There is no way I am staying at another Airbnb if there is a hotel.
My hotel experiences, on the other hand, are usually much nicer. On arrival I look at the maps app on my phone to find hotels near where I want to be at, I see ratings and price ranges, I walk in and can ask to see the room, talk to someone who’s always polite and often speaks good English, and pay with debit card and have 0 emails or texts or accounts from anyone about my stay.
AirBNB might be nice if you want a ton of space or for long durations. This is purely as a comparison to hotels. Does anyone have different experiences?
AirBNB (Amazon too) also need to enforce normalized ratings. Another five star review? Either adjust all ratings to an agreed average (e.g. 3 stars) or let users "use up" their 5-star ratings allowance.
This doesn't take into account people who are really picky about choosing accommodations and so only stay in listings that are worth of five stars, vs people who are very budget conscious and only stay in listings that are worth 3 stars.
If you normalize these two people's ratings that will give the same 3-star average rating to both marginal and great listings.
Absent that, my MO is use this formula f(rating) -> (rating - 4) * 10. Basically, focus on what's after the decimal; so a 4.3 translates to a 3/10. The fact that it allows for negative values is a feature.
Also you usually have more square meter at the same price point.
Obviously if you're travelling alone or with someone you're happy to share a bed with, that's irrelevant. But if your group has 3 people who would prefer not to share a room, a rented apartment works out cheaper than three hotel rooms.
There are drawbacks to airbnb style, but positives more than counter-balance them.
Having used AirBnb for 6+ years, yes. Without AirBnB, we probably would not be able to live the lifestyle we live (nomadic in SEA with 3 people, usually 2-6 months in a place)
The long durations and space are definitely something we need. Some other benefits I have found:
1. Kitchens. We can't live without a kitchen of decent size. Sink, full-ish fridge, counter space.
2. Lots of choice in terms of location/look/layout/price/etc. Hotels are mainly in tourist hubs, and in SEA, usually are either decently priced and of questionable quality or much more than we want to spend (especially once you factor in AirBnB monthly discounts).
3. I trust AirBnb customer service more than hotels. Most hotels in SEA aren't chains so you are at the whim of the owners. I have had nothing but good experiences with AirBnB customer service. They can be helpful when things are getting lost in translation as well.
4. Depending on the Host, Airbnb cancellation policies tend to be more flexible, and because it's not a chain, hosts are usually more accommodating. Less "I'm sorry sir, it's company policy".
5. Airbnb's interface tends to be much easier/nicer to use. Everything is in one place, you don't have various hotel booking sites to deal with, the map works really well and you can filter by many different criteria.
6. My wife loves searching through Airbnbs for treasure :)
I've also noticed that a lot of boutique hotels (5-10 rooms) often list on the VRBO sites now. The last time I was in Greece, all of my island accommodations were booked on VRBO type sites but were really just small hotels.
I'll take a living room, kitchen, and then a series of private bedrooms down the hall over that any day.
For personal travel, we've stayed in awesome city loft apartments, little cottage houses, and even a (no-kidding) tree house in Costa Rica. I like living a little closer to "local normal" rather than having a sterilized, sanitized, pre-packaged hotel room experience.
My good experiences outweigh bad at least 9:1 on AirBnB.
Assuming there is only 1 tree house AirBnB listed in Costa Rica, we've stayed in the same place. Super cool design!
We've also used them for away-from-kids weekend retreats with other couples. Hotels wouldn't work at all, the whole point is to find some place pleasant to hang out in for a couple days, that's not your own house, and that can handle 4-6 people without feeling crowded. Hanging out in a hotel's just sad, not pleasant and relaxing, at least at prices we can afford.
And I'm pretty sure that it's less often in hotels as well - they are generally more professional. Well worth the extra bucks for me.
They probably have a property?
You could argue this is true for hotels as well, but the larger operators are likely to be more diversified and in better shape.
Which is to say, you can probably at least seize the camera that was used to record you, if it's still in there. And you could also take other consumer electronics gear that's in there, that you could use yourself, like routers and televisions.
And if you're getting jerked around and feeling vindictive, you'll go to a hardware store website and check the prices on cat5e cables, coax cables, doorknobs, hinge pins, interior doors, shower heads, toilet hardware, mattresses, mini-fridges, microwave ovens, toasters, coffee-makers, etc. Just bring some tools when you go to collect. Even a small unpaid judgement can render a short-term rental unusable. The replacement cost of all those little things is as nothing compared to the labor cost of delivering and reinstalling all of it.
https://www.wrc.noaa.gov/wrso/security_guide/bughotel.htm
> It is sometimes said that "All hotel rooms abroad are bugged for audio and visual surveillance." Of course it is not true that all of them are bugged, but a great many are -- especially in major hotels frequented by foreign business and government travelers.
> Most foreign security and intelligence services have various means of screening incoming visitors to identify persons of potential intelligence interest. They also have well-established contacts with the hotels that commonly host conferences and meetings with international participation. For convenience, some even maintain permanent offices within the largest hotels. If the local intelligence service considers you a significant intelligence target, it may arranged for you to be assigned a room that is already prepared for the desired monitoring.
Another declassified guide:
https://www.osac.gov/pages/ContentReportDetails.aspx?cid=225...
> In your hotel, assume that the room and telephone are being monitored. DO NOT try to play investigator and start looking for electronic listening devices. This again could send the wrong signals to a surveillant. Just make sure that you do not say or do anything in your hotel room that you would not want to see posted on the Internet.
This guide's from the NASA:
https://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/FOIA/newsletters/CI-CTNew...
> The bottom line is this: When traveling over-seas, in particular for official business and where accommodations are provided by the host, assume that your hotel room and work spaces contain clandestine audio and video surveillance devices.
These are all US government sources meant for their own employees. The US government is good at this intelligence stuff so I presume they know what they are talking about. And you can expect that they are doing the same to foreign guests staying in the USA.
You'll will find similar sources from the UK govt as well (search for "site:*.gov.uk hotel room surveillance").
Most people aren't important government employees that everybody in the world is trying to spy on, and no intelligence service will install bugs in their rooms.