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Airbnb asks people to donate money to landlords, backlash ensues

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Re: Airbnb asks people to donate money to landlords, backlash ensues

#101

Post by nicoburns »

claudeganon wrote: post #48
jliptzin wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is being inflated after the fact? When you book on Airbnb it shows you all the fees including cleaning fee before you book...

Go look at an Airbnb listing, it will be advertised at a lower, per night rate, but when you go to book, it can jump up as much as 50% with tacked on fees. Hotels don’t do this. I just went on the site and looked at an advertised $80 per night listing. On booking it became $137, with the $40 cleaning and $17 service fees. That’s a $137 room not an $80 one and I doubt it costs $40 to clean it.

This is actually not the case in the UK. If you put in dates, then it will add the fees then average them over the days and show you a day price which includes the fees. Though as others have commented, this may well be EU-specific.

Re: Airbnb asks people to donate money to landlords, backlash ensues

#102

Post by nicoburns »

mchusma wrote: post #92
mathattack wrote: post #21

This seems counter-productive. Housing costs are up because of AirBnB. I’m not thrilled, but that’s the market. The market needs to reprice. Folks who bet on the market would get rich if the bet paid off. Let them sell their places, and someone else can rent them out in the future. Call me callous but I don’t feel the need to bail out someone who charged me $500/night on a place with a $3000 monthly payment. I entere…

Housing costs are not up because of Airbnb, they are up because of government regulation. If we wanted housing to cost to buy a house in the US to be $100k average, we could do it almost overnight by lifting regulations unrelated to safety. With existing automation tech (produce like industry instead of custom each time) we could get it to $50k. In 10 years we could make housing affordable if we had the societal will…

> Housing costs are not up because of Airbnb

I think they are partially. In London, rents have decreased 25%-50% since COVID. Part of that will be reduced demand. But I have also seen a lot of rooms advertised for long-term rental that were previously Airbnbs.

We could certainly ameliorate this by building more houses. But here in the UK we're a lot more limited by available land space than you are in the US. And while there is limited supply it makes sense to prioritise making primary dwellings affordable over profit making for landlords.

Re: Airbnb asks people to donate money to landlords, backlash ensues

#105

Post by bradly »

jliptzin wrote: post #42
claudeganon wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

...which is baked into their room rates? It’s predatory to advertise a lower rate and then inflate it after the fact with all kinds of tacked on fees. People (rightfully) go nuts at hotels that try to do this.

What is being inflated after the fact? When you book on Airbnb it shows you all the fees including cleaning fee before you book...

It actually doesn’t always. If Airbnb doesn’t support your local taxes system, you will have to submit a request for payment to your guest for more money. For instance in Hawaii until a few months ago, there was no way to add the 14% hotel tax to the listing. We had to put a note in the description that said they would be charged an extra 14% after booking. I think many hosts simple don’t charge/pay the hotel tax because of the friction it adds to the transaction. We could ad it in the nightly rate, but then a service fee will be paid on it from the guest and the host.

Re: Airbnb asks people to donate money to landlords, backlash ensues

#106

Post by earthboundkid »

sleavey wrote: post #14

This was really short sighted given Airbnb have claimed since the beginning to regulators, local authorities and the public that they exist only to provide a platform for people to rent out their spare rooms when it's convenient for them. Their core claim is that they are not a hotel company, which is how they manage to skirt so many hotel regulations. Built into these claims is the assumption that the owners of the…

It's a truly end-of-capitalism† move to shift the risk burden of property ownership from the center to the periphery. I guess McDonalds does this too with its franchises, but this is so much more pure: you own the property, you figure out all the property management work, and AirBnB takes the cut. McDonalds at least sends its franchises frozen hamburgers. AirBnB is just pure toll-bridge-as-a-service.

† Not sure if capitalism will actually end any time soon, but stuff like this is what makes radicals try their best to end it.

Re: Airbnb asks people to donate money to landlords, backlash ensues

#107

Post by specialist »

sleavey wrote: post #14

This was really short sighted given Airbnb have claimed since the beginning to regulators, local authorities and the public that they exist only to provide a platform for people to rent out their spare rooms when it's convenient for them. Their core claim is that they are not a hotel company, which is how they manage to skirt so many hotel regulations. Built into these claims is the assumption that the owners of the…

Agree with all.

"Airbnb is a glorified hotel room broker but with..."

Still want phrasing which is more critical. Something along the lines of profiting from cheating.

Re: Airbnb asks people to donate money to landlords, backlash ensues

#108

Post by gjulianm »

mchusma wrote: post #92
mathattack wrote: post #21

This seems counter-productive. Housing costs are up because of AirBnB. I’m not thrilled, but that’s the market. The market needs to reprice. Folks who bet on the market would get rich if the bet paid off. Let them sell their places, and someone else can rent them out in the future. Call me callous but I don’t feel the need to bail out someone who charged me $500/night on a place with a $3000 monthly payment. I entere…

Housing costs are not up because of Airbnb, they are up because of government regulation. If we wanted housing to cost to buy a house in the US to be $100k average, we could do it almost overnight by lifting regulations unrelated to safety. With existing automation tech (produce like industry instead of custom each time) we could get it to $50k. In 10 years we could make housing affordable if we had the societal will…

Depends on the zone. A lot of EU cities are having problems with AirBnB hosts buying up property, driving prices up and people out of their neighborhoods. In my city, once the pandemic started a lot of new apartments were up for renting long-term, and the most likely explanation is that these were tourism renters trying to cover losses due to tourism.

Re: Airbnb asks people to donate money to landlords, backlash ensues

#109

Post by mateus1 »

zenexer wrote: post #66
mateus1 wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would you donate money to people who are houseowners and up until few months ago were racking in profits by renting? This is not even charity, it's just pointless.

There are hosts who aren’t abusing AirBnB—they’re just uncommon. When you do get one, you know it. I can see why people would want to tip in those cases, especially if you’re paying significantly less than a nearby hotel for much greater value, and often a personalized experience. But it’s rare. That doesn’t change the fact that AirBnB has a big problem, and what they’re doing here is tone-deaf. Yeah, tips might make…

I don't mean the hosts on AirBnB are all bad.

I mean it's insane for a multibillion dollar company passing the hat for homeowners. Both sides aren't charity cases.

Re: Airbnb asks people to donate money to landlords, backlash ensues

#110

Post by malechimp »

rrrazdan wrote: post #90
Raed667 wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They must be so disconnected that they feel their hosts and guests are actually having a meaningful connection. Most of my Airbnb interactions don't go beyond the exchange of keys (or not even that with the key boxes). I have no sympathy for landlords or Airbnb, they are just going to have to deal with the market like everyone else.

I know your comment is for the majority but I have had meaningful connections with my hosts. Some I am still in touch years later. If the host reached out to me on their own, I would probably help them. But to have Airbnb guilt trip people into donating is beyond me as well.

I think we are mistaking Airbnb for couchsurf.

Even in the cases when I met my hosts the transaction was 100% monetary one. Not one of them, ever, offered me to stay some more free of charge - just because we got along well. And I did get along well with all of them. On the contrary, I have slept on the floor at a friends house a few nights because some of these hosts hanged me at the last moment (e.g. when they realized that my flight was coming in too late for them).

Don't take me wrong. I'm not venting here. It took me a while to realize it myself, that Airbnb is not couchsurfing. It is a market. And a hard one at that. That's fine by me but donations are not part of such markets.

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