Staying in a hotel, hostel or Airbnb – Which one is better?

A brief holiday might give you back all the energies you lost during the last months of hard labor. A business trip may represent a unique opportunity to skyrocket your career or establish vital connections with new clients. Or a long journey with no specific destination can be a life-changing personal experience to see things from a different perspective.

Regardless of the circumstances, the right mental organization is always necessary to make the best out of the trip you just planned. One of the most common questions that many travelers ask is a very straightforward one: hotel, hostel or Airbnb – Which one is better? Choosing the right type of accommodation is, in fact, extremely important for a lot of reasons, and each one has its own unique differences and perks. Let’s have a look at their pros and cons.

Hostels

Hostels are places where several people share the same room and often the same bathroom as well. They’re, by far, the cheapest option, so you want to choose one of them if you don’t want to spend too much money on accommodation such as if you’re a backpacker. They’re also a great choice if you need to spend very little of your time in a room that is usually just a few bunk beds tightly packed together.

However, it is easy to understand that if you’re looking for privacy and you don’t like meeting strangers or other travelers, hostels may not be the right option. If you want a comfortable place where you can spend a few hours instead of just a bed where to crash, hostels are not your thing.

Hotels

Hotels can be many things, ranging from a luxury five stars hotel to a more humble yet cozier family-run inn. Usually, they’re the safest bet – after all, they’ve been the first choice of countless travelers for ages. They offer a wide range of comforts and amenities, such as pools, restaurants, room service, and clean sheets every day. A soft and warm hotel pillow is the closest thing to home you may enjoy after a rough day in a foreign city.

The biggest con of hotels is, quite obviously, their price. Having a whole staff working to serve you plus all the amenities mentioned above have a price, so if you’re running on a tight budget, you may find yourself short of cash after a couple of nights.

Airbnb

An Airbnb is, in a nutshell, a private room inside an apartment or home rented to you by a stranger. You can search for your ideal place by specifying your search options such as size, price, location, and more. The owner of the place will go somewhere else during your stay, so you will have all the privacy you need. You’re on your own for everything though, so while you can enjoy the comfort of a cozy place, you got no service and you should wash your sheets, for example.

The bottom line is that an Airbnb is a hit-or-miss situation. You may be lucky enough to find a great, luxurious place to stay, or draw the short straw and end up with a bad taste in your mouth. Airbnb tries to provide its customers with a consistent experience through the review system. In theory, if a place is bad and receives enough negative reviews, people will stay away from it, and Airbnb may even remove it from its list. In practice, things are rarely so simple.

Conclusion

Whether it is long or short, a voyage towards the unknown (or maybe just towards a less-known place) will provide you with the unique opportunity of knowing foreign cultures, meeting new people and visiting amazing cities and countries. Enjoying this experience to the full is mostly up to you and how carefully you planned it.