Is it cheaper to stay in an Airbnb rental or a hotel?

Airbnb's early pitch was simple: more space, more homeliness, and a lower price than a hotel room. An 88-city comparison published in 2016 backed that pitch up on average — but a decade of research since has shown the honest answer depends heavily on group size, length of stay and which room type is actually being compared.

The original 2016 comparison

The 2016 analysis paired two datasets. Hotel prices came from GoEuro's Accommodation Price Index, which averaged 1–4 star hotel rates across 150 cities for 2014. Airbnb prices came from AirDNA, using the median nightly cost of "entire place" studios and one-bedroom rentals in February 2016 — chosen as the closest match to a single hotel room. AirDNA had usable data for 88 of the 150 cities. These 2016 city-level figures are reproduced here as reported at the time; they are aggregated citywide averages rather than matched, like-for-like listings, so the individual dollar amounts below cannot be independently re-verified today and should be read as illustrative of the era, not as current pricing.

As reported, the average Airbnb rental across the 88-city sample came out $7.29 cheaper per night than the average hotel. Airbnb was the cheaper option in 60 cities, hotels were cheaper in 26, and two cities — Riga and Warsaw — showed no difference at all.

Where hotels were cheaper, and by how much

Singapore showed the widest gap in the hotel's favour: a reported hotel average of $94 against an Airbnb median of $132, a difference of $38. Set against the Airbnb price, that gap is $38 ÷ $132 = 28.8% — hotels running close to 29% cheaper, consistent with the original write-up's "over 28% cheaper" figure. Manchester, Ibiza, Chicago and Reykjavik followed a similar pattern, with hotels beating Airbnb by roughly 20–30% on the same city-average basis.

Where Airbnb was cheaper, and by how much

New York showed the largest gap in Airbnb's favour: a reported hotel average of $246 against an Airbnb median of $150.50, a difference of $95.50. Relative to the Airbnb price, $95.50 ÷ $150.50 = 63.5% — hotels running about 63% more expensive, matching the original "hotels were 63% more expensive than Airbnbs" claim. Cancún showed the largest percentage gap: a reported $64 Airbnb median against a $134 hotel average, a $70 difference, or $70 ÷ $64 = 109.4% — hotels more than double the Airbnb price.

What later research confirms: it depends who's travelling

A single citywide average, in 2016 or today, hides more than it reveals. NerdWallet's cost analysis found a six-person Airbnb averaged 33% cheaper than booking three separate hotel rooms for the same group — but for a party of two, hotels came out 29% cheaper than Airbnb on average. Length of stay moves the number too: the nightly rate on a seven-night Airbnb booking runs roughly 32% below the nightly rate on a one-night stay, because multi-night host discounts and a flat cleaning fee (commonly around $75) get spread across more nights rather than absorbed by a single one.

Averaged across a whole city, Airbnb still looks cheaper than a hotel — but the moment fees, room type and trip length enter the picture, the cheaper option depends on who's travelling and for how long.

Fees are the other half of the story that a nightly-rate comparison misses. A 2026 analysis across 28 US markets found the median 3-night all-in Airbnb total sits 55.9% above the plain nightly-rate subtotal once a cleaning fee, a roughly 14% guest service fee and local lodging tax (11–17.4%) are stacked on top. Once those are counted, hotels beat a whole-unit Airbnb on total 3-night cost for a solo traveller or couple in 27 of 28 markets studied — New York was the sole exception, where 2025 hotel rates ran higher than the market-wide Airbnb average. For families needing two hotel rooms rather than one, the calculation flips back toward Airbnb, which won on total cost in 19 of 28 markets at three nights and 22 of 28 at seven nights.

How to work out which is cheaper for a specific trip

• Compare like for like: a private room is not a whole home, and neither is directly comparable to a single hotel room.
• Add the Airbnb cleaning fee, service fee and local tax before comparing against the hotel's all-in rate, not just its headline nightly price.
• For a solo trip or a short couple's break, price the hotel first — it wins more often than the headline nightly-rate comparison suggests.
• For a group of four or more, or a stay of a week or longer, compare the whole-home Airbnb cost per person against the cost of the equivalent number of hotel rooms.

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