It really depends on the country and what you're looking for.
In your description, you might be doing it only for a short holiday but when you travel long term, living only in hotels is truly awful.
Airbnb is the only way to consistently be able to rent a full place without having to go through traditional renting agencies which require oh so much paperwork, even for just a month.
The alternative is finding privates on Facebook but with that you just can never be sure.
I get it. But how many people travel long-term every year? I usually get 4 weeks and split that between 2-3 locations, both in and out of the country. And I don't necessarily want to cook a lot on vacation (I guess I am not alone?), so the kitchen argument doesn't really work for me. But I guess I'm not the ideal customer for Airbnb. It's just that recently, almost all the feedback I get from people using Airbnbs is negative. Maybe Airbnb has just become something of a cultural phenomenon, so it will continue to exist because of that and for serving a narrow base of medium- to high-income people who travel for long stays and want a home during their trips for various reasons.
For me I only hear great things. I never Airbnb'd in the US but literally everywhere else and I personally just had amazing experiences.
If a country doesn't seem to have good Airbnb options, booking.com can provide similar-ish experiences (kitchen + homey vibes).
And if I had kids, I think Airbnb/homestay would make even more sense to me than hotels.
Together with that, I really don't like having to "fight off" cleaners wanting to clean my room every single day. Even putting up the do not disturb sign doesn't always work.
In your description, you might be doing it only for a short holiday but when you travel long term, living only in hotels is truly awful.
Airbnb is the only way to consistently be able to rent a full place without having to go through traditional renting agencies which require oh so much paperwork, even for just a month.
The alternative is finding privates on Facebook but with that you just can never be sure.