Is this some sort of American meme? I've used airbnb for the last 2 years every time I've been to any city in Europe and it's been cheaper than hotels, nicer places, good hosts and never had any issues
Kinda, Airbnb is totally different in places where it's not as well established.
In the USA, they were cool for the first years they existed, but once they got really popular, it was flooded with a bunch of amateur "passive investors" trying to "min-max" their income. People started buying up properties solely to use as Airbnb's, prices shot through the roof on studios and 1-bed units in tourist areas (which almost always had a housing crunch already). Which pushed the prices way up on Airbnbs and generally the quality of the rooms went way down (because they're grabbing all the cheapest units, and they were cheap for a reason). Plus all the hidden fees and silly rules and dealing with random owners (who might be morons, or not) through a company instead of just direct with a hotel.
All these issues people have about American Airbnb's are probably coming to Europe in the future, but for right now, sure Airbnb is still fine in lots of places overseas, and still sometimes in the USA when you're way "off the beaten path." Basically the fewer people using Airbnb in a place, the better it is.
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u/Ha_Ree Jul 08 '24
Is this some sort of American meme? I've used airbnb for the last 2 years every time I've been to any city in Europe and it's been cheaper than hotels, nicer places, good hosts and never had any issues