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Comment by jorvi | Hacker News Reader

The problem with hotel rooms is that they’re more expensive, get much more expensive per additional person, and don’t have the amenities of an appartement.

If I’m somewhere with a group for longer than three days, we want to be able to hang somewhere and cook our own food. The only other thing that offers this feature set is private rooms in hostels, and those are both rare and nearly always fully booked.

I’m not saying having a good base for vacationing is anywhere near as important as residential housing supply, but saying “just book hotels lol” takes a very dim view on AirBnBs.

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There are "apartments" (bedroom and living room with a mini-kitchen) built for short stays, I've stayed in on in Toronto (Vaughan area), but they seem to be more common in Berlin and other European cities where i have stayed in them as well.

The Toronto one was likely more expensive than an AirBnb, but in Berlin i don't remember it being that expensive.

Finding these places is a pain however, there is no universal name. Ive seen "Aparthotel" used a few times in Europe. Other times it is just "XXX Apartments" or "Residence" and you have to guess if they are for short-stay.

Sites like booking.com mix in people renting out their own property with these purpose built short stay locations which doesn't help discovery.

> The problem with hotel rooms is that they’re more expensive,

Maybe they are more expensive than the displayed rate for an AirBnB, but by the time you add in the cleaning fees and other non-sense things it turns out to be more expensive. Also, when I'm in a hotel, I'm not asked to wash the sheets, wash the dishes, or any of that nonsense as well as paying the cleaning fees.

no, they are really more expensive.

No, it really is cheaper to rent Airbnb instead of hotel. We are a family of four and I did the math several times. A couple years ago we were five, it was more difficult to find a suiting place. You also have the added convenience of making food when you want without waiting a specific time, which is great when visiting a city.

For a single person, probably. For a family the math (and comfort levels) are way different.

Those are all artifacts of USA AirBnB (maybe Aussie/Kiwi too?).

I have never encountered those requirements in European / Asian / S-American / African AirBnBs.

Occasionally you’re asked to do the dishes or take off the sheets and leave them on the beds, but that’s it. No fees.

AirBnBs have also started increasing rates based on extra people.

Maybe it's just me, but when I'm on vacation the last thing I want to spend my time doing is dishes. I'd also rather explore where I'm visiting than sitting in some random person's house.

Give me a hotel room with turn down service over an AirBnB every time.

I do like that when Airbnb, while there's no room cleaning or room service, you do often get a kitchen which is nice. You can also often stay in a "neighborhood" vs a commercial area.

It does feel like Airbnb is just reinventing hotels tho. (Just like streaming is re-inventing cable and Uber is re-inventing taxis)

They also provide you with a lot of hidden features that you will take advantage of if something bad happens. None of that is offered by airbnb.

The reason why hotels are expensive is because they're properly regulated and are forced to be a net positive which is passed down to the customer. airbnbs had none of that until recently and all the negative impact was pocketed by the landlords.

I’ve moved back to hotels exclusively after using airbnb for a long time.

Between the hosts and the platform itself, they just got too greedy with fees and extras. It ended up at the stage that hotels are both cheaper and provide a better experience.

"we want to be able to hang somewhere" ...just saying because I'm sorry I can't contain myself: This is exactly the use case Airbnb doesn't solve. I fly half-way across the world to meet my parents on vacation and almost without fail the only Airbnb I can find (or all the ones I can find) have a strict rule against guests. Hence I can't have my parents over 10 minutes to drink tea because if the owner, big brother, finds out I'll lose my entire remaining month of rent and be forcibly expelled. In Europe this is not joke, often a loss of $2000+

I truly hate Airbnb. Luckily since my parents only stay a week they can afford to stay in a hotel. Invariable we "hang out" with me sitting at the foot of their bed.

These "rules" become extremely oppressive when your home most of the year is an Airbnb room like me. This is why I use Booking or local corporate owned platfroms instead whenever possible

I mean, that sucks a lot, but I have never ever encountered what you just described. N=1.

Overnight guests are typically banned, but I've never seen an Airbnb listing that says you can't have someone over for a cup of tea.

And how would they know? Oh right, hidden cameras. Nothing about airbnb is attractive to me any more.

That would be very illegal in many places.

and yet it happens

For what it's worth, they're also prohibited by Airbnb's terms of service: https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/3061

Camera's don't have to be hidden to prevent guests. It is allowed and becoming very common to have cameras at entrances and becoming common to restrict guests during the day as well as overnight.

I have never run into this alleged issue. In fact, we have several times booked AirBnB homes in the town of my youth and hosted Thanksgiving Dinner for my elderly mom and siblings who are themselves visiting and staying in AirBnB's. Yes, we asked the hosts before booking if we could cook and host a Thanksgiving Dinner and received their OK.

I truly love AirBnB and have stayed in them in most all my business and pleasure travels to Europe, Canada, Israel and across the USA.

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