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Airbnb S-1

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Re: Airbnb S-1

#411

Post by v77 »

hantusk wrote: post #392
dustinmoris wrote: post #376

Personally I think AirBnb had its time. To me AirBnb is like a hotel, except: - No gym, sauna and other SPA facilities included - No breakfast buffet, restaurants or room service available - No room upgrades available - No early check in/late check out available - No 24/7 access available - No reception desk 24/7 available where I can ask for good recommendations, learn a bit more about the place without feeling awkw…

Wow, totally opposite my view. As a family we always want to stay somewhere with a kitchen and a private lounge area - hotel suites are cost prohibitive to this, and a lot less charming. When finding chalets or cabins/lodges for outdoor trips, Airbnbs are often much better located. To me it is not so much hotels they need to replace, but a streamlining of booking vacation houses to the point where it is almost as con…

AirBnb is great, we've had almost nothing from great experiences if we are just trading anecdotes here.

They also did $3B+ in revenue last year so they are clearly very successful.

Re: Airbnb S-1

#412

Post by adaisadais »

I’m a millennial and I love using Airbnb. That being said I struggle to understand what the competitive advantage / moat is for Airbnb.

Outside of brand / name recognition I don’t know any reasons why someone would pick Airbnb over VRBO or another service.

Is there some sort of data play that they are making? Why would I invest in Airbnb when I could buy into a REIT or some other real estate asset? Would love some ellucidation.

Re: Airbnb S-1

#413

Post by mtw »

dustinmoris wrote: post #376

Personally I think AirBnb had its time. To me AirBnb is like a hotel, except: - No gym, sauna and other SPA facilities included - No breakfast buffet, restaurants or room service available - No room upgrades available - No early check in/late check out available - No 24/7 access available - No reception desk 24/7 available where I can ask for good recommendations, learn a bit more about the place without feeling awkw…

- Many airbnbs have a spa, especially those outside cities. I've also seen saunas and gyms

- Airbnb plus or Airbnb Luxe can have breakfast or groceries basket

- Early check in or late check out is possible. Just discuss with your host prior to confirming reservation. Unless they have a guest coming just after or their cleaning crew can't make it work, they will find a way to make it work

- Many Airbnbs have 24/7 access. Many have electronic door locks

- You can get local, custom recommandations by discussing with the host, and more. Same for complaints

- Flower service, laundry, babysitting options are available with Airbnb Luxe

On the other hand, if your goal is to socialize, talk to hotel staff, talk to other travellers, then of course, airbnb are NOT an option for you. Airbnb doesn't have to provide everything. I can tell you they are great for families looking for a vacation home.

Re: Airbnb S-1

#414

Post by lotsofpulp »

jashmatthews wrote: post #308
lotsofpulp wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it's Hilton/Hyatt/Marriott/IHG/Choice/Wyndham, you can go to the hotel brand's website, you will get the same room for cheaper if you are part of the free hotel rewards program. You're also more valuable to the hotel since you'll be paying netting the hotel more income than someone coming from HotelTonight (since the hotel doesn't have to pay HotelTonight commission), therefore more eligible for perks or upgrades.

Due to rate parity clauses member rates on OTAs like Expedia basically match the franchise reward rates. They’re often the same rate plans in the software hotels use for managing their rates. I checked Hilton SF downtown for next week and it’s $91 on HT and $95 on Hilton Honors rewards pricing.

In my hotel tonight app, I searched Hilton San Francisco for a 1 night stay in Hotel Tonight.

It returned Hilton SF Airport Bayfront at $93 for a room with either 1 or 2 beds. In the Hilton app, I get the same hotel for the same night at $87 for a room with 1 king size bed or 2 double size beds.

Then I was able to search for Hilton SF downtown in Hotel Tonight and find the Financial District one, which was available for the night of Fri Nov 27 for one night. Hotel Tonight had a price of $152 for the following room:

“The hotel will assign room at check in and it will fit 2 adults”

The Hilton app showed the financial district hotel available on Tue Nov 24 (which the hotel tonight app showed as not available) for $95, and for Fri nov 27, the Hilton app shows 1 king bed or 2 double size beds at $159.

So it looks like you’re right for some nights for some hotels, except they don’t let you confirm a room type on Hotel Tonight. I wonder how this squares with Hilton’s best price guarantee:

https://hiltonworldwide3.hilton.com/en/price-match-guarantee...

Looks like they’re trying to engage in some price discrimination. I would call the hotel front desk and tell them, I can pay the cheaper hotel tonight price, and you get 85% of that (hotel tonight pays the hotel 85% of the price you pay hotel tonight), or the hotel can sell to you directly for 10% off the hotel tonight price and end up making 5% more and see what they say.

It’s also possible the franchisor is violating their franchise agreement by letting hotel tonight sell for cheaper than Hilton’s website, so you might be able to get an even bigger discount by filing a complaint with Hilton.

