There’s No Place Like Homes

Good gods, the more articles such as this are written the more people renting their homes and spaces are going to jack up their prices to irrational highs. I've witnessed people renting out their small adolescent child's very child-like bedroom and bed on Air BnB for $50.00 per night. Just one of many examples of the human condition, very American condition, of supply-demand-greed. Cheers, NY Times, well done again.

We almost always use HRBO.com for accomdations. But then we like to go someplace and spend a week or two, pretending to be natives. We have rented apartments in Buenos Aires (thre times), San Francisco, Prague and later this year two weerks in Budapest. We have never had a bad experience. The web pages give plenty of info and pictures of how the places look. And, given the equivelent luxury, we have gotten two to three times as much space at half the prices of a hotel of similar quality.

It strikes me as odd that the article compares the number of Airbnb stays to the size of the entire hotel industry; most companies-including global hotel chains-would appear tiny by this measure.

".....that hoteliers host more than 2.5 billion nightly stays every year."

"Those figures suggest that a lot of travelers are still on the fence when it comes to vacationing at someone else’s home."

I think you are making a wrong assessment here. I would say a good 50% of those 2.5 billion nights are not being spent on "Vacationing" but rather for work or business.
I personally travel quite a lot, both for work and pleasure. When I am traveling for work, I prefer to stay at Hotels. Hotels are usually on average 50% more expensive then airbnb but I get reimbursed all the expenses and I can also just focus on work. But when I am vacationing then I am more social and want to interact with people and prefer to stay at airbnb because it's a lot more interesting experience.

Many years ago, my husband and I lived in a large high rise university apartment for faculty and graduate students. When my parents came to visit, we thought it convenient to rent for the long weekend an apt in the same building, The night before, I went to the apt with fresh linen and when I open the closet door over 50 huge cockroaches scuttled out in every direction. My parents spent their visit in a hotel.
When I told the couple about their cache of roaches, they just shrugged their shoulders and said "What is the big deal? They are harmless.", and refused to refund even part of the prepaid rent.

For years we've stayed in private homes instead of hotels without ever using Airbnb, taking care of someone's pets or having strangers stay in our home. For visits to Paris, Provence and Manhattan, we're repeat customers at New York Habitat http://www.nyhabitat.com/ (they also list London). For other destinations, we browse short-term rentals listed on Trip Advisor and many tourist office web sites. We love being able to browse the markets and cook with local produce, befriend the corner butcher and baker, come and go at any time of day, and indulge the illusion of being a native.

My thought: 10 or 15 years ago, the homier residence, the unique experience, and certainly the potential for a nicer place for LESS money would have won, hands down. In the era of bed bugs, however, I now feel much more comfortable staying in a sterile chain hotel room (NOT family-run) that I think is (probably) being more proactive with respect to bugs. Yes, bed bugs can happen anywhere, but private homeowners seem much more likely to take the head in the sand approach to bed bugs. That’s been my experience and observation, anyway. Besides, a hotel can move you to another room if you find signs of bed bugs, and I do ask if I see something suspicious. Bed bugs have changed everything, says someone who has had horrible bed bug experiences at both a vacation rental by owner property AND at a small family-run inn.

Several of my siblings and grown children rented a house on Airbnb in St. Louis for a planned memorial service and burial. It was perfect. A hotel cannot provide for the intimacy we needed; and the cost would have been exorbitant.

My daughter met her husband through airbnb, though I don't think you can always count on that happening.

For most of us, the choice is simple. With all the ways to secure reduced-price hotel rooms, you can get a quality hotel room for far less than it costs to stay in someone's home. But the home is nicer, homier, and in a residential neighborhood, all of which tend to make it a far superior place to stay. If you're rich, go for the home. If you're middle class go for the hotel. If you're upper middle class and your kids are in college, go for the hotel. If they've graduated, go for the home.