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Airbnb is in midlife crisis mode

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Re: Airbnb is in midlife crisis mode

#471

Post by fkyoureadthedoc »

MyPasswordSucks wrote: post #470
fkyoureadthedoc wrote: post #380

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There is a reason why we have zoning laws: To protect housing for people. Really? In practice it looks more like zoning laws exist so NIMBYs can increase their property value and keep black people away.

You should probably consume less sensationalist activist propaganda and spend more time delving into the actual unglamorous history of how, where, when, and why they came about. Chesterton's Fence [1] is a very relevant concept here. Can cars be used as a weapon? Yes. Was Henry Ford a racist antisemite? Also yes. Do cars exist so people can run over Jews and minorities? No. (Family Guy cutaway aside) [1] https://en.w…

Don't have to consume any propaganda. I just need to look at the zoning in my town and the shitty actions of my own HOA

Re: Airbnb is in midlife crisis mode

#472

Post by rightbyte »

stdbrouw wrote: post #400
rightbyte wrote: post #333

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 :-)

Ok ye well evaluating special request seems fair to do before approving the requests.

Do you see the names and home towns etc?

Re: Airbnb is in midlife crisis mode

#473

Post by rightbyte »

ghaff wrote: post #401
rightbyte wrote: post #325

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good people are hard to find these days.

While probably an eternal truth, many/most people in the US can't afford to pay a lot of people for personal services.

Ye sorry should have added an "/s".

Re: Airbnb is in midlife crisis mode

#474

Post by MyPasswordSucks »

us0r wrote: post #249
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,…

it use to say something along the lines of "host canceled reservation less then xx time" in the reviews. did they remove that?

In this case it wouldn't really matter. It's fine for weeding out exceptionally-chaotic hosts, but hosts who rug-pull on a once-in-a-lifetime event like the eclipse (whether to re-rent for higher prices or because they forgot to take the listing down and were planning on using the facility themselves) aren't affected.

Re: Airbnb is in midlife crisis mode

#475

Post by km144 »

xnx wrote: post #431
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…

> Online reviews are totally broken Strong cosign. Ratings and reviews should always be independent and beyond the control of that being reviewed. Reddit would be an amazing service if it supported commenting on any page/site/product/entity, but this is anathemic to advertising dollars.

Reddit at least used to have a form of value as a recommendations engine—searches for "best x site:reddit.com" would yield anything from decent to fantastic results depending on the product. But even that is completely useless nowadays due to bots and AI spam. Product recommendation services like Wirecutter have been ruined by Amazon affiliate links.

I have no idea who to trust on the quality of products in an era where the amount of choices available is overwhelming and the number of real human responses on the internet in any place where there's money to be made is dwindling by the day.

Re: Airbnb is in midlife crisis mode

#476

Post by MyPasswordSucks »

bcoates wrote: post #155
Spooky23 wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps they can use AI to create bespoke services?

Maybe I can rent other people's compute and prompt engineering, a sort of uber-for-openai-for-airbnb-for-x operation

Utilizing unused processor cycles seems interesting! Those cycles are just sitting there in people's homes, waiting to be harnessed. So maybe you should call it something-At-Home.

I dunno, now that I typed it it seems a bit awkward. How about "something@home"...?

Re: Airbnb is in midlife crisis mode

#477

Post by MyPasswordSucks »

bee_rider wrote: post #466
MyPasswordSucks wrote: post #460

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about the carpets?

I’m not sure I follow the implication here, but: my point was that “camping” is generated seen as a fairly healthy vacationing option, so it seems weird to use it as the lower-bound on a spectrum that contains moldy Airbnbs and hotels.

Well, there's a reason people build homes and apartments to live in, and a reason that societies with homes and apartments are healthier than societies that sleep in tents and shacks. Dirt is... dirty.

And yes, the point being advanced in the thread is that compared to camping - which is generally healthy and not something to freak out about! - homes are going to be cleaner, occasional mold issues aside. So it's silly to freak out over the infinitesimally-slight chances of little Timmy and Sally getting dust-mold-smoke cancer-AIDS from a less-than-perfectly-sterile room.

Re: Airbnb is in midlife crisis mode

#478

Post by bgnn »

projectazorian wrote: post #440
ses1984 wrote: post #420

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not every hotel cares. The hotel I’m staying at right now is dirty as fuck. The valve for the shower does not operate properly, the water pressure is extremely low and it barely gets above 90F. Other rooms in the same hotel have a different valve and the showers work fine. “We will send a maintenance person right away” it’s been a week. There is old food under and behind my bed. They empty trash in the hall once a we…

Let me guess, New York City?

Worst hotels I've ever stayed, in the whole world, were indeed in NYC.

Re: Airbnb is in midlife crisis mode

#480

Post by xnx »

km144 wrote: post #475
xnx wrote: post #431

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Online reviews are totally broken Strong cosign. Ratings and reviews should always be independent and beyond the control of that being reviewed. Reddit would be an amazing service if it supported commenting on any page/site/product/entity, but this is anathemic to advertising dollars.

Reddit at least used to have a form of value as a recommendations engine—searches for "best x site:reddit.com" would yield anything from decent to fantastic results depending on the product. But even that is completely useless nowadays due to bots and AI spam. Product recommendation services like Wirecutter have been ruined by Amazon affiliate links. I have no idea who to trust on the quality of products in an era wh…

The most forbidden speech on the web is not racist, or sexist, it's anti-consumption.
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