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Airbnb’s loss nearly doubles in fourth quarter, before virus

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Re: Airbnb’s loss nearly doubles in fourth quarter, before virus

#131

Post by esyir »

samatman wrote: post #85
Jommi wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're basically conflating different expectations in living conditions to being dishonest reviews. Your example of Tokyo feels absolutely tone deaf to me as someone who has been there multiple times. That's just the reality of the Tokyo rent market. The places are tiny and that's how the culture is there.

I had uniformly excellent AirBnB experiences in Tokyo, five out of five. As a solo traveler. Nowhere I stayed was remotely suitable for a family of four.

That's probably by American expectations though. Most of Asia builds much denser (and smaller, roomwise) than anything in the states.

Re: Airbnb’s loss nearly doubles in fourth quarter, before virus

#132

Post by Rebelgecko »

Brendinooo wrote: post #4

I'd imagine there's a sizable group of people who think Airbnb is only worth it if the price (and maybe location) is significantly better than a hotel, and that seems to be less true as the company matures.

AirBNB is group if you're traveling with a decent sized group. You can cook meals together, have a place to hangout, etc. As a solo traveler it's less good. Most of the time you either end up renting out an entire place for yourself (usually not cost effective compared to a decent hotel. Especially if you're paying a $50-$100 cleaning fee amortized across a 1-2 night stay), or renting a room in someone's house (which is cost effective but a bit of a crapshoot, especially if you like having your own space to decompress at the end of the day)

Re: Airbnb’s loss nearly doubles in fourth quarter, before virus

#133

Post by thedance »

cgurke wrote: post #86

In Croatia and a few other places, there are a lot of fake Airbnb listings. You can instant book them but they are not available and the host never answers. I once was stranded in a really dark and empty area of town because of this. The host provided a fake number even... These fake hosts are still active, I can see the green dot indicating they are online if I look into the chat logs. Airbnb did not pay for the hot…

One day I was just getting drunk with a pal in Istanbul and we decided to see if we could get an Airbnb ... in Mogadishu. Sure enough there was one, a real nice looking place listed dirt-cheap by a new account that seemed to be based in Seychelles. Totally above board, I'm sure.

Croatia is not Somalia, but it doesn't exactly scream "rule of law", either. Airbnb is not inherently safe so should only be used in countries where nobody would even think of breaking a law, like Switzerland or something. I have reservations about using it in America even.

Re: Airbnb’s loss nearly doubles in fourth quarter, before virus

#134

Post by austhrow743 »

unlinked_dll wrote: post #114
nostrebored wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why are you mad about buildings being used at over 85% occupancy on average?

Short term rentals to tourists isn't occupancy, it's occupation. Sorry for the hyperbole I just thought that was good wordplay. These rentals drive up rents for the people in the community and remove housing stock from the market, making it more expensive and less likely for people to purchase their home and build equity. Rent is non recoverable unlike a mortgage, even if you ultimately take a loss. Flooding the hous…

Seeing housing as a vehicle for wealth building is what leads to policies that increase or maintain housing prices. People don't need to put their money in to housing to build equity, they can just build equity. You know, save. Put it in diversified assets not chuck it all in to one asset and then leverage debt to chuck even more in to that asset.

Home ownership is how the system keeps the common man down. It should absolutely not be championed in his favour.

Re: Airbnb’s loss nearly doubles in fourth quarter, before virus

#135

Post by koolba »

austhrow743 wrote: post #134
unlinked_dll wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Short term rentals to tourists isn't occupancy, it's occupation. Sorry for the hyperbole I just thought that was good wordplay. These rentals drive up rents for the people in the community and remove housing stock from the market, making it more expensive and less likely for people to purchase their home and build equity. Rent is non recoverable unlike a mortgage, even if you ultimately take a loss. Flooding the hous…

Seeing housing as a vehicle for wealth building is what leads to policies that increase or maintain housing prices. People don't need to put their money in to housing to build equity, they can just build equity. You know, save. Put it in diversified assets not chuck it all in to one asset and then leverage debt to chuck even more in to that asset. Home ownership is how the system keeps the common man down. It should…

> People don't need to put their money in to housing to build equity, they can just build equity. You know, save. Put it in diversified assets not chuck it all in to one asset and then leverage debt to chuck even more in to that asset.

On paper yes. In practice no. Because the common man will buy a new car, or order some trinket from Amazon, or some other splurge.

> Home ownership is how the system keeps the common man down. It should absolutely not be championed in his favour.

Home ownership forces the common man to save because he knows he’ll be kicked to the curb if he doesn’t pay the mortgage.

If people treated their retirement savings like a true mortgage, e.g. putting it before all other monthly expenses, then yes it’d be possible. But they won’t.

Re: Airbnb’s loss nearly doubles in fourth quarter, before virus

#136

Post by ohbleek »

AirBnB failed. I don't even check it out anymore when I travel because a hotel typically costs about the same due to the fees charged by the hosts. I would choose a hotel over AirBnB until the price difference is 15-20% lower in favor of AirBnB because there are too many unknowns with AirBnB and the novelty has worn off entirely. Plus since so many listings are owned by some company or person renting out multiple locations, whats the difference any more?

Re: Airbnb’s loss nearly doubles in fourth quarter, before virus

#138

Post by jdm2212 »

thedance wrote: post #133
cgurke wrote: post #86

In Croatia and a few other places, there are a lot of fake Airbnb listings. You can instant book them but they are not available and the host never answers. I once was stranded in a really dark and empty area of town because of this. The host provided a fake number even... These fake hosts are still active, I can see the green dot indicating they are online if I look into the chat logs. Airbnb did not pay for the hot…

One day I was just getting drunk with a pal in Istanbul and we decided to see if we could get an Airbnb ... in Mogadishu. Sure enough there was one, a real nice looking place listed dirt-cheap by a new account that seemed to be based in Seychelles. Totally above board, I'm sure. Croatia is not Somalia, but it doesn't exactly scream "rule of law", either. Airbnb is not inherently safe so should only be used in countri…

I spent a week in an Airbnb near Dubrovnik, Croatia and it seemed like a normal, if slightly touristy European city in pretty much every way. And the Airbnb was really nice, too.

Not sure where you're getting this stuff about "doesn't exactly scream 'rule of law'".

Re: Airbnb’s loss nearly doubles in fourth quarter, before virus

#139

Post by samatman »

esyir wrote: post #131
samatman wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had uniformly excellent AirBnB experiences in Tokyo, five out of five. As a solo traveler. Nowhere I stayed was remotely suitable for a family of four.

That's probably by American expectations though. Most of Asia builds much denser (and smaller, roomwise) than anything in the states.

I also stayed with a family of five, so I'm familiar with what family housing in Tokyo looks like.

Small, yes. But comfortable, and nothing like what the top of this thread describes.

Re: Airbnb’s loss nearly doubles in fourth quarter, before virus

#140

Post by exhilaration »

ohbleek wrote: post #136

AirBnB failed. I don't even check it out anymore when I travel because a hotel typically costs about the same due to the fees charged by the hosts. I would choose a hotel over AirBnB until the price difference is 15-20% lower in favor of AirBnB because there are too many unknowns with AirBnB and the novelty has worn off entirely. Plus since so many listings are owned by some company or person renting out multiple loc…

What AirBnB has over hotels is locations inside neighborhoods. Take Montreal for example, the hotels are clustered downtown, which is fine if that's what you're looking for. But by staying in an AirBnB you get a local experience, in a local neighborhood. It's like this all over the world.
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