Airbnb is banning indoor security cameras • Hacker News Board

Re: Airbnb is banning indoor security cameras

#231

Post by Scoundreller » Mon, Mar 11, 2024, 5:32 PM UTC

mitthrowaway2 wrote: post #202

Scoundreller wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Some of these would be tiny items. But yeah, on larger items, sometimes the shipping price changed dramatically once you add the 8th item to your cart.

I wish users could order stuff by sea for a discount. Sometimes I’m buying camping or sports stuff for another season and don’t need it coming airmail. Arriving months later can actually be beneficial. But I understand, too many people will lose their minds.

Re: Airbnb is banning indoor security cameras

#232

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Mar 11, 2024, 5:32 PM UTC

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?

[deleted]

Re: Airbnb is banning indoor security cameras

#233

Post by kloch » Mon, Mar 11, 2024, 5:34 PM UTC

ModernMech wrote: post #164

_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.

And those were a twist on the old infomercial trick: Get a second one absolutely free! (just pay a "small" shipping and handling fee that is as much as a second one)

The "But wait, there's more!" device predates infomercials. It goes at least as far back as the "Atlantic city boardwalk pitch" from the early 20th century:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K-tel

> K-tel was founded by Philip Kives,[4] a demonstration salesman from Oungre, Saskatchewan.[5][6] Kives had worked at a number of jobs as a young man, including selling cookware door-to-door and in a department store, and as a pitch-man on the Boardwalk in Atlantic City.

Re: Airbnb is banning indoor security cameras

#234

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Mar 11, 2024, 5:34 PM UTC

groggo wrote: post #130

alistairSH wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

you need to reserve and pay for a cleaning crew as if it was always a disaster. Yet hotels manage this fine - it's just baked into the price. I don't have a problem paying a cleaning fee. I just don't want to pay the fee AND be required to do 90% of the cleaning myself. I'm happy to put the dishes in and then start the dishwasher. I'm not going to wait around for it to finish and then put them away. I'm happy to pile…

I think that's all pretty fair. Put dishes in the dishwasher and start. Strip the beds. Pick up trash, quick counter wipe down. Only difference is the trash which could just be an issue if the host isn't coming for a little while. These should all be common sense. I don't think I've ever been asked for much more than that. Cleaning fee is for deep clean and general turnover. Maybe it should just be called the "flat-f…

[deleted]

Re: Airbnb is banning indoor security cameras

#235

Post by pi-e-sigma » Mon, Mar 11, 2024, 5:35 PM UTC

rdtsc wrote: post #31

> Hosts can’t use outdoor cams to keep tabs on indoor spaces That might be easy to game either way. Hosts can claim they didn’t keep tabs, just had a hunch to come over and check; and guests can claim the camera in the yard could see some part of the interior through a window and ask for a refund. One interesting effect is that now hosts with hidden cameras can't offer the footage as proof during disputes.

Sure they can. They simply 'forget' that there was a camera there but when a dispute comes up then they suddenly realize that actually there was one and surprisingly there is relevant footage, too.

Re: Airbnb is banning indoor security cameras

#236

Post by mellutussa » Mon, Mar 11, 2024, 5:36 PM UTC

_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.

This is why I can't use AliExpress. Ordering by price+shipping is truly an awful experience. The people in charge of that feature take incompetence to a new level.

Re: Airbnb is banning indoor security cameras

#237

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Mar 11, 2024, 5:36 PM UTC

deadbabe wrote: post #110

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…

One hack you can do is tell the host you have a disability and will not be able to carry out those tasks.

[deleted]

Re: Airbnb is banning indoor security cameras

#238

Post by DenseComet » Mon, Mar 11, 2024, 5:40 PM UTC

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…

What have you been using in place of AirBnB?

Re: Airbnb is banning indoor security cameras

#239

Post by ghaff » Mon, Mar 11, 2024, 5:41 PM UTC

nimih wrote: post #227

victorbjorklund wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

They should estimate the average stay length of their guests and amortize the cleaning fee appropriately, the same way that many other businesses (including real B&Bs, in my experience) handle fixed costs. In theory, AirBnb should be very good at automating the process (they have large amounts of very granular, market specific, historical rental data), but honestly, if that amount of planning and bookkeeping is too m…

It's fairly routine for B&Bs to have a 2-night minimum on weekends but, yes, they typically also just have a nightly charge (which may vary depending on day of week) and don't have a fixed per-stay adder.

AirBnBs have definitely normalized a significant per-stay charge that isn't the norm in the hotel/inn business.

Re: Airbnb is banning indoor security cameras

#240

Post by EasyMark » Mon, Mar 11, 2024, 5:42 PM UTC

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 just move on when I see requirements like that. Some of those I do as a matter of course (clean any food mess/dishes if I have a kitchen). I think my mom beat that one into me. I'm definitely not doing laundry with a house cleaning fee is tacked on. Probably why I stay at hotels 95% of the time.