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Airbnb is in midlife crisis mode

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Re: Airbnb is in midlife crisis mode

#551

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.

I don't know what you mean referencing black people. The zoning laws i mean are: commercial vs. non commercial vs. heavy industry (loud, safety requirements).

Zoning isn't as simple as that though. Zoning laws can restrict neighborhoods to with height limits, density limits, large minimum lot sizes, single family homes only, etc, with the aim of prohibiting affordable housing for undesirables.

Re: Airbnb is in midlife crisis mode

#552

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah we do the same with Airbnb if the place is legit we book direct next time. The site offers no protection for the renter so they can suck it.

FWIW, I had a place in Vietnam that was gross. I complained to Airbnb: they cancelled the rest of my stay, and put me in a hotel.

Risk is lower for a second stay for both landlords and tenant so it makes sense to bypass abb

Re: Airbnb is in midlife crisis mode

#553

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Perhaps the difference is that you’ve been fortunate enough to never need Airbnb support to help you on something serious. When things go well, it’s amazing. When things go poorly, you realize how anti-guest the policies and support team behave. That’s when it changed for me. I realized how pro-host, anti-guest they are. Hotels generally seem to care when something goes wrong. Airbnb support behaves like you have inc…

Oh wow. Do I have a story about one of their competitors.

I booked a cabin via VRBO for a few nights as a celebration. It was somewhat remote, but the architecture was neat, and it was a decent deal for my budget. There was some weird cotton-like stuff and...snapping?...in one of the walls that was a bit off-putting, but nothing seemed serious.

Then, night came.

I awoke in my bedroom to something moving. Bleary eyed, I turned on the bedside light and saw something flitting almost silently in the darkness. It seemed like a large insect perhaps to my blurred vision. But whether it was the size or the weird sounds, it eventually clicked: it was a bat trapped in the high-ceiling bedroom.

So, after swiftly getting out of the room, doing some hasty research, and calling animal control, I learned two things. First, bat encounters in the area have a standing policy to IMMEDIATELY see the nearest emergency room to receive a rabies vaccination. It turns out bat bites can be super-tiny and difficult to detect, and they are carriers.

Second, I struggled to convince the limited support channels at VRBO that there was a freaking bat in their property. There was no real emergency line for support I could locate at the time, and I really hope that the information I left would somehow be used to prevent someone else using said property from, ya know, potentially contracting rabies.

To this day, I find myself more wary of property encounters. I don't think I ever got a refund for that debacle, but admittedly I may have been a bit more focused on my mortality.

Re: Airbnb is in midlife crisis mode

#554

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The mechanism is calling the cops, and letting the cops know it's an Airbnb. Then contacting Airbnb letting them know you've filed a police report. Airbnb doesn't give a shit about you (and frankly, neither do the cops), but the cops and Airbnb don't want to tussle with one another.

TPD don't respond to noise complaints.

I don't think I claimed they did. The cops don't give a shit. But AirBNB cares that the police get called on a property over and over. They'll eventually cut off the owner.

Re: Airbnb is in midlife crisis mode

#555

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The parent led off with the value of having a full kitchen, which you have dropped—obviously because there are extremely few hotels in the U.S. that include this. Your description of how well hotels are run does not match my experience. I’m sure it’s true of very nice hotels. It’s also true of very nice AirBnB’s! And VRBOs, which are not as well known but similar idea.

There are a whole lot of hotels that include a kitchen in the U.S. Many extended stay/suite hotels have a stove, microwave, utensils/dishes, refrigerator, and some a dishwasher. It's more rare to have an oven, although I have seen it.

There are a tiny amount of hotels that have a full kitchen. Maybe less than 3% of hotels have a full kitchen.

Whereas I would not be surprised if more than 80% of Airbnb's have a full kitchen or access to one.

Re: Airbnb is in midlife crisis mode

#557
post #508

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where are you getting that info? ABB total comp per levels.fyi 449K for senior and 626 for staff. Their compensation is pretty competitive. I don't know any startup that offers that much that is also liquid comp.

I was going off the posted salary ranges on their website and ignoring stuff everyone has like decent healthcare and vacation. Do they have a bonus program or stock beyond the ESPP to make up the difference?

yeah, they have bonus program and RSUs that amounts to $200-400k a year. Same pay structure as all big tech companies.

Re: Airbnb is in midlife crisis mode

#558
post #504

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 the…

Most parents want everything to cater to their family... you say. This irritates you.

However, you find it irritating when people call you selfish when things are catered for you.

Who are these people calling you selfish by the way? Who has said your selfish for not having kids for example.

This frustration with parents seem to come from a sense of guilt? Not that I agree you should feel that way. But all this talk of feeling selfish and being called selfish. I have never felt that way about any friends or family I know without kids. Never even crossed my mind.

If you're truly happy with your lifestyle choice, these things shouldn't bother you at all.

Re: Airbnb is in midlife crisis mode

#559

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But...why should some direct investment towards "housing" if they can direct them towards the day-rentals ? Its definitely in their economical self-interest. So as long as we allow these platforms (be it AirBnB, Amazon or FB) to amplify a single parameter at the detriment of everything else in the society as a whole, I am afraid all the philosophical discussions about "complex" aspects will not help.

This is a supply/demand problem. Your solution is to restrict the supply of short term rentals. Restrictions rarely work, the hypothetical situation you mention would benefit from allowing more building of long term rentals.

No, I did not suggest the solution you are implying my comment meant. What I am saying is that these PLATFORMS are not the right way to handle the supply of short-term rentals, as they incentivise the home-owners to take them off the market for long-term rentals. I would be perfectly fine with short-term rentals which were not the converted living units. We have to think differently here. But if the push comes to shove, actually restrictions would work here in favour of the long-term rentals, because being, as you said yourself, a supply-demand problem, it would raise the supply of long-term rentals and reduce the prices. Just as it was happening before AirBnB. Its just that we have to be moral enough to recognise that the basic human right of a local in a tourist location to live affordably is set higher than the luxury problem of the so-called digital natives, namely, booking a short-term rental in a city center (so they can produce yet another piece of "content"). Not to mention that a platform which does not generate profit should not even be allowed to exist.

Re: Airbnb is in midlife crisis mode

#560
post #506
post #430

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No, I just was typing fast and grouped everything together I could think of. Embassy Suites is one of the OG "suite" chains that I'd characterize as "formerly high end, maybe mid-level right now", but YMMV.

I wouldn't characterize any of those as genuinely low-end which I'd reserve for things like Travelodge and below. Probably various shades of the midrange scale with some on the upper and some on the lower side. I'm in a Marriott SpringHill Suits at the moment which is boring but clean and comfortable enough.

Yeah, it varies. I think fundamentally you're paying for square footage, so bigger rooms will always be "mid-market", to some extent. The ones in tourist spots are fancier than the ones by Exit 5A of a freeway interchange in rural Nebraska.

The suite hotel I used in Maui, for example was pretty fancy: pool, restaurant, bar, gym, balcony rooms, etc. But the price point was certainly below equivalent hotels in the same area.

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