on budget and only need a bed I can always go for a good dorm.
What are we comparing Airbnbs to? At least in large cities, the price of an Airbnb would be equivalent of a Motel 6 or Best Western. If you want the Hilton or Marriott, it would be at least 2x or 3x the price of an Airbnb.
While I agree that hotels are generally better than Airbnb, I have always had really good luck with Airbnb. I traveled across the EU staying almost only in Airbnb’s and it was great. It also let me kind of see what the housing market was there if I ever wanted to move. Also one of my hosts in Amsterdam firmly believed in the “bed and breakfast” portion of Airbnb, and cooked breakfast in her kitchen for us every morning and had all kinds of great info about the city. Plus she had an old orange cat that liked to sit at the breakfast table with us.
I have almost always had good luck. Just one bad experience comes to my mind - my host in Germany was a psychopath. I didn’t have any problems with her, in fact I hardly ever met her during a one week stay. But I forgot the heating on when I left. She got so pissed off that she left a long, insulting review, where she said shit about how we never got along. Airbnb refused to delete the review, so I deleted my account. By the way, I don’t pay $200 for a night. I take the cheapest $20 room that I can find.
Anyway, I created a new Airbnb account. The nice thing is that I was able to use a referral link from my wife again to get the referral bonus. So by deleting and recreating my account, I actually made $50.
Last time I used Airbnb I had a chill French-Canadian host for two months in Mexico. He only cared about the temperature of the AC. Aside from that, I had girls over, I could listen to music late at night, and I could smoke weed inside
AirBnB is a decent option if you want to hang out with a larger friend group, like 10 people in an apartment is more fun than 10 people divided into 5 hotel rooms.
Yeah on top of ruining city centers, it’s made it hard to find housing in a lot of places. I move around the US every 6-8 months for fun with my dog cuz I’m a young dumb bartender, and since the surge in people gobbling up homes for Airbnb profits, it’s just getting harder to find dog friendly homes for short term lease. I really wish they’d limit Airbnb home ownership like Atlanta did.
My hotel is a high-end dog friendly hotel, we don’t require any additional cost for a guest bringing a room. Unless they order room service for their dog or something (yes, we have it).
We do need some additional paperwork, but nothing that most dog owners wouldn’t already have on hand I think.
It was worth it back when it was people renting out a spare room in their house or their whole apartment when they were away for a small bit of cash on the side, there was a mutual understanding that you are staying in another individuals private space with all the rules and caveats that come with that, so the pricing will reflect the arrangement. For me, this made the inconvenience worth putting up with in most cases.
Now that booking an AirBnb costs as much as a hotel room and the service has been overrun by landlords looking to use it as their primary rental income though? I’m booking a hotel every time. If I’m paying hotel money I want hotel service and convenience.
In Montreal an Airbnb cought fire and killed 6 guests and one tenant because the owner converted a house to multiple Airbnb ignoring all regulation (including fire marshal rules)
Airbnbs were already illegal in the old port before that event. The company still allowed them to be posted. I’m quite sure the province didn’t ban them too, there are still legal postings. Unfortunately, not much happened after this event. Media pressure made it so that Airbnb closed a bunch of illegal ads, but without legislation and enforcement its only temporary.
In theory. If you actually take the time to check hotel prices, you’ll often find plenty of options in the same price range as ABNB.
It really depends what you’re looking for. ABNB is good if you’re heading out into the sticks and looking to rent a whole house. If you’re in a city for a few days and need a room to stay in, hotels are often the better option.
It was, when it was just people looking to get a tiny bit of income from renting a room in their house. Then people tried to make it their sole income, and then companies got into the game. Part of it is that the service became popular, so any cheaper rooms are snatched up instantly, and the user now gets to choose between a hotel-looking hotel, or a house-looking hotel, with nasty fees to get more money from you.
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