Airbnb and SC trips ?

I've used AirBnB a number of times, and I've liked it. I stayed a month in a nice apartment in Paris for about $100 a night. Can't beat that price.

I've only rented apartments where the owner was not present, and so I have had not issues with the hosts. It's cheaper to rent a room than a whole apartment. A host should not have any issues with the guest coming and going as he pleases--you're paying to stay there. And hosts have to be considerate of the guests and not make noise. You can read reviews of the hosts on the Airbnb site.

I've used airbnb for two family vacations and each time we had the place to ourselves with a greater level of privacy than you get in a hotel. The ads will often say whether or not the owner is off premises. If it doesn't, just ask beforehand. In my limited experience the owners respond quickly and politely to inquiries.

In some areas renting out an apt, or even a room in an apt, for short term stays (and sometimes any stay) is illegal, yet owners put them on Airbnb anyway. If that's the case, then you can get hassled by neighbors or get the cops called on you.

Borrow Juice's van. You can camp out in it for a small fee. A bucket of chacken fangers should do it.

I have used Airbnb quite a bit. Like with lap dances, I book one night to start with to check the place out. If the place sucks, Airbnb still wants to keep the booking fees for the whole stay even if you cancel, which at a $50/night place might be $5/night. I have gotten the booking fees back when I cancelled and rebooked at another Airbnb for the same dates, but I find it better to stay for one night first.

It's generally understood that you have 24/7 access to come and go unless the host says otherwise in the listing. Obviously if you're arriving at 3AM when the host is there, you would want to be quiet coming in, though.

Take all the reviews with a grain of salt. The hosts and guests review each other, so everyone raves about how great each other and the listing were. That's mainly so their next host doesn't see a string of negative reviews the prospective guest had left and deny the booking request to avoid having future business driven away. Anyway, It's generally easier to tell if the host is a crank by reading their listing and house rules. Also, If any stars are taken off for anything, that's usually pretty significant, since people generally rate the listings as though it were a 10 point scale, even though the max you can give is 5 stars.

If you're renting a room in a private residence, Airbnb hosts almost universally prohibit bringing in any guests who weren't listed in the booking, so keep that in mind, too.

Have you tried pricelines express deals and Hotwire? I can usually get 4 star hotels for under $100 (before taxes) a night in just about any city. I've gotten nice 3.5 star hotels in "smaller" large citites for as low as $55 a night before taxes.

I use AirBnB some - never had a bad experience yet.

VRBO mad Home Away are 2 sites that have worked well for me, and I'm sure air bnb is fine.

If you can find another traveling companion it makes more sense to do this than a hotel room, because at least you'll have a kitchen. To fix a few meals a day in saves money. Even if you just are having breakfast and eat dinner out, it's better than a hotel room.

Used to use Priceline quite a bit when I was doing a lot of personal travel. Best deals can be had as you get closer to the travel date and hotels are trying to sell unused rooms. I routinely got 3 or 4 star hotels for under $100 night. Haven't done this in a few years though.

Taxes on travel services are ridiculous. Local governments basically rape travelers because, by definition, they don't live there and don't vote there, so they don't care about them and see them only as a source of revenue.