[dazc]

I tried this via Airbnb in Spain and ended up moving from place to place instead. I never actually found a location where I could work properly, to the extent that I rented a separate office some of the time. Patchy internet almost always, cheap furniture, base level electricity that would trip out if you had two appliances running at the same time, and #1 problem NOISE all of the time.

I'm not sure that Airbnb is the actual problem here, for me it was the host's expectation that people will just throw money at them whilst all they have to do is provide the location. The one half-decent place I stayed was, ironically, the only option without a hundred or so glowing reviews.

Alternatives to Airbnb exist for every niche and, in my opinion, you generally have a good idea of what you are going to get from the outset rather than with Airbnb where it is always a gamble - regardless of how much money you are willing to spend.

[city41]

I've never had a good Airbnb experience. There is simply no incentive for hosts to provide good accomodations. On the flip side, hotels that cost as much as typical Airbnbs provide a drastically better experience. After paying a fortune for yet another lousy Airbnb a couple weeks ago my wife and I agreed we'd never use Airbnb again.

[bena]

And I think the reason is that AirBnB hosts have no incentive to improve anything. Because there's always another sucker. Who cares if city41 never stays again or if city41 tells everyone never to stay at Bob's AirBnB in Paradise, Nevada. Bob doesn't give a shit.

Bob only needs to convince one person to stay at a time. That's it. And then it's relatively easy money. Especially considering that while the lodger is staying, you don't have to do hardly anything. You spend a couple of hours cleaning up after they leave, and that's it.

Hotels need to convince everyone to stay. True, while they can eat the cost of one or two lodgers, they can't become known as a place with bad lodging. Hotels have operating costs in the millions. They have staff, they're turning over rooms daily, cleaning every room daily, industrial HVAC, a bar, a restaurant (or two), sometimes a tiny convenience store, concierge services.

Hotels are invested in you having an acceptable stay.

Not going to lie, when travelling, I tend to gravitate towards national chains for lodging. While I'll never find the true wonders of the whatever of living like a local or what people claim AirBnB provides, I'll never have a truly shitty lodging experience either. It's one of the areas where I'm not looking to have an adventure.

[el-salvador]

I prefer hotels or apart hotels too.

I've never had a perfect-five-star Airbnb experience either, but all my reviews have been very positive.

Airbnb guests and hosts need to get good reviews so there is an incentive to give better than real reviews in both ways.

One of the best ways to read reviews is looking for what reviews don't mention. Like no reviews mentioning the place is quiet or clean or having comfortable beds.

I would say I've had better experiences at Airbnbs attended by the property owner (like people who rent their extra room), than those attended by a co host or a subletting company. These are easier to find in non touristic destinations.

There's those that "game" the pictures so it looks nice and colorful, but have bad quality furniture and cheap dollar store everything. Those are better to avoid

[rjh29]

Problem is, the neighbours of airbnbs are often airbnbs themselves, so you get a stream of incoming people who don't care about noise.

[ricardobayes]

In Spain you need to make sure they have fiber, and not some satellite internet (surprisingly common). Other than that, yes, noise is a huge problem for us foreigners in Spain. Most landlors opt for the smallest kWh electricity contract as electricity is one of the most expensive in Europe.

[peterfa]

There is a couple of very nice coliving+coworking spaces in Spain in case you would like to try this experience again.

My favorite are Sun & Co (https://sun-and-co.com/) and Sende (https://www.sende.co/)