- Airbnb stock tumbled 14% in one day after the company predicted slowing demand.
- Some former Airbnb diehards say they now prefer the consistency of hotels.
- Airbnb said it might increase travelers’ ability to book hotel rooms through Airbnb.
they should be paying hotel taxes.
TBF, almost all of this applies to VRBO too.
I’ve never used it, but I’ve been told VRBO is just a more expensive AirBnB. Does that hold up in your experience?
My experience is that VRBO is supposed to be more scrutinized than Air B&B and you always get the whole property.
Lately they are demanding a $500 cleaning fee and also demanding that you do the laundry, take out the trash, and do the dishes.
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I just stayed at a 4 star resort in Quebec City. That value could not be delivered with Airbnb. Ain’t no way.
An extended stay hotel is predictable and more than good enough. AirBnB has a consistency problem. To include pricing and hidden fees.
AirBnb is just a pain in the ass that hardly saves you money anymore. It’s often the same.
You want nice clean sheets, fresh linens, and nice amenities that go with it? Get a hotel.
You just absolutely have to have a home or flat vibe? Well be ready to do apartment laundry, sweep and vacuumvand make the beds and clean all the dishes and only enter and exit between these hours because the keypad doesn’t recognize you otherwise…
Greedy fucks ruined AirBnB because the company encouraged it and let them do so. And then fucked over the guests too many times. And now I’d rather stay in a reliable location than deal with the absolute hassle of their company or their company’s shitty clients.
Good riddance.
The couple really great AirBnB stays I’ve had were for family reunions. So larger than even extended stay hotels are really made for. And they were run by companies, not individual people.
These have always existed though. AirBnB isn’t an app listing, but offers nothing to that equation. Cabin and event space rentals have been a thing for decades. You don’t see Wedding Venues needing AirBnb you know?
I think we have different definitions of family reunion. I’m talking about 6-10 people.
Yep, this 100%. I travel a lot for work and have probably stayed in 100 airbnbs over the years, but these days I ask the company not to bother and to book hotels instead. It’s gone from a platform to get a nice home away from home, to a place to get gouged by rude hosts while staying in a barracks with the sparsest of IKEA finishings. They’ve done it to themselves by encouraging shitty host behavior and having zero consequences for bad guest experiences.
It still has one specific usecase where I find it better - when you need more than 2 beds. We use it when on holiday with my friends because usually getting an Airbnb with 3-4 beds is way cheaper than hotel rooms.
But in pretty much all other cases… yep, would much rather have a hotel. Last time I had a host who took electric meter readings and charged you for the electricity… luckily it was negligible since the oven was broken.
Airbnb in North America is awful. More expensive than hotels, often dirtier, greedy hosts try to offload their own expenses to tenants. Hotels all the way!
Oddly enough though, when my wife and I went to Japan, it was the opposite. All the Airbnbs we stayed at were much more affordable, way cleaner, and the hosts were incredibly kind and respectful. The hotels we stayed at were average. Not sure what’s keeping the service so nice over there, or if we just lucked out at 3 different places
I was solely airbnb for years, down to literally nothing now. Won’t even search the site anymore. Many reasons articulated by others, but just a pure garbage company and garbage “homeowners” who are mostly just vc conglomerates and bs fronts now - last time I looked, I saw a listing that was overpriced, but I was going to do it out of last minute need…
Host was named Miranda and showed profile pic of a smiling younger women. Listing text was written in her voice. I had a specific question that I sent and received an odd, cold form response, not in her same tone. Then looked and saw that Miranda owned most every property in this beachfront area? She looked pretty young, but okay, good for you. Looked further and found that “Miranda” was actually just the name of a property management group. That wasn’t her in the profile picture, she didn’t exist. She wasn’t going to answer my question, she didn’t give a shit, because she was… not.
Fuck you in your stupid greedy faces, hotels will do.
I usually travel by car and with my dogs out of necessity.
Airbnb is the most cost-effective when you need a room that allows dogs.
That’s odd. Do people not want to pay hotel prices and a “cleaning fee” and also clean up the place before they leave? Or is it like they want to show up and the room they booked actually exists?
No, people like to find out that there’s a fucking rooster farm across the road and that you have to park 3 miles away. It’s all part of the adventure.
Goddamn millennials are so unreasonable.
Yes exactly. Hosts got greedy, Airbnb let them, and this is the result.
They could fix it pretty easily but the host would hate it.
- Make the price that is displayed by default inclusive of all fees and charges, except taxes. So that stupid cleaning fee makes your property go down in the list.
-Make the listing page clearly indicate whether or not the guest is required to perform chores. Make the filter aware of certain chores and allow a guest to screen out listings that require those. IE, ‘strip bed’, ‘do laundry’, ‘take out garbage’, ‘cleaning tasks’, ‘other’, etc. and have a really easy button at the top ‘filter out listings with chores’.
If I’m paying half the price of a hotel then I don’t mind having to throw the sheets in the laundry. If I’m paying more than a hotel plus a cleaning fee, I want to be on vacation and act like it.
Why shouldn’t taxes be displayed?
Americans are used to mentally adding taxes to the price
They should be displayed.
To add to this, in the U.S. the price on the shelf should be the actual price after tax. It’s so weird seeing the price and knowing it’s not actually the price.
