Why some travellers are falling out of love with Airbnb

Maureen McCartney has been using Airbnb for her travel accommodations for about eight years. But she's started using hotels instead, after her last few stays didn't go so well.

For a recent visit to Seattle, she booked a basement suite that looked pretty good in the online listing — but in person, felt like something from the set of a Saw movie.

"It was damp down there. And they still had, like, the tools sitting there, like the circular saw, with the jagged edges on the wall, like a couple of them and other tools," McCartney, who is from Victoria, B.C., told Cost of Living.

She's not the only one. A Google search for Airbnb on Reddit surfaces complaints above anything else, including "Is Airbnb even worth it anymore?"; "Is this the downfall of Airbnb?" or "Staying in a terrible Airbnb right now [Canada]."

Then there's one of the most recurring insults to injury: requiring guests to clean up after themselves — even if they pay a separate cleaning fee.

"Take out the garbage. Put everything in the recycle [bin]. Like, it's as if you're at home and the whole purpose of the vacation is not to have to do these things. And you don't have to do them at a hotel," said McCartney.

For McCartney, however, the bottom line was the price. She says a stay at an Airbnb used to cost her about a third of the cost for a similar hotel room. But now, she's finding they just aren't as good a deal as they used to be.

In recent years, the price difference between traditional hotels and short-term rental (STR) services have shrunk — and hotels have begun offering some amenities people expect from Airbnbs. With the two options becoming more similar, travellers have begun to rethink their options.

According to AirDNA, a company that analyzes prices in the short-term rental industry, the average daily rate for hotels in Canada was about 20 per cent higher than one-bedroom STRs in 2024; that difference was closer to 25 per cent in 2019. The figures don't count taxes, or resort, cleaning and service fees. 

Hotels saw the biggest drop in prices in 2021 and 2022 as COVID restrictions loosened, said AirDNA chief economist Jamie Lane, as they offered deep discounts to lure back travellers.

Short-term rental prices didn't change as much, partly because many people were working remotely while travelling.

"COVID, I think, really helped them out," said Makarand Mody, an associate proffesor who teaches hospitality marketing at Boston University. "People wanted the safety and the security of a private space, which Airbnb was able to provide with entire homes in particular."

Fast forward a couple years, and things would change again. "We saw this ridiculous bounceback from COVID, where people started traveling almost with vengeance," said Mody.

Much of that bounceback came from business travellers using hotels, who he said typically don't use Airbnbs or other STRs.