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Calling AirBnB "a hotel chain" is an insult to hotels.
Hotels don't require you to clean somebody else's house while you are on vacation like a maid, and then charging you a cleaning fee for missing a spot. There isn't even much of a price difference nowadays, so staying at a hotel wins every time.
I would be charged a cleaning fee even though we're asked to clean anyhow, regardless of how well we cleaned. Toward the end, I stopped doing any basic cleaning and disputed additional fees relating to my not doing their job for them. Now I don't use them at all.
I have two younger kids. We can very close to renting a hotel on our last in-state vacation. It would have actually been somewhat cheaper. The reason we still went for the AirBnB was because our kids are asleep by like 7:30 and we didn't want to be 'trapped' in the hotel room and didn't want to rent a second. AirBnB made it significantly easier to find a house to rent.
That said, the number of AirBnBs in that area of the state has really grown. I can't imagine that's doing the people who live there any favors.
I use a AirBnB if:
- I'm bringing my dog. A house with a fenced yard beats a hotel for that hands down every time.
- Using the house is a major feature of the vacation. We live in an apartment in a city so sometimes it's nice to just spend a week in a cabin in the mountains or a long weekend at a house with a pool.
- I'm traveling with a group and I actually want to spend time with those people. It's nice to have a private social space that isn't someone's bedroom.
I prefer hotels if:
- I'm traveling solo. If I'm not renting a whole house, I want the hotel amenities. Plusi can pretend to be a bachelor again and act like a slob.
- I have an action packed trip planned. Every time I've been to Vegas I was pretty much only in my room to shower or sleep.
- I'm traveling with a group and know I'll need some personal space.
This is pretty much my criteria as well. It’s funny, because since vacation rentals became a mainstream thing, my hotel experience has gotten better. I remember a time where booking a Vrbo was a preference because the accommodations would be nicer / better maintained at the same or lower price than a hotel. But these days I haven’t found that to be the case, and as such rely on contextual requirements to determine the best path forward.
It is really terrible for the housing market when real estate investors buy out homes on the market for the sole purpose of renting them out in AirBnBs.
I doubt that anyone would want to live next to an AirBnB house.
"They make for shit neighbours" not the worst of it. It also significantly contributes to the increase in cost of living in the area because buyers and renters no longer have to compete with just each other but also with investors, and every house or flat that's off the market only increases that competition further.
These days I mostly use Booking, they list hotels as well as private properties which are properly classified and taxed and all that. Haven't had an issue in years.
Thanks for the heads up, we will try this next season.
Oh there is a price difference these days. I used to use AirBnB because it was an actual saving. Now, unless you want to rent an entire cabin or something, you're almost definitely better off with a hotel or specific industry standard business. Also love how they handle pricing, at least when I looked last year:
$99
$249 incl taxes/fees
This isn't even hyperbole, it was entirely common to see a $100+ cleaning fee for a one night stay, and still have a list of more things to clean than I expect actual hotel employees to do.
They have started including cleaning fees in the posted price.
After they lost a class action lawsuit, yeah.