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Taxes are not displayed anywhere else, so if Airbnb starts including taxes in their listing they will be at a competitive disadvantage as their pricing would become apples to oranges versus hotels in the wrong direction.
Almost nowhere in the US includes taxes in the advertised price.
Hotels are pretty nice. They come to make up your room, they have a nice person at the front desk to help you out with any issues, and they will usually have a breakfast option or at least some free coffee.
Airbnb has a lot of potential downsides: from cleaning and fees to broken stuff and hidden cameras. I’ve been in a few situations that have been weird to put it mildly.
Sometimes weird can be fun, but if I just want a clean bed and a reliable experience, I go to the hotel these days
Airbnb’s are great when you’re bored with life.
Some hotels have hidden cameras too, assuming they havent been found yet
Nature of the business means that’s a higher risk activity. Customers can’t get access back to the same room, employees work in rotation and owners aren’t physical present.
It’s as if people don’t want to pay to be personal maids of hosts.
A decade ago I loved Airbnb. Fly to a major city, get to stay in someone’s condor or home for half the price of a hotel. Left your bowl out on the counter? No problem. Didn’t take out the trash? Why would you, the host does that. Didn’t make your bed and rearrange the pillows on the couch back to how they were before you arrived? That’s cool. Now you are looking at staying in a suburb of Austin for 2x the price of a hotel plus, you need to spend hours when you are trying to leave, cleaning up and you are going to be charged $300 anyway for a “cleaning fee” even though none of the linens smelled fresh when you arrived. The only reason I’ve used Airbnb in the past couple of years is because A) there was literally no other option for where we were vacationing or B) Our dog is traveling with us and we couldn’t find a hotel that will accommodate her.
I’ve stayed at my share of Airbnbs booked by others, but never really enjoyed the feeling of sleeping in some strangers house. Also, disliked the impact of airbnbs on local housing markets. The idea of replacing long term housing with short term housing is completely stupid from a public policy perspective and a great way to ruin a city.
Additionally, I like being a customer, and anonymous. I don’t want to be rated by the host. I don’t want to be judged on whether I put my own towels in the washing machine before I checked out. If I’m paying, that shouldn’t be my damn job.
Also, airbnbs are random. Some are good, some are awful. Some hosts are fine, some are a bit too much. Hotels do vary, but on the whole, the experience is much more consistent.
To chime in on your anonymous comment, racism is a huge issue for AirBnB too. None of my brown friends are able to book one without the help of a white friend/partner, because of their names and the lack of AirBnB history.
For me, it’s almost always the cheapest/most convenient way to stay somewhere with a kitchen. And it may be an okay kitchen but almost always better than a hotel’s. That’s the part I find the hardest to replicate outside of Airbnb.
Short stay apartments are a thing, but you’ll typically only find them in big cities.
Exactly, I lost all taste for Airbnb when we were staying for 2 nights, and every 4 hours the owner was balsting me with text messages telling me I needed to rate them 5 stars because if I didn’t they wouldn’t rate me 5 stars…but I had to take out my own trash, put all towels and linens in the washer, and make sure to tidy up before I left or else I’d incur their “clean up fee”. Fuck that shit, I’m not paying you a shitton of money to clean up after myself. Especially when half the bathrooms have black mold and rotten water damaged wood around the showers, and you have to be extra mindful because this was a time when hidden cameras were common.
Cleaning fees are just overhead on staying now. But if you don’t tidy your rating will take a hit.
It’s a scam coming and going. But it’s often cheaper and with more selection on location. The last two, I think, are really what keeps them around.
Ability to zero in on location is definitely the thing that keeps me on the platform. I can’t say its always cheaper, it maybe in some cases but its often equal or higher than a budget hotel in my experience. The fact that I can get a unit with a kitchen and within walking distance of a few of my planned vacation activities is the reason I check it out.
Airbnb is expensive. It also is often awkward, I always seem to get places where the owner wants to give me a tour of the place when I show up. Checkout time is always a massive stress, trying to figure out where the outside bin is, how to start the dishwasher, and remembering to return all the furniture to it’s original position, lest we break a rule and lose our deposit. You don’t get mini bars or room service or daily housekeeping, and you have no idea if the host is secretly keeping tabs on you somehow. It’s just so much more work to stay at an Airbnb than a hotel, with none of the cost benefits as a trade off.
The other week we stayed at a Hilton and I checked in and out without speaking to a soul (via the app). It’s a no brainer at this point.
After having my honeymoon practically ruined by an owner’s insane rules (posted EVERYWHERE throughout the place), I’ve vowed to never use an Airbnb again. Plus the junk fees are fucking insane.
Give me a proper hotel with proper service any day of the week.
Oh yeah, the condescending “please unplug me when done!” signs near the toaster… or trying to use the hot tub and having to read pages of stuff just to get in some warm water. We stayed at one once that made us add conditioning tablets to the hot tub at a certain time each day. Nah, this is your house, you fucking take care of it, I just want to use it.
The main Airbnb value proposition was trading some of the conveniences you get at a hotel for a significantly cheaper room.
When they are roughly the same price as staying in a hotel, why would you choose it?
The only time I’ve ever used an Airbnb was when I wanted a location that did not have a good hotel option. Which has been cabins in the woods, and beach front property. Outside of that, I would rather have the convenience of a hotel.
