Do you prefer hotels or small apartment renting? What is cheaper and more convenient? Where do you usually searching for accommodation?

Two years ago I visited France and rented a studio in Paris. It was cheaper comparing to a hotel as there were 4 of us. But there also were some rules and penalties for non-compliance.

What is your oppinion on this topic?

Kayak or Airbnb or VRBO

Depends on where you are renting and what you're searching for and how much you're looking to pay

Hotels.

If something goes wrong there's a clear course of action and clear-cut responsibility.

I'm with Bear. Hotels. I don't have to clean up, make beds and such and there is someone to call if anything is not right or goes wrong. When traveling, I have other things to use my time on than housekeeping.

It depends on a number of factors, including:
* The number of people with whom I'm traveling
* The ages of the people with whom I'm traveling
* The location (rural vs. city) and whether I've previously visited the area
* The length of my stay

I stay at hotels, B&Bs, rented homes and apartments -- the full spectrum, minus hostels.

I've rented apartments and houses from Booking.com and VRBO a few times each. To date, they've been good experiences but there's often some sort of slightly higher-maintenance aspect to it. Needing to go somewhere else to get the key, needing to somewhat clean the place before checking out, etc.

But depending on the location and size of traveling party, this can be a great way to travel. I've done it in both rural/lake destinations as well as cities. The one common theme is either (a) it's off the beaten path for my points/status chains or (b) it's a European city where I don't want to spend max-category points for a room that only sleeps 2 people comfortably.

I won't do the Airbnb thing.

I've stayed in everything from a tent cabin up through a 10-bedroom house rental. It depends primarily on how large the group is.

Most of the time I'm traveling either alone or with my wife. A standard hotel room is sufficient space. So that's one reason why I haven't gone the VRBO/AirBnB route: I don't need more space. If I had a larger family and routinely needed 2+ bedrooms, a kitchen for keeping down food costs, etc. then I'd look at renting an apartment much more often.

About once a year I travel with a larger group-- a family reunion or a gathering of friends-- and we rent a house. It a) costs less than the requisite number of hotel rooms and b) enables more socialization as we have living rooms, dining rooms, kitchens, etc. exclusive to our group.

Up until recently our groups have always rented a vacation property through a reputable local property management company. This is largely to minimize risks around "Who do you call if something goes wrong?" as mentioned by a few people upthread. Even so, my family/friends and I have had a few bad rentals, where property management companies played shell games like "Oh, we can't find a repairman to come out on a holiday weekend," and, "We need the owner's okay for that, but they've been overseas and haven't answered their phone all week." Again, those were with companies that had a physical presence in town. I worry what it would have been like with a virtual agency that styles itself as merely a matchmaker between owner and tenant.

Despite that concern, though, we did recently plan group trips using AirBnB and VRBO (one each) for the first time. We'll see how those go.

AirBNB if I want a kitchen (for light cooking, etc), or if I'm travelling with family (multi room apartments are, to me, more pleasant than everyone split into different hotel rooms).

Otherwise, hotels.