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Comment by xapata | Hacker News Reader

AirBnB did. I forget the exact terms, but a while back someone's house got trashed and it hit the news. AirBnB announced they'd cover the damage to her house and started an insurance policy.

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If you check the airbnb hosts subreddit, there are endless stories of hosts being ghosted by support after a guest trashed the place.

Except, of course, when it blew up either on social media or in the press.

Then suddenly "they made it right" and some spokesdrone trumpeted some bullshit like "In this exceptional case we didn't live up to our members / hosts high expectations".

With rare exceptions I also don't see any more advantage compared to staying in a hotel. But to each his own, I suppose.

As a guest, I way prefer Airbnb (or VRBO or similar) to hotels. Having a kitchen, having area that’s both private to my group yet common is great.

We rent them for work offsites, family trips, and individual travel. 98% of the time everything goes smoothly.

I used to feel this way and have since flipped. Unless I'm traveling with a large group for an extended period of time, I really prefer hotels. Bed made & bathroom cleaned every day, breakfast served, ample obvious parking, investment in paid support staff instead of an asshole or at-best disinterested "host", etc. Plus hotels are almost always cheaper for parties <= 2.

My family has special needs not covered by a hotel but I can provide the needs myself if I have access to a kitchen.

Therefore most of the time a hotel room is not the right thing for us.

I recommend to check out apartment hotels.

Yeah, that's what we did, but apartment hotels aren't everywhere.

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