It's no secret that airbnb remain the number choice for most travellers on a budget. Sure there are cheap hotels that competes for low budget tourists, but home-sharing is on a different level hospitality where guests may cook their own food, occationally bringing pets, and (rarely) the room includes PlayStation 5 console. I bet even 5-star hotels don't offer any of those. Now that I have made a clear comparison between hotel versus airbnb, what's to discuss now then? While I have no plan to be an airbnb evangelist, since I do admit there are so plenty that you will missing out if you stayed on an airbnb, I will still try to make a strong case why book an airbnb if you are a solo back packer travelling to Manila.

For starters, since airbnb is a home-sharing business model, you can expect that there's an element of personal touch of the property owner in room design. Of course this is not always a plus for some people especially if they have total different taste, however this is to say that you'd expect less of a commercial experience but more of homey one. Get it? It's like eating a dish prepared in restautrant vesus the onces made at home by a friend. Of course not one is better than the other. This is like comparing apples to oranges. Both are sweet and nutritious but both gives different sensation and satisfaction based on ones preferrence. Same goes to hotel versus airbnb. Travellers may often find hotels are more ideally suited to serve the needs of guests since that's why they exist in the first place. Hotels have complete bathroom amenities, room service, and 24/7 staff operation. While airbnb cannot provide those, they compensate the lacking amenities with check0in and check-out flexibility, pet friendliness, kitchenwares and dining utensils, and many more that would make you experience being at home away from your home.

As the title suggest I am addressing specifically to solo travellers, and this is an important thing to note. Unless you're on a business trip or have an agenda for going to a place like attend a wedding, I am narrowing down to solo travellers or tourist who are going to Manila for the first time. You see, a first time tourist in Manila won't be able to appreciate how to be like a local if you spend most of your time in hotel. To really experience all the good and bad in Manila, you should stay in an airbnb for at least 2 nights in 1 property and jump to another. I hope you plan to tour around Manila for at least 2 weeks in order to plunge yourself deep into Filipino cultures. There are just so much to see and visit, from 18th century structures in Intramuros to modern skyscrapers in Bonafacio Global city, and everything in between. 

Lastly, this part here applies not only for Manila but every tourist destination in the country. it is common knowledge that Philippines is a tropical paradise with 7,000 plus islands which attracts tourist from cold countries. If you do plan to visit popular beach destination, i can tell you with first hand experience that you will have more airbnb options to choose from than hotel establishments near the beach. Hence it's not only about price competition, but also value competition. What do I mean by the latter? Airbnb hosts can only reduce their price so much on a certain level to stay afloat. So if they can no longer lower the price to attract customers, what do they do? They add more amenities, services, and incentives to get bookings. I remember I offered free breakfast for my airbnb guests back then when I launched my Makati listings just to get 5-star reviews. I know this for a fact because I have booked airbnb in Bohol, Boracay, Cebu, just to name a few. And I plan to book airbnb again on my several more travels in Palawan, Siargao, and Siquijor. I can say this with complete honesty that I had no bad experience thus far, and since I am an airbnb operator myself, this is my small way to help fellow hosts out there on their business.