Why not pay for a hotel? You are paying for staff who usually answer the phone (unlike Airbnb hosts), maids who might bring spare towels without having to take a picture of a bathroom with no towels, and dispute resolutions that are face to face, not a parade of characters who bounce in and out and come up with an ever-changing list of requirements to get a miserly refund. My favorite was the request that I take a picture of the Airbnb website to prove many of the advertised amenities were missing and it had the wrong address listed.

I was told I should have videotaped the standing host who spoke no English and closed all the windows while ratcheting up the heat in 95 degree weather. How could I prove the sheets on the bed were soaking wet? Easy in a hotel but impossible even by the Airbnb customer service standards. My contact with customer service ended with an email to which I couldn’t reply and a refusal to allow me to post a review. After spending $4100/week I guess I shouldn’t have scrimped on the private detective/videographer that customer service demands but really how many nights could I have luxuriated in actual functioning AC at a motel?