Ultimately, I found the experience too stressful. Too much time and energy was expended trying to figure out the next place to stay. I was working, and looking for housing took up most of my time outside of work. If you don't have to work, it's probably a better experience.
AirBNB wasn't as useful as I had hoped. Here are the issues I remember:
- there weren't as many listings as craigslist by an order of magnitude - people would take too long to respond - people would flake out at the last minute
- people would list something available for certain dates, but it wouldn't really be available on a portion of the dates
- people would require minimum stays that they didn't list
- people were already becoming mini-hoteliers and trying to charge prices in line with actual hotels
- the mini-hotelier people were wanting security deposits up to $500