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Airbnb is banning indoor security cameras

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Re: Airbnb is banning indoor security cameras

#141

Post by GJim »

cowpig wrote: post #14

Next they need to ban giving my personal info to 3rd party services. It's becoming common now to upload guests' personal info into cloud property management systems, and set up things like wifi with services that offer a discount if you provide guest info. It's gross and when I complain about it to AirBnB they do nothing.

> they need to ban giving my personal info to 3rd party services.

The GDPR makes this illegal.

In fact, unnecessary personal information is now a liability, not an asset. Thankfully.

Re: Airbnb is banning indoor security cameras

#142

Post by __derek__ »

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…

Airbnb sellers can charge a fixed fee directly by setting minimum stay lengths or by charging different nightly rates based on the length of stay (e.g., weekly and monthly stay discounts).

Re: Airbnb is banning indoor security cameras

#143

Post by notyourwork »

Scoundreller wrote: post #35
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…

I’d say if it’s not mentioned in the ad up-front, you don’t have to do any of that. I’ve found high cleaning fees to sometimes be an intentional discouragement to shorter bookings, but sometimes I’ve paid it because it was still the best option and I like that they maintained the option. Sucks that the only way to push on fixed costs (it’s not just cleaning) is via the cleaning fee.

This! If I show up after checking in and get a message asking me to do a bunch of things, I'm going to give them a hard no and point to the booking.

Re: Airbnb is banning indoor security cameras

#144

Post by Delumine »

rayiner wrote: post #10
Delumine wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It feels to me that AirBNB hosts are an entitled group of people. They want all the benefits of renting out their place (in most cases, it goes against the original intent of renting a spare room, or family home), but want to make the experience less than ideal for customers. There's a multitude of rules, chores, invasions of privacy (Cameras, decibel monitors, et al). These are supposed to be vacations, not a walkin…

> They want all the benefits of renting out their place (in most cases, it goes against the original intent of renting a spare room, or family home), but want to make the experience less than ideal for customers. In the first part of that sentence you characterize the transaction as akin to renting out a spare room, but in the second part you characterize the guests as "customers." Historically, if you rented a room…

Exactly, in the former situation you obviously don't have a full expectation of privacy. But when you're paying a premium for an entire property, onerous rules and spying are uncalled for.

Re: Airbnb is banning indoor security cameras

#145

Post by notyourwork »

outside1234 wrote: post #125
lukan wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People not turning on the airplane mode on their devices while in a plane. Sometimes they check (never happened to me though, but I avoid flying).

Modern mobiles are not using frequencies anywhere close to those used by the plane for nav / comms anymore so this is not an issue (though your battery will run to zero as it frantically tries to find a tower)

IMO phone battery is relatively fine. I've forgotten to enable airplane mode on a few flights.

Re: Airbnb is banning indoor security cameras

#146

Post by digging »

samtho wrote: post #51
digging wrote: post #12

Making small changes to policy like this will continue to have no effect on the negative externalities of AirBNB rentals. Will this improve guest privacy? No, hidden cameras are too difficult to detect and too easy to install. Will this prevent AirBNBs becoming party houses/apartments in residential areas? No, obviously not, since that's apparently already banned. Will this collect commercial taxes from investment pr…

This does give AirBnB a reason enshrined in policy to take consistent action against misbehaving hosts, something that was lacking previously. Also, I am not sure why you are conflating AirBnB’s authority with a local government - or course AirBnB won’t address the issues you cite in your last paragraphs as that is not their job and to think it should be is totally ridiculous. We have local and state governance to pa…

Why wouldn't it be AirBNB's responsibility to prevent hosts from operating illegally?

Re: Airbnb is banning indoor security cameras

#147

Post by antisthenes »

lupusreal wrote: post #69
throwaway290 wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> if a guest uses every dish in the kitchen without doing a wash up, they cleaning crew could be there for hours If it is $200 then that should cover 10 man hours of cleaning in a developed country. I had similar issues as a guest on Airbnb, paid a cleaning fee $100+ and then had complaints that I left food in the fridge (like normal a pack of milk or something not growing new lifeforms) and couch pillow on the floor…

Have you tried to hire a cleaning person recently? $200 will get a small apartment cleaned, maybe. For a thorough cleaning of a modest house prepare to pay 2-3x that at least.

$250 for a 2bed 2bathroom house in 2022.

Two people spent roughly 2 hrs cleaning, so 4 hours of labor total + supplies. I think that's reasonable, but I wouldn't hire them for after every single short stay if I ran an Airbnb.

Re: Airbnb is banning indoor security cameras

#148

Post by notyourwork »

kube-system wrote: post #60
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…

Honestly I think those requirements are perfectly reasonable for the originally intended purpose of the site, which is people renting out their personal homes. I have stayed in several Airbnbs that had the owner's clothes in the closet and pictures of their kids on the wall, and in those situations, it just seems rude to leave dirty dishes in the sink. These places aren't hotels. I agree that doing laundry is a bit o…

Those types of Airbnb's are long gone, now its entirely commercial.

Re: Airbnb is banning indoor security cameras

#149

Post by Scoundreller »

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…

> That said, AirBnB's site shows the total cost for a stay when browsing

This depends on which site you’re browsing on. I don’t think US does this, but you can browse the AU or Canada version and set your price in $USD because those geographic “editions” have to post the all-in cost up-front.

Re: Airbnb is banning indoor security cameras

#150

Post by s1artibartfast »

65 wrote: post #71

Not sure how AirBnB has a $100 billion market cap. The use case for an AirBnB, which is mostly large group travel, seems limited when comparing to the use case for a hotel (every other type of travel). Marriott and Hyatt combined have a lower market cap than AirBnB.

Airbnb has a PE of 22 and is a money printing machine. Airbnb makes 10x the profit of Hyatt, which has a PE of 75.

Use case of hotels might be bigger, but it is a highly contended market. Airbnb has a huge chunk of a smaller market.

Also, the margins are much better on hosting a website than building hotels and paying thousands of service employees.

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