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Airbnb raises $1B at $31B valuation, became profitable in 2016

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Re: Airbnb raises $1B at $31B valuation, became profitable in 2016

#121

Post by Jamsii »

baus wrote: post #79
kilroy123 wrote: post #15

I'm not surprised to see Airbnb became profitable. They've expanded everywhere. I nomad around and always use Airbnb, I've booked places on several continents. However, I'm definitely feeling the effects of their growing pains. For example, many people have bought places to only rent on Airbnb full-time. Most of these people suck at being an hotelier. It's clear people get lazy and are just trying to make money. Thin…

It goes both ways. I'm an Airbnb host and renter(1). Mostly I have had good experiences, but I have had more problems on the hosting side lately. I take pride in my property and lived there myself for years. But I've gotten guests who nit pick everything and then ask for a refund. I had one guest ask for a refund because there was snow in Tahoe, and they stayed for the full time anyway. Another guest wanted a refund…

Wifi network and password in the Airbnb listing description, is this a normal thing to do?

Re: Airbnb raises $1B at $31B valuation, became profitable in 2016

#122

Post by JimDabell »

alleycat wrote: post #96
zeroer wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

AirBnB reviews are massively inflated. A 4.5 average means you should carefully read between the lines of what the previous guests wrote. A 4 average means you should probably reconsider staying. Hades itself would probably rank around 3.5.

I think a better tell would be displaying the ratio of people who actually reviewed vs the ones who didn't. When people don't like a place they'll usually not review it at all.

I recently booked a place in an apartment complex, and when I arrived, there were big signs at all the entrances saying it wasn't a hotel, that it was for residents only, and anybody found to be renting daily/weekly would be arrested as trespassers. I was only staying there for a couple of nights and didn't have time for the hassle of arguing with Airbnb at the time, so I just took the risk.

After my stay, I reported it to Airbnb. I didn't want to leave a review because I didn't want to deal with the fallout if Airbnb banned the host and they knew I was responsible. Airbnb ignored the report, the listing is still active, and none of the reviews mention the problem. I wonder how many other guests reported the problem to Airbnb without leaving a review as well.

Re: Airbnb raises $1B at $31B valuation, became profitable in 2016

#123

Post by jimmywanger »

bfwi wrote: post #58
benatkin wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the founders AirBnb and Uber are afraid to transition to being legit companies. The lack of IPO is just a part of it.

If you're a profitable private company, aren't you legit?

Depends. I think with the increased scrutiny as a public company, you have much less wiggle room for creative accounting tricks.

Re: Airbnb raises $1B at $31B valuation, became profitable in 2016

#124

Post by antisthenes »

dragonwriter wrote: post #76
antisthenes wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reviews are a problem, but not for novels. Perception of books and concepts covered within are entirely subjective. However, when it comes to service or product quality, you can be almost entirely objective in its value judgment.

> However, when it comes to service or product quality, you can be almost entirely objective in its value judgment. No, all assessments of value are subjective (and for most services involve subjective weighting of multiple different subjective quality factors.) And the mapping from an internal value judgement to a star rating is something which is a separate subjective evaluation, and one on which research has shown…

While that may be true for other people, I have no trouble giving a purchased object a rating for its objective value (but I do excessive research on buying options beforehand). Even if the judgment is relative to other products, it can still be objective.

The rating may be inaccurate because you can only measure in full stars, but it'll still be objective and the inaccuracy is the fault of the rating system, not me.

Objective (adjective):

> (of a person or their judgment) not influenced by personal feelings or opinions in considering and representing facts.

Re: Airbnb raises $1B at $31B valuation, became profitable in 2016

#125

Post by jxramos »

kilroy123 wrote: post #15

I'm not surprised to see Airbnb became profitable. They've expanded everywhere. I nomad around and always use Airbnb, I've booked places on several continents. However, I'm definitely feeling the effects of their growing pains. For example, many people have bought places to only rent on Airbnb full-time. Most of these people suck at being an hotelier. It's clear people get lazy and are just trying to make money. Thin…

Oh yah I feel you. I often tell people that AirBNB offerings come from a bunch of amateurs, amateur hoteliers that is.

Re: Airbnb raises $1B at $31B valuation, became profitable in 2016

#126

Post by antisthenes »

robryan wrote: post #118
ghaff wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Reviews are a problem, but not for novels. Hmm. I'm willing to accept that the average reader is a more sophisticated and thoughtful consumer than for some other product categories. And there may be less overt tribalism and fanboyism in book reviews. But, in my experience, there's still a lot of people who will almost unthinkingly give 5 stars to a favorite author or genre. (And I know some of those people who are p…

Goodreads reviews are still pretty inflated. Anything around or under 3.5 or so probably has some big flaws.

I have found no correlation between the Goodreads score and my own perception of the book.

Again, novels and products are entirely different in that you're hopefully shopping for a product by its specs. You can't 'research' novels beforehand (unless you count as reading other novels by the same author as research) and they don't have any specs to go by.

Re: Airbnb raises $1B at $31B valuation, became profitable in 2016

#127

Post by exclusiv »

AndrewKemendo wrote: post #85
kilroy123 wrote: post #15

I'm not surprised to see Airbnb became profitable. They've expanded everywhere. I nomad around and always use Airbnb, I've booked places on several continents. However, I'm definitely feeling the effects of their growing pains. For example, many people have bought places to only rent on Airbnb full-time. Most of these people suck at being an hotelier. It's clear people get lazy and are just trying to make money. Thin…

All of my bad AirBnB experiences were ones where there were no actual tenants. The ones where it was an actual non-professional bed and breakfast, as the name implies, were fantastic. I travel so much that consistency is important and that is what hotels offer. I see AirBnB as an inferior option for hotels, not a way to meet new friends. I think the idea that AirBnB is going to kill the hotel industry is way overblow…

AirBnB is inferior now because those hosts aren't necessarily designing it for business travelers. They don't have the insight to accommodate that audience. Or maybe the places you are booking don't get a lot of biz travelers.

