The consumer is naturally disadvantaged: They can’t assess until they arrive, they must reserve in advance, and packing up and going elsewhere is often not an easy option.
Though I’ll add that even regulated hotels can be a hit or miss experience.
Absolutely. The exception is when you're a large family, or even a not so large one. Most hotels have no good/affordable solution for parties larger than 2.
But when traveling as a couple, or alone as this lady is, there's no reason not to choose a hotel. Much better experience overall, and nowadays usually cheaper as well.
We tend to use Airbnbs when road tripping/caravaning with others. It is significantly less expensive than getting two hotel rooms. When its just my spouse and I, we almost always use hotels, because there is far less risk involved (though it is still possible to find hotels that not well-kept).
That said, we've used about two dozen Airbnbs over the years, all in the U.S., and have never stayed in a place that was not exactly what we expected based on the listing.
For over 4 ppl it's insane trying to find a good hotel rental - they're called suites, and they're uncommon and thus often booked or extremely expensive.
I just find a good 4 person room and we make do - or I Airbnb/VRBO.
I had to visit my employer in Ottawa (I live in the UK). They booked me into a suite hotel, because there was an international conference in town, and all the smaller rooms were booked.
So I got a huge TV, a kitchenette, a double bedroom with another huge TV, a bathroom with his-and-hers basins, and a single bedroom. The next morning I discovered a second bathroom, like the first; and a utility room with a washer and a dryer.
The problem was they didn't have a bar, so I couldn't get a bottle of wine. But not a big problem; the suite hotel shared a lift with the regular hotel next door. So I would ring the barman at the regular hotel, and he'd meet me on the second floor with my wine.
The suite hotels in the US often don't have a bar and limited or no food service at night. Though there are exceptions. (Marriott has been upscaling Residence Inn in many cases--probably because they have so many suite brands after acquiring Sheraton.)
This might be an option in a lot of downtown areas but not on the outskirts of London (the hotels are mostly airport / motel types) or in the middle of nowhere in Scotland where 4 of my sister's previous Airbnb rentals have been.
Her last one was incredible. A lovely little 3 bed home with a hot tub in the garden room.
Really, in general, any time you want a real "home base" you don't mind spending hours in if, say, some outdoor activity gets rained out, AirBnBs are far nicer than a hotel. Hanging out in a hotel room sucks, hanging out in an AirBnB can be like hanging out at home except... kinda better, in some cases and in some ways.
Or for any getaway kind of situation where the point is mainly to be at the place that you are staying, not necessarily to get out a ton. Hotels are terrible for that, aside, perhaps, from ultra-expensive huge suites (I wouldn't know, I've never tried one, too pricey and I have a suspicion it'd still feel like being in a hotel room).
They're also great in rural areas. Often you can get an AirBnB much closer to some 2nd- or 3rd-rate way-off-the-interstate attraction you're interested in, than a hotel. Otherwise your only options would be camping or an RV.
There are tons of professionally managed rental companies that have been in operation for decades where you can rent houses. Same price as the "internet" grifters without any bullshit whatsoever.
Last time I’ve used AirBnb it was a 1 bedroom half of the house, shady, private area with a creek, private yes - but in a walking distance to the downtown. I had a full kitchen, an office place to put my computer and monitor in and a personal, fast Internet connection. I even had a shed to put my bicycle in without a need to drag it into the house. The host configured the lock to be the last digits of my phone number - extremely convenient without a need to carry a piece of paper even to enter.
All that for a hundred dollars a day - same as nearby hotels where you get a crappy little room smelling of disinfectant, just a microwave and a small fridge, and my bike - last time I took my bike to a hotel it was stolen…
> Some hotels are good/bad. Some Airbnbs are good/bad. Tremendous insight.
I do not know how you’ve managed to extract that insight from my post. The experience I’ve described with AirBnb is not possible with any hotel, Hyatt included.
> The point is, staying at the Hyatt in a major city isn't a crapshoot.
Take a look at Hyatt San Francisco, for example. See that the ground floor is occupied by some public areas exclusively? So I should either leave my bike in the place where it can be stolen, or to put it into my room via an elevator. Now it’s starting from $285, and $295 give you are a cottage in San Francisco on AirBnb: https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/6523507?check_in=2022-11-29&che...
So to be more precise:
- hotels, I can survive then, no prob. I can even survive Hyatt SF with my bicycle.
- AirBnbs give me pleasure. Get up, open the door to the garden, birds chirping, the creek floating, my favorite turnovers in the stove ready in 20 minutes, my laptop connected to Ethernet, my bicycle ready nearby - I can just jump on it and ride… Which of you “nicely regulated” hotels can give me all that?
To be fair, I’ve managed to get some pleasure from a hotel too. Now and then. A different pleasures though. And all of these hotels were in Japan.
I'd add the nuance that you can end up with a pretty crappy experience at a 3+ star chain hotel for whatever reason. Usually though it's something that doesn't matter all that much at the end of the day like a room with minimal natural light.
But generally speaking midrange business hotels are utterly unexciting--which is to say they're predictable which is what I'm looking for from my hotel in general when I travel. I'm probably not there for the hotel experience.
There is a budget hotel chain in the UK (premierInn) where if you complain you get a free breakfast and if you make your complaint official you will get a full refund. They have remained profitable for many years despite the obvious incentive for people to make unwarranted complaints.
This, I think, is the critical difference. If I get a hotel room, enter it, and discover anything is out of joint, I can walk downstairs and ask the manager for a refund, or at least a different room. If the same thing happens with an Airbnb, and the host has no interest in helping, you are basically out of luck.
If your hotel reservation is not refundable - you are out of your luck. You can potentially get refund from credit card company, as I once did, but the same is available for AirBnb - never tried though, was no need.
They create jobs, they don't distort property markets in the same way as AirBnB, and you get breakfast!