Live data from Hacker News

Airbnb Is Spending Millions of Dollars to Make Nightmares Go Away

bloomberg.com

151–160 of 237 posts

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

#151
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.

Very often is not someone's house but a property that has been bought, renovated and furnished specifically to be rented on Airbnb.

Which means another property off the long-term rental market in the area, further contributing to housing crises worldwide.

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

#152

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?

Depends what you mean by domestic staff. With the at least somewhat common exception of au pairs if both halves of a couple work, people in the West don't typically have full-time dedicated staff because income disparities are mostly not that great until you get into the 1% or smaller slices of the population.

What I'm sure most Googlers--and indeed many middle class people to greater or lesser degrees--use is a lot of shared services such as tradespeople, lawn care if they have a house, meal delivery, grocery delivery, car services, housekeepers, etc. You mostly don't need people full-time but many do consume people doing stuff for them that they could do themselves on a regular basis.

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

#153
post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Travel with a baby sitter?!?!? How big can that market be?

In the bay area, I actually know a very surprising (shocking, to me) number of people with au pairs. It would never even have occurred to me that people would do this. But it’s common at least as far as I can tell, among people in their late 40s who’ve made a modest amount of money. I still can’t get my head around it. These are people who have a relatively low asset base (owned house, 401ks, maybe modest taxable bro…

My sister has an au pair in the bay area, and she pays less for child care than I do at a in-home daycare.

The au-pair industry is a bit of a scam, bringing labor from low cost countries. They are not paid the same as a nanny or day care worker, often it is half of full time daycare. The idea is that you're providing room and board, and thats part of their comp.

Also the quality of care you get from an au pair is mixed, often its a bit like having a teenager care for you child. One acquaintance had a indoor play place call the au pair provider since they were concerned with how the au pair treated the children.

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

#154
post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Depends what you mean by domestic staff. With the at least somewhat common exception of au pairs if both halves of a couple work, people in the West don't typically have full-time dedicated staff because income disparities are mostly not that great until you get into the 1% or smaller slices of the population. What I'm sure most Googlers--and indeed many middle class people to greater or lesser degrees--use is a lot…

> use is a lot of shared services such as tradespeople, lawn care if they have a house, meal delivery, grocery delivery, car services, housekeepers, etc. You mostly don't need people full-time but many do consume people doing stuff for them that they could do themselves on a regular basis.

How often are these people brought on holiday?

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

#155
post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Depends what you mean by domestic staff. With the at least somewhat common exception of au pairs if both halves of a couple work, people in the West don't typically have full-time dedicated staff because income disparities are mostly not that great until you get into the 1% or smaller slices of the population. What I'm sure most Googlers--and indeed many middle class people to greater or lesser degrees--use is a lot…

> at least somewhat common exception of au pairs if both halves of a couple work

Wow this blows my mind TIL

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

#156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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!

Uber and taxicabs I see. Hotels apps and websites have probably gotten better but I'm not sure how much of that is AirBnB vs. a general trend in the industry.

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

#157
post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depends what you mean by domestic staff. With the at least somewhat common exception of au pairs if both halves of a couple work, people in the West don't typically have full-time dedicated staff because income disparities are mostly not that great until you get into the 1% or smaller slices of the population. What I'm sure most Googlers--and indeed many middle class people to greater or lesser degrees--use is a lot…

> use is a lot of shared services such as tradespeople, lawn care if they have a house, meal delivery, grocery delivery, car services, housekeepers, etc. You mostly don't need people full-time but many do consume people doing stuff for them that they could do themselves on a regular basis. How often are these people brought on holiday?

I was responding to this comment: "Even a line Googler doesn't normally have domestic staff do they?"

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

#158
post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depends what you mean by domestic staff. With the at least somewhat common exception of au pairs if both halves of a couple work, people in the West don't typically have full-time dedicated staff because income disparities are mostly not that great until you get into the 1% or smaller slices of the population. What I'm sure most Googlers--and indeed many middle class people to greater or lesser degrees--use is a lot…

> at least somewhat common exception of au pairs if both halves of a couple work Wow this blows my mind TIL

A quick Google tells me that there are 17,500 au pairs in the US in a given year. That's not a lot in the grand scheme of things but probably doesn't capture all live-in or otherwise more or less full-time child care arrangements. And of course, it's only an arrangement a couple will need for a bounded length of time.

It's not very common much less routine but if I heard a presumably well-paid tech person tell me they had an au pair or nanny, it wouldn't cause me to think "They must have family money" or anything like that.

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

#159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Being charged with a crime but not convicted shouldn't be held against anyone, even if in this case they were to commit actual crime later. To do otherwise is an injustice.

There's no reason it would have to be an injustice. The standards of proof for getting banned from Airbnb should be less than thrown in jail.

This kind of thinking is not, in the end, going to make you safer. Shunning actual criminals out of polite society - let alone people who have merely been suspects - guarantees they will turn to crime for subsistence.

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

#160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hotels are more reliable and organized, but I prefer AirBnB in general. I like feeling a part of the neighborhood or city, I like the home-y vibe of most AirBnBs. Hotels in contrast are a bit sterile and cookie-cutter, for obvious reasons, and some may prefer this vibe. Different strokes for different folks.

> I like feeling a part of the neighborhood or city, As long as you know that you're getting those cute feelings at the expense of contributing to screwing everyone that actually lives there (who isn't a landlord) by contributing to a market that creates a situation ever more hostile and unaffordable to renters.

Converting hotels to apartment buildings would also lower costs for renters. Staying in a hotel has exactly the same effect (the hotel would not exist and might be an apartment building if there was no demand for hotels, just like airbnbs might be rented traditionally if there was no demand for airbnb)
Post reply on HN