Hotels are great if you need 1 bed and nothing else. But hotels get expensive fast if you need an extra room for a kid. Or you take a pet. Or you need to wash your clothes. Or you would like a kitchen.
Kids are the reason why I use short term rentals instead of hotel rooms. I never get them if I’m on a business trip or having a weekend with my wife alone
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The kitchen is usually the big one for me. Finding a hotel with a kitchen (and not $$$$ prices) is hard. Heck, some hotels won’t even give you a fridge (and when they do give you a fridge, it’s probably the tiniest possible). AirBnB absolutely can have some extra bullshit sometimes, but they’re usually considerably cheaper than a hotel and it’s standard to have a kitchen.
Extended Stay is really good for that if you want to stick to hotels. The one I have stayed at had a decent kitchen, a living room, a dining space, and a breakfast.
Breakfast is standard in my province at least.
I almost see it as the opposite.
AirBNB is fine if you are just looking for a place nearby tourist sites that you don’t plan to spend much time at.
Hotels are great when you need the extra features, a concierge, laundry (I have never worked at a hotel that did not have laundry services and/or dry cleaning), restaurants, and the like.
Kitchen I could see being tricky, but if you need a kitchen I assume you might be doing more a long-term stay anyway, in which case a lot of hotels will have those options as well.
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.
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.
Nah, i work in a hostal in Mexico city, we charge $40 per room while airbnb usually charges at least $100.
Also Airbnb tends to kill communities by making it way too expensive for people to actually live there and sleeping in a complete stranger’s house does not sound too safe.
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I mean, 8 lots with 8 houses can sleep what…like 30-40 people max?
On that same space you can build a 5 story hotel with 80 rooms that sleep up to 4 each. That’s a vast increase in density and a much more efficient use of space.
I’m generalizing of course, but this is the gist.
The same argument could be said for an apartment building too. We need to collectively realize that Single Family Houses are a luxury that most of us will never see in our lifetimes. Our grandparents were able to enjoy them at low prices because the US had half the population it does today.
Restrictive building codes that only permit building SFH is the cause of our housing shortage and not short term rentals that consist of 0.2%-1% of all dwellings.
Yeah that is certainly the logical next step.
I live in a SFH and I won’t pretend I don’t like it. I also won’t pretend that I don’t like being surrounded by other SFHs, because half the reason I moved here was to have the sort of idyllic neighborhood feel I had when growing up. So I understand people who have a hard time accepting the idea of higher density housing.
At the same time, I regularly think about how fortunate I am to have bought out house when we did about a decade ago. If we were entering the market today we would struggle to buy. The people who move into our neighborhood today are in a completely different financial stratosphere than us, which is sort of odd.
We have a fair amount of higher density housing in my city but there will probably need to be more as time goes on.
I’d love for there to be some way to scale zoning regulations in an intelligent way. Just spit balling, but maybe you say ok look, you can restrict to SFH until population hits a certain point and then this or this area opens as available for higher density construction without needing to convince people in real time. I realize that has its own issues, but I just wish there were more creative ways to deal with it that didn’t involve trying to convince people when the need is already urgent.
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I didn’t actually mind abnb until they started raising prices to match hotels. I mean that’s their whole point isn’t it? Cheap lodging.
I don’t mind cleaning after myself and following some reasonable rules as long as I can stay there for cheap (compared to a hotel anyways).
Isn’t the point of AirBnB to be way cheaper?
For me the advantage of an AirBnB is the ability to stay in a remote cabin in the middle of the mountains with a bonfire and a fenced yard for my dog.
I’m not sure why anyone stays in an AirBnB in the middle of a city (although I’ve found them to be cheaper and with better walkability in parts of Europe)
Maybe people like to do laundry and follow all sorts of rules they wouldn’t have to otherwise. People have weird tastes
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.
AirBnB isn’t even remotely a “hotel”. Hotels have to obey various hospitality laws and can’t just cancel a confirmed booking 2 hours before your arrival, or kick you out because you didn’t empty the bin before 9pm.
Air BNBs all the way! I just got back from one in NC mountains. We rented a lodge right next to a river with a cow pasture literally next to the house. Besides a washer and dryer…It had a hammock, fire pit, grill, farm fresh eggs, sweets from a local bakery, plus milk and orange juice and a stocked coffee bar. Then there was also a basket of decent snacks.
The Airbnb before had the same attention to detail but much smaller. They owned most land near the house so they built 2 little cabins near them to rent. This one came with a “free” bottle of whiskey. It also had a Blackstone and fire pit as well.
All hotels offer is the same shitty breakfast foods and coffee. Much rather be enjoying my vacation even if we wanted to spend half the day home at an Airbnb. Can’t beat the perks. Just need to do your homework, not all Airbnb’s are shitty rented side rooms. For the last 5 years my extended family and I had rented several houses big enough for the 9 of us. All with plenty to do around the house when you need a break from driving, hiking, restaurants and shopping.
