1 – They have you locked into the full stay. You cannot change your mind if something comes up. Hotels will generally accommodate you, Airbnb will not.

2 – The listings can misrepresent the real situation and Airbnb offer little to no recourse.

3 – When something goes wrong Airbnb will not refund you any money. They will make it all but impossible to contact them and then side with the host at your expense.

4 – Whereas with a hotel it’s a business and thus has levels and standards you really cannot trust an Airbnb host. The host validation is very lite. My party of guests were threatened with armed security guards at a listing. Airbnb were pathetic in their response and, despite spending less than an hour at the place would not refund us our money.

So there’s a trust issue with Airbnb. You really cannot trust who you are spending time with. Be very, very careful using this service. Avoid using it if possible.