Anyone use Airbnb lately?

Fedorgasm

Fedorgasm

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I've never stayed at an Airbnb place before.

I remember when they first came out everyone loved it, but then years later people were saying it sucked. But what's the current status? Has it been ruined?

I'm traveling soon and I need to decide on whether to go with Airbnb or hotel. I may only stay 1 or 2 nights. Not sure yet.
 
Fedorgasm said:
I've never stayed at an Airbnb place before.

I remember when they first came out everyone loved it, but then years later people were saying it sucked. But what's the current status? Has it been ruined?

I'm traveling soon and I need to decide on whether to go with Airbnb or hotel. I may only stay 1 or 2 nights. Not sure yet.
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Over the years I've leaned more towards hotels than Airbnb. The cleaning fee they charge is getting ridiculous, and sometimes you may get property catfished by the Airbnb pictures. Hotels on the other hand are more consistent and you can collect/spend points if you choose a chain

I actually used to host Airbnb in my guesthouse, but I charged a very low cleaning fee and priced it reasonably. My experience is that 97% of Airbnb guests are respectful and clean with the remaining 3% being assholes junkies

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I just looked at some places that were like $40. About $100 cheaper than a hotel.

But there's no mention of a cleaning fee. Does that mean there isn't one? Or do they sneak it in later?
 
I will be staying at an AirBNB for the first time in March.

My sister, myself, and a couple friends are going down to Savannah, GA for St. Paddy's weekend.
 
Fedorgasm said:
I just looked at some places that were like $40. About $100 cheaper than a hotel.

But there's no mention of a cleaning fee. Does that mean there isn't one? Or do they sneak it in later?
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They sneak in lotsa fees at the final checkout just like Ticketmaster used to do before the government started looking into them
 
I've owned one for the last 4 years it stays pretty consistent. When I travel I use airbnb maybe half the time. I've never had any weird experiences or issues. I don't really have a particular preference between hotels or airbnb
 
Pliny Pete said:
They sneak in lotsa fees at the final checkout just like Ticketmaster used to do before the government started looking into them
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Pretty sure nowadays there's a button you can click "show total before tax" or something like that so you only see the total price
 
Europe. Used 4 or 5 for medium to long term stays. Most recent was last week.

Biggest “problem” I have with them is they’re never as clean as a hotel would be. Biggest positive is they’re always more spacious.
 
I travel with kids- ages 9 and almost 11- so that definitely affects my response. For a short trip- like this past weekend, when we had an unplanned overnighter- I usually look for a chain hotel with a pool to reward the wee folk for their patience. But for longer trips AirBnB is absolutely our preferred option. We spring for "whole house" or whatever the option is called, basically a whole apartment or house. It's great to have a home base where everyone in the traveling party can have their own space.

Last coupla years we've had great success renting apartments/flats in Portugal and Italy. Domestically, we usually rent houses. Just booked a house for a week at the beach here in South Carolina in June. Fenced backyard, tons of interior space, full size fridge, freedom to be lazy with morning coffee without leaving the house... for us, AirBnB totally works.
 
It's worth it to rent a house or whatever if you're traveling with a family. Otherwise for one or two people it's rarely worth it. The fees suck and it's a huge crapshoot on the convenience.
 
I booked a stay for my mom who was traveling to briefly visit some family in the outskirts of San Antonio.

She wanted something close to the private gated community where her sister now lives, so I found a room that they were renting down the street of my aunt’s.

The closest hotel would have been 15 minutes of driving down the expressway.

$49.00 x 1 night
Cleaning fee $10.00
Airbnb service fee 8.33
Taxes $3.54
Total $70.87

Super convenient when you want to rent something close to a specific location.

Previously I booked a cozy one bedroom mini apartment in San Antonio myself because I had signed up to some meditation courses, and it allowed me to be at walking distance of the place they were held.

$47.48 x 4 nights = $189.90
Cleaning fee $59.00
Service fee $35.14
Taxes $14.93
Total $298.97
 
Little over a year ago. Had pretty good luck with finding accommodations that got us closer to the national park we stated at. Stayed in the area twice and really like having some type of home base/kitchenette for planning around hiking/day meals. Just roll around with a cooler and go out to eat a couple times. Saved money and got out and about easier and earlier. Before sun rise with flash lights makes for a great start to the day.
 
Almost all of these “disruptive” industries started out undercutting the traditional business model while losing money only to go through enshittification and end up worse than the original. Airbnb, Uber, Netflix all suck now .
 
I dont use it often, but whenever I did, I didnt have any issues. Just booked a room for my trip to Prague - no cleaning fees, just the room plus service fee.

Anyway, it's funny how people shit on AirBnB for things like cleaning fees or fake photos, when it is all on the hosts, little greedy grubby hosts.
 
I've had good and bad experiences.

The worst I had was my wife and I booked a cabin and then right before the deadline to cancel the owner messaged us saying she had to cancel our booking. We said OK. Then she just didn't cancel it and then ghosted us.

So we had to decide between either driving 4+ hours out there just to get in a fight or cancel it ourselves. The owner didn't want to take the hit for the cancellation.

AirBnB was absolutely no help.
 
When I was in Japan two years ago it was hotels all the way. $60 a night pretty much anywhere we stayed. The rooms were small but we went there to sleep and that's it.

I booked apartments through Expedia for my Italy trip last year cause they were actually inexpensive and didn't have stupid cleaning fees.

This year it's hotels all the way in Scandinavia cause they are inexpensive and nice in every city we're going to. Airbnbs were more expensive.
 
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