Airbnb obligations are why I prefer hotels.

(Part of my very occasional Travel Post Friday series here on the blog)

I’m one of the 100 million people who signed up on the Threads app within the first couple of days. The new Instagram-associated conversational social media platform is a direct competitor to Twitter, which pains me because I loved Twitter and have been on there since 2007. I have enough sense to see it imploding, however, so I’m looking for good alternatives.

We did a quick overview on Tourism Currents of our initial impressions of Threads, plus the AI boom.

In a conversation with long-time friend and OG Dell communications person Laura Pevehouse on Threads (who is currently traveling and working remotely) she mentioned something about being a polite Airbnb guest:

Screenshot of our conversation. Click to go to the original post on Threads.

“I said this on Twitter back when I first started my vagabond journey in May but it apparently bears repeating for my fellow @airbnb travelers:

Please be nice and refill the ice (trays) before you leave.”

I liked her post and left this response:

“I’m a hotel person, so to me the airbnb host should do stuff like that when they “reset” between customers, like a hotel resets a room (and doesn’t make it MY job to do so.) However, I totally get that such refills would be a polite thing to do, given that airbnb host professionalism is all over the map, unfortunately. Clearly I need to blog this . . . 😊”

Laura then said,

“Often I’m in what is essentially someone’s vacation home, so as such, the owner/host isn’t necessarily “there” between guests. They pay a cleaning service to come in between and I guess they could ask them to do that, but hotel cleaners wouldn’t fill your ice bucket.

I think hosts are getting a bad rap these days because of the number of investor hosts, but my 12 years of using @airbnb have mostly been spent dealing with individuals.”

I wrapped up with,

“Glad you’ve had positive experiences! My first personal VRBO booking did not go well [I wrote about it on the Perceptive Travel Blog – When a Vacation Rental Goes Wrong] plus I see problems from a tourism and housing perspective, so it’s probably soured my outlook on the whole thing.”

This gets right to the heart of why I’m reluctant to book Airbnb or VRBO properties – it turns what is supposed to be a vacation, including release from household obligations, into a chore.

With hotels, not only is there more accountability when something goes wrong, there is also a temporary respite from cleaning duties.

I’m not a slob in a hotel. I keep my room tidy, my stuff put away, toiletries are not scattered all over the bathroom counter, and I try to remember to use those makeup remover towelletes on my face so that mascara doesn’t trash the nice fluffy white towels. Housekeeping needs to be able to do their job. I am neat down in the breakfast area, too.

But when I’m finished with breakfast or checking out of a room, I am done.

What’s your take on the issue of vacation rental and Airbnb obligations vs. staying in a hotel?

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