Air BNBs all the way! I just got back from one in NC mountains. We rented a lodge right next to a river with a cow pasture literally next to the house. Besides a washer and dryer…It had a hammock, fire pit, grill, farm fresh eggs, sweets from a local bakery, plus milk and orange juice and a stocked coffee bar. Then there was also a basket of decent snacks.
The Airbnb before had the same attention to detail but much smaller. They owned most land near the house so they built 2 little cabins near them to rent. This one came with a “free” bottle of whiskey. It also had a Blackstone and fire pit as well.
All hotels offer is the same shitty breakfast foods and coffee. Much rather be enjoying my vacation even if we wanted to spend half the day home at an Airbnb. Can’t beat the perks. Just need to do your homework, not all Airbnb’s are shitty rented side rooms. For the last 5 years my extended family and I had rented several houses big enough for the 9 of us. All with plenty to do around the house when you need a break from driving, hiking, restaurants and shopping.
I’m glad you had a good time. My experience with Air BNB has been very different. I’ve never used their services but I’ve been ‘evicted’ from two affordable rental properties that are now Air BNBs by the property being sold to new owners. They’re very nice homes to rent for a weekend, I should know I lived there for years until I was kicked out for people like you.
I’m not saying that home had someone who was evicted to make it a hotel for you, but it happens to a lot of people. I’m not alone. Property owners kick people who are paying their rent, out onto the street because it could make more as an Air BNB. But that’s just capitalism baby.
Airbnb is much better for families whereas hotels cater to everyone else basically.
While I agree that owners destroying communities by renting out available housing, there is a very easy way to combat it - enforce the local laws on vacation rentals.
I was just in a VRBO where the owner had clearly registered the place with the city, posted plaques in the house and window showing the units license, etc. and proved they paid the appropriate taxed to the city (which can be used to solve other problems like homelessness.
I am absolutely a fan of having a whole place to myself and my family, with a washer and dryer that’s free, with a kitchen so we don’t have to spent a fortune eating out for every meal. I think the crazy rules and cleaning up before the cleaners is ridiculous, but those are known before you get there, so if you continue with the property knowing those rules, that’s on you. You can cancel.
Hotels are quite heavily regulated in all parts of their operation, many have unionized staff. AirBNB owners are wannabe landlords with no oversight.
Maybe in your country. Here in France AirBnB are both cheaper and the rooms are nicer than hotel. Some of them could be landlords and profit… but some others rent something that would not be fitting as a location (like a vacation flat or a subpart of a house) but is OK for staying just a couple of days.
So I disagree heavily with your generalisation
In Montreal an Airbnb cought fire and killed 6 guests and one tenant because the owner converted a house to multiple Airbnb ignoring all regulation (including fire marshal rules)
English article https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/old-montreal-fire-airbnb-1.6801216
The french media had some follow up stories describing the owner total lack it respect for regulation. The province ended up banning Airbnbs but I don’t know the details of the bag
I have to take issue with your assertion about hotel staff being unionized (although I recognize that could be true for your region). I’ve worked in hotels before and the reason they stay “cheap” is because they pay the cleaning and non-customer-facing staff the absolute bare minimum.
I’m coming from Midwestern America which certainly colors this experience, but in my case the housekeeping staff was made up almost exclusively of non-native English speakers. They were paid minimum, or close to it, and had room quotas that left them with 15-20 to “clean” a room.
On the events side of the business, the guys who set up tables and chairs were almost exclusively young, poor black men. The hotel only ran the air conditioning in those ballrooms when guests were present so it was regularly 80-85 f in those rooms with minimum wage staff doing manual labor.
Please understand I don’t have any love for the investment vehicle model that has taken over air-bnb, but hotels are by far the most disgusting socioeconomic workplace I’ve been in. I really don’t have the money for air-bnb, but I’ll certainly take some person paying off their rental over large corporation exploiting unskilled workers and immigrants.
First of all, fuck hotels, period.
And well, bad news… here in Mexico city the airbnb industry (yeah, u read it right) comes from conglomerates or already stupidly rich people, so yeah.
Also I work in a hostal in this same city, and yeah the pay is horrible, but keeps me floating while I get something else and there’s a lot of really nice people running the place wich their income really depends on guests making reservations, maybe one or two tips, etc. So yeah, the pay its horrible but it makes jobs.
My recommendation? Get a room in a hostal like the one I work for, usually they r really run by people, that’s one of the reasons I’m still working in there.
Also at a hotel: “It smells like smoke.” “Let me take you conveniently to another identical room for free.”
They only reason I started using hotels again is because my fiance gets good deals and they usually upgrade us because she works in the industry 🙂
