When Airbnb (ABNB) -) first hit the scene in 2008, it started to take off not just due to the then-atypical concept of paying to stay in someone else's home but also for the low prices.
Particularly for longer stays of over a month, the 20% to 30% discount offered by many homeowners turned some into "Airbnb converts" who were able to both save some money while also feeling like they were better connecting with local culture.
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Quite a lot has changed as the platform and others like it exploded in the coming decade — between 2019 and 2023, the price for the average Airbnb rose by 36% while prices across major hotel chains such as Hilton (HLT) -) and Marriott (MAR) -) rose by only a respective 12.8% and 7.8% during the same time period. Crackdowns by cities such as New York, which has been dealing with a shortage of affordable housing, have also limited what homeowners can list and sent the prices of what is both legally and illegally on the market spiking.
These are the cities where you can score a cheap Airbnb (and where you definitely can't)
According to the latest number-crunching by U.K.-based travel consumer watchdog Which?, hotels are cheaper than an equivalent one-bedroom apartment on Airbnb or fellow short-term rental competitor VRBO in 38 out of 50 popular destinations among travelers.
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Airbnb and VRBO properties are particularly more expensive in Amsterdam, where an average one-bedroom apartment costs £183 (roughly $224 USD) while a typical hotel room commands £116 ($145.87 USD) — a difference of £67 ($82 USD). Cities with the most expensive short-term rental properties comparative to hotel prices include Singapore, the Great London area, Dubai and Barcelona.
Travelers to each of these places can expect to pay a respective $74, $74, $69 and $55 to stay in someone else's apartment. The numbers have been converted from pounds sterling at the rate observed on Sept. 22.
New York was the only American city to favor Airbnb prices according to the study as, amid its recent crackdown on an Airbnb, a short-term rental property costs an average £173 ($212 USD) while an average hotel room goes for £156 ($191 USD).
'Reviews were lukewarm, and complained of noisy pipes and dust'
"The Airbnb listing with the best rating for the same date was a gloomy-looking 250-square-foot basement apartment in Williamsburg – a trendy Brooklyn neighborhood – for £143 a night," wrote the study's authors. "[...] Reviews were lukewarm, and complained of noisy pipes and dust."
By contrast, cities such as Syracuse, Italy's Palermo, Vancouver, Spain's Seville and France's Avignon came out on top with lower short-term rental prices — in the latter, an Airbnb or VRBO property commands just £73 ($89.50 USD) while a hotel will set one back £109 ($133.64 USD). The difference of £36 ($44 USD) in favor of hotels is the highest out of the 50 cities looked at in the report.
In its response to media questions on the findings, Airbnb called the data "flawed" and said that it "overstates prices on Airbnb, and compares standard hotel rooms to entire places."
