Airbnb and Vrbo are going downhill like a hippo on a water slide

My family used VRBO to get houses for winter vacations where we can bring other families and go skiing. With careful research and judicious planning it has turned out okay for last decade of winters. Because it is skiing and usually remote, and we like to cook, we always bring food. To support this, we pack staples necessary for cooking (oil, vinegar, spices) and bring our tools (knives, snack bags, containers for leftovers) because you can't predict if the places will have those. We've been lucky in our experiences that about 60% had those, but not always, so being prepared is great. Planning and setting low but steady expectations is always important.

I live in the pacific northwest and have 1 week of PTO coming up. I wanted to maybe rent a cabin and chill with my family for a few days.

Browsing Airbnb the cheapest options available in my area are tents and RVs for 200-300 USD a night, and prices go up for there. Think about that for a moment, spending 250 USD a night to rent a tent, probably in someone's backyard.

Beyond ridiculous prices, Airbnbs have just become a pain. They often come with long lists of rules. Here are some of the most ridiculous that I've seen: clean everything before you go (what is my cleaning fee for?), put on the laundry (very common lately), or bag up the trash and take it out to the nearest t

I'm an airbnb host with 5 apartments as a hobby business. As a traveller, I've stayed in hundreds since they started. There were no good old days and it's not horrible now. Like neighbourhood restaurants, there's massive variance in quality and it will be up to you to differentiate between the folks who care about their guests and those that rent apartments without windows.

I had a host in 2012 in SF -a sweet alcoholic of an old man- who flashed me full frontal nudity before check-out. I had an apartment in Shenzhen in 2014 literally covered in roaches. I lasted one night. This year I stayed in an apartment in Andermatt with beautiful cherry wood floors, a phenomenal kitchen, sauna, a huge outdoor space and full view of the mountains for half the price of the nearest hotel room. Worse now than before? Bullshit.

None of my guests have ever paid for a sheet. I comp extra nights if they're unbooked. I offer every towel under the sun, a warm body to check you in at any time and some wine and snacks if you arrive very late free of charge. I'm still nowhere close to being the most welcoming host in the city. There are great experiences to be had out there. If you want personality, to relate with the owners and get a good deal at the expense of total predictability, airbnb is for you. Ignore any listing that doesn't match the vibe. If you're looking for the travel equivalent of eating at Subway, a chain hotel will be a better option.

This is just simple economics. Now that the whole “serendipity and living in domestic spaces like a local” thing is dead and most Airbnb providers have professionalized —- it’s now just about value. Logically, who is going to provide the best value:

- A massive hotel chain with economies of scale, purpose built properties, decades proven systems and hospitality processes

- Individual startup hoteliers renting out non-purpose built spaces with ikea furniture, no economies of scale, no systems, ad hoc processes and expensive platform fees as overhead

The highest end Airbnbs still offer what used to be available in the early days, but it just doesn’t make sense anymore for most people

Airbnb lost me a few months back.

My wife and I eloped and had a weekend getaway planned to celebrate. The place was out in the woods down back roads, had little to no lights (we got there at night), a narrow, unmaintained gravel driveway with literal boulders in it, and the cherry on top: none of the windows had curtains or blinds (you could just roll up the driveway and look right into the house). We left 20 minutes after getting there.

Resolving this required three days of back-and-forth with Airbnb "support," being repeatedly gaslit that this was somehow my fault (I sent in multiple videos with the support rep lying and telling me I didn't upload anything), and told that they could do a partial refund. I had to threaten the employment of the support rep before they'd escalate and finally admit this was sketchy and issue a full refund.

I knew things were unravelling when one stay at a different Airbnb about two years back left instructions that I had to place sheets and towels in the dryer before leaving (mandatory—with assumed threat of a negative guest review—despite having a separate cleaning fee).

On top of this, I've noticed a decent chunk of the new construction homes in my area are/were just being bought for the express purpose of being an Airbnb. So, instead of families having access to affordable housing, a town house with no yard, built with Alibaba-grade materials in Middle Tennessee (in a town most people haven't heard of) starts at ~$300-400K [1].

Airbnb was a great idea in the past, but now it's just not worth it. Much better to spend roughly the same on a nice hotel where you're staying.

[1] https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1561-Ansley-Park-Dr-Cooke...