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Airbnb is banning indoor security cameras

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Re: Airbnb is banning indoor security cameras

#131

Post by VeejayRampay »

mholt wrote: post #22

I'm worried this ban will only affect honest hosts. Anyway, what Airbnb should really ban is hosts charging a mandatory cleaning fee when also requiring their guests to do the cleaning. We just stayed at one this weekend, and like almost all our previous bookings, the host asked us to: - Take off all bedding and towels and start a load of laundry - Do all the dishes and start the dishwasher (but required to hand-wash…

go to a hotel then, they have paid cleaning staff to take care of that stuff for you

Re: Airbnb is banning indoor security cameras

#132

Post by ghaff »

usaar333 wrote: post #101
_yb2s wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At this point the cleaning fees are just a scam to make the listing fee seem artificially lower. People did the same thing on eBay by making the items almost free but the shipping expensive, until they fixed the eBay interface, e.g. by letting you sort by price + shipping and showing shipping fees before you click.

Cleaning fees exist to charge a fixed fee for a reservation, regardless of the number of days. There's more overhead for a reservation beyond just "cleaning". The most consumer friendly thing would be for AirBnB to just explicitly have a fixed "stay" fee and a per-day fee. That said, AirBnB's site shows the total cost for a stay when browsing, so I don't really see this as particularly deceptive. I don't care how the…

Agreed. That said, not that I stay at AirBnbs more than rarely but there's definitely been an ooching in both the per-stay fees and the expectations for cleaning. I suspect some of this is that housekeeping services have probably gone up in cost a lot. I thought my housekeeper was sort of an expensive luxury. It is but after talking to some people, the rates I pay are actually pretty modest.

But to many other comments, there's probably at least some element of advertising a relatively low nightly price and tacking on a stay fee that may not be as immediately obvious.

Re: Airbnb is banning indoor security cameras

#133

Post by greedo »

s1artibartfast wrote: post #97
idiotsecant wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, scam is the right word. It could pretty easily be rolled into the advertised nightly rate.

I get an itemized bill from the grocery store, but that doesn't make it a scam.

It's like putting a bunch of bananas in your basket, thinking the display price ($10 of course) is the real price, only to find out at the checkout, that it's $10 per banana...

Re: Airbnb is banning indoor security cameras

#134

Post by SoftTalker »

xvector wrote: post #16

I almost forgot how annoying Airbnb is until I started staying in hotels again. I will gladly take a smaller property in exchange for dealing with people that have actual hospitality training, daily room cleaning, room service, etc. Hotels are just a nicer experience. I don't want to spend my vacation cleaning the room or worrying about a "host."

I've found that hotels have cut back on the services also. I tend to stay at middle-tier hotels, i.e. Hampton Inn or something similar and they often don't service the room if you are there for multiple nights. I get not replacing towels if they are hanging up but even making up the beds and removing the trash isn't always done.

I'd guess that post-pandemic they just don't have enough staff to get all the rooms done so they prioritize rooms where there will be a new guest checking in.

Re: Airbnb is banning indoor security cameras

#135

Post by ptero »

lukan wrote: post #107
renewiltord wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah I've often forgotten and left my ipad on cellular or my phone non-aircraft-moded. No one has ever said anything so it's unlikely they have automatic detection.

It also never happened to me, but I heard of stories, where the stewardess walked around with one. But they might have gotten less paranoid about it(since nothing ever happened?). Chances of bad interference are probably very low.

I think (although not sure) that cell phone on planes ban was much less about interference with plane electronics and more about the poor handling of a rapidly moving phone on ground cell networks at the time.

Enough flying phones would cause a significant performance degradation. The issue of handling fast switching was solved, but any "because security" or "because safety" laws tend to stay for a long time.

Re: Airbnb is banning indoor security cameras

#136

Post by callalex »

usaar333 wrote: post #101
_yb2s wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At this point the cleaning fees are just a scam to make the listing fee seem artificially lower. People did the same thing on eBay by making the items almost free but the shipping expensive, until they fixed the eBay interface, e.g. by letting you sort by price + shipping and showing shipping fees before you click.

Cleaning fees exist to charge a fixed fee for a reservation, regardless of the number of days. There's more overhead for a reservation beyond just "cleaning". The most consumer friendly thing would be for AirBnB to just explicitly have a fixed "stay" fee and a per-day fee. That said, AirBnB's site shows the total cost for a stay when browsing, so I don't really see this as particularly deceptive. I don't care how the…

It only shows total price in markets where it is legally required to. Meaning they took the time to implement the feature and actively decided to be shitty to their customers when they are given the choice.

Re: Airbnb is banning indoor security cameras

#137

Post by GJim »

kube-system wrote: post #87
notatoad wrote: post #54

Airbnb did previously allow indoor cameras?!

