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Airbnb to Acquire HotelTonight

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Re: Airbnb to Acquire HotelTonight

#211

Post by dfsegoat »

strychn9ne9 wrote: post #153
throwaway-1283 wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Completely disagree with this analogy. Hotels have their place, and in so many ways they can be superior to a home rental. I am the furthest thing from a luddite, but I personally prefer (as I know many others) hotels to Airbnb. There's a consistency to the hotel product that you can't get with Airbnb that I place a premium on, especially for short or last minute stays. I'm also not really sure why Airbnb is consider…

I think Airbnb shines with large groups. Me and 10 friends can split a house in the mountains or in some European city for a fraction of getting multiple rooms in a Hotel - with much less hassle. However, if I'm traveling by myself or with my partner, hotels still seem the way to go. Valet parking in a city centre with room service can make a stay much comfortable.

So is VRBO [1] a tech company? I use it all the time for group rentals in the way you describe.

1 - https://www.vrbo.com/

Re: Airbnb to Acquire HotelTonight

#212

Post by tedmiston »

jonknee wrote: post #172
onlyrealcuzzo wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I honestly question who hotels are for. I'm in the top 2% in income, and I actually prefer staying in a hotel, but they'r e just insanely expensive. Do you mostly stay in hotels for business reasons? Or are you just rolling in money?

If an Airbnb is a lot cheaper there is going to be a reason, often it's location. I tend to move around and the ridiculous cleaning fees for Airbnb make it a non-starter. I'm flying to San Diego tomorrow and Hotel Tonight has several nice looking choices at around $100 a night (~$120 with taxes and fees). I just looked at Airbnb and I can get a studio apartment in a similar area for $79 a night which seems like a ste…

It sounds like that host has configured their listing wrong if cleaning is the same price as a night rental. Or they set the base cleaning price very high on purpose to deter short-term guests. I'm used to seeing the cleaning price more ~$10–20 per night.

Re: Airbnb to Acquire HotelTonight

#213

Post by tedmiston »

stevehawk wrote: post #164
onlyrealcuzzo wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I honestly question who hotels are for. I'm in the top 2% in income, and I actually prefer staying in a hotel, but they'r e just insanely expensive. Do you mostly stay in hotels for business reasons? Or are you just rolling in money?

As a counter to that, I don't know the last time I stayed in an AirBNB and it was cheaper than a local hotel. Rather I was forced into it by people I was traveling with.

Not sure of your group size or location but I've had success getting a big place that's also reasonably nice for 8–10 people cheaper on VRBO. In the ballpark of <$100 per person total for a long weekend.

Re: Airbnb to Acquire HotelTonight

#214

Post by BigJono »

kenneth wrote: post #181
onlyrealcuzzo wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I honestly question who hotels are for. I'm in the top 2% in income, and I actually prefer staying in a hotel, but they'r e just insanely expensive. Do you mostly stay in hotels for business reasons? Or are you just rolling in money?

I live out of hotels pretty much full time. Really, it's not as expensive and as bad as you make it seem. My average nightly rate averages out to just slightly above my rent, and I have a lot more flexibility. At the end of this month, I'm ditching my place and going full time, and I'll actually be saving money overall, and I can be anywhere in the world without the feeling of my empty apartment burning a hole in my…

What cities do you prefer and how much does it cost you, out of curiosity?

I'm on what's considered a fairly good wage for my area (Melbourne), but if I were to do this it'd cost me close to 70% of my take home salary. Whereas I could rent a beautiful apartment right near the city for about 30%

Re: Airbnb to Acquire HotelTonight

#216

Post by tedmiston »

kenneth wrote: post #181
onlyrealcuzzo wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I honestly question who hotels are for. I'm in the top 2% in income, and I actually prefer staying in a hotel, but they'r e just insanely expensive. Do you mostly stay in hotels for business reasons? Or are you just rolling in money?

I live out of hotels pretty much full time. Really, it's not as expensive and as bad as you make it seem. My average nightly rate averages out to just slightly above my rent, and I have a lot more flexibility. At the end of this month, I'm ditching my place and going full time, and I'll actually be saving money overall, and I can be anywhere in the world without the feeling of my empty apartment burning a hole in my…

Just curious, how do you handle mail and packages?

Re: Airbnb to Acquire HotelTonight

#217

Post by darioush »

strange_quark wrote: post #78
HeavenFox wrote: post #31

Those who have used HotelTonight, can you comment on your experience? For me, there have been several rare occasions when I needed a room at last minute, but HotelTonight was never actually cheaper than any other aggregators or booking directly with the hotel. All being equal I vastly prefer booking direct so I get my points and elite benefits. I guess they have a fancy interface, and that's... it? Maybe it's market…

Ironically the first time I used HotelTonight was when my Airbnb turned out to be a scam leaving me with nowhere to stay well past midnight. Airbnb's customer service was horrid. It was really difficult to find a phone number -- they clearly don't want you calling them -- and once I did find a number, I was on hold for upwards of 30 minutes until I finally got a person who told me that I would have to wait over an ho…

Lots of these companies create the fake assurance that you can be connected to customer support within minutes, but then go out of their way to hide it behind as many menus as possible and don't have a phone number to call. There needs to be a site indexing and monitoring this.

Re: Airbnb to Acquire HotelTonight

#218

Post by ghaff »

rhlsthrm wrote: post #188
strychn9ne9 wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think Airbnb shines with large groups. Me and 10 friends can split a house in the mountains or in some European city for a fraction of getting multiple rooms in a Hotel - with much less hassle. However, if I'm traveling by myself or with my partner, hotels still seem the way to go. Valet parking in a city centre with room service can make a stay much comfortable.

Room service + daily cleanings + guaranteed TV in front of the bed is the best for vacations with my SO. Big group of friends = rent a huge house and have an awesome time. Your comment is spot on.

I don’t care about any of those 3 things. IMO it’s more about predictable experience, 24 hour desk, ability to leave luggage at the hotel, etc.

Re: Airbnb to Acquire HotelTonight

#219

Post by stef25 »

wbronitsky wrote: post #123
princeofwands wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also scary considering that if Airbnb does not like you, for whatever valid or invalid reason, you are not welcome in either local hosting or hotels worldwide. Given that Airbnb already declined hosting people they considered attending a lawful political rally (the "hateful nazi's of Charlottesville"), their increased reach concerns me.

[flagged]

Corporations shouldn't be the judge and jury. Yesterday they banned nazis, tomorrow anti-vaxers and the next thing you know you can't find a bed cause you used the wrong gender pronoun. Slippery slope, very concerning.

Check Joe Rogan's recent show with Jack Dorsey and Vijaya Gadda for an endless list of such examples.

Having to police "social" platforms is a bigger challenge than solving any technical problem and the insistence that it be done is slowly tearing those platforms apart.

Re: Airbnb to Acquire HotelTonight

#220

Post by PopeDotNinja »

notyourwork wrote: post #205
louisswiss wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use it a lot (several times each month for the past ~3 years). I absolutely love it. - You can trust that the hotels are good enough. Never had a bad experience - Takes - They have their own rewards system which really starts to add up the more you use it - They may never give you the absolute cheapest option available in that city for that night, but you'll get an amazing deal on a higher-quality hotel - My experi…

I noticed the prices are getting closer to any other option. When I first started using HT the deals were great but this year that seems to be evaporating slowly.

> Takes That's a nice feature. I don't think I've ever booked a hotel that fast.
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