To Airbnb or NOT Airbnb?
That is the question for your next trip.
Airbnb is having a moment. And it’s not a good one.
More cities are trying to ban the short-term rental app. Some users are up in arms about surprise extra fees. Hosts complain about guests behaving badly. What’s a traveler to do?
Before we get into the Airbnb pros and cons, here’s a peek at what’s in this edition of your FREE monthly travel newsletter:
TSA says you can leave your shoes on.
A cool passport renewal tip.
Bonus tip for a FREE meal.
But first, some reservations about Airbnb.
Airbnb Started with Air Beds
Airbnb has only been around since 2008, after a couple of cash-strapped tech bros invited paying guests to sleep on inflatable mattresses in their San Francisco apartment. The original name was “Airbed and Breakfast.”
By 2012 the platform had booked over a million nights and expanded to Europe, offering whole homes or apartments as well as rooms. Today it’s available in at least 89 countries.
The sheer size of Airbnb means that it often gets blamed for all the sins of all the short-term accommodation booking platforms. And there’s plenty of competition from the likes of VRBO (vacation rental by owner) and Booking.com, which lists private properties as well as hotels. Wherever you booked it, you are likely to refer to your “Airbnb.”
Why Travelers Like Airbnb
Simple: more space for less money.
Why confine yourself to a small hotel room with a tiny bath when you could have an entire apartment or home with a kitchen and other amenities for the same price or less? You won’t be paying hotel laundry prices if there’s a washing machine in the unit. And save on food and drink by shopping at the local farmers’ market or grocery store and preparing some meals or snacks yourself.
Many properties are on more than one platform. I found this dreamy villa in St. Lucia that included a cook and a driver — for a fraction of what it would have cost my family at an all-inclusive resort. It was listed on Airbnb but I booked it on VRBO because of a promotion that earned miles on United Airlines. Please note that you have to be a Mileage Plus member and book on a co-branded page.
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So What Went Wrong with Airbnb?
Hosts stopped getting personal: The original Airbnb concept capitalized on building connections between the visitor and the host, who was expected to greet guests and share intel on the best local hidden gems. These days, you are more likely to be dealing with an organization that owns multiple properties, check-in with a faceless lockbox and look to Airbnb for “experiences” you can book at additional cost.
Guests feeling ripped off: People might have been okay with skipping hotel amenities in exchange for a more personal connection and saving a little money. But the goodwill evaporates quickly when the only message you get from the unseen host is that you’ll have to pay an extra 15 euros for towels.
A writer in the Washington Post tried to describe the vibe shift, only to be savaged in the comments. No clothes dryer in the unit? Welcome to Europe, hardly anyone has a dryer. Hang up your wet undies like everyone else and get ready to be dismissed as a “whining rich guy,” who’d be happier in a five-star hotel.
Neighborhoods feeling the squeeze: Lack of affordable housing is the top concern of Europeans living in cities, according to the latest EU stats. It’s an issue for Americans as well. New York City, passed a law in 2023 that effectively shut down most short-term rentals by requiring hosts to live in the building and limiting the number of guests. Los Angeles, San Francisco and other popular cities have passed similar restrictions.
Hosting Got More Difficult: Not only because of new regulations. The booking platform takes a significant percentage. Post-Covid cleaning standards are higher. Mom and Pop hosts end up on a treadmill of constant turnover and clean-ups. Paying someone else to clean the unit can wipe out the host’s profit margin. Guests call for help or information at all hours. Or throw a giant party and trash the space.
Not surprisingly, some hosts started tacking on extra fees to the point where that cute self-catering apartment might end up costing just as much as the mid-priced hotel down the street with breakfast included. Airbnb has cracked down on the hidden mark-ups.
The Case for Staying in a Hotel Instead of Airbnb
A well-traveled friend of mine prefers to stick to well-reviewed hotels, especially if it’s a chain with a rewards program and uniform standards of the service you can expect. She’s not wrong. On a short break, or when traveling solo, I like the ease of checking in with a helpful front desk and having a buffet breakfast just steps away from my room. I had a great experience on a stopover in Iceland at a local art hotel.
