When finding chalets or cabins/lodges for outdoor trips, Airbnbs are often much better located.
To me it is not so much hotels they need to replace, but a streamlining of booking vacation houses to the point where it is almost as convenient as hotel bookings are, but with vacation house amenities.
Some people are confused and surprised they expect hotel services(airbnb is to blame for this as well) instead of more "adventurious" accomodation offered by private owners.
AirBnB is the eBay of short term rental with the good and bad parts. Booking.com used(and mostly still is) more a kind of Amazon.
They also did $3B+ in revenue last year so they are clearly very successful.
- Don't care about the gym.
- I'd rather cook my own food.
- Rent a nice place, upgrade not needed.
- I've never rented a place that had awkward check-in/out times.
- Not sure what you mean? If you rent the whole place, you can come and go as you please.
- Airbnb facilitates online chat with the owner.
- Never had a concern that needed raised.
- Rent a place with laundry
- I'd rather go to a local place than a hotel bar
- I only meet the host about 1/3 of the time and it's always been at the house. The other 2/3, the house has a key box or similar for access.
- Never happened to me
- Never happened to me
- Never happened to me
- Never run into weird rules
- Never run into this either
- Never run into this. Hosts have always been professional.
- Refunds through Airbnb have been easy (I have several this year)
AirBnB's best-case "ideal" setup has always struck me as just "CouchSurfing[0] but monetised". While AirBnB has received a lot negative press for facilitating the letting of would-be residential property by large-scale professional landlords, the marketing from AirBnB's side has always favoured the "local guide, personal human experience" angle, an angle CouchSurfing has always tried to cover non-commercially.
So in my mind it's a comprehensively bankrupt proposition from either side of the spectrum. It's worse than a hotel (no service), worse than traditional self-catering tourist apartments (more expensive), worse than a long-term let (a LOT more expensive) and infinitely worse than the social, warm-fuzzy personal experience of CouchSurfing (free).
I don’t want a couch, I want a whole home that our group can share, and for less than the surge price that a hotel will slap on for a single room, we can fit our needs well.
> worse than traditional self-catering tourist apartments (more expensive)
...is I think what I would consider your use-case to fall under. No?
This isn't something that didn't exist before AirBnB...
Call me cynical, but "Advertise your product for a use that your core moneymaking market doesn't do" would be a good dark pattern to avoid scrutiny/regulation.
Try hiring hotels or hostels for large gatherings: bachelor/bachelorette parties, weddings, family vacations, etc. and I think it will be easier to see the difference. They compete more with vacation rentals, which seems old-fashioned since their online inventory always sucks.
I also think hotels are impersonal. As mentioned in this thread, they market themselves as "having a local experience" and I think that's been an effective message. I have gotten great recommendations from hosts on food, dining, and things not to do and I get to choose the location/theme of my stay too. Do I need to work? Am we relaxing for a couple days? The choose your own adventure aspect means that AirBnB is the starting place for all those searches, not hotels.
I also think there is a real lack of comparable options to hostels in the states so those could be similar jobs here (not abroad). I know of 1 hostel in my hometown near the airport (top 20 US city by pop).
I do agree that great hosts will push up prices to be comparable to hotels and the gap is closing steadily. I think you can still find great middle ground in most cities.
I agree with you that AirBnb fits much better into that category. Having said that, I also frequently rent an entire chalet with friends for skiing and even then we use websites which cater specifically for those types of accommodation (especially in France there are so many good websites to book chalets) that the offerings on those websites exceed AirBnb again in every possible aspect.
Besides that, I don't think that investors have valued AirBnb at the current levels with the idea that AirBnb only caters to bachelorette parties and a few odd student gatherings. That market is not nearly as big as AirBnb is currently going for.
Personally, while I default to Airbnb's for finding stays when I travel, I've found myself gravitating back towards hotels as of late because they were generally better value propositions for what I was looking for.
It feels like every other booking ends up with an email like "this is our childhood/lovely/whatever reason place, we are very picky about who we accept and we except you to treat it as your home, can you confirm you would do that?". Every single time I roll my eyes. It's not like I'm paying them more than a hotel for the privilege of staying there.
But I do agree that it's becoming harder to justify Airbnb use. As it's popularity has risen, it feels like, what was once a cheap stay in someones house, is now the same price as a nice bed & breakfast. And with Hotel's seeing the lost footfall, the gap between a private room in a strangers home and a hotel room with much more privacy has become smaller and smaller.
I've used it every week for about 8 years now for my accommodation when working away but couldn't see using it much in the future
- Want to rent an entire house in some specific area
- Want to rent something as cheap as possible / on a strapped budget.
Very cheap travel/plane tickets and accommodation has made international travel very accessible for a lot of people around the globe. So I can absolutely see why some people swear to using airbnb - but for me? I'll rather pay the extra $50 for a hotel room. That's chump change for peace of mind, IMO.
Actually in my mind, Airbnb is always more expensive than a hotel. Each trip I end up checking both options and I'm amazed at how expensive Airbnb ends up being after you add all the hidden fees.
I think the main use case is for big groups and gathering. When you want to stay with 10 people. And even then, it's still more expensive than 6/7 hotel rooms (if you come as a couple you would only use a single room).
I think Airbnb manage to convince a lot of people that they are always a better deal than hotels. I see a lot of my friends never checking regular hotels anymore.
Strong agree. They have this in common with Amazon. They used to be cheaper but now aren't anymore, but customers don't comparison shop.
But yes, for an entire house for a group of 4 - 6 people, it's great.
I don't know about the US, but certainly in Europe a shared room in a hostel is always much cheaper than anything on AirBNB if you're really on a budget.
- Airbnb plus or Airbnb Luxe can have breakfast or groceries basket
- Early check in or late check out is possible. Just discuss with your host prior to confirming reservation. Unless they have a guest coming just after or their cleaning crew can't make it work, they will find a way to make it work
- Many Airbnbs have 24/7 access. Many have electronic door locks
- You can get local, custom recommandations by discussing with the host, and more. Same for complaints
- Flower service, laundry, babysitting options are available with Airbnb Luxe
On the other hand, if your goal is to socialize, talk to hotel staff, talk to other travellers, then of course, airbnb are NOT an option for you. Airbnb doesn't have to provide everything. I can tell you they are great for families looking for a vacation home.
How would a solution to each of those for airbnb look like?
To me AirBnb is like a hotel, except:
- No gym, sauna and other SPA facilities included
- No breakfast buffet, restaurants or room service available
- No room upgrades available
- No early check in/late check out available
- No 24/7 access available
- No reception desk 24/7 available where I can ask for good recommendations, learn a bit more about the place without feeling awkward to ask or risk being sucked into a long unnecessary conversation
- No easy way to voice complaints or raise concerns if something goes wrong
- No extra facilities such as laundry, flower service, etc.
- No other guests which I can meet in the lobby, at the bar and so on to socialise
On the other hand I get this at AirBnbs:
- Having difficulties to access the property because hosts want to meet somewhere in a place which suits them but not me
- Sometimes waiting for the house/flat keys longer than expected
- Sometimes being told on arrival how some things "recently" broke and that they won't be available during my stay
- Awkward hellos and good byes
- Awkward random house rules
- Awkward access restrictions such as can't open this gate after X hour, and so on
- A lot of fake friendliness as long as you don't raise any concerns
- Difficulties to raise issues and getting refunds
- A lot more which I can't think of now, but left me with a really bad aftertaste every time