Maybe it's because I always go for the cheaper end of the spectrum? It's not that I'm squeamish or a clean freak. For years I'd travel to SE Asia and stay in 5$ beach huts with no hot water. Some Airbnbs I've stayed in were pretty great.

what do you do to afford living out of air bnbs?

I lived in AirBnBs for a couple of years, travelling around Europe. The way I afforded it was (1) to have a decent remote job (not a developer) and (2) to have given up my home in the UK, so no rent or bills to pay for that, and (3) to take advantage of long-term deals -- if you reserve for a month or more you can get a significant reduction on the daily or weekly rate. For example, I stayed for two months in a beach-side appartment in Crete for about £600 ($780) per month, all bills and a cleaner included, which is considerably less than I'm paying now for rent on a small house in the UK.