Yeah, I hear you. I use AirBnB when necessary, lots of places also post their rooms/apartments on both Booking.com and AirBnB.

I remember the good old days for AirBnB. We had an AirBnB once in London, at least 10 years ago. It was a small, really beautifully restored old houseboat, everything was perfect. The actual owner was there to show us around, his proud family was there, we were only the second people who had rented it out, and we had a good time talking to them, and got real tips on where to go, and what to do.

You NEVER experience that anymore. Almost never do you actually meet the host, there's some kind of self check-in set up, which may or may not work well.