Thoughts after spending four weeks at AirBnBs.
For long term stays, it's much cheaper than a hotel, and you're likely to have a more homey place to stay.
Some places provide kitchens and pots and pans, others just have microwaves. Plan accordingly. All provided plates, cups, and utensils.
Some places are studio apartments, others have a separate bedroom and living room.
Each of my hosts has made check-in easier than at a hotel. In fact I've never had to interact with them in person at all. They communicate the check-in procedures with me on the app, I follow the directions, and I'm in.
Remember that they can rate you just as you rate them (like with Uber), so be a good guest. Leave the place neat and follow their requested check-out procedures, such as stripping the bed, where to leave dirty towels, etc. Sure, you're paying a cleaning fee, but if you leave the place a mess it's your reputation at stake, and future hosts don't have to accept your request.
I do feel as though I'm in an individual's private space (in one place just a curtain across stairs separated me from the host's kitchen, and I could hear them chatting as they cooked when I came in the doorway that led to the apartment). You might find this somewhat uncomfortable compared to a hotel room, where you know the Hilton overlords, for example, are just a bunch of faceless corporate executives.
Overall, AirBnB has saved me hundreds of dollars while I've looked for an apartment here. The hotels close to my work location are expensive downtown hotels. The cheaper hotels are farther away and would require Uber rides to and from, wiping out any savings. The AirBnBs so far have all been within walking distance (less than a mile), and priced around motel rates.
I haven't been able to get the same one week after week, which suggests the high demand for them. Yet some fools want to try to regulate them, because they fancy themselves so wise that from their lofty perches (with no skin in the game) they can determine the most highly valued uses of these resources. Such people should be horsewhipped. There's a perfectly mutual, euvoluntary, agreement between me and the AirBnB apartment owner, so it's really not appropriate for anyone else to stick their nose into our affairs.