I never understood appeal of AirBnB. We used to travel a lot and thought AirBnB would be cheaper to equivalent hotels but it usually is about same or more expensive but with less amenities.
For example:
* There is no room service. You can order delivery but room service has certain charms especially at 2AM.
* In hotels, you come back to a clean room at the day's end.
* There is cleaning fee for many AirBnB. With hotels, you just leave a tip but no need to leave the place in perfect condition to avoid cleaning fee.
* If you have any issues with your room, hotel will relocate you to new room quickly.
* Concierge services, shuttle services, pools, etc are really nice to haves even if we don't use them.
* You are with other travellers in hotel. Very easy to meet new people and share some experience or tips.
Some of my friends get AirBnB in suburbs to save money but then they are renting cars or taking Uber everywhere which probably adds up to same price. Also when traveling I don't want to feel like I am back in 'burbs.
The appeal of AirBnB is that there is a much lower barrier to entry. I rarely spend more than $50-100/night on airbnb. (With the $100 being in expensive areas and usually a whole apartment)
I can rarely, if ever, find hotels that are below $80/night (short of them being extremely sketchy or in the middle of nowhere). Meanwhile those hotels don't always have kitchens, sizable refrigerators, etc.
It's allowed me to travel to places much more and for longer than I would otherwise. One could argue for hostels but private rooms in hostels usually are not any cheaper than AirBNB and they are insanely more noisy/disruptive.
Most hotel we stayed at, cost about $120-150 a night. And these were in Manhattan, SF, Austin, Vegas etc. I would def. stay in AirBnB to save $80-100 a night.
Not sure how I missed such options, perhaps we have bias towards hotels that made us ignore these.
Trying out our first AirBnB with a few friends in Austin next month. It will cost each couple $175 per night for one room in 4Bed/4Bath house . In the same general area, we could have gotten hotel for $150 but thought house would be more fun.
Yep, I recently rented a cabin for a group of 5 couples. That was a lot of fun. Having common areas (kitchen, living room) is something you don't get with hotels, and nice if you want to hang around and play board games or something. (Of course home rental has been around before AirBnB)
That makes no sense to me. Airbnb has changed travelling for these reasons:
* It is cheaper for the location
* It has a kitchen
* It feels like a home
I don't understand these kind of comments. Can you remember any of the hotel room you've been in the previous years? I can't. Can you remember any of the airbnb you've stayed at? I remember every one of them. There is a true home feeling to them.
A lot of my friends who stay in AirBnB list same reasons for using it. Also they say that they like to live like locals when traveling.
I can respect it but I really don't want to feel like at home on vacation. Hotels give me that feeling of adventure and travel. I have couch surfed and enjoyed it. But that was probably because I was visiting a friend in burbs without any agenda of "travel".
Kitchen is cool but then again I am on vacation, I don't want to cook.
I have never stayed in any AirBnB but always compared AirBnBs and hotels before vacation. At least, in the US, hotels and AirBnB of comparable quality and location cost about same. Even if it is any cheaper, it is not by much.
And now you asked, yes some of my favorite hotels are Eden Roc in Miami, and Marriott in Maui. Yeah they are a little bit more luxurious compared our normal hotels but highly recommended for special occasions.
I think hotels are fine, if you just like to chill out. For me, hotels never gave much excitement, adventure or novelty. I hate the blandness of all the hotels, how all the decoration and furniture and even the people seem fake. There are good hotels here and there, but usually they are either old or small. Not chains filled with families of screaming kids. After fews days, I also want to eat some home cooked meals. In any part of the world, you get tired of the local staple and just want something familiar for a change.
I'd have never been able stay in such unique places the world with hotels. From a house overlooking volcanoes of Lake Atitlan in Guatemala, hillside a-frame in New Zealand, to design desert villa in Joshua Tree, a urban loft filled records in Berlin, a modern lakehouse in Finland to simple cottage near Denali, Alaska and many others.
I hate the blandness of all the hotels, how all the decoration and furniture and even the people seem fake
I often hear that argument and actually think it's the other way round.
Sure, some hotels offer very generic rooms. However, I stayed in memorable, extremely well designed hotel rooms. Awesome beds, which can compare to my own (rather good) bed at home. Let alone the extremely well and thought thru design of the lightning and the blinds. If you want just one example look at the Bangkok LeMeridien.
On the other hand I never experienced a rented appartment, be it via AirBnb or other purveyors, which wasn't completely generic. With the same cheap Ikea furniture of shoddy quality and decorated worse than the worst examples of "hotel art".
I think where you are coming from is the ideal where AirBnb started, but which is no more the case for years. Most offers, by a wide margin, are by professional landlords, hording dozens if not hundreds of appartments managed by some faceless management company.
The only hotel I've actually enjoyed staying at was the Marina Bay in Singapore. Other than that hotel rooms always feel meh. Very generic experience.
If you're comparing cost, you probably go for expensive airbnb experiences. I have never encountered a place where airbnbs were not cheaper than hotels (and I've airbnb'ed everywhere in the world).
The kitchen always ends up being less useful than I imagine it will be because it's so unpredictable what basic ingredients will be there. Many are pretty bare-bones, and by the time I buy cooking spray or oil, salt & pepper, basic condiments, etc. I have spent more than I would have by going out to eat. They're great for longer stays, but for a long weekend trip I almost never do anything more complicated than breakfast cereal or a freezer pizza.
We usually stay in one place for 1+ week, and we usually eat out for lunch but eat breakfast and cook and eat dinner at home, except a few nights out. So the kitchen is essential for us!
The solution is to carry the basic spices with you in small containers. I even pack pre-measured spiceblends for meals that require common ingredients which can be brought in every part of the world. I also bring my own coffee and Aeropress.
The oil or butter is annoying, so you might need to buy it if you're unlucky and the place has no olive oil.
You hesitate at close friends staying at your place? They probably are not that close of friends. I'd toss the keys to plenty of relatively close friends with a "hey make sure the cat doesn't sneak out, he's a bastard like that. Have a good weekend, feel free to raid the fridge"
We probably just have different views of personal space. I don't like people in my private spaces; it is hard enough when I am there, and even worse when I am not.
It isn't about closeness to the person; I wouldn't be super comfortable with my best friend, my family, doesn't matter.
For example:
* There is no room service. You can order delivery but room service has certain charms especially at 2AM.
* In hotels, you come back to a clean room at the day's end.
* There is cleaning fee for many AirBnB. With hotels, you just leave a tip but no need to leave the place in perfect condition to avoid cleaning fee.
* If you have any issues with your room, hotel will relocate you to new room quickly.
* Concierge services, shuttle services, pools, etc are really nice to haves even if we don't use them.
* You are with other travellers in hotel. Very easy to meet new people and share some experience or tips.
Some of my friends get AirBnB in suburbs to save money but then they are renting cars or taking Uber everywhere which probably adds up to same price. Also when traveling I don't want to feel like I am back in 'burbs.
Then, of course, we have privacy issues.