I was staying by myself, but I've heard from traveling families that hotels are a big hassle for them because they lack a kitchen. Imagine feeding a couple kids while staying for a week. That cost will really add up if you're eating out 3 times a day.
The standard hotel practice of giving you ice but nothing else, so you spend on expensive drinks and water, is pretty obnoxious in my book.
The little fridges stocked with $5 bags of chips are also obnoxious.
Another reason is that I'm not limited to "airport-hotel" land, which feels the same in every city. (Admittedly, this is something hotels can't easily fix.)
Also, the prices for AirBNB's were significantly more varied. At the low end, you could get one room in an apartment occupied by others, etc.
As expected, since complying with fire and other safety codes, taxes, zoning rules, brand standards, and other business costs exist.
Kitchens are offered in various brands by Hilton/Marriott/IHG. I haven’t had Airport hotel land issues in big cities, but most other places restrict hotels from being in areas by restricting zoning... since residents in these places don’t want to be near hotels.
My point though, was that the hotel market seems to be operating pretty efficiently, with plenty of good choices available for consumers. Price might be higher, but most societies have decided it’s worth it to enforce certain standards upon them. This is different from how the taxi market was, where online booking, payment, and rating vastly raised the standards for everyone.
AirBnB did make renting vacation homes and the like more convenient. Even if hotels aren't really broken, the vacation rental services were very fragmented and mostly not great.
A lot depends on what you're looking for. On vacation, I do sometimes like something with a bit more "character." TBH though, most of the time I just want reliable with a 24 hour desk, the ability to leave luggage before I can check in or after I check out, etc.
So the flip side of it is that you're rolling the dice and AirBnb doesn't actually have a way to guarantee anything for you the way a hotel would.
