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Airbnb Is Spending Millions of Dollars to Make Nightmares Go Away

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141–150 of 237 posts

Re: Airbnb Is Spending Millions of Dollars to Make Nightmares Go Away

#141
post #52

Is anybody else kind of over AirBnb? I loved it for a while, but now prices have gone way up, the "cleaning fees" are exorbitant and make navigating/browsing a minefield, and I've had a few sketchy incidents (which were, admittedly, a side effect of choosing the cheapest place I could find), including one where the apartment manager came in, went through our clothes and _stole the bed_. I've found myself just using h…

Yup, just like what happened to ebay back in the day. Or Etsy.

Re: Airbnb Is Spending Millions of Dollars to Make Nightmares Go Away

#142
post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep. I found hotels have consistent standard with transparent pricing and quality. The prices for hotels are comparable if not better.

In many ways we can thank competition from Airbnb for making the hotel experience better. Nothing gets industries to clean up their act like an existential threat.

Not sure why you got downvotes, but this is spot on. It also happened with Uber and taxicabs!

Re: Airbnb Is Spending Millions of Dollars to Make Nightmares Go Away

#143
post #19
post #16

If Airbnb actually cared they would have invested in their operations already; Chesky giving "a promise to verify the photographs, amenities, cleanliness, and safety of all the listings on Airbnb", which the article notes is underway, is ridiculous -- Shouldn't this be a bare minimum of this type of business before they start operating? Basically what the "safety team" does is how Logan Roy from the show Succession w…

There's bigger issues IMO, based on the article: * Accepting hosts with prior criminal charges for battery, who then proceeded to sexually assault a guest. * Under-resourcing trust and safety teams until it became such as big problem, the CEO had to step in. * Choosing to lay-off the entire Portland trust and safety team during COVID, telling them to relocate to another country (Canada) during a pandemic (!!) at lowe…

My roommate, who was hired for disaster response at Airbnb at the beginning of covid (January) was thought by us to be un-layoff-able due to her important role. months of her working 12 hour days go by, and she ends up laid off in the mass lay off that Airbnb did around June.

I saw how hard she worked. I saw how important her role was, and they threw her aside. AirBnB is a disaster when it comes to anything involving safety, health, or disaster response.

Re: Airbnb Is Spending Millions of Dollars to Make Nightmares Go Away

#144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hotels are usually easier and cheaper EXCEPT if you actually want a whole house. Traveling with kids and a babysitter requires like 3 rooms and having a kitchen is a huge plus. So for that, its really good.

>Traveling with kids and a babysitter what? i make what i thought was good money but this is absurd to me

Have you ever priced it out? Probably not as expensive as you think. Like travelling with an extra kid, plus some extra overtime for the baby sitter you would have paid anyway.

Re: Airbnb Is Spending Millions of Dollars to Make Nightmares Go Away

#145
post #3

I guess I am in the minority, but I have never understood this business. You would have to pay me to stay in someone else's house vs a hotel.

Hotels are the sanitized way to visit a place, which is fine for a lot of folks.

But when I visit a new city, I want to live as the locals, which means not in the tourist district, and not with fresh towels every afternoon and a dip in the hotel pool.

Re: Airbnb Is Spending Millions of Dollars to Make Nightmares Go Away

#146
post #52

Is anybody else kind of over AirBnb? I loved it for a while, but now prices have gone way up, the "cleaning fees" are exorbitant and make navigating/browsing a minefield, and I've had a few sketchy incidents (which were, admittedly, a side effect of choosing the cheapest place I could find), including one where the apartment manager came in, went through our clothes and _stole the bed_. I've found myself just using h…

I'm very tired of the property investors that snatch up duplexes and turn them into quadplexes and then post them all on AirBnB with deceiving photos of the room layouts and amenities. The number of airbnb's that I've stayed at that have awkward rooms or incomplete amenities has been increasing year over year (such as a counter that prevents a refrigerator door from fully opening due to a hasty remodel, or a kitchen…

Shouldn't this kind of stuff show up in the reviews rather quickly?

Re: Airbnb Is Spending Millions of Dollars to Make Nightmares Go Away

#147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By the same logic, every hotel is a big building that's not an apartment building. But travelers have to stay somewhere...

> By the same logic, every hotel is a big building that's not an apartment building. Many times Hotels are located in areas that are zoned commercial and not residential. So no, hotels really are not competing with housing the way AirBnb is.

If locals really cared about affordable housing, they would loosen up those zoning laws because that is the real reason most areas don't have affordable housing, not Airbnb.

Re: Airbnb Is Spending Millions of Dollars to Make Nightmares Go Away

#148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except for the target demo of this website.

Even a line Googler doesn't normally have domestic staff do they? Or am I completely out of touch with how most of tech live?

>Or am I completely out of touch with how most of tech live?

I don’t think you are..

Re: Airbnb Is Spending Millions of Dollars to Make Nightmares Go Away

#149
post #128
post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But that has nothing to do with Airbnb. People have been doing vacation rentals for decades.

... and AirBnB provides a streamlined experience connecting customers with owners.

And they've also helped completely destroy housing for locals in plenty of locations in the process as owners over-leverage themselves to buy up more and more property since they can rent it on AirBnB for more than they can rent it to locals.

Re: Airbnb Is Spending Millions of Dollars to Make Nightmares Go Away

#150
post #3

I guess I am in the minority, but I have never understood this business. You would have to pay me to stay in someone else's house vs a hotel.

Hotels are the sanitized way to visit a place, which is fine for a lot of folks. But when I visit a new city, I want to live as the locals, which means not in the tourist district, and not with fresh towels every afternoon and a dip in the hotel pool.

> I want to live as the locals,

You do this in AirBnB by actively harming the locals. You do realize this right? Every AirBnB in a 'local' area is one less house for the actual locals to live in. It's becoming a huge problem in many cities in the world.

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