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Airbnb Announces Intention to Become a Publicly-Traded Company During 2020

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81–90 of 174 posts

Re: Airbnb Announces Intention to Become a Publicly-Traded Company During 2020

#81

I am a big time traveler. When AirBnB appeared on the scene, it was a life changing event for me. So much better then hotels. Since then, AirBnB have not added anything that benefits me. But booking.com have catched up massively. To the point that I prefer booking.com again these days. I would have never expected that to happen. Some of my pet peeves with AirBnB: AirBnB's reviews are not chronological. So you have to…

How many of these pet peeves are held by the average AirBnB user? I would guess "none". These are the kinds of complaints that "power users" have because they use websites like tools. Average users don't. My mother would look at the first three reviews and consider that in-depth research. The next time she uses AirBnB, she won't notice re-listings, or removed reviews. In short, I don't think these kinds of issues are…

You're probably right about that. I think the average consumer also has fairly low tolerance for mishaps with novel experiences. If they have a bad time in the first one or two stays, the next discussion at Thanksgiving dinner will be about how Airbnb is dangerous and they much prefer hotels and others should too lest they put themselves at risk.

Re: Airbnb Announces Intention to Become a Publicly-Traded Company During 2020

#82

I am a big time traveler. When AirBnB appeared on the scene, it was a life changing event for me. So much better then hotels. Since then, AirBnB have not added anything that benefits me. But booking.com have catched up massively. To the point that I prefer booking.com again these days. I would have never expected that to happen. Some of my pet peeves with AirBnB: AirBnB's reviews are not chronological. So you have to…

How many of these pet peeves are held by the average AirBnB user? I would guess "none". These are the kinds of complaints that "power users" have because they use websites like tools. Average users don't. My mother would look at the first three reviews and consider that in-depth research. The next time she uses AirBnB, she won't notice re-listings, or removed reviews. In short, I don't think these kinds of issues are…

It didn't seem like the OP was making any kind of claim about those pet peeves being held by an average AirBnB user. In any case, it seems like a bold strategy to fight anecdata with anecdata. To that end, it doesn't look like booking.com has had any noticeable difference in google trends relative to AirBnB.

[1] https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=today%205-y&ge...

Re: Airbnb Announces Intention to Become a Publicly-Traded Company During 2020

#83

I am a big time traveler. When AirBnB appeared on the scene, it was a life changing event for me. So much better then hotels. Since then, AirBnB have not added anything that benefits me. But booking.com have catched up massively. To the point that I prefer booking.com again these days. I would have never expected that to happen. Some of my pet peeves with AirBnB: AirBnB's reviews are not chronological. So you have to…

How many of these pet peeves are held by the average AirBnB user? I would guess "none". These are the kinds of complaints that "power users" have because they use websites like tools. Average users don't. My mother would look at the first three reviews and consider that in-depth research. The next time she uses AirBnB, she won't notice re-listings, or removed reviews. In short, I don't think these kinds of issues are…

You don’t have to be a power user to want to read reviews chronologically; your mother isn’t the average user either.

This is something I noticed as a first time user.

Re: Airbnb Announces Intention to Become a Publicly-Traded Company During 2020

#84

What exactly is the roadmap for Airbnb? They stays feature seems to have maxed out in listings and declining now that random people are trying to manage 15+ listings in many cities. I often see the same listings on Booking for cheaper too. All the other features I don't even look at because I'm not interested in an 'adventure' given by some random guy with no professional experience. Honestly surprised they haven't e…

One thing they may have in the pipe is to have regular short term rental market places like Booking.com to list Airbnb rentals as well. Basically expand the reach outside of their own website.

Re: Airbnb Announces Intention to Become a Publicly-Traded Company During 2020

#85
post #38

Seems like a good time to cash out. I don't know where the growth is going to come from at this point. Major cities have recognized the negative externalities that Airbnb has on rental vacancy and land values, and are starting to add on regulations of various strength. That will drag on growth. The company gained its valuation from days past when people were buying new condos exclusively to rent 100% of the time on A…

> negative externalities that Airbnb has on rental vacancy and land values Is that an externality of AirBnB or poor city planning? Cities are eager to build offices and advertise to attract tourists, but convince themselves they don't need more residential construction. Fixing the underlying cause will work better than banning the symptom.

> Is that an externality of AirBnB or poor city planning?

I'd say both. Poor city planning leads to it happening, but AirBnB exacerbates the problem. And for a politician, regulating AirBnB is much easier and a lot more understandable by the electorate.

Explaining how they should be reelected because of changes they made to fundamental housing policy that will take 30 years to materialize is a hard sell.

Re: Airbnb Announces Intention to Become a Publicly-Traded Company During 2020

#86

Seems like a good time to cash out. I don't know where the growth is going to come from at this point. Major cities have recognized the negative externalities that Airbnb has on rental vacancy and land values, and are starting to add on regulations of various strength. That will drag on growth. The company gained its valuation from days past when people were buying new condos exclusively to rent 100% of the time on A…

What are the negative externalities?

Busy-body, most likely racist, neighbors get upset that there are people who aren't rich enough living in their fancy pants neighborhood.

Alternatively, jealous neighbors are upset that someone has more money than them and are convinced that it must be because the tenant is basically hitler.

In other words, socially acceptable xenophobia.

Re: Airbnb Announces Intention to Become a Publicly-Traded Company During 2020

#87

I am a big time traveler. When AirBnB appeared on the scene, it was a life changing event for me. So much better then hotels. Since then, AirBnB have not added anything that benefits me. But booking.com have catched up massively. To the point that I prefer booking.com again these days. I would have never expected that to happen. Some of my pet peeves with AirBnB: AirBnB's reviews are not chronological. So you have to…

> I am a big time traveler.

Awesome example of a major semantic difference depending where you place a hyphen.

Re: Airbnb Announces Intention to Become a Publicly-Traded Company During 2020

#88

I am a big time traveler. When AirBnB appeared on the scene, it was a life changing event for me. So much better then hotels. Since then, AirBnB have not added anything that benefits me. But booking.com have catched up massively. To the point that I prefer booking.com again these days. I would have never expected that to happen. Some of my pet peeves with AirBnB: AirBnB's reviews are not chronological. So you have to…

> To the point that I prefer booking.com again these days. I would have never expected that to happen.

Interesting. A friend and I were looking for places this weekend and I kept posting airbnb listings, while he kept posting booking.com ones. I absolutely can't stand booking.com's website and we ended up with an airbnb one.

I can't recall many listings I avoided because of reviews. I might just be lucky, but pictures and words usually match reality

Re: Airbnb Announces Intention to Become a Publicly-Traded Company During 2020

#89

I am a big time traveler. When AirBnB appeared on the scene, it was a life changing event for me. So much better then hotels. Since then, AirBnB have not added anything that benefits me. But booking.com have catched up massively. To the point that I prefer booking.com again these days. I would have never expected that to happen. Some of my pet peeves with AirBnB: AirBnB's reviews are not chronological. So you have to…

VRBO sometimes lists the same places as AirBnB but cheaper. I suppose that their fees are lower.

Re: Airbnb Announces Intention to Become a Publicly-Traded Company During 2020

#90

I am a big time traveler. When AirBnB appeared on the scene, it was a life changing event for me. So much better then hotels. Since then, AirBnB have not added anything that benefits me. But booking.com have catched up massively. To the point that I prefer booking.com again these days. I would have never expected that to happen. Some of my pet peeves with AirBnB: AirBnB's reviews are not chronological. So you have to…

>I am a big time traveler.

So who wins in 2020?

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