Re: Airbnb S-1

#415

Post by bendauphinee »

lucideer wrote: post #378
dustinmoris wrote: post #376

Personally I think AirBnb had its time. To me AirBnb is like a hotel, except: - No gym, sauna and other SPA facilities included - No breakfast buffet, restaurants or room service available - No room upgrades available - No early check in/late check out available - No 24/7 access available - No reception desk 24/7 available where I can ask for good recommendations, learn a bit more about the place without feeling awkw…

To come at this from the opposite perspective: AirBnB's best-case "ideal" setup has always struck me as just "CouchSurfing[0] but monetised". While AirBnB has received a lot negative press for facilitating the letting of would-be residential property by large-scale professional landlords, the marketing from AirBnB's side has always favoured the "local guide, personal human experience" angle, an angle CouchSurfing has…

Having used it extensively for travelling to places for concerts and festivals, it’s a massive advantage to be able to shop for places that can accommodate 3-8 people for several days at a time.

I don’t want a couch, I want a whole home that our group can share, and for less than the surge price that a hotel will slap on for a single room, we can fit our needs well.

Re: Airbnb S-1

#416

Post by lucideer »

bendauphinee wrote: post #415
lucideer wrote: post #378

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To come at this from the opposite perspective: AirBnB's best-case "ideal" setup has always struck me as just "CouchSurfing[0] but monetised". While AirBnB has received a lot negative press for facilitating the letting of would-be residential property by large-scale professional landlords, the marketing from AirBnB's side has always favoured the "local guide, personal human experience" angle, an angle CouchSurfing has…

Having used it extensively for travelling to places for concerts and festivals, it’s a massive advantage to be able to shop for places that can accommodate 3-8 people for several days at a time. I don’t want a couch, I want a whole home that our group can share, and for less than the surge price that a hotel will slap on for a single room, we can fit our needs well.

From my original comment:

> worse than traditional self-catering tourist apartments (more expensive)

...is I think what I would consider your use-case to fall under. No?

This isn't something that didn't exist before AirBnB...

Re: Airbnb S-1

#417

Post by rainyMammoth »

TrackerFF wrote: post #385
dustinmoris wrote: post #376

Personally I think AirBnb had its time. To me AirBnb is like a hotel, except: - No gym, sauna and other SPA facilities included - No breakfast buffet, restaurants or room service available - No room upgrades available - No early check in/late check out available - No 24/7 access available - No reception desk 24/7 available where I can ask for good recommendations, learn a bit more about the place without feeling awkw…

Airbnb is GREAT if you: - Want to rent an entire house in some specific area - Want to rent something as cheap as possible / on a strapped budget. Very cheap travel/plane tickets and accommodation has made international travel very accessible for a lot of people around the globe. So I can absolutely see why some people swear to using airbnb - but for me? I'll rather pay the extra $50 for a hotel room. That's chump ch…

I never find anything cheap on Airbnb.

Actually in my mind, Airbnb is always more expensive than a hotel. Each trip I end up checking both options and I'm amazed at how expensive Airbnb ends up being after you add all the hidden fees.

I think the main use case is for big groups and gathering. When you want to stay with 10 people. And even then, it's still more expensive than 6/7 hotel rooms (if you come as a couple you would only use a single room).

I think Airbnb manage to convince a lot of people that they are always a better deal than hotels. I see a lot of my friends never checking regular hotels anymore.

Re: Airbnb S-1

#418

Post by rainyMammoth »

dustinmoris wrote: post #376

Personally I think AirBnb had its time. To me AirBnb is like a hotel, except: - No gym, sauna and other SPA facilities included - No breakfast buffet, restaurants or room service available - No room upgrades available - No early check in/late check out available - No 24/7 access available - No reception desk 24/7 available where I can ask for good recommendations, learn a bit more about the place without feeling awkw…

You are spot on. The one other thing I cannot take anymore with Airbnb is the hosts making it sound like they make us a favor to stay at their place.

It feels like every other booking ends up with an email like "this is our childhood/lovely/whatever reason place, we are very picky about who we accept and we except you to treat it as your home, can you confirm you would do that?". Every single time I roll my eyes. It's not like I'm paying them more than a hotel for the privilege of staying there.

Re: Airbnb S-1

#419

Post by jen20 »

nickjj wrote: post #166
TedShiller wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

None of the items you mentioned cost much

> None of the items you mentioned cost much The average private driver salary's in NYC is about 60k a year according to Google btw[0]. The average yearly -household- income in the US is 68k. It's a massive luxury to be able to afford such a thing. [0]: https://www.quora.com/How-much-does-a-full-time-driver-cost-...

Presumably this would be a perk provided by Airbnb directly rather than employed by the CEO himself?

Re: Airbnb S-1

#420

Post by triceratops »

owenversteeg wrote: post #353
triceratops wrote: post #332

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I couldn't find an official source in English, so I'm just going off what I found here: https://www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntree/forums/europe-western... For tourists, it's something that's rarely enforced. And if you stay at a hotel they'll handle it for you (or presumably, maintain records in case the police have questions).

I'm Dutch. Before 2014, there was a rule (in theory) that foreigners staying at a non-hotel for more than 3 days had to register. In practice, it was not used. In 2014, this rule was completely eliminated. (There's a registration requirement if you stay more than 90 days as a foreigner, but since visas and visa free access to NL is for maximum 90 days anyway, this rule applies to basically nobody.) Here's an official…

Oh gotcha, thanks. My info is outdated.
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