airbnb - have you tried any?

I was not very familiar with this - just had heard about it. Then some friends were visiting the area that live across country. They were staying far enough away that if wanted to spend a good amount of time with them, we would need to stay over as well.

They ended up getting an airbnb - it had an extra bedroom so we stayed with them. After this experience I think I am going to try it myself.

My daughter is away at college so I looked up airbnbs near her. After traveling there on a few separate occasions and staying at hotels that are over 100 dollars (nothing much else in the area other than the typical hotel chains) and they are nothing special - I looked up airbnbs. There were many in the area - some that looked really nice at a fraction of the cost.

So seeing I only had one experience with this - does anyone else have experience with it? Any thoughts how I can tell if they are as nice as they are made out to be? I have read the reviews, but wanted to see best way to approach this.