Yes, I stayed in one that had one in the entryway pointed at the interior of the front door. Very uncommon in my experience, but this was in someone's home that they actively lived in, but were away for the weekend, so I found it to be understandable.

> I found it to be understandable

I'm astounded you found it understandable.

If I'm renting rooms, I certainly don't expect the landlord to be in the business of filming myself or family, especially as we may well be walking around sans clothing. Not only is this rather illegal, I suggest plenty of people would find themselves responding to the landlord rather violently in such a situation. And I would not blame them.

Re: Airbnb is banning indoor security cameras

#138

Post by Scoundreller »

_yb2s wrote: post #48
mholt wrote: post #22

I'm worried this ban will only affect honest hosts. Anyway, what Airbnb should really ban is hosts charging a mandatory cleaning fee when also requiring their guests to do the cleaning. We just stayed at one this weekend, and like almost all our previous bookings, the host asked us to: - Take off all bedding and towels and start a load of laundry - Do all the dishes and start the dishwasher (but required to hand-wash…

At this point the cleaning fees are just a scam to make the listing fee seem artificially lower. People did the same thing on eBay by making the items almost free but the shipping expensive, until they fixed the eBay interface, e.g. by letting you sort by price + shipping and showing shipping fees before you click.

> People did the same thing on eBay by making the items almost free but the shipping expensive, until they fixed the eBay interface

There’s a longer story to this: eBay used to exempt shipping fees from its commissions.

So sellers would be screwing eBay and, being an efficient market, as it often is on eBay, the savings would be passed onto the buyer.

I’d sell games for 1 cent with $10 shipping (cost to me: ~$2) and put the shipping cost in the title for clarity. If you didn’t like it, fine, pay more to buy from someone else.

Now they charge it on the whole purchase, which sucks when they take a ~15% commission on sales taxes and shipping and sellers can’t easily tack on a premium to these. So they get lower net proceeds when selling to someone that has high sales taxes or shipping fees.

This really discourages sellers from shipping internationally where those costs are higher.

Now that eBay charges percentage fees for “promoting” your item and getting visibility, bulk sellers will often post the exact same item, unpromoted, for less if you can be bothered to go through their “other items for sale”.

Have seen some wild examples where a seller sold one item at very different prices. They must have had items with 50% promotion fees, 25%, 5% and 0% (evidently passed onto the customer through different pricing) to capture the whole market.

Re: Airbnb is banning indoor security cameras

#139

Post by biomcgary »

_yb2s wrote: post #48
mholt wrote: post #22

I'm worried this ban will only affect honest hosts. Anyway, what Airbnb should really ban is hosts charging a mandatory cleaning fee when also requiring their guests to do the cleaning. We just stayed at one this weekend, and like almost all our previous bookings, the host asked us to: - Take off all bedding and towels and start a load of laundry - Do all the dishes and start the dishwasher (but required to hand-wash…

At this point the cleaning fees are just a scam to make the listing fee seem artificially lower. People did the same thing on eBay by making the items almost free but the shipping expensive, until they fixed the eBay interface, e.g. by letting you sort by price + shipping and showing shipping fees before you click.

Airbnb is a marketplace with a much wider range of "products" than standard hotels. I have found stays that fit my needs far better than any hotel ever could. I am both a host on Airbnb and frequent guest.

Airbnb's UI needs to guide prospective guests toward specifying what they are looking for so that prices (and price sorting) actually meets their expectations. If you search for a specific date range with # of guests, pets, etc., the sort order needs to be on all-in costs, not daily cost. Maybe they could offer pre-baked "personas" - e.g., I am looking for a hotel alternative vs I am looking for a unique experience.

Re: Airbnb is banning indoor security cameras

#140

Post by bombcar »

casenmgreen wrote: post #52
bombcar wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

AirBNB "when it started" was quite likely to find you quirky and cheap options. Now it's commoditized and a business, and the quirky and cheap options are few and far between. Part of the degradation is both the company, the sellers, and the buyers - back in the very beginning it wasn't well known and most of the customers were well behaved - I'm not sure that's entirely the case now, as the customer base has grown.

I'm a digital nomad. One luggage, no permanent home, been fifteen years. I used to use AirBnB all the time. They gradually become more and more, well, "large company". Governments gradually made AirBnB illegal or effectively illegal, largely or wholly killing off AirBnB in given cities, or countries. For example, it used to be about impossible to get into Amsterdam, because of rent control and renting regulations; no…

All of the above makes total sense (to me) when you realize that people don't know how to price rentals at all - just like the average person doesn't know how to price restaurant food.

When you know truly how to price (and cost!) something, you know when and where you can offer discounts. If cost to acquire a tenant is $2k, then the discount to preserve a good tenant should be about $2k per tenant turnover time.

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