I’ve used them four times and only had one good AirBNB experience. Hotels are so competitive in price in the markets I’ve visited that I never bother anymore.
Now we get to have really cool experiences - staying on a couple farms and watching our hosts go to work milking cows or feeding horses, staying in a really old Mexican woman's huge mansion and looking at pictures on the wall of her and her family with presidents, popes, all sorts of other really cool art, then having her cook us a delicious breakfast. That kinda thing.
If we wanna stay in a hotel and just have eachother to keep ourselves company, Airbnb can't compete. But for a really cool side-experience to the main vacation, that's something a hotel can't offer.
We always use Superhosts, and have never had an issue.
The only odd thing we had once was a host telling us that if anyone asks we are his "friends from America".
I think the key is sticking to superhosts. Also read all the reviews for the juicy nuggets. Sometimes there are some big red (or green) flags in the reviews.
But yea, it was funny. Luckily it never came up. We were only there for a few hours to sleep before moving on.
As a host, I use the strict one because I can’t always schedule a last minute cleaning, and I find that people who plan ahead and don’t need to change are more respectful guests.
That said, I've never actually stayed in a room booked through AirBnB (although I've stayed at B&Bs which also list there).
Not sure what your experience was like, but I’d be surprised if the host has good reviews.
Another example why, often the facilities which are advertised making an apartment seem on par with a hotel, often end up being some poorly maintained "home" version.
When traveling alone or with just one other person (with whom I'm sharing a room), I agree, hotels are hard to beat.