Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Airbnb is in midlife crisis mode

wired.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

141–150 of 573 posts

Re: Airbnb is in midlife crisis mode

#141

Post by lolinder »

manwe150 wrote: post #133
Gigachad wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Shouldn’t it expected that a hotel would be able to provide a better service considering they are doing it in bulk and specialise in it. Vs a bunch of individual untrained hosts. Seems more like Airbnb ran out of money to burn and hotels lifted their game.

In corporate lingo, I think their “core business” is any vacation rental? Partnering with hotels could perhaps have been a viable path for them to grow that and still fit with their business acumen. But I use other platforms for that service now.

What kind of partnership with hotels could they have made that would have set them apart from the dozen options I already have for booking hotels?

Re: Airbnb is in midlife crisis mode

#142

Post by Alex_001 »

digianarchist wrote: post #102

I lived next to an AirBnB in Toronto, guests partying until 4am on a Wednesday. Owner of the unit did nothing and as did AirBnB. Luckily it was only a few nights a year - there's no mechanism to eject a guest like this. They create new accounts if they are banned from the platform.

[dead]

Re: Airbnb is in midlife crisis mode

#143

Post by soulofmischief »

bcoates wrote: post #125
soulofmischief wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some of us genuinely want to make the world a better place, and want to reward good hosts and publicly call out bad ones.

Sure, but I'm gonna assume you're outnumbered by the absolutely deranged like 10:1 Source: look at online reviews of literally anything

Hopefully the person flipping through reviews knows how to filter out illegitimate ones. Maybe my legitimate review tips the scale and they have a good time or avoid a bad time. Anyway, my point is that we don't all harbor such pathological perspectives regarding community contributions.

Re: Airbnb is in midlife crisis mode

#144

Post by RHSeeger »

BrenBarn wrote: post #120

In addition to stuff people are saying about AirBnB reviews in other comments, as far as I can tell there is no way to leave a review or otherwise provide public feedback in cases where the host cancels the booking before you get there. This seems to grossly incentivize scamming. I reserved an AirBnB months ahead of time to see the eclipse in Dallas last year, and the host canceled it the day before I was to arrive,…

Its worth noting that hotels do this kind of thing, too; just rarer, for bigger events. Its specifically been known to happen for things like Taylor Swift concerts, etc.

Re: Airbnb is in midlife crisis mode

#146

Post by Spooky23 »

aibrother wrote: post #135
bcoates wrote: post #116

A nugget in this that seemed significant: Quote “I don’t know if I want to call it a social network, because of the stigma associated with it,” says Ari Balogh, Airbnb’s CTO. So they employ a fuzzier term. “We think of it as a connection platform,” he says. “You’re going to see us build a lot more stuff on top of it, although we’re not an advertising system, thank goodness.” (My own observation is that any for-profit…

"Airbnb for X" startup ideas, now done by Airbnb lol

Perhaps they can use AI to create bespoke services?

Re: Airbnb is in midlife crisis mode

#147

Post by pests »

darkwizard42 wrote: post #62
bsimpson wrote: post #42

With lodging, they have the risk of people finding a listing off-platform and paying cash, but because lodging is such a key aspect of a trip, people are often willing to pay the premium to have everything vetted/supported by Airbnb. With personal services, they're risking having that problem at a lot bigger scale: are you willing to pay your barber or masseuse 18% extra to cover Airbnb's commission? I suspect a lot…

People said the same thing about Wag. Ultimately if the platform acts as good lead gen and offers other protections and benefits it will work out!

Didn't Homejoy fall victim to this? People would just contract directly with any cleaners cutting them out completely.

Re: Airbnb is in midlife crisis mode

#148

Post by scarface_74 »

iambateman wrote: post #46

I love ABNB and I hope they can find a long-term business that works. Their original promise was so interesting and exciting…but reality has kind of caught up. They’re kind of like Uber, in that way. But where Uber has become faceless and quiet, Airbnb wants to be a leader, and I respect that. Certainly there’s lots of cool things that _could_ happen with experiences, and I hope they do.

Uber is a lot better than AirBnb. I use an app and the person picks me up and drops me off. If the driver cancels I automatically get another one scheduled, they don’t check my ratings or care if I have never used an Uber before, don’t have to worry about the Uber not picking me up because of the color of my skin.

The AirBnb may be illegal, there is no consistency with how you get in and you can’t even find out the address until after you reserve. Hidden fees, weird policies, you never know what you are going to get or have any recourse if they cancel on you

Re: Airbnb is in midlife crisis mode

#149

Post by lacker »

levocardia wrote: post #139

Maybe I'm in the minority but I've generally had very good -- or at least, "good as I expected" -- experiences at AirBnbs, even recently. Sometimes I've stayed with rich friends who book nice places, and the experience is, as expected, very nice. Many other times I have stayed at bottom-of-the-barrel places, which were, as expected, bottom of the barrel flophouses. But tolerably so, and true to the advertisement (fun…

Yeah, I've had pretty great experiences with Airbnbs. I'm usually traveling with kids, hotel rooms are small, it's really nice to have a kitchen with kids, and a lot of airbnbs have amenities that the kids like.

Re: Airbnb is in midlife crisis mode

#150

Post by alabastervlog »

9283409232 wrote: post #36
onlyrealcuzzo wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

AirBNB forced hotels to MASSIVELY upgrade. There used to be very few hotels with kitchenettes, any space really beside just a bed. There's way more suite and kitchenette options. Lots of people travel for longer than just a night or two, or to travel beyond just business, where you might want to be able to actually enjoy being in your private space. Hotels weren't really designed for this. They wanted you to never be…

Maybe I'm just not in the right cities but people say 2 things: Airbnbs are just as expensive as hotels and hotels have upgraded and I never see these two things as true. Airbnbs are typically cheaper than hotels and hotels, at least where I travel are still just a bed and a bath. Extended stay hotels have kitchenettes but extended stay hotels have always had kitchenettes and they were always the most expensive optio…

Hotels seem cheaper in some cities and if you’re solo or with only people who are ok sleeping in one small room with max 2 beds.

As soon as you go to two rooms, airbnb gets more appealing fast.

It’s also great where there are either no hotels, or the only options are motels, if you want somewhere with a kitchen and such.

Good for destination-type getaways where the point is to mostly hang out at the airbnb. Hotels suck for that. Even the nicer suite-type ones mostly do.

Post reply on HN