I’m glad you had a good time. My experience with Air BNB has been very different. I’ve never used their services but I’ve been ‘evicted’ from two affordable rental properties that are now Air BNBs by the property being sold to new owners. They’re very nice homes to rent for a weekend, I should know I lived there for years until I was kicked out for people like you.
I’m not saying that home had someone who was evicted to make it a hotel for you, but it happens to a lot of people. I’m not alone. Property owners kick people who are paying their rent, out onto the street because it could make more as an Air BNB. But that’s just capitalism baby.
I’ve never had this kind of bad experience with Airbnb
Same here. I’ve probably done over a dozen stays now. I just always book with a Super Host or whatever they call them, check their rules and fees over a few times, and most places I stay, the owner lives there on the same property.
I like it because I figure people won’t ignore things like bedbugs in their own full time living space, I like getting to know them and their tips for what to check out and where to eat. I like meeting their pets! And it makes it feel like you’re staying somewhere in particular, not in a generic space that could be anywhere in the world, it is one unique spot that is nowhere else.
I do agree with the problems it can cause in communities. My neighborhood isn’t Airbnb homes, but due to many foreclosures, we do have a lot more rentals and it does have a different vibe, so I can empathize with that. But I have only stayed at one that the host didn’t live on site. That is in a middle of nowhere place in a very rural area I’ve been visiting by entire life though, and most of the already not great hotels in the area have closed.
I wouldn’t not ever stay in a hotel, but I try to go to unique places and I feel the experience I seek out on Airbnb adds to my traveling.
Same here.
For some reason, I trust the cleanliness of Airbnb’s more than hotels. Maybe this is baseless, maybe not.
Also, the amenities: you can never get a hotel room with a washing machine and a stove, so you either need to pack a lot of clothes or go to the laundry shop (if there’s any). And you cannot cook anything, you cannot even heat up leftover food. Hell, there aren’t even any cutleries.
Also, most of the case Airbnb wifi worked for me better than hotel wifi. Even if slow as hell, it’s still stable. But in a hotel… good luck with using the internet for anything.
You might want to check into extended stay hotels like Candlewood or Home2. You get a refrigerator, stove top, dishes and cutlery, a lending locker with things like toaster ovens and crock pots, laundry facilities, a small gym, etc.
Stay away from the cheap ones like Value Place and you’re usually good.
The guests tend to be blue collar types doing industrial work.
Yes, an hotel room is more expensive than an Airbnb but the convenience makes up for it.
gasthof superiority, it’s the best of both worlds.
What’s that?
Not sure if that’s the correct translation but I think he means an inn. Basically what I understand as a Gasthof is something like a restaurant which also rents out some rooms.
yeah inn is probably the best equivalent in english, most of the time a gasthof is just the right scale of establishment.
It’s small enough that it’s cheap and cozy, but large enough that you actually have decent rooms and service. Plus you can find a gasthof in really small villages in germany, it’s so much nicer than staying at a hotel IMO.
I will take a hotel for it’s convenience, service, and predictability any day.
Beds are comfy 99% of the time, there’s an ice machine, and my god I’ll take any opportunity for room service/being waited on.
And if you want to travel cheaper, youth hostels are very affordable. Though you are not garanteed to have a private room, it’s perfectly ok if you just want a place to sleep imho
I gave up on Airbnb after the hosts cancelling the booking with my guests halfway there. Just booked a hotel and never looked back since then. To all the Airbnb hosts: professionals have standards.
Ice machines was something puzzling to me when I was in the US. I am curious why would you need an ice machine if you already have a fridge in the room?
If you aren’t willing to pay a little more for a comfortable experience, don’t go traveling. It’s supposed to be recovering, right?
Plus even the cheapest hotels I’ve stayed in at least offer a continental breakfast, and nicer ones usually have a full on chef on staff to make breakfast. I’ve stayed in hotels with full arcades and hibachi restaurants for not much more than a decent Airbnb. Plus, hotels are usually in city centers, near every amenity you could need, as compared to airbnbs often being in suburbs. I can get a ride from the airport with my hotel reservation, does that come with any Airbnb?
I get the destination airbnbs, like in the middle of the woods in a log cabin, or whatever. I’ll never get people leaving their suburban homes to go stay in someone else’s suburban homes though.
Airbnb is great for groups. It’s basically the only time I use it. Getting a whole two bedroom apartment for an affordable price is really nice.
Stayed in Japan for two weeks in a group of 5-6 people, and our experience with Airbnb was great. But the two places we stayed at were basically proper hotels (one of them very small though), who just used the Airbnb platform.
It depends on what your after. If you take family (kids and dogs) then an AirBNB is useful and easier than hotel. When you book always read the reviews. YMMV
Pet friendly hotels aren’t even more expensive. There’s one that’s pet friendly hotel I went to half dozen times for work just because it was good value, and I wasn’t even bringing any pets.
In my experience, pet friendly generally means older hotels in need of renovation, where any additional mess isn’t as noticeable. Still decent if you just want a place to sleep.
Exactly. If traveling alone hotel every time. As a couple? Hotel gets crampy after about 3nights and not having a kitchen can get to you if you like to cook. Kids? Hell no - no hotel.
