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Airbnb is banning indoor security cameras

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Re: Airbnb is banning indoor security cameras

#201

Post by victorbjorklund »

idiotsecant wrote: post #81
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cleaning fees aren't a "scam" - most property owners really do need to pay someone to clean the property at the end of a stay. But, as another commenter said, they can be used as a way to encourage longer stays, as with most places you only pay a single cleaning fee regardless of the length of your stay. But, again, it's just a fact that these rentals are usually just cleaned between guests (as opposed to a hotel whe…

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

Lets say their cost for cleaning is 100 usd. Without cleaning they the price per night is 150 usd.

How much should the price increase per night to cover the cost of cleaning?

So either too low for people staying one night or too high for people staying multiple nights. Why is it better?

Re: Airbnb is banning indoor security cameras

#202

Post by mitthrowaway2 »

Scoundreller wrote: post #154
tentacleuno wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, they've worked around that too -- now sellers typically include a [completely unrelated] 0.99p item as an option in the listing, which then moves them to the top of the price-sorted view.

Or on aliexpress, on items you’d usually buy multiples of, set the shipping to $cents for the first item, then it jumps to $$$ once you add a second to your cart. Sometimes I’ve just bought individual items from several sellers as a workaround.

Usually when that happens, the shipping date jumps too, because it's chosen a faster shipping method. I'm not sure why but I'm not 100% convinced it's deliberate deception. However they also don't show shipping prices in the search view, and display the lowest-price configuration instead of the range.

Re: Airbnb is banning indoor security cameras

#203

Post by swatcoder »

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…

Your family was asked to do about 17 minutes of convenient, easy preparatory tidying that most considerate people would do even without being asked (as in a hotel or when visiting a friend).

Yet you benefited from coming into a home that, presumably, had all of its floors vaccuumed, its kitchen and bathroom surfaces sanititized, its linens folded and/or readied, etc. Whether it was the host or a service, somebody followed up behind you and likely spent at least several hours preparing the place for the next guest. And instead of it being bundled into your daily room rate like in a hotel, since it's only being done once per stay, it was applied as a per-stay cleaning fee. That's eminently fair.

There are about a thousand of things to complain loundly about with AirBnB and countless things in life more broadly -- being asked to tidy up a little bit or to pay a per-stay fee to cover cleaning? Not really a compelling one.

Re: Airbnb is banning indoor security cameras

#204

Post by jghn »

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.

For my small house (~1200 sq ft) the woman who cleans my house charges me $150, and she's usually here for around 2-2.5 hours. She hasn't increased her rate for me for over 10 years, so I imagine she'd charge more if I started out new.

So in other words, even 10 years ago she was charging roughly $75/hr, which is much more than the $20/hr that grandparent was citing.

Re: Airbnb is banning indoor security cameras

#205

Post by culopatin »

vundercind wrote: post #25
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."

Airbnbs are amazing for: - Group get-aways where the point is being together at the place, not seeing the sights of whatever area you’re in. - Families traveling, especially when not staying in a city core - Trial runs at living in a place - Areas poorly served by decent hotels They’re bad for lots of other scenarios. [edit] oh and the less time you’re staying the worse they tend to be—stuff like cleaning fees and ha…

The stress of staying with a group at an Airbnb is not Worth it anymore. One of our friends didn’t PERFECTLY follow the instructions of what to do with the sheets and just piled them all together in a corner for easy cleanup.

The cleaners used this as an excuse to scam the owner who lived 8hs away and saw the property every 6 months to tell them we had trashed the place and that they had to work 6hs. They took up close pictures of trash… (that was outside in the trash can btw) and claimed we just left it everywhere. Took an up close picture of a crumb on the floor. Am I supposed to vacuum the whole place?

If you’re a couple it’s easy to track everything and have a strong case. With friends you have to start questioning your friends to see if any of these claims are true. I don’t go in their rooms to check, so I have to take their word for it.

Very much not worth it. Not to mention the quasi legal battle with Airbnb that is a pandora box and for 6 weeks or more you are unsure of what’s going on, the host trashes yours and all your friends profiles, and they expect you to “pay for damages”.

All this because they estimate the minimum possible time for their cleaners and if they go over the 15min they booked (at a rate that is only matched by HP ink) they pass the charges to you.

Screw that. Never again. We’ve been staying at hotels with much better amenities for the money and actually REST. Checkout is at 10? I just leave. I don’t have to wake up at 7 to do dishes and bed sheets and trash and sweep and look for crumbs and take pictures to cover my ass later.

Re: Airbnb is banning indoor security cameras

#206

Post by tuwtuwtuwtuw »

kibwen wrote: post #179
callalex wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> they took the time to implement the feature and actively decided to be shitty to their customers when they are given the choice Ah, but companies have a fiduciary duty to their shareholders to be as shitty to their customers as they can get away with.

No they don't.

Re: Airbnb is banning indoor security cameras

#207

Post by dymk »

culopatin wrote: post #177
Scoundreller wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

That’s how you get a bad review and charges for $800 to replace a napkin. Airbnb will side with the host, not you.

This doesn't actually happen even discounting the hyperbole. Airbnb sides with guests for little things. And hosts are much more affected by a bad review than a guest is.

Re: Airbnb is banning indoor security cameras

#208

Post by kube-system »

GJim wrote: post #137
kube-system wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

My experience was such that it wasn't that way at all. The camera was indoors but not in areas of the house where someone would be walking around without clothing, and they were clearly disclosed in advance before booking, and they were clearly visible in the home.

Re: Airbnb is banning indoor security cameras

#209

Post by mraniki »

whompyjaw wrote: post #168
s1artibartfast wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

What is PE?

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/price-earningsratio.asp

Re: Airbnb is banning indoor security cameras

#210

Post by culopatin »

SoftTalker wrote: post #134
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…

They’ll still come in and service whatever you need if you call the front desk though.
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