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Airbnb is in midlife crisis mode

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Re: Airbnb is in midlife crisis mode

#541

Post by keiferski »

BLenkomo wrote: post #540
keiferski wrote: post #537

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Taxis were a nightmare to use before Uber; and they often weren’t available at all. The whole concept of taxi medallions is also extreme market manipulation with basically no benefit to the average consumer, which makes it doubly odd that someone would consider them somehow more ethical or less manipulative.

The benefit is, that people who need taxis, get taxis. Old people or sick people. I have not seen any uber in smaller cities. Uber goes were the market is 'cake'

Again: if you tried to get a taxi prior to Uber existing, it was a nightmare and not at all reliable. You called the taxi company and if they felt like sending someone, they would. Often they'd say, "Sure, we'll send someone in 2 hours," and the driver never showed up. More than once I was stranded somewhere because of an unreliable taxi company.

This experience doesn't exist anymore, because Uber/Lyft/ridesharing apps out competed useless taxi companies.

People who needed to get taxis certainly didn't always get taxis.

Re: Airbnb is in midlife crisis mode

#542

Post by camgunz »

whamlastxmas wrote: post #422
camgunz wrote: post #383

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Anywhere you could build a hotel you could also build more housing Not really in practice. Ex: there's lots of hotels around airports and highways. Would anyone want to buy a house there? Definitely not. The markets and thus economics are totally different. > having short term stays is important for those visiting even for non-tourism reasons (e.g. in town to visit family, for work, etc) I don't know about "importa…

There is endless housing immediately by airports and highways. Like literally any major American airport or highway has tons of housing right next to it. Even in more rural areas people deliberately building a house right by the airport to make routine traveling easier

"Endless"? The proportion of housing near to not near airports and highways is infinitesimal.

Re: Airbnb is in midlife crisis mode

#543

Post by socalgal2 »

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…

Rented 25 Airbnb’s . half were bad. by bad I mean they were not as advertised. Claimed to have parking for my car. didn’t. claimed to have wifi. didn’t. claimed to be at a particular location on a quiet street, were actually several blocks away on a busy street. been to ones who’s hvac was so loud as to be unusable, etc…

I stopped using them. will not got back

Re: Airbnb is in midlife crisis mode

#544

Post by BLenkomo »

keiferski wrote: post #541
BLenkomo wrote: post #540

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The benefit is, that people who need taxis, get taxis. Old people or sick people. I have not seen any uber in smaller cities. Uber goes were the market is 'cake'

Again: if you tried to get a taxi prior to Uber existing, it was a nightmare and not at all reliable. You called the taxi company and if they felt like sending someone, they would. Often they'd say, "Sure, we'll send someone in 2 hours," and the driver never showed up. More than once I was stranded somewhere because of an unreliable taxi company. This experience doesn't exist anymore, because Uber/Lyft/ridesharing ap…

I'm not sure where you made this experience though.

But at least here most cities i'm aware of, do not offer uber. But Taxis.

Big cities sure they have uber.

I also agree though, i don't like that uber is disrupting existing markets just because but taxis are shitty. Still i haven't seen an uber doing dialisis drive in my hometown, its taxis not ubers.

Re: Airbnb is in midlife crisis mode

#545

Post by dspillett »

calsy wrote: post #504
dspillett wrote: post #421

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It isn't about tolerance for the kids. I have no objection to them being around¹, I don't begrudge my taxes going into education and relevant parts of the NHS for them. My issue is the assumption, amongst many of those with kids, that everything should be optimised for people with kids, and anything that isn't is wrong. Because why would you want to optimise anything for other conditions in some cases? >Why not show…

So many weird assumptions here. How exactly is everything optimised with families in mind? Ask any parent and I'm sure they will tell you how unoptimised their life is. Why does a single person with their own expendable income worry so much about being catered for specifically? Your only responsibility is to yourself. Do you look around and bemoan family specific services? It's such an odd thing to care about unless…

> So many weird assumptions here.

In your response, yes. Either that or you are significantly misreading my posts.

> How exactly is everything optimised with families in mind?

It isn't. I didn't say that at all. Some things are, possibly not enough, but many parents think everything should be and everything that isn't implies some deliberate slight.

> Ask any parent and I'm sure they will tell you how unoptimised their life is.

Ah, the old “you are not a parent, you don't know how hard it is”. I know many parents, and even without that personal context the issues with parenthood are well documented throughout our culture. If anyone is ignorant of reality here it is parents who are surprised to find it isn't easy…¹

> Why does a single person with their own expendable income worry so much about being catered for specifically?

I don't, and that isn't what I said.

> Your only responsibility is to yourself.

