You're scared of getting robbed by a middle-class condo owner, but you'll happily share a hostel room with 6 traveling youths?

Most hostels have dorm and private room options. I just get the private room. It's more expensive than the dorm but way less expensive than a hotel. I've never slept in a hostel that only offered dorm rooms.

I'm just as paranoid about the dorm option.

I have stayed in a few hostels with lots of people... met lots of fun and interesting people. Never once had any issues.

Just curious, is this true mostly in a certain region or all over the world? Also, what kind of price different should I be expecting between the dorm and the private room?

I'm not sure, I've mostly only stayed in hostels in Canada. The last one I stayed at in Ottawa had rooms for 25$/night in the dorm or 60$/night for a private single bed room.

http://www.ottawahostel.com/

In most of Europe it seems ~20 euros/night for a dorm bed is about the standard.

I'm used hostels (& couch surfing) quite a lot and never really had problems, but I guess it depends on the region you are traveling in.

Tallanvor's approach seems unnecessarily paranoid to me, but I don't know where he travels too.

Hostelworld says privates in New York start at $15.

http://www.hostelworld.com/hostels/New-York

You lost me on the hostel part, but that could be because I'm getting old. :) And the credit card issue isn't that much of a problem since AirBnB handles it and the person you're renting from never sees it.

I considered using AirBnB for a trip I just booked to Greece, but I decided against it. For several reasons:

1. I don't know how clean the place will be. With a 3 or 4 star hotel with good reviews online, I can be fairly certain I'll get a place that is clean. 2. I don't know how secure the place will be. The rooms I booked all have in room safes, so I can leave my netbook in my room and be fairly certain it will be there when I get back. 3. Getting a private apartment on AirBnB isn't that much cheaper than a hotel. No offense to the hosts offering a room in their place or their couch, but when I'm on vacation, I don't want to share a place with people I don't know. I'm just not that type of person.

All of that adds up to general uncertainty over the use of AirBnB. And if a company I was interviewing with wanted me to use AirBnB to find a place to stay, well, that would give me serious reservations as to whether or not I'd want to work there. The possible exception would be if I were interviewing with AirBnB themselves.

The hosts on Airbnb don't get your credit card info...Same as, you know shopping on Ebay.

I just moved across country. I stayed at 3 different places of Airbnb over the course of 2 weeks while I looked for a place with roommates off Craigslist. Each host was great and I never felt anything but safe. The only reason I stayed at multiple is because they had other bookings coming in so I couldn't extend.

I think he meant someone picking up your card and duping it while you sleep (since it's not a hotel and there's shared access).

One of the major problems with modern society is this paranoia that everything on the news is true, and a good representation of the general population.

I have stayed in 100s of shared hostel rooms, never had a problem. I have heard stories, we all have heard stories, but they are so minor to be negligible. You are in more danger getting to the hostel/house than you are once you are there.

I suggest you actually get out more and experience people, share a room, it is a great way to stop your foolish attitude. If you have a car, then you are already way to cut off from the real world.

Because robbers love a paper trail . . .

I agree that suggesting airbnb would be a turnoff. But this is not why, at least not for me.