Because it's often an excellent experience and makes the vacation better. I rented out a bedroom in my 2BR apartment in NYC for several years and it was truly a wonderful experience. I had a one-week minimum and therefore hosted almost entirely tourists visiting NYC from overseas (as opposed to random people in NYC who needed a place to crash for a night).

With very very few exceptions, I met warm friendly people. They liked have a local in the same place to talk about plans and get suggestions, I liked some new faces to have coffee with in the morning. Everyone won.

I stayed in a room in Berlin once. It was nice to get to know a local a bit and get tips on what to go see. If you want a sterile experience, book a hotel.

Homestays are generally great:

1. interesting, respectful people / less "sterile" environments.

2. actually helpful in navigating the area.

3. broadens everybody's views (read: politics) to meet other people in person, see how they live and understand their viewpoints.

4. appliances/etc tend to work better, because they need them themselves.

I've had nothing but good and great experiences with homestays. I've also hosted which has been ok-good: 100% respectful and kind, but not always that interesting.

(I've been hosting/traveling for 15 years i.e. long before AirBnB)

Some do, some don’t. I despise having to communicate with people.

For some people, the fact that it’s like a hotel (entire place to yourself) but a) in a residential neighborhood, and b) with a kitchen and other amenities of home that are usually missing or very expensive in a hotel (laundry, parking, etc.)

If an actual hotel is the superior option to you, then, sure.

The real joke here is: those AirBnB apartments often belong to Hotels ;)

My best stays have all been shared with the host. It's a way to experience another culture. I've also rented my own flat on Airbnb.

"Couch surfing" is a weird way to put it, and so too is "random stranger". They're not random, you chose them, and you're generally in a bedroom.

Maybe this is a cultural thing? Middle class families having lodgers is super normal in the UK, I figured it was the same everywhere.

If I wanted a hotel, I'd book a hotel.

Hotels are superior if you don’t want to cook. That, to me, is the central advantage of AirBnB: you can get one with a kitchen. Otherwise I see no reason to use it and I’m also not opposed to alternatives because I can very well see the destructive effects it’s having.

We always want to cook when we go on vacation and that’s not doable in a hotel. So AirBnB it is, most of the time.

My current use case for AirBnB is when I travel in a group (4+ people) and we would like to stay together. Getting a 2 bedroom AirBnB with a working kitchen and maybe even a private pool is a great place to spend time with closed ones.

Hoboken is so interesting. It was once a fairly poor neighborhood, but as real estate in NYC became what it is, many moved to Hoboken and now houses that were 300k when I was younger are 1mil+. The views are astounding.

There's also the PATH which is a subway that goes straight into Manhattan from Jersey City.