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Airbnb is in midlife crisis mode

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Re: Airbnb is in midlife crisis mode

#391

Post by npodbielski »

pembrook wrote: post #267

Airbnb is a giant example of what happens when you go too far into thinking you can solve real world issues with software UI. Or run a hospitality business without doing any real hospitality. Yes, a marketplace is a dream business from a profitability perspective, but it’s too easy to forget the marketplace is not the actual product that people come to the marketplace for. It doesn’t matter if you have 5000 overpaid…

The only product for them is the profit margin for share holders. Your vacation is just side effect :)

Re: Airbnb is in midlife crisis mode

#392

Post by sazor »

presentation wrote: post #190
Animats wrote: post #126

The "Experiences" thing sounds like Groupon. What killed Groupon was that Groupon wanted too big a cut, and the service providers dropped out. This trick only works if you reach oligopoly levels, so providers have to sign up or go broke. AirBnB is there in short-stay housing. Doordash/Uber are there in food delivery. Doordash/Lyft are there in gig rides, but might not survive Waymo. Amazon is there in e-commerce, but…

Also there are already other products like that, like Viator and Klook. I wish companies like Airbnb didn't feel the need to conquer everything all the time. It already is useful as it is.

The appeal and selling point of Airbnb experiences was local guides and small groups compared to Viator with more traditional group tours. In my experience it was quite good in Europe at the beginning. But now prices are just too high to justify, like 200+ euros for few hours walking tour.

Re: Airbnb is in midlife crisis mode

#393

Post by HelloMcFly »

freddie_mercury wrote: post #164
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…

I think the people who say hotels are better than AirBnb aren't traveling with kids. Having an actual kitchen when you travel with kids is great. Having actual separate bedrooms so we don't have to go to sleep at 8pm when the kids go to sleep is great. Being able to do laundry without tracking down a laundromat or pay exorbitant hotel prices is great. Having a living room or similar area with at least a few square me…

My decision tree is simple:

- If I need a kitchen? AirBnB

- Am I staying somewhere with low population density for more than a couple of nights? AirBnb

- Am I staying somewhere with low population density for a couple of nights or less? Motel or camping

- Everywhere else: Hotel

Re: Airbnb is in midlife crisis mode

#394

Post by ghaff »

standardUser wrote: post #191

I used to be a big defender of AirBnB due to the many amazing experiences I've had with them over the years. But since then I've had several experiences that matched the negative feedback I had been hearing from other people, especially with US-based rentals, and now I'm a skeptic at best. The CEO knows exactly what the problem is because he spells it out in the article... > Chesky explains that historically, people…

I've used AirBnB exactly once because the alternative resort-type places were insanely expensive and it was great. (Just one room and a screened porch which were great. No kitchen but didn't want one.) One other time I was canceled well in advance for no obvious reason but wasn't a big deal.

Per another comment, if I'm in a city, I mostly look for a functional/predictable hotel. Sometimes stay in conventional B&Bs as well, which may list on AirBnB as well.

Re: Airbnb is in midlife crisis mode

#395

Post by piva00 »

firesteelrain wrote: post #375
piva00 wrote: post #351

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's quite a broad assumption based on anecdotal evidence, you know what's true based on your few experiences renting and from a few listings your immediate family has, how can you even believe it's true based on this flimsy data? Quick edit: just searched on both VRBO and Airbnb for rentals in my city for the same date range, VRBO shows me 191 options, Airbnb shows 330 options.

That's very anecdotal to your city. VRBO could be renting more than Airbnb. I am not going to go to extreme's to overly analyze this. I made my point.

My point already shows that your whole assumption is flawed, which was entirely my point... You don't need to argue but it'd be in good faith to at least acknowledge that your point has no basis at all, it's just your feeling, not a point.

By the way, I live in a capital city in Europe so the discrepancies between listings would probably translate to many other places...

Re: Airbnb is in midlife crisis mode

#397

Post by bee_rider »

watwut wrote: post #309
n4r9 wrote: post #304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Kids enforce a filter on what sort of fun you look for. Without kids, the bottom tenth percentile hotel experiences is often a few hours of bad sleep before escaping in the morning. With them, it's hours of tantrums, desperate searches for acceptable food or sleeping arrangements, and worrying for days afterwards about the effects of smoke, mold, dust etc on their health.

>and worrying for days afterwards about the effects of smoke, mold, dust etc on their health. I mean, that one is on you. It is possible to go on vacation even camping with kids without having anxiety attack over everything. Also, while some kids are difficult and kids are slow and certainly limit you, hours of tantrumps every holiday and impossibility to eat are not normal.

The air usually seems pretty fresh and healthy when camping.

Re: Airbnb is in midlife crisis mode

#399

Post by intrasight »

makeavish wrote: post #181
jen729w wrote: post #159

> Chesky figured that Airbnb’s experience in attractively displaying homes, vetting hosts, and responding to crises could make it more trustworthy than competitors and therefore the go-to option for virtually anything. Online reviews are totally broken. I recently spent a week at an Airbnb in the Gold Coast, Australia. The property was rated 5* but was tired and worn. The photos must have been 5 years old before a so…

I too had similar experience. I booked a 4.9 rated property with 30 reviews. But experience was really poor and I rated 1 stars post checkout. The propery owner reachout to me asking for explanation but I wasn’t in any mood to discuss. Hours later they filed fake complaint to Airbnb that I rated poorly as I wanted late checkout and asked money to remove review. Airbnb removed my review post that. I had a flight to ca…

Recent changes make it very hard for hosts to remove reviews. Hosts are of course complaining.

Hopefully goes without saying that all communications should happen in the app.

Re: Airbnb is in midlife crisis mode

#400

Post by stdbrouw »

rightbyte wrote: post #333
stdbrouw wrote: post #294

Unlike others, I have only had good experiences with Airbnb, both as a host and as a guest. The platform has improved a lot in the past couple of years -- many small quality-of-life improvements for non-professional hosts to make things easier to manage, such as automatic pricing, automatic blocking of days to avoid back-to-back bookings (if you need it), instant booking but only for guests that match your criteria,…

> instant booking but only for guests that match your criteria What criteria? What do the hosts know about the guests?

You can select on minimum guest rating, and anyone with special requests (eg an extra guest, an infant) also cannot instant book. Not age or race if that’s what you were thinking :-)
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