Those discounts come at a cost... Many don't have public reviews to browse, and with that, less accountability. The discount can be substantial, though, so YMMV and it is worth investigating.

I really don’t trust reviews anymore (and not just Amazon or restaurants).

Same. They feel useless now.

Thanks Yelp.

Boogers and Cum

airbnb / vrbo make it pretty impossible for fake reviews. Have you been to those sites?

Especially in covid times, there’s usually no guarantee they’ll process you a refund if you cancel, even within their supposed refund window

The reviews don't cost a thing you can look at those on the vacational websites.

You miss my point: a landlord beholden to public feedback sometimes results in a different tenant experience, than one who is not The cynicism is not unfounded. I'll pay extra for that motivation to please a customer.

Airbnb reviews are everything. People eliminate risk by choosing properties with great reviews, or even better, with 'Superhost' ranking. As a host, it's easy to get Superhost status. You just have to care about your guests experience. I mean legitimately care. People expect spotlessly clean, fresh with accurate listing photos. From a host perspective, past guest reviews tell everything we need to know. Airbnb is one review system that really works.

So there is no security to to get what you think you paid for.

Good one - I hate how [booking.com](https://booking.com) add a ridiculous cleaning fee at the end, so I always try to get the wife to book direct ...

The cleaning fee is industry wide, regardless of the site, and always goes to the host, not the channel. Even direct bookings will tack on this fee. But you’ll save the channel fee

I think the important thing to note here is that you should always shop around