Seems like there might be ways to combat this with proper incentives though.

Say: refund + 50%, or a hotel you both agree on at cost + 25%. It's in the host's best interest to find a replacement, and they're locals so they're likely to be more capable than the visitor. Either way the host is penalized for late changes, and the visitor gets to choose which deal they think is better.

I think thats a good idea but i’d settle for my money back in full so i can maximise options. Right now people are being scammed all over the world because hosts abuse their visitors insecure position. Airbnb needs a buyers guarantee like ebay offers.

I got burned on miss-sold/labeled AirBnBs a few years ago and they did nothing to make it up to me so I RARELY book with them anymore. Honestly with rewards points and such with hotel booking sites, and airbnb prices not being that much cheaper than a hotel, it often is just less hassle to go traditional hotel.

Agree but as some folks have pointed out Airbnb has more locations and can take you off the beaten track. Which is nice if you have children a dog and want some place quiet. There are always alternatives. Your point resonates with me because in London i have never found a Airbnb that comes close to hotel convenience. I enjoy the proximity of hotels in central London. So yes with Expedia I’m getting 10% off on a short stay and all things considered it’s pretty much less hassle and cheaper plus the standard of many hotels in London is good.

This is good advice. Once you stay in the host's place (anywhere) you're probably not getting all of your money back. I'm a bit sympathetic to this. Scams go both ways. If you walk away at trouble, you will usually get your money back.

So what kind of plan B are you talking about?

To me a planb is to have a few hotels, bnbs in ideal locations i can book at reasonable short notice. I know they have space and they are in my budget. I have extra cash so I don’t have to wait for a airbnb refund if they take time. I don’t use other airbnbs as a planb in case something happens with airbnb. A couple of years back we booked a lovely place in normandy, france with indoor pool for feb half term. The owner cancelled while we were on the ferry. Luckily i had a plan b we drove to a lovely chateau near mon st michel and enjoyed our stay. Airbnb did refunded me quickly but not in time to depend on it for checkin at the chateau. I booked a flat in the uk for a colleague to stay while in uk for a few weeks. The host tried to bait and switch i refused and found an alternative airbnb which as it was went ok. I had to wait for a refund because i paid for 3 weeks.

I often have a cancelable hotel reservation on hand.

Fewer and fewer hotel reservations let you cancel until 6pm day of though like they used to. More and more cancelable reservations want 24, 48, or even 72 hours these days.

and they removed the 6PM same day cancellation because they realized they became increasingly the "plan B" for a lot of Airbnbs.

Speaking from a hotel owner perspective, this is hurting the business for them.

Hotels are expensive to run, and with the booking sites pushing for cancelable bookings, hotels have to make them cancelable as well.

When you cancel a room at 5:55PM, the room stays empty pretty much 100% of the time.

Sure, but in the off-season, if you didn't book that room to begin with, most of the time, that room would still be empty.

Why not stay at the hotel and avoid the hassle all together? Is it penny pinching? Irrational ideological prejudice of helping a 'startup'?

There's a number of reasons why we choose to stay at Airbnbs instead of hotels. We save money. We break out of the cookie-cutter hotel bubble. We direct our dollars toward individuals and small businesses rather than faceless corporations. We gain access to amenities such as bicycles, beach chairs, etc.

Maybe when AirBnB was a site to share you spare room/couch this would apply. With the rise of people buying entire buildings to rent on the site, professional hosting companies that sub contract another company that eventually pays some college kid under the table to deliver the keys and yell at the cleaning crew, it's about as faceless as it gets. Just with a lot more faceless faces now...

For me, when I was doing it? A difference of >$150 a night matters a lot to a graduate student.