My girlfriend and I used to think the same until we started staying at "shared" airbnbs, i.e. where you're staying at actual bed and breakfasts or someone's house as opposed to just a random apartment held by a Chinese superconglomerate filled with 1ply toilet paper.

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.

This is airbnb's special thing. I wish I could filter for only these experiences.

Yeah I've met some great people via Airbnb. Some I've contacted privately after to stay with when traveling.

.... filled with toilet paper, you say...

My family and I use AirBnB almost every time we travel, especially when we go internationally. It's the only way to make sure we get a full kitchen, a necessity with the kids.

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.

Lol that's hilarious. I wouldn't rock the boat and if the authorities pursed further I'd just say we were under duress.

I mean I'm pretty sure the only "authorities" the owner was worried about were the neighbors telling the HOA. :)

But yea, it was funny. Luckily it never came up. We were only there for a few hours to sleep before moving on.

Oh then I'd totally lie through my teeth haha! The majority of HOA's are filled with NIMBY's entitled beyond reality.

I've gone back to using hotels given the cancellation policy of AirBnB is ridiculous. As we've seen these last days, plans need to be able to change and I don't mind paying a small premium for a cancellation-friendly hotel or serviced apartment.

Airbnb has a variety of different cancellation policies available to hosts.

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.

For holidays booked without too much time ahead that's fine, but for work which is easily cancelled or postponed, it's impractical. I'd like to see a premium price offered with more flexibility on date changes.

The platform offers that, though the price premium for a flexible cancellation is not high enough to make me want to use that pricing policy.

It does vary. I locked in an AirBnB for a May conference before I had access to a room block--and before the current virus craziness started--because standard room rates were insane. But I was able to cancel things a couple weeks back when the conference was canceled.

That said, I've never actually stayed in a room booked through AirBnB (although I've stayed at B&Bs which also list there).

Agreed, my experiences have also been very mediocre. the peace of mind of using hotels is becoming more and more evident.

Airbnbs are still differentiated from hotels. They are great for large parties whereas hotels are not so much. They are also great for secluded and more local locations.

My experience is the opposite. I've used Airbnb dozens of times by now (am typing this from one, in fact), have rarely had a bad experience, and always find it cheaper than hotels, especially nice hotels. The only consistent negative, in my experience, is that there's so much variation that I end up spending way too much time comparing listings before picking one. I've gotten good at it but there's a paralysis issue and I don't really want to spend a whole evening on something like that. I think I have less anxiety around picking a hotel because hotels are more predictable. But I'd hate to go back to before Airbnb.

Same. Am kind of tired of Airbnb now.

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.

My experiences have all been very good so far. Maybe because I am a cheap traveller and decent hotels are outside my price range.

When traveling with a group where you want more than one room, I almost always find renting a house / flat on AirBNB a better option: "private" (to the group) common areas and a kitchen are especially nice to have.

When traveling alone or with just one other person (with whom I'm sharing a room), I agree, hotels are hard to beat.

I only use them in areas where there aren't many or any hotels, quality is much better in those areas usually.