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Airbnb expands to experiences

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Re: Airbnb expands to experiences

#121

Post by illumin8 »

diggan wrote: post #7

Funny, the experience of "Send yourself an SMS to get our new app." instead of just linking to Google Play for people in Spain is that it doesn't accept spanish number format. Instead it asks for one extra number and if you pad it with a zero, it throws an error "Unfortunately, a server error prevented your request from being completed". So much for the Airbnb experience. Even better that if you turn of JavaScript, t…

Airbnb's app has the most annoying privacy problems that I refuse to use it on my phone. I only use the website for this reason.

When setting up the app, it refuses to sign you in unless you authorize it with Oauth to download your entire contacts list from Google or Facebook. I refuse to give Airbnb access to my hundreds of personal and professional contacts just so I can book a room somewhere.

For some reason, the website doesn't require this level of Oauth permissions, just the ability to see your email address.

Airbnb, please fix this! Privacy conscious consumers shouldn't have to delete your app, but there are some lines in the sand we refuse to cross, like giving you access to our entire list of personal and professional contacts.

Re: Airbnb expands to experiences

#123

Post by bogomipz »

dkarapetyan wrote: post #69
bogomipz wrote: post #54

Why not just go out and have your own experience and be guided by your own sense of adventure? Rent a bike and just explore. Stumbling upon new things without an app or a guide book is one of the greatest joys of traveling. The usual response to this question is "well I only have a few days or my time is really limited." Which means you aren't going to "live like a local anyway" if you only have 72 hours. The places…

People don't like making choices. It is a cognitive burden especially if you're in a new and unusual place. Unusual to you, not the locals obviously. So having a guide can help and when you revisit the place you can go on a more freeform adventure. I think this is a pretty good idea but not sure how I feel about AirBnB monopolizing the thing. If there is some kind of exclusivity component then the aggregation of "exp…

>"People don't like making choices. It is a cognitive burden especially if you're in a new and unusual place"

This is a rather blanket statement and you haven't supported it with any evidence. I also don't believe this is true at all.

I don't think there are many people who spend money and time planning a trip and then fly to to some far off place and upon arriving views exploring the place that they traveled to "a burden." Those that do tend to either not travel for leisure or else travel to the same places again and again or maybe opt for package holidays.

"and when you revisit the place you can go on a more freeform adventure."

Many people never revisit the same places especially the ones really far away. In fact a common refrain among travelers is "I would love to get back there"

Re: Airbnb expands to experiences

#124

Post by erroneousfunk »

lcc wrote: post #38
11thEarlOfMar wrote: post #2

This is awesome. My wife and I are planning a round the world trip to celebrate our last college tuition payment. We've talked about becoming 'Citizens of the World' and eschewing the canned tourist experiences to instead live the same lifestyle as the citizens of the countries we visit: Stay in a neighborhood instead of a high-rise hotel, shop at the same grocery stores, eat the same home-cooked meals, get around vi…

I highly recommend HelpX to get a really good feel of the lifestyle in foreign countries. Rather than just staying at someone's place like Airbnb, you do light work for your host in exchange for free room and board. You get a place to live in a place where locals actually live, homecooked meals in the local style, when your host don't feel like cooking you get taken out to eat at places where locals actually eat, get…

This sounds tempting, but I have a hard enough time arranging regular visas on international trips, and work visas (even short term ones) sound like a nightmare and a half...

Re: Airbnb expands to experiences

#125

Post by ryuker16 »

princeb wrote: post #68
frgtpsswrdlame wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To experience the rich capital owners of other countries?

i think would be very cool if there was an app that would do the reverse and enable the have-nots to have what the haves have, even for a short period of time: - private heli trip to a private island villa, - 300' yachts, aventadors, 488s, 911s all free to use, - private shopping sessions (fully paid for) at hermes, chanel, - meet-and-greets w/ robuchon, redzepi etc, - take a whimsical trip to some middle of nowhere…

That's sorta of the point of resorts and cruises.

Re: Airbnb expands to experiences

#126

Post by ryuker16 »

shard wrote: post #89
chris11 wrote: post #6

Interesting. A startup, BeSomebody, actually just pitched this item on SharkTank. His presentation did not go well at all, and he got no money. But the idea seems really cool. So I'm glad Airbnb is implementing it.

I was a co-founder of a startup which had this concept back in 2011. There must have been some sort of global zeitgeist or something because during that year over 40 competing startups showed up all over the world. Only a few survived, and unfortunately my startup was not one of them. Even the ones that did survive never did that well, Vayable and Viator got acquired, and some small time sites are still dragging on.…

I'm a host and while couples rarely want a tourist guide I did have a few who wanted/expected the service(single men).

Having a few bonus packages on top wouldn't hurt my wallet.

Re: Airbnb expands to experiences

#128

Post by ryuker16 »

bogomipz wrote: post #54

Why not just go out and have your own experience and be guided by your own sense of adventure? Rent a bike and just explore. Stumbling upon new things without an app or a guide book is one of the greatest joys of traveling. The usual response to this question is "well I only have a few days or my time is really limited." Which means you aren't going to "live like a local anyway" if you only have 72 hours. The places…

Your too late. I live 3 minutes walk from a tourist destination so my airbnb business is good. 9/10 locals don't hang out there despite good prices and tons of bars.

Only a few of my guests hit up places locals go to...if they're decent they get tons of tourist anyway.

>Why not just go out and have your own experience and be guided by your own sense of adventure? Rent a bike and just explore. Stumbling upon new things without an app or a guide book is one of the greatest joys of traveling.

I'd say nearly all my guest do that. I feel like I have to pull teeth to give them a quick 15 minute walking orientation tour to save them time.

Re: Airbnb expands to experiences

#129

Post by askew »

GuiA wrote: post #87
visarga wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, people wanting to learn about the world should go to Somalia and North Korea to round up their experience?

The notion of global citizen is misguided in the first place, because there is no global entity to be a citizen of, at any socio economic level that matters. Sure you can say that you're a creature of Mother Earth, we're all brothers and sisters united by a common bond, all that; at the end of the day you're still paying taxes to a very specific, non "global citizen" government, and depending on that government for b…

Theresa May, is that you?

Re: Airbnb expands to experiences

#130

Post by ryuker16 »

dkarapetyan wrote: post #69
bogomipz wrote: post #54

Why not just go out and have your own experience and be guided by your own sense of adventure? Rent a bike and just explore. Stumbling upon new things without an app or a guide book is one of the greatest joys of traveling. The usual response to this question is "well I only have a few days or my time is really limited." Which means you aren't going to "live like a local anyway" if you only have 72 hours. The places…

People don't like making choices. It is a cognitive burden especially if you're in a new and unusual place. Unusual to you, not the locals obviously. So having a guide can help and when you revisit the place you can go on a more freeform adventure. I think this is a pretty good idea but not sure how I feel about AirBnB monopolizing the thing. If there is some kind of exclusivity component then the aggregation of "exp…

As a host who offers tours, its been the complete opposite and most don't really want to be guided.

The only folks who wanted to be heavily guided lacked English or wanted a wingman in bars.

I feel like I'm getting annoying whenever I make suggestions and my guests are like 'umm, okay'

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