For weak wifi reception, what’s better? Travel router or external wifi dongle?

Hey y’all, I’m frequently in the situation where I often am in airbnb’s or hotels that have the router farther away from my workspace in my room.

I’m between an Alfa AWUS036ACM AC1200, and a Beryl 7 travel router.

In the case of the wifi dongle, it’s more portable, supposed to have great reception and is cheaper, but in smaller cafes or desks it’ll add to clutter quick.

For the travel router, I can place it closer to the wifi and it adds a layer of security, the downside is that I need a separate source of power for it. It’s nice that I can set it up to access my home network, but I already have apps for that, plus my work is OK with me not being in my city/country.

What are your thoughts? What do you use?

I have my phone as a wifi hotspot backup, but I prefer not to use it daily since data can be expensive, or I’ve been outside of the country and it’s restricted to only my phone unless I pay some exhorbitant rate.