131–140 of 273 posts
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I think the interior of America has given up on distancing.
Maybe ease up on the costal holier than thou sentiment. I’m in Miami right now and 90% of the people I’ve met are tech / finance types from NYC doing blow inside of clubs until 4am.
Bads - Had a really bad house with cabinet doors torn off the cabinets, trash in the garage, place was a total dump. Stayed one day and got the rest of my money back. Another place had a bad mouse infestation, this was dealt with by the owner but it was still pretty shocking as I have never lived or stayed in a place that had a single mouse my entire life.
Goods - Right before the pandemic hit had a really good string of excellent airbnbs that were all cancelled last minute, the thing with airbnb is, great places are always booked, we just got lucky as people were scared and stopped traveling(early march).
Ugly - Alot of owners now are pulling a perfectly legal scam of listing a place at a certain price point and then charging an extremely high cleaning fee. When booking it, you are then shocked by the extreme fees, one place (5 days stay) was charging $400 for their cleaning fee.
Takeaways - If you do your own cooking and don't mind cleaning up airbnb is great for you. As a parent its great as I don't have to deal with a hotel lobby or elevators(I always book standalone houses). As for price its roughly even with hotels, a few years back it was typically 40-50% cheaper.
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Most of the time when I travel, it's the city etc. that's the experience I'm looking for, not the accommodation. I have no doubt there are, even many, AirBnBs out there that are quite nice. But I'll usually go for predictability, as well as other amenities, like being able to leave my luggage for the day after I check out.
I find I get a much more real sense of the city living in one of its (non-hotel zoned) neighborhoods in a real house.
Market cap now exceeds top 5 US hotel chains combined. How much can it grow from here?
I'll save a long diatribe and instead say that when I added up the little details I didn't like about the platform, and the ways I'd fix them, I'd "invented" ... a hotel.
It may be my age now (over 30), but I've come to value knowing that Hilton uses a certain type of bedsheet in all their rooms over "Alfred's converted garage looks like it has a quirky sense of style!"
I'll hand it to Airbnb on this though: the "experiences" feature they introduced right as I was getting fed up with them is pretty neat.
Market cap now exceeds top 5 US hotel chains combined. How much can it grow from here?
Based on Airbnb's other product of "experiences", I could see them growing into the broader vacation industry. I remember a talk by Brian Chesky where he lamented the (pre-COVID) style of travel where tourists just herd into queues at mainstream tourist attractions. Airbnb experiences are supposed to subvert this and create an industry of tourism that is more serendipitous and less standardized.
That said, I don't have any real insight into the tourism market and won't be shocked if this works out well for Airbnb. I personally try to avoid crowded tourist spots like the plague and this could just be my bias talking.
I hear a lot of talk surrounding their "moat" and many skeptics are questioning whether or not they will be able to maintain their competitive advantage. However, it feels like Airbnb has solved a truly hard problem: how to make people trust your service. People are using this app to go stay in random people's homes. How often do you hear people talk about being murdered in uber? I still hear it. How often do you hea…
I’ve had nothing but bad experiences with Airbnb and hosts who are basically trying to rinse as much money as possible for as little effort as possible. I’m not sure after a long journey I want to wonder around the Edinburgh fringe again, trying to decipher Scottish, while the wind is going crazy and there are millions of people floating around just to get keys. I think Airbnb is great if there are 15 of you sharing…
Most of the time I get a good experience in an environment that I prefer over a hotel. It is wonderful.
But then there are times like the time we went to NYC, the host was lying about their address to avoid getting in trouble with the city, and expected to contact us on our way to correct that. However we were on an airplane, and when we arrived the host was asleep.
Ever shown up at a stranger's house, past midnight, with 4 kids expecting to go to sleep there? With them having not a clue why you are trying to break into their house?
I have.
I hear a lot of talk surrounding their "moat" and many skeptics are questioning whether or not they will be able to maintain their competitive advantage. However, it feels like Airbnb has solved a truly hard problem: how to make people trust your service. People are using this app to go stay in random people's homes. How often do you hear people talk about being murdered in uber? I still hear it. How often do you hea…
I’ve had nothing but bad experiences with Airbnb and hosts who are basically trying to rinse as much money as possible for as little effort as possible. I’m not sure after a long journey I want to wonder around the Edinburgh fringe again, trying to decipher Scottish, while the wind is going crazy and there are millions of people floating around just to get keys. I think Airbnb is great if there are 15 of you sharing…
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If you sell something for less than market value, that would seem to be me enriching the buyer at your expense. Regardless of whether "you've raised the money you sought".
No one could’ve predicted Airbnb would be bid up to $100B. We are in a massive speculative bubble that not even wall street can make sense of. you’re giving too much credit to investment bankers if you think they would know a travel company that has $2 billion in debt on their balance sheet, losing money, and in the industry most hurt by covid should’ve obviously been set at $100B when that was no where near where th…
Personally, I think the price rise is indicative of some fundamentally concerning market issues that have nothing to do with this company.