Time will tell if this is a smart move or just AirBnB smashing together something that it already has anyway. But I'm curious if anyone has an insight.
Looking at the photos of the "business-ready homes" on https://www.airbnb.com/business/signup, I can assure you that there is nothing that would make me prefer the "AirBnB experience" over, say, a stay at the Mandarin Oriental or St. Regis. Hotels generally might get a bad wrap, but the quality of the accommodations and conveniences offered at the higher end of the market are very hard to compete with, elite status and hotel points not even taken into consideration.
Lisabon is another city good for cheap luxury hotels. Trivago is a great hotel aggregator.
When I travel privately, I'm willing to pay to avoid all that crap.
I don't care about getting a gift basket or gym membership or being recognised personally at check-in. Perhaps if I travelled significantly more it would make sense. WiFi and a power socket next to the bed is enough.
The downside was mostly that we couldn't instabook, there's still some required interaction with the host. It means you need to be there on time and so does your host. If something goes wrong, you're at the mercy of a random person to fix it whereas in a hotel there's normally some chain of command.
For instance, our outbound flight was 6 hours delayed (different city) and we arrived at 3am. We were thankfully booked into a hostel for the first two nights with 24 hour reception. If we'd gone for Airbnb, we would likely have been sleeping on the street.
We had a great stay because Airbnb worked. If something had gone wrong, it would have been hell.