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Comment by nradov | Hacker News Reader

The only use case where AirBNB sort of makes sense is for poor young solo travelers (like backpackers) as an alternative to hostels. I can't understand why anyone would even consider it for a business trip or family vacation. What are those travelers thinking? Like I seriously don't understand why anyone would take that kind of risk instead of making a reservation with a real hotel. Caveat emptor.

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As a parent, an Airbnb (or any vacation rental) is 100x better than a hotel. We've got 3 young kids, so multiple bedrooms, a kitchen, and a separate common space where adults can hang out after kids are down is absolutely crucial. The thought of cramming the whole fam into a hotel room, or having little kids sleeping in a separate room (and freaking out alone in the middle of the night) sounds like hell to me.

Hotels are fine for business travel for me, where I don't care much about the space and just need a clean, reliable place to sleep.

disclaimer: I used to work at Airbnb, so biased.

But hotels have all of those options. "Hotels" I've stayed at include a place in Ireland with standalone 3 bedroom houses, two bedroom extended stay suites with kitchens and living rooms around America, etc.

In the contrary, AirBnb only makes sense for a larger group of people. For solo travel, hostels or hotels offer much better value. But for a group of 3-5 friends, it's often significantly less expensive to book an apartment then multiple hotel rooms, and you get a kitchen to cook in to boot.

If you pick the least expensive option then you can expect some problems. Marriott Residence Inn hotels are located near most major US destinations, and can accommodate groups of 5 in a suite with a kitchen. This may be slightly more expensive than an AirBNB, but they won't randomly cancel your reservation and there are trained staff on the property to resolve issues.

I should have mentioned, I don't have any experience with the USA. In Europe, I don't think you have any realistic chance of finding a hotel offering a room for 5 people, except ultra-luxury suites. At least nowhere that is actually inside a city.

5 people gets tricky, but up to 4 people is definitely doable in Western Europe where I've travelled.

I'd say one thing in favour of an AirBnB type rental is having a kitchen where you can cook your own food... I find on holiday sometimes it's quite nice to just have some "normal" food at home rather than eating out all the time.

I'd rather book a proper dedicated rental flat from another platform than someone's random flat on AirBnB these days though, after all the horror stories (personally I've never had an issue).

Edit: I read another comment lower down talking about hotel rooms with a kitchen. Personally never encountered this, maybe it's a US thing, but that could be an OK solution if it included all the stuff you need to cook a basic meal.

Responding to your edit comment: I've found hotels and apartment-hotels with kitchen or kitchenettes through Expedia and their subsidiaries in Germany, Poland, Mexico, and Brazil. Agoda offers similar features, but I've not tried it out yet.

They're usually well stocked with most of the things needed for a basic meal.

I use them versus AirBnB because they seem to look out for me very well. I've had minor hassle getting a refund only once in last twelve years, but they did come through for me. I also like the simple reward program. They've added some fees in the last few years, but it's still good.

Ah yeah good point, I forgot about “aparthotels”. They’re a pretty good in between, a nice Airbnb can be nicer but an aparthotel is probably more reliable.

I book AirBnBs (and VRBOs) for work retreats fairly regularly. Going to one next month, in fact.

Rent a huge house (8+BR, 6+ bath, 3500-5000 ft²), bring the leadership team together to live and work together for a couple of intense days. In Monday evening, cook dinner together, work Tues/Wed, leave Thursday AM.

There’s no hotel-equivalent that I’m aware of. (And given that it covers 3 nights’ accommodations and cheaper meals for 8-ish people, it’s notably cheaper than a hotel and restaurants in almost every case.)

I think can explain one possible reason. tl;dr: For long stays, as hotels typically don't offer home-like experience.

I have two typical modes of travel.

