Hacker News Reader

Comment by spapas82 | Hacker News Reader

The OP seems to have spend like $3000 for a month. What's very puzzling to me is why not go to a decent hotel? I'm positive that you can easily find 3 and even 4 star hotels for less than $100 per night in Portugal.

This question is not specifically about the OP but in general about people that pay so much money for an Airbnb when they can have a room in a nice hotel for the same (or even less) money. I'm not talking about special occations (i.e people that want to organize party and stuff), I'm talking about traditional tourists. Why would anybody choose an AirBnb vs a hotel?

Maybe I'm not in the right mindset (or age?) but I've never even considered an Airbnb when going on vacation anywhere.

View on HN

When staying at a place for longer than a few nights, hotel rooms are not as attractive as apartments. Having a full kitchen, separate dining/living/bedroom spaces available makes a huge difference. Whilst you probably can get a small hotel room for the same price, I can certainly see the appeal.

Hotel is a room, Airbnb is a home. The difference in amenities is important and when, historically, Airbnb was cheaper, it was often superior to a hotel. Nowadays, Airbnb often costs more than a hotel, and so it’s a trade-off: pay more to have a kitchen? Another aspect is per-person cost: a hotel room is typically limited to 2 people, whereas an Airbnb can be dozens, so with higher capacity requirements Airbnb can still work out cheaper.

The problem with a hotel is that you have less space to relax and you can't cook for yourself. You might be able to get one with a small kitchen but they will probably be >$100 and likely not as featurefull as the ones you get in an Airbnb.

I prefer to have my own kitchen if I'm staying for more than a few days as I don't like eating out all of the time.

An airbnb (often) has a washing machine, a kitchen you can cook on and a fridge you can store food in.

For longer stays, hell even for short-term stays on weekends, I have found to like construction worker homes - usually these are rented out during the week for tradespeople and construction workers and during the weekend for tourists on a budget.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com