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Comment by eezurr | Hacker News Reader

Hotels have solved this problem. Each brand more or less offers the same quality across the US. You only need to see a few photos to know what options you have. Most of the rooms are the same design, same furniture. And its common for them to have desks and computer chairs. Consistency.

Why are you still using airbnb?

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They also very rarely have kitchens or washer or dryers for long term stays, or monthly discounts (advertised at least). If you’re just there for a few days stay over sure hotels are a fine choice, if you’re staying for a while they often won’t be particularly well suited, and finding one that is will take just as long as searching AirBnB.

Like the person you responded to I also spend a great deal of time searching for suitable long term stays. I think there is a large gap in the market for reliable brands/services with solid customer service (which AirBnB lacks) and amenities for modern longer term tech travelers (desks (ideally standup), fast wifi, kitchens, suitable space for 2 to work separately, washer/dryer, etc). If I could just look in a city and say “oh there’s a X there around an area I want to visit, I’ll just book that” it would be oh so nice.

Serviced apartments (and to a lesser extent extended stay hotels) try to cover that niche, but they're pretty thin on the ground outside of major cities. I think Sonder was also trying to do that kind of thing but I have no idea if they've expanded outside of SF and one or two other cities, or for that matter if they've shut down in the past couple years.

Yeah I've tried that route but the lack of reviews and difficulty finding usually ends up not working out. Sonder has expanded, but has fairly mixed reviews whenever I chase them down. It does seem promising though so I do continue to include it in my searches, it just hasn't been able to provide a great solution yet for what I've been looking for.

Many "extended hotel stay" chains offer amenities likes kitchens and laundry. Most have "Extended Stay" somewhere in their brand name. Marriott's relatively common brand in many major cities is Residence Inn. To my experience Residence Inns are quite reliable.

Yeah Residence Inn is the most common one I look for as well of this type, though they're not all like this, and the ones that are often aren't price or review competitive, thus it rarely wins out. I do definitely look down these avenues though, and if they were more common or at least consistently highly reviewed (I'll pay a premium for reduced cognitive load if the experience will be reliably positive) I would do them more often, but it's just not common enough to be a reliable solution from what I've found.

If I want a clinical office space style room I'll use a hotel.

If I want something different or fun, or a place that's shared so I can talk to people, I'll use airbnb.

Airbnbs also tend to be cheaper for longer stays (more than 4 nights).

Can you link to an example?

The type of standardized hotel room you describe sounds like the small rooms that are made to sleep during the night and leave during the day. Not for "living" in a foreign city.

I’ve had decent luck with Residence Inn. Full kitchen and separate bedrooms.

The sofa mattresses are terrible though.

I’ve never experienced a good sofa mattress. Have you?

Not that would be comfortable for an adult, but the newer Courtyard King Size rooms have single-person pull-outs that I think are a lot better than what they have at Residence Inn.

Homewood Suites is designed to accommodate longer term guests. I spent around 2 months in one years ago - full kitchen, separate living room and bedroom. Laundry onsite.

I believe Candlewood Suites is the same, but less "upscale."

If you don't need a kitchen, DoubleTree by Hilton typically have desks. Some locations have full sized ones (4-5 feet).

Because for the same quality, hotels are easily 3x the price. Consistently.

This has not been consistently true for me. Maybe for long-term stays (week+), but certainly not for for a day or two after adding in all of the cleaning fees, etc.

It may be true if you have a large family and stay for a while. A 4-5 bedroom house would be a lot cheaper (and more convenient) than 4-5 hotel rooms.

Of course, large families are the exception not the rule nowadays.

Personally I don’t have a large family and the inconsistently with Airbnb means we don’t use it often at all.

I traveled extensively in 2021 and routinely I can find weekend stays on Airbnb, for the entire place, between 250 to 350. Two star Hotels (la quinta, HIE, etc) routinely want 400-600+. It's total insanity.

Where are you traveling that hotel rooms are that expensive!? Up and down the US east coast, there are plenty of perfectly good two-queen-bed rooms for under $100 per night. I recently stayed in downtown Boston in a boutique hotel for $130/night and the surrounding hotels were all under $175/night.

What hotel is this? If you don't mind me asking.

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