Whilst I've never rented an airbnb in Thailand i / we do use them a lot in other Countries and I've yet to have a bad experience. In answer to the question why those over a hotel room firstly I do still use hotel rooms if that's the most appropriate option, however there are several reasons I find Airnbnb ( and Misterbnb which is the gay version) suitable too.
In my case this includes my usually renting the complete apartment or house and not just going for the only renting one bedroom option. That usually finds me a great place, in a good location and one where I can feel a bit more at home in more so than just a hotel room, unless you're used to renting suites everywhere you go ( which I don't).
Likewise it gives the options for relaxing in the kitchen / living room and being able to lying around having a coffee or a light breakfast or lunch when first up in the morning without HAVING to get up and go out to eat ( which also saves money on stupid expenses ( in Italy I think I spent more on ridiculously expensive morning coffees in their stupidity small cups that I ever did on beer during the day ffs !). Likewise if you didn't always want to ALWAYS eat out in fancy restaurants or otherwise it was nice to have somewhere to come back to and use as a base that had all the utensils you needed already there to allow you to bring food / wine back etc.
I've also found them very useful in terms of gaining local knowledge from the host, either in terms of getting advice re where to go and where NOT to go equally as importantly and also for help with things like where to park your car etc ( I saved a small fortune in Spain because the house had a parking space in a local city centre car park that came with the rental and so I got 24 hour parking for 7 days, bang in the city centre and for FREE !) and all right outside the door of my apartment.
Likewise I should add that if there's a few of you travelling it's a great way of saving money too - for instance last weekend I went to Dublin, a standard hotel room in the busy Templebar party area is about 140-200 euro PER room per night, we needed two rooms ( 2 couples) and bagged a lovely apartment bang in the centre of Templebar, with THREE bedrooms ( so we could have had 6 people staying of we wished) plus a lovely kitchen living room area to all mingle and all for only 130 euro in TOTAL, so that was a MUCH cheaper option.
Also if travelling for fun we've rented "a room" before specifically to meet and chat with the owners ( who we'd decided on reading their profiles sounded like interesting guys) and it turns out that one( of the gay couple) we met was a top 5 star hotel manager all his days and he and his partner were going to open a small B&B once they'd (early) retired, but the other guy had to stay one for another 2 years in his high flying job in the oil industry as the money was just too much to refuse apparently. SO instead they opened their (beautiful) home as an Airbnb to give the first guy something to do and to keep him happy whilst waiting for the 2nd guys to retire. Well, all I can say is we might as well have been staying in a SIX star hotel as our stay was just out of this world as the first guy "played" at running a hotel basically. The breakfast ( he cooked) was incredible, the room/s and bedding luxurious and their company ( and wine form their wine cellar that they ended up opening for us all) was lovely - and all I seem to recall they charged something mental like 55 euro a night for that in TOTAL including breakfast !!! ( The money as you can tell wasn't their driver).
So, whilst that isn't' of course the norm that's a situation we would never have encountered and it's friends we wouldn't have made ( we still keep in touch) if we'd of just booked into the local Accor hotel option. I have another ton of similar stories of meeting nice owners and good experiences and I can't really think of any / many negative ones ( I do chose carefully where we stay and DO read the reviews and personal info on the people and places we stay.) But should you just want a "cheap" room for the night somewhere where hotels are crazy prices it's a good way of seeing a city you might otherwise avoid too.
So, yes of course hotels are always going to be a suitable option and still work for me a lot of the time too, but for something different and to see other places and meet other people ( or not if you prefer not to as you dont HAVE to meet them of course) then we find airbnb and interesting alternative sometimes.
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by Nirish guy