One is a short (1-2 week) trip somewhere, for some business (work or personal). A hotel is totally fine, but I still check both hotels and Airbnb for price and feature comparison. In this scenario I don't need a proper kitchen but I still want a microwave, a proper table, a decent chair, and good Internet connectivity - which sound like some basics but aren't exactly common. But, yeah, a hotel is typically a good option. Airbnb quality seem to degrade, so I'm typically looking at the hotels those days. E.g. my last trip was to San Diego, CA and Airbnb offerings I've seen were much worse (based on my personal preferences) than similarly priced hotels.

The other mode is multiple months of living somewhere else - like as in "digital nomad". Hotels typically cease to work for this purpose. For those scenario I want a full apartment (or a house) to myself, I don't need any room service (I can wipe dust and vacuum on my own, thank you), but I want something comparable to home. A full kitchen (with a dishwasher and an oven), a good working area (separate area - ideally a dedicated room, with favorable lighting conditions, normal height sturdy table, an ergonomic chair, etc.), a separate rest area (comfy non-leather couch and a correctly placed big TV with an accessible HDMI input), proximity to a grocery store, etc. It is very hard to find merely a suitable place - I spend multiple days, sometimes weeks, going through the listings, looking at the photos, checking neighborhoods etc. - but at least there's a chance to find something. I do check hotels (because why not) but most of the time they're simply not an option at all - they're tailored for very different use cases and simply don't offer this kind of service. And, well, my other alternatives are local classifieds and searching Google Maps for advertised rentals (which I do), but at least Airbnb has some standards so it's my first option. Last year I had a 2-month trip to Tbilisi, Georgia and the apartments I've found on Airbnb were almost perfect - I'm sure my experience would've been worse (and significantly costlier) if we would've stayed in a hotel.

Best kind of Airbnb is when a host had a place for themselves to live, but their circumstances had changed (e.g. they bought a second property) and now they're renting it out. Such places are simply made for living. Worst kind is a property bought specifically for renting out.

So here's how I attack these issues you've mentioned:

Extended Stay America. Almost every large city has one ("large" defined as more than 100,000 - 200,000 people). You can book for months at a time if necessary. They have WiFi at all locations, however...

I just donate to The Calyx Institute. My $750 pledge bought me a year of Sprint (now T-Mobile, and far more reliable) cellular access with a 5G WiFi hotspot and absolutely no data cap, ever. I ran 1.1 TiB through that access point one month and never had a moment's trouble. Long story short, Sprint bought Clearwire, Clearwire had a deal with the federal government to provide non-profits with cheap unlimited (actual unlimited) 4G / LTE hotspots and no fuckery (no slow-downs after X gigabytes transferred, no "preferred tier" customers like how MVNOs are second tier to the host provider). When Sprint bought Clearwire, the Feds only approved it with the provision Sprint had to honor the deal. Now that T-Mobile owns Sprint, they have to also honor the deal.

> Extended Stay America

The third word is the key. ;)

I've added a bit to my comment after the initial posting - an example of my last long-term stay. It was in Georgia (Sakartvelo, not the US state), and it's a good but developing country - to best of my awareness they don't really have anything similar, or at least my searches hadn't found it. So I suppose it depends on a country.

But you're absolutely correct, Extended Stay America is probably a very good option. When I've immigrated to the US, it was very high on my list. I still went with an Airbnb because I needed to find a new permanent home anyway (so I was renting short-term only as I was looking for a job), and Airbnb was in a more favorable location as I needed things in a walking distance (had no never driven a car at the time, hah), and maybe that was a mistake - it was OK but not exactly great. Anyway, I do have a home in the US now (and love the country) and I'm not really exploring the country just yet - but if/when I'll have a long-term trip somewhere else here, I'll definitely consider Extended Stay America. So far my US trips were all fairly short though.

And thanks for the tip about The Calyx Internet Membership. I don't have use for this right now, but this might come in handy!

BTW, does anyone know - is there something similar in Mexico, in safe(r) areas, ideally a gated community? This is the next country life is sending me to - because of some family circumstances I'll have spend some months down there...

Almost every large city has one...