I'm specifically only hosting in destination places because when people are on vacation they are inherently happy. Not saying you are unrealistic or unhappy, but it's a different mindset and you have different needs.

So yes I agree with you - it takes a lot more effort for you to have a good, consistent experience as a business traveler because you have to spend time wading through listings.

But there's no reason why AirBnB can't solve that by creating a standard for what business travelers want - perhaps a business superhost designation. I don't think it's overblown for them to put a hurting on the hotel industry. All it takes is for them to take a decent chunk out of RevPAR and many will be done. Hotels typically have a 5 year cycle and they've been having record years. So it's definitely overblown as of now. But killing the investments in hotels is more about what happens when you steal share during the bad times. And also - what happens when there's a good AirBnB rewards program to lure business travelers and they can make it easier for them to book and be consistent as you mentioned?

The hotel industry will remain, but there will be a lot less inventory and operators may decide they don't need to fly the big brands or can't afford the fees.

Re: Airbnb raises $1B at $31B valuation, became profitable in 2016

#128

Post by exclusiv »

baus wrote: post #79
kilroy123 wrote: post #15

I'm not surprised to see Airbnb became profitable. They've expanded everywhere. I nomad around and always use Airbnb, I've booked places on several continents. However, I'm definitely feeling the effects of their growing pains. For example, many people have bought places to only rent on Airbnb full-time. Most of these people suck at being an hotelier. It's clear people get lazy and are just trying to make money. Thin…

It goes both ways. I'm an Airbnb host and renter(1). Mostly I have had good experiences, but I have had more problems on the hosting side lately. I take pride in my property and lived there myself for years. But I've gotten guests who nit pick everything and then ask for a refund. I had one guest ask for a refund because there was snow in Tahoe, and they stayed for the full time anyway. Another guest wanted a refund…

Tahoe is a tough market. Prices should be way higher for what you get in my opinion. I'm not in Tahoe but I can sleep 16+ people at my place and I have more problems when I have the price lower.

I had guests complain once that there were a few things in one of the bedroom closets (still tons of storage for their stuff), some things in a small pile in the garage and some food in the cupboards (usually have ketchup, hot chocolate, popcorn, etc).

I had my head of turnover go over and chat with them in person and removed all the stuff just to be nice. She told them that some of the things were destined for Goodwill and then the lady who was complaining started picking through it and her tone completely changed! They also showed up with a small towable U-haul full of stuff and a crazy amount of canned food for a short trip. This was a big trip for them.

So sometimes people are just unrealistic. Complaining about some things in the bedroom closets - you're staying at my house! And the stuff in the pantry is for you to use!

However, some people are spending a lot more of their money proportionately and they have different expectations because of this. They want everything to be perfect. Maybe they're being guilted by their spouse or family for spending that amount. They'll complain about really trivial things.

I don't really like instant book because anyone can book. You have to do legal discrimination - AirBnB doesn't do much to help and hosts are often hesitant to leave bad reviews on renters for some reason.

We had a group of 30+ sorority girls message us wanting to stay. Legally we're approved in our area for 16; if you're doing it right and you pay your TOT taxes and are registered - you get approved based on square footage. So of course we declined their request. If they instant booked, I'm not going to be able to kick them out, I'll get more wear and tear, and I could be fined by the city or get my license revoked. Not worth it.

I see why Airbnb is pushing instant book but not participating helps me minimize risk.

Re: Airbnb raises $1B at $31B valuation, became profitable in 2016

#129

Post by dalbasal »

kilroy123 wrote: post #15

I'm not surprised to see Airbnb became profitable. They've expanded everywhere. I nomad around and always use Airbnb, I've booked places on several continents. However, I'm definitely feeling the effects of their growing pains. For example, many people have bought places to only rent on Airbnb full-time. Most of these people suck at being an hotelier. It's clear people get lazy and are just trying to make money. Thin…

Having a good ecology of ratings and reviews is definitely important. It's probably a hard problem because you're rating people, Sasha or Adam. It's rude to say bad things about them publicly because they didn't had dishes in the sink or whatnot. Civility is important. OTOH, ratings and reviews need to convey information.

As a user, Id rather they err on the side of amateurish. Airbnb can't be the whole market. It works best for recreational travel. Even people who buy or rent to Airbnb generally do it on a small scale.

Re: Airbnb raises $1B at $31B valuation, became profitable in 2016

#130

Post by maineldc »

conanbatt wrote: post #80
maineldc wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was a very "insider baseball" moment in 2011 with regards to AirBNB and a well known investor "discussing" taking money off the table. Note, the investor was basically saying that if the founders get some liquidity, you should offer the same to employees. I will never forget how much that raise my esteem him. [0] So yes, if they were willing to do it in 2011, I am sure that they are doing it in this round too.…

To me it sounds like an argument the investor would make to leverage founders not getting equity. Investors get paid before employees. What if airbnb had answered to him "we will do that, but also, you cannot make any money at all until employees get it, otherwise this shady way of things will harm you long term".

Well, the investor made it quite clear in his note that he wasn't disagreeing with taking money off the table:

> My basic principle on this stuff is that if you want liquidity, that’s fine, but you should make it available to everyone.

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