I keep hearing about it and was wondering what is so great about bamboo flooring?

Its "green" because it grows so fast. But other than that I'm stumped why anyone would choose it over real wood.

Its pretty much all hype. It does regenerate faster that's about it. Of course it isnt any more "green" than most average domestic oak floor imho.

I agree with Kevin.
Not really all that green. Regular bamboo is really soft strand and carbonized are hard but has some flaws in my opinion as well.
If you like the look of it that is one thing however your installer needs to know what they are doing. It isn't very forgiving. Also you might keep in mind that usually all the boards are the same length. It doesn't mimic a real hardwood very well.

I'm also assuming that it CANNOT be refinished.

I was going to go the bamboo route because it was cheaper than hardwood and an environmentally conscious material.

Family and friends are excited about their cheap laminate and I wanted something 'real' that was in between that and hardwood that I could refinish and stain if I wanted a different color in 5 years.

Needless to say, after realizing the chemical processes involved, it puts it on the same green level as laminate to me.

Then when I saw pictures of someone that tried to refinish bamboo (that was a selling point to me) I changed my mind immediately.

I liked the look and price and spent over 5k on the Cali Bamboo Java Fossilized Wide Click and was so excited to get it installed in my new house. Well, I can tell you from experience that if you go with the solid bamboo like the one I did, then you're taking a big risk with a beautiful product that's not been time tested. The sales pitch for bamboo is hard to beat: Eco-friendly, durable, mold resistant, great in humid areas, etc. Well, I'm positive now that the people writing these things are talking mostly in theory and not basing this on real world experience. If you look up bamboo flooring problems or complaints you'll see that there are many issues with the products (there's a range in quality). Since my Cali Bamboo debacle I've done a lot of research on bamboo flooring and spoke with many flooring specialists with experience with bamboo and would conclude that the advertisements are mostly untrue and misleading. I think someone used the word "hype" and I would agree. If you're considering bamboo just know that you're taking a big risk. I suppose you are with all flooring, but I would say that bamboo is the riskiest. I am speaking from experience. I wished there were more on the Internet when I was researching and that I had believed the negative reports that I did see. I do not want anyone to go through what I am and that's why I'm spending time now to share my experience with bamboo. Buyer beware!!!

I just did a Metrofloor hybrid laminate with a bamboo look to it. It's actually a vinyl top wear layer. I would advise people wanting bamboo to look into it. I've also seen it in a resturant and is holding up well after two years.

http://www.thehybridfloors.com/res/home.html