If you had a choice between staying at a hotel or an airbnb, which one would you pick?

The hotels I have stayed in that really stand out for me are:

The Vinoy in St Pete
O’Henry’s in Greensboro
Greycliff in the Bahamas.

They were wonderful.

But I also stayed at the Golden Cockroach (our name for it) in Daytona Beach. You know those paper strips they have on toilets that say ‘sanitized for your protection’? At the Golden Cockroach those strips had at least half a dozen roaches crawling all over them.

The thing I’m trying to say is that there are bad hotels, there are bad Airbnbs. There are great hotels and great Airbnbs.

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@YanaAgapova
I echo Yana’s words. While I aim to offer a great airbnb experience to my guests and have high standards for cleanliness, it’s hard to trust that other hosts will be as dedicated as I am (and so are you) in the well-being of those who choose to stay at my units. In a hotel, if I find the room unacceptable, I just contact the GM and ask for another room. What am I supposed to do if I arrive at an airbnb property and it’s dirty, poorly maintained, etc?

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Hmm … I think I was extremely lucky. I only saw lots of roaches in Nicaragua when I rented 12$ room. This is out of hundreds hotels I stayed in 47 countries and almost 300 cities.But I saw plenty of all kind of bugs in Airbnbs .

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@Yana, @jaquo, @konacoconutz
Ironically, I work for a major company and the company decided to offer our traveling employees the choice between hotels and airbnb. I pushed back, questioned the decision, expressed my concern for our employees traveling in distant lands, etc. At the end, I was responsible for participating on calls with airbnb attorneys and negotiating the contract…how ironic.

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You do too, but many dont have a slightest idea. I traveled for 5 years with Airbnb all over the world before i started hosting, and plenty of hosts had no idea how to accept a guest. I always appreciated when a host tried and did his/her best but i saw plenty who did really did not care and all they did is showed their annoyance.

You supply fresh towels as many as guest wants but many dont even give enough towels (1 for 2 people).
Housekeeping people you can avoid by putting a sign outside the door Do not disturb.

Thats the whole point, it depends on a listing. With Airbnb its hit or miss. My driving force with booking with Air is cost, but the question here was ; if it was the same cost what would you rather book? In some countries i found Air rooms are the same as hotels, i would definitely go to hotel

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Wow! Sign of the times I guess. Hard to believe your company would be willing to take a chance on Airbnb with its many unknowns and potential for cancellations.

I know you can’t disclose what was negotiated with the ABB attorneys, but I would like to be a fly on that wall!

Yes thats another point: Airbnb can cancell anytime. Hotels dont do that. I remeber last winter with the pool house i had so many inquieries from people who got stranded by a host the last minute when tickets were bought and a whole family was basically on a street though they booked a house months ahead

Yes, I think I would too, There are so many Airbnb ‘hosts’ who are just trying the whole thing out and have no idea about how to do it properly. That sort of thing hurts us all.

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Actually, hotels overbook all the time. When I worked in hotels, we had “certificates” printed since it was such a common occurrence. The worst night I can recall we were sending guests to a hotel located 60 minutes away. Boy were those people pissed.

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Exactly.
And again with IB. I never know when i book if a host will respond in time. So many times a host has IB on but then the lisiting is not available.

All the time? Like how often 'all the time"? Out of hundreds hotels i stayed in only twice we were sent to a different hotel with an upgrade. 'All the time" happens with Airbnb hosts but not hotels.

In our case, it was common from June through November. Some nights it was about 5 people. On that awful night it was more than 20. Usually, we were able to find them rooms somewhere else in the city. But then there was October, when we couldn’t.

I wonder if it was your particular place and that is not a common thing for hotels? I’ve never been turned away at the hotel desk.

I’m a big fan, and have loved staying at hotels since I was a teeny tot!

But when a hotel overbooks, they (usually) have places to send the guest instead, and sometimes even use their shuttle to take them there. If I arrive at an AirBnB and they’ve cancelled on me while I travel, or they don’t bother to show up, I’m on the phone with AirBnB standing in the street on hold, praying my phone doesn’t die, then have to find transportation to a new place (if there is one).

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I’ve arrived at hotels twice when they didn’t have my reservation. Another time (at Motel 6 so…) a family of 5 reserved a room with 2 double beds but were given a room with one bed. The clerk offered nothing but “sorry, we have no other rooms and all I can do is give a refund.” But there were no other rooms in that town due to softball playoff tournaments. I exchanged rooms with the family as I had reserved 2 beds but ended up solo on that trip. Otherwise they would have been SOL.

Yes and I was in that situation and not once . For me to rent on Airbnb is extra hassle . I would only do it if there is a significant difference in price

Well this is really irresponsible behaviour by hosts. And again, Airbnb is encouraging this by giving “penalty free cancellations” to hosts with IB on.

I never cancelled a guest. My response rate is 100% and usually within an hour. I don’t know how otherwise it’s possible to be a host. My traveling style is often to book the last minute and because of irresponsible hosts I was so many times left for hours sitting in caffe trying to call Air , cancel reservation and booking a new one

As I mostly travel with my husband I would choose a hotel. After my recent Japanese experience and knowing how far I go with giving guests a good experience, I don’t have much confidence in the Airbnb world… and being cancelled would be beyond a nightmare.

I am with you. When I travel I always book last minute. and I always stay at hotels. Let’s face it, we all care what we are doing that’s why we are all on this website. There are so many hosts they don’t care. That worries me the airbnb world also. There’s no standards, bad apples mixed with the good apples. When you stay at hotels at least you know what you will get, 3 star, 4 star, motels.

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