The first city I checked, DC, does not (listed in Google's hotel search). The suburbs have several, but that's a terrible option if don't want to "commute" during the trip. Downtown DC does have other chains that are extended stay, but I haven't found a good way to search for "hotel with a kitchen and living room" - basically requiring me to know which brands have those amenities.

I've used Airbnb in the following places, usually traveling as a couple for vacation. Domestically, with our dog as well. We like Airbnb for more space (proper living room, sofa, etc) and a kitchen during extended stays.

- Iceland, flat in Reykjavik, 5 day trip. Kitchen and more space vs hotel, similar cost. - Italy, flat in Florence, 5 day trip, part of longer trip, used hotels in Rome and Riccione. Lower cost, kitchen, more space vs hotel - Scotland, cottages in Portree and Stornaway, 5 days each, used hotels in Fort William and Inverness (1 night each). Less expensive, more space, full kitchen vs hotels in this area. - Roanoke VA, 3 night weekend, dog allowed, kitchen and more space, lower cost vs hotel - Mt Rogers VA, 7 day, no hotels nearby, plus dog - St Michaels MD, 3 day weekend, dog, kitchen, limited hotels in town (though plenty on the outskirts) - Emerald Isle, NC - house, 3 day weekend, needed 4 dogs and 2 couples, and kitchen - Cape Canaveral, FL - flat, 14 days, needed kitchen and dog alllowance - Cocoa Beach, FL - house, needed 2 couples, 1 solo, and 4 dogs, plus kitchen

Maybe I'm being naive, but filtering to Superhosts and entire home, then checking for multiple listings and high ratings seems to work ok. And for big cities, I'd probably just get a hotel, since Airbnb is likely to be a small flat anyway.

To me a hotel and an airbnb are 2 totally different products. I prefer using airbnb (or vrbo) because I can get an entire house (yes I know this is technically possible with a hotel, but typically not) with a kitchen, multiple bedrooms, etc.

And I shouldn't jinx myself, but I've used Airbnbs on every trip I've taken, and I've yet to run into a real show stopping problem. Not saying it doesn't happen, just pointing out that it's not as frequent as you are making it out to be.

If you think about it, that's more or less the original idea. Affordable accommodation for young solo travelers. People that do not have the time and energy to face the inconveniences of Airbnb's are better off in a hotel after all. When I book an airbnb I do not expect to get hotel like service.

Edit: maybe drop the "solo", it's probably not worth it if you don't travel in a group.

AirBnB makes sense from my experience for a very select set of experiences which require considerable research. In these situations, I wasn't optimizing for lower costs which most travelers are probably doing. Examples:

1. Several nights on a houseboat in Amsterdam.

2. Two weeks in Cape May, NJ in a walkable location to the beach with enough space to bring kids, laundry facilities, and a garden to entertain friends joining us.

3. Long weekend with extended family in the middle of Harper's Ferry, WV.

Finding and organizing these experiences would be harder without AirBnB. There is no way I'd use AirBnB for a regular trip though.

>I wasn't optimizing for lower costs which most travelers are probably doing

I suspect that, as with many other marketplaces with suppliers of widely differing quality (e.g. Amazon), there are a lot of people who optimize for price and then are surprised when they get burned on deals that seem too good to be true.

> The only use case where AirBNB sort of makes sense

Here's a weird case where AirBNB might make more sense than a hotel:

I have a medical cannabis licence. Hotels don't seem to like the idea of me vapourising cannabis indoors, but an AirBNB host might be okay with it if I ask first (assuming otherwise legal in the area).

Just don’t ask. They won’t hit you with a cleaning fee because vaping doesn’t leave the stink that cigs do. And vaping is basically not only socially acceptable but most likely socially encouraged by your average hotel worker.

Airbnb puts you in a local neighbourhood (not the city centre) and gives you a full apartment and a kitchen so your trip feels a bit more like living in the country. That's the reason I used it, anyway. There are definitely advantages to hotels too.

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