My husband attends a large trade show, the largest of its kind in the world, every February. It is held in a small town. The few hotels are booked out by major manufacturers. Last year, I thought why not try AirBNB. He has one employee who goes with him so I could get a house with 2 bedrooms. I found a house for an excellent price and booked it. 6 months on, I got a cancellation notice. Fortunately, I had kept a booking at a Hyatt Place that is 30 miles away and he stayed there.

Here we go again. I just got dates for the show in 2026. I found a great deal at an AirBNB property and booked it. This time, I got a cancellation notice with no explanation within 15 minutes of booking. I was given a suggestion of an AirBNB listing that was 77 miles away. I think not. Fortunately, I was able to book the same Hyatt Place for 2026. He'd rather not drive 30 miles each morning and night but it is the best possibility.

I had another negative AirBNB experience in the Tamales Flat area in California. I found a listing for a cottage on the water. I needed 2 nights; the way the dates were shown was confusing. I could live with the 2 nights that were shown as available but preferred to slide the nights. I booked the available nights and asked about sliding 1 day. i was immediately canceled. I sent the owner a message asking why. She said it was because I asked for a date not available. I responded that I could live with the 2 nights I booked. She never responded.

And this is why I generally book hotels where policies are more clearly defined and enforced.

I hear lots of horror stories from friends and acquaintances who have booked AirBNBs, and I believe them. But I've used them about 20 times and never had a bad experience.

I can relate to your experience.
My colleagues and I had a very disappointing experience with Airbnb about a month ago, and as a result, all of us made the decision to discontinue using their services. What happened was that their vendor (apartment owner) had cancelled at the last moment (late in the evening), and it was too late to book another unit. So we contacted Airbnb and gave their staff an opportunity to find a replacement property. This was not done (due to late hour); and instead we were expressly told by Airbnb representative to go to a hotel. It was clearly discussed that it’s a more expensive option because we needed at least three rooms. This was clearly understood -- and we proceeded to do as instructed.
Subsequently, very surprisingly, Airbnb refused to reimburse the costs that we had to endure associated with the three hotel rooms (in excess of the original budget, per the cost of the apartment I had contracted from Airbnb). I became aware that Airbnb collected $50 as penalty from the reneging owner/vendor. Strangely, however, Airbnb didn't even offer that amount towards my unplanned costs that night (caused by the breach/cancellation). Needless to say, this is dishonest/unacceptable, so we’ll not work with Airbnb in the future. Fortunately, alternatives do exist.

We have had pretty good luck with VRBO. Usually because we are renting vacation homes for at least a week in resort areas at pretty high rates. We did have a reservation in Mijas Spain cancelled at the last minute, but luckily, we were able to find something pretty spectacular in a short amount of time. We didn't really get any assistance from VRBO.

On my solo travels, I would never use an Air BNB or VRBO as a hotel replacement for a night stay. I much prefer the monotonous similarity of a hotel. Plus, its just me, so the hotel rooms are usually cheaper.

I think the biggest issue with AirBnB and VRBO is lack of accountability on their behalf. They won't take financial responsibility and love to fall back on their role as merely a facilitator like ride shares do.

I also get creeped out if a place I am staying is too personal. Vacation homes are fine, you can tell that they are mostly used for stays and the owners might stay there sometimes, but they are furnished mainly as a vacation home. But if it looks like someone lives there and just left for the week so they could rent it out, that is kinda creepy to me.

that brings back the original origins of airbnb... make a little $ from availability of your place (or a room).

I agree. I've used two Airbnb places (one in Reykjavik, one in Munich) that were clearly owner-occupied. Both had family nearby and camped out with them. I loved the more personal decor and browsing (carefully) the shelf of Icelandic-language books in one in Reykjavik. My other experience was a flat in Edinburgh, clearly stripped down and furnished with the bare minimum from Ikea. Not enough electrical outlets, dim lighting in the bedroom (I read in bed at night), mattress on wooden slats across the frame that kept shifting. No trash cans- tote your own out to the communal bin. No microwave and the only coffee maker was a french press. It had everything as described in the listing but zero extra and I wrote a very careful review to that effect.

The stories of last-minute cancellations are concerning.

Reminds me of the 3-br apartment we booked in SFO a couple years ago. There were 3 bedrooms, kitchen, and bathroom on the 2nd floor over a bar/restaurant. Plus one locked door we just assumed was storage or something (lots of AirBNB's have a locked supply closet for the cleaning crew to use, etc). Anyway, we kept smelling smoke and thinking it must be wafting up from the bar. About 2am I came out of the bathroom and bumped into a stranger in the hallway. Apparently someone was living in that locked room! That was odd, and kinda freaked us out a bit - we were a party of 6 with women and young children in the group, and it wasn't advertised as a shared accommodation.... Luckily neither I nor my mysterious housemate slept in the nude!

I'd been using Airbnb for 15 years. It started with domestic destinations like NY and San Diego, and eventually I used it for various foreign destinations like Shanghai, Europe and South America. My experience with Airbnb has been mixed. The highs are really highs; but the lows are really low. My stays at Malaga, Dolomiti, Esquel (Argentina) gave me a chance to interact and live among the locals. My stays at Miami, Chicago, and New Zealand on the other hand... I wish I would have just stayed at a hotel or a different accommodation. I would say my positive experience vs negative is probably about 50/50. Nowadays, staying at an Aibnb is usually not my first choice (it was at one point). But I won't completely write off Airbnb either.

I have used loads of AirBnB's and found them all to be great. The key is sniffing out the good ones early, because the good ones book out fast, so book early to avoid disappointment. The best AirBnB I have visited so far is The Tower at Dollarbeg Castle in Scotland

I only stay at highly received properties. If someone decides to stay at a property with zero reviews or at a property with less than one review in months span then it�s a huge risk.

As a somewhat-typical Gen-Xer I have always preferred hotels. But have you tried to book Rome at the last minute lately? It's a sad state of affairs.

So we went ABNB for Rome and Amalfi and truly hit the jackpot. Two perfect, beautiful stays. I think there's good chance of success with Amalfi ABNB, but I imagine Rome is more hit & miss-- so we felt quite fortunate. All the privacy of a hotel with probably 5x the space for the price plus a little private courtyard for apertifs and cigars.

Friends had a similar positive experiences in Paris. Both found places in the Marais and liked having a handful of meals in.

100%. After dining out constantly in Rome, when we got to Amalfi--- given the typically-expansive villa view, the little grill and a very workable kitchen-- I had excessive joy every morning penciling out and then shopping for an expansive 4-course meal for dinner that we'd spread out from 5PM (happy hour), to antipasti/primi/second/dessert through to 1030/11. I was ready to be done with it after 5 consecutive nights, but it was magical.

It depends on what you're looking for of course; many people wouldnt dream of cooking on vacation. But for us? It was just right.

Not sure if this is true or not, but our last ABNB host/listing made us aware that if we didn't write a review within a week of leaving an auto review would be entered for our stay (automatic 5/5 of course). Can they do that?
If they can, then seeing a bunch of neutral good reviews is probably a bit suspect.

That's shocking if so.

We didn't leave a review for an adequate though not exceptional stay awhile back. The owner left a snide remark about us, something about how you can't satisfy people no matter what you do. Our exchanges with him on arrival and departure were very pleasant. We hadn't asked for a thing while there. We had his phone number and my husband called. He didn't answer nor did he return the call, but he took down the remark.

I am inundated for reviews - hotels, cars, restaurants, banks, credit cards, Amazon purchases. Life is too short. I rarely leave a review.