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

Post by masonic » Fri, Mar 13, 2020, 9:53 AM UTC

jsonne wrote: post #148

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…

I've found the big advantage to be for longer stays. You can get almost half off which, while more expensive than rent, is considerably less than a hotel stay and allows me to live somewhere with a kitchen etc. rather than in a hotel.

Post by tomhoward » Fri, Mar 13, 2020, 1:04 PM UTC

onion2k wrote: post #177

baby wrote: post #163

I'll preface this by saying that AirBnb lies about its prices/night, and that really suck. Having said that, I really really don't understand the other criticisms against AirBnb here. I travel a lot, for leisure and work, and I constantly stay at AirBnbs and have been for years. Here is how it compares with hotels for me: * I usually can't remember any hotel room I've stayed at (unless it's the marina bay sands), whe…

So yeah, I don't buy the AirBnB has failed thing, because I'm a heavy user. AirBnB hasn't failed. It has plenty of users, and over $2bn in revenue. That's not enough though, because the costs of running the business are higher than $2bn and so we see articles about how it made a loss again. It seems fairly clear to me that a large number of loss-making unicorn companies need to get their costs under control, and the…

Post by blaser-waffle » Fri, Mar 13, 2020, 2:06 PM UTC

CGamesPlay wrote: post #116

alexandec wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had an experience where an Airbnb host canceled on me at the last minute because they "forgot" they had double-booked the apartment on a competing service. I was unable to leave a bad review because I had not stayed in the apartment. I contacted Airbnb and they confirmed that this is their policy. They claimed an automated message would appear on the listing indicating the host's cancellation -- but it never did.

I do see these “automated reviews” left all the time in properties I’m looking to stay at. In this part of the world it’s quite common for that sort of accident to happen.

Post by resters » Fri, Mar 13, 2020, 2:41 PM UTC

telesilla wrote: post #197

resters wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Airbnb has a variety of different cancellation policies available to hosts. As a host, I use the strict one because I can’t always schedule a last minute cleaning, and I find that people who plan ahead and don’t need to change are more respectful guests.

For holidays booked without too much time ahead that's fine, but for work which is easily cancelled or postponed, it's impractical. I'd like to see a premium price offered with more flexibility on date changes.

Post by saalweachter » Fri, Mar 13, 2020, 3:54 PM UTC

jcims wrote: post #81

foobar1962 wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Airbnb is a middle-man, they make money from the transactions (bookings) between guest and host. The more bookings, the more money they make. The number of bookings is decreasing, and they are refunding their cut from bookings made months ago.

Yes but to GP's point what are their costs? Marketing and a website? The last place I went to book for 3 days had almost $90 in 'service fees'. ???