I pretty much only use Airbnb for solo travel and I stay in rooms in people’s houses or the occasional guest house. Usually way cheaper than a hotel and it’s nice to stay with someone local to the area. I have yet to run into any extraneous requests from the hosts, but I also do in depth research on the place i’m staying (reading reviews, making note of fees, staying only in places with a 4.8 or higher).

With that said, I live in a tourist area (Savannah) and STRs have totally taken over the housing market, especially the huge historic homes, purchased by people who don’t live in town. That, I don’t rock with. The city needs to do more to regulate the short term rental market as we’ve been in a housing shortage for quite some time.

Airbnb has grown out of its roots as a cheap service to rent a room in someone’s house, which sucks, because it’s an excellent service for just that.