Before you book your next vacation, you may want to rethink locking in an Airbnb over a hotel, as experts recently found it’s not always cheaper.
This new data comes at a time when Airbnb has come under some scrutiny for its added fees that many social media users say make no sense.
“If there’s a cleaning fee of more than $25 then the host should have to show receipts. I’m happy to pay it if it actually means that money goes to the cleaning service (resulting in an actual clean space) and not their pocket,” one user stated on Twitter.
“One time the host, who live next door, gave us a complimentary* bottle of wine on the first night, as a sort of housewarming gift, of sorts. They charged us $90 extra at the end of our stay for no reason. When we asked them, they said it was for the wine. Some people,” another Twitter user said.
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsCan someone explain the difference between service fee and cleaning fee? I mean, what do they charge you to leave the main 🔑 under the mat? Seems like some BS to me
— TopShotKyy (@KyleDeming1) May 18, 2021
Airbnb has its perks, especially when you’re traveling with a large group of people, and you want to be in the same space.
If you’re traveling solo, Airbnb has the option to rent out a private room in a place if you don’t feel comfortable being alone and want to rely on the host as a resource or guide.
But when it comes to renting out an entire place, hotels can be the better option in terms of costs.
Analysts from Upgraded Points took a closer look at the prices of hotels and Airbnb’s in major U.S. cities.
What they found is that hotels are cheaper in 46 out of the 50 cities the team analyzed when compared to whole-unit Airbnb rentals.
The highest cost difference was seen in Los Angeles, where there is a $328 difference between an Airbnb and a hotel. Some cities don’t have a major difference, such as Atlanta, where there’s only a $2.30 difference.