Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Airbnb to Acquire HotelTonight

press.airbnb.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

261–270 of 385 posts

Re: Airbnb to Acquire HotelTonight

#261

Post by throwaway-1283 »

wenc wrote: post #252
throwaway-1283 wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well like every tech company the entire purpose of an externally facing engineering blog is to maximize their "tech/employer brand." That's the whole point. I would also guess that some of the projects highlighted are could probably fit into "complexity for complexity sake" e.g. teams of bored or overzealous engineers who are trying to justify their jobs by working on complex things that are probably overkill for the…

> I'm just pointing out that the nature of Airbnb's business means that there's no real-time, no streaming, no billions of concurrent users, etc. I guess I’m not sure why it is necessary for a tech company to be defined by these criteria? That’s just me.

I'm not saying a "tech" company has to be defined by how "hard" the tech is, or that a "tech" company isn't a "tech" company because it isn't working on LIDAR or AI.

I'm just pointing out that Airbnb's application of "tech" isn't necessarily "hard" tech, relative to other companies that it's usually associated with or compared to in the SF startup scene.

Re: Airbnb to Acquire HotelTonight

#262

Post by notyourwork »

PopeDotNinja wrote: post #220
notyourwork wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Not sure how this relates to my comment.

Re: Airbnb to Acquire HotelTonight

#263

Post by notyourwork »

jonknee wrote: post #26
linuxftw wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By how much? I suspect they simply were operating at a loss to build up their brand. Jet.com did the same thing.

Well literally their entire pitch is that you book last minute and get savings. It would be weird if it wasn't at a discount... I just pulled it up for Seattle and the Kimpton Monaco is up for $115, $140 after taxes and fees. From the Kimpton website it's $208 or $264 after taxes and fees. So about half off, pretty good deal! This was just the first one in the list, there may be better deals.

Funny you mentioned that one, I’m staying at it next week and booked through HT.

Re: Airbnb to Acquire HotelTonight

#264

Post by wenc »

throwaway-1283 wrote: post #261
wenc wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm just pointing out that the nature of Airbnb's business means that there's no real-time, no streaming, no billions of concurrent users, etc. I guess I’m not sure why it is necessary for a tech company to be defined by these criteria? That’s just me.

I'm not saying a "tech" company has to be defined by how "hard" the tech is, or that a "tech" company isn't a "tech" company because it isn't working on LIDAR or AI. I'm just pointing out that Airbnb's application of "tech" isn't necessarily "hard" tech, relative to other companies that it's usually associated with or compared to in the SF startup scene.

Fair enough. I guess your original statement was more that AirBnB shouldn’t be consider a tech company in the same breath as FB and Netflix, and not that it isn’t a tech company.

Re: Airbnb to Acquire HotelTonight

#265

Post by [deleted] »

kylemh wrote: post #43
chrisseaton wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> HotelTonight was never actually cheaper than any other aggregators or booking directly with the hotel I think every major hotel chain guarantees that their direct price is the lowest, and why wouldn't it be when there is no middleman, so why go anywhere else when you've found the hotel you want?

I've never actually found this to be true. I go through Kayak, and I always check the hotel directly just to be sure. I've done this 9 times in the last 4 months for Loew's, Ramada, Best