My Vacation Rental Horror Stories
I once reserved what I thought was a “private room with bath” for my college-age son in Birmingham, England. The somewhat creepy host then claimed the other bathroom in the home was out of order and began barging in on my kid’s room to shower and use the toilet. Airbnb quickly responded to a complaint and shut down the host’s inappropriate behavior. Since then, I will only check the box to book the “entire home or apartment.”
Even then, something can get lost in translation. One listing promised a bedroom, bathroom, kitchen and living room. Booking.com didn’t mention that we’d be sharing with total strangers who were in the other two bedrooms of the apartment!
But I’ve had hotel horror stories as well. Like the place (Bosnia again!) where I was charged an extra fee up front for access to the rooftop pool, only to be told at check-in that the rooftop was actually a construction site for a future pool. The booking platform said they weren’t responsible for the lies in the listing. And the hotel didn’t give me a refund.
Why I’m Not Giving Up on Airbnb Just Yet
There are still some good hosts out there who are real people! You just have to hunt for them. Yes, I read the reviews, but they can be misleading. Maybe a guest bitching about a bad experience was a troublemaker to begin with or comes from a culture with different expectations.
Communicate with the host before you book and confirm: I always use the “contact host” feature to introduce myself and any traveling companions. I might comment on the reason for my trip and ask a question about the neighborhood. A good host will get right back with an answer. If they don’t, I cancel and keep looking.
Don’t forget the host gets to review YOU: Keep your profile up to date with a picture and a brief description of your travel interests. Airbnb has taken steps to combat discrimination based on race or religion. That said, it helps to be a five-star guest no matter where you’re from or how you look.
Read the Airbnb House Rules
Some travelers whine about having to take out trash or put towels/sheets in the washing machine. If there’s something you don’t like, keep looking instead of booking and complaining later. Even if it’s not required, I wash dishes or put them in the dishwasher if there is one.
I often travel with my adult son, which makes us a party of two who do NOT sleep in the same bed. I’ve had to point this out to a few hosts, who might assume that two guests are a couple sleeping together and only provide sheets for one bed in an apartment with two beds or separate bedrooms. One host in Slovenia didn’t get the message and charged me 20 euros to bring the extra sheets, threatening to leave a bad review about ME if I didn’t pay! I did, and my five-star rating is intact.
Lake Bled: Keeping It Local
The resort town of Lake Bled in Slovenia has decided to launch its own booking platform. They hope to keep an estimated six million euros in the community every year, rather than handing it off to foreign booking platforms via internet service fees. The Dnevnik newspaper reports (in Slovene) that they hope to launch the system this fall.
In the News: Leave Your Shoes ON
The biggest travel news of the month is that the TSA is now allowing travelers to keep their shoes on while going through security. This was news to me because I qualify for TSA Pre and haven’t had to take my shoes off in a US airport for a while. Taking off shoes is NOT usually a thing in most airports outside the US.
Passport Renewal Safety Tip
When renewing or applying for your USA passport, pay the extra $30 on the application for the additional passport card. It’s good for Canada, Mexico & Caribbean travel. When traveling anywhere abroad, secure your actual passport in your accommodation and carry only the card when out sightseeing.
Claim your FREE meal from the airline
Bonus tip: from
on Substack. He’s one of my former students and I rely on his newsletter for tech news. His family got $15 meal vouchers from an airline when their flight was delayed, but they had packed snacks and didn’t need to use the vouchers at the airport. So here’s the workaround:We logged onto the Sweetgreen website and used the virtual card to buy ourselves a $15 gift card. Worked like a charm. Now we get to enjoy lunch on United—on our own schedule.
That’s all for this month. See you again in August. Do you have an Airbnb story or a cool travel tip to share? Let me know in the comments and don’t be a stranger!
When I travel alone, I actually prefer a room in a home rather than an entire apartment or house. Let me qualify that by saying that's the case only if the host lives in the home, i.e. the booking is essentially a home stay. That way I get a knowledgeable local housemate who, more often than not, invites me to join them (and often their friends or family) for meals in or out, local excursions, etc. I'm still in touch with some of those hosts from years ago. That's something you WON'T get at a hotel.
Excellent article. Informative, thorough with great examples about the positives and negatives both of Airbnb and of other housing choices, including hotels. And links! This may open up quite an interesting conversation.