Incorrect. I have parents, other family, friends, pets, my work (though that could be filed under responsibility to myself I suppose - I'm not a public servant by any description), other organisations (both commercial and charitable) that I interact with, certain responsibilities we all have to society in general, etc.

> Do you look around and bemoan family specific services?

I very much do not, I don't even bemoan funding them, and I explicitly said as much (to quote: “I don't begrudge my taxes going into education and relevant parts of the NHS…”). Try reading what you reply to before replying to it!

> It's such an odd thing to care about unless you had a grudge.

Not a grudge as such. Just an irritation that if I'm sometimes seen as selfish if I appreciate something that is optimised for my lifestyle. I've been called selfish for just not wanting to have kids.

> Kids aren't a 'lifestyle choice'

They very much are. It is a choice that affects your lifestyle in a great many ways whichever side you choose (or, in some cases, have chosen for you).

> Do I need to go into the reasons why kids are important

No need, I've been told these things, despite already knowing them, many many many times already!

> who will be paying to keep you alive when your older?

That is a complicated discussion that I really don't have time for ATM, but further to “why kids are important” I am well aware of the problems an average ageing population can cause.

--------

[1] Obviously excluding those whose kids have specific issues, be they physical, mental, or both. Those matters are not predictable unlike the general challenges almost all parents face.

Re: Airbnb is in midlife crisis mode

#546

Post by xrhobo »

wnc3141 wrote: post #535
janosett wrote: post #264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anywhere you could build a hotel you could also build more housing, so they pose the same issue. There is necessarily some tension between using space for permanent housing and using it for tourism / short term stays. Tourism often keeps a city's economy healthy, and having short term stays is important for those visiting even for non-tourism reasons (e.g. in town to visit family, for work, etc). The housing issue is…

Ignoring some nuances, I see what you're saying-- At least in the long run. The issue is however in the short run, air BNB encourages taking existing rentals out of the market to turn into short term rentals. The effect is driving long term rental prices toward the short term price level supported by income level of the visitors. (untenable for most residents). The conversation of new units refers to a decades long p…

It is like arguing that the exodus from the rust belt in the late 80s and 90s was good for the cities because it made the cost of housing go down.

This is true if we focus entirely on housing cost and basically ignore all the down sides. Of course, ignoring the perspective of those who owned real estate too at that time.

Real estate always has quite a bit of preference falsification associated with it too. Everyone is always publicly outraged at the cost increase of real estate while those who own the increasing real estate are internally quite happy with the situation. I suspect that is the main variable why we can never solve this problem.

Re: Airbnb is in midlife crisis mode

#547

Post by 7thaccount »

digianarchist wrote: post #176
7thaccount wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep. A few bad experiences and never again. The idea is pretty nice, but it always adds a layer of stress with the unreasonable cleaning demands and all. Hotels are more consistent and I know what I'm going to get as long as I stick with one of the main brands. I don't have to clean the entire house either.

These common negative experiences have spawned memes mocking the company. https://img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/BB1n...

Pretty much my exact experience before. I have another fun one.

One time the host kicked us out on the second day of a week-long stay to sell the house. She then put us up in a nicer house, but not in the area we wanted to be in. Our schedule was also completely screwed as we had to move our stuff over and the other family wasn't even out of the newer house yet. Everyone was confused and upset. Then there is a cleaning crew that typically doesn't speak English, so it's hard to communicate what is going on. You also don't want to leave your stuff there at the time as although they're just doing their jobs, they're also strangers and you don't know if they'll steal any of your stuff. So we had to end up waiting for awhile and burning up valuable vacation time. Never again.

Re: Airbnb is in midlife crisis mode

#548

Post by cobertos »

wnc3141 wrote: post #531
cobertos wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had this experience too. Booked on AirBnb with someone who was about the same price as the hotels. Turns out the hosts were just employees of some letting company. They wanted photo ID, a deposit, and sign a second contract in a _separate website_, which I declined. Contacting AirBnb support they said this was fully allowed and I should have read the description harder. I did get a full refund but was told it was o…

any chance this was the "sonder" brand? They have weirdly invasive identity requirements.

Nope, this was CEFAS

Re: Airbnb is in midlife crisis mode

#550

Post by n4r9 »

darkwater wrote: post #485
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.

Going to a local place doesn't necessarily mean going in shitty places, even with family. I traveled in many countries, especially Europe and Asia, with my 2 daughters and while they do throw the usual tantrum for their ages, we always find something local they like to eat, and they don't really mind one room or another to sleep, as long as they are in the same room with at least one of us.

Yeah for sure, normally it's fine and more fun. But the potential 10th-percentile scenario can be much worse. I don't for a second judge parents that decide based on that.
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