Using Airbnb and similar services versus using hotels in Barcelona, Valencia, Madrid and Granada.

I used booking.com for my recent 89-day trip to Spain and didn't end up in any non-hotel accommodations (my experience last year in Italy and the Balkans, was quite different), so I have no relevant experience in that regard. However, in the Barcelona tourist office they display a little brochure whose cover says something like, "Be sure your accommodations in Barcelona are legal". (That's an extremely loose paraphrase, but you get the idea.) Apparently that city is trying to curb informal/unlicensed rentals. Such action in Paris has resulted in some people's Airbnb reservations being canceled at the last minute. I don't think we've had reports of that from people headed to Barcelona, at least so far.

I have not used airbnb but I did use vrbo to rent an apartment in Barcelona last year. Here are my experiences. Communication was good from the beginning (booked 5 months early). The day before I was to fly I was told the apartment that I rented would not be available till the second night so they gave me an alternate apartment for night #1. I called from the airport and was told someone would be at the apartment to meet me. No show so I kept calling back. 2 hours after waiting on the street someone met me to let me in. Next day went to the apartment I rented and was met by a representative of the owner. I paid the balance due in cash. The apartment was nice but the washing machine did not work properly. We called the owner several times but we're told they had no one to send over. They asked for cell pictures of the machine and would give online instructions on how to operate. This did not happen. We always talked to a representative. We never saw anyone again from the time we moved in. Bottom line is that it was not a good experience for us. I prefer the convenience of having a 24 hour front desk who are always available to assist. I know from this forum that a lot of people have great experience with airbnb, vrbo etc. I just chucked it up to bad management. Just research research and more research. Have a great trip!!

You'll definitely want to have a working cellphone if you stay in non-hotel accommodations. It's very awkward without a phone for contacting the owner/agent, as I found on my 2015 trip, when I was depending on Wi-Fi everywhere.

Our experience with AirBnBs in Spain last year was extremely positive. We were in Spain for a month and rented apartments in Barcelona, Madrid, Cordoba, Granada, Ronda and Seville. We stayed for a week in an inn in the Alpujarrras and a single night in a hotel in Nerja and neither experience was better than staying in the AirBnBs. Different but certainly no advantages. AirBnBs are definitely causing challenges in many cities and where I live in Vancouver there is a very valid concern they are depleting the rental market apartments while not contributing taxes. Ethics aside, I would always seek an AIrBnB before a hotel but it takes some careful research. The AIrBnB website is well designed and quite powerful. Start with the filters making sure you get the amenities most important to you. For instance, I always look for listings with WiFi, elevators and washing machines; I carefully examine the pictures and I read all of the reviews. The only reviews listed are those from people who stayed at the listing so it's usually a good representation of what to expect. I look for things like "the pictures are an accurate representation"; information about who greets you; the noise levels; the comfort of the bed; the cleanliness of the apartment; adequacy of the kitchen etc. For some locations parking was important as we needed somewhere for our rental car in which case I looked for secure parking. The other thing you want to do is make sure you check the location on Google Maps, including the street view to make sure you know where you are in relation to what you want to access in the city. For us, proximity to a metro is very important so I always make sure we are within several blocks. You still have to do some research with hotels but for the most part 3 star hotels are all fairly similar as are al 4 stars hotels etc. Hotels are generally more centrally located, have predictable amenities and as others have pointed out, are staffed round the clock. We had a personal emergency in Madrid and our host couldn't have been more accommodating and frankly did way more to help us out than any hotel employee would have been able to do. The convenience of a kitchen, the extra space and not being in the tourist district are the primary reasons I seek AirBnB. I travelled extensively when I was working and I now have an aversion to hotels born from 25 years of travel. AirBnB fits my eclectic needs - not everyone gets flashbacks when they enter a hotel lobby. Consider what you want from your travel accommodations and if you can find an AIrBnB that fits the bill, go for it.

Last year I used VRBO.com for all 6 locations we visited in Italy but one, and that one was AirBnB. We found each to have very responsive and friendly owners who made our stays memorable. In every case we plan to return there. We picked locations with good public transportation as our travels were by train. We highly recommend staying in these flats if you want to spend less on lodging and have a better cultural experience! For our next trip we ate also looking at flats on TripAdvisor.

Thanks everyone for responding. We are staying in three Airbnb's on the trip - Valencia on the beach, Madrid - a very cleanly designed airy apartment, and Granada - a well located small apartment with a view of the Alhambra. We will also be staying at a hotel in Barcelona, one in Cordoba, and a layover hotel in Madrid before returning through the airport. I will send a note on how these different places turned out. I did look at VRBO (I believe) that seemed to have a better variety of places in Valencia - which impressed me.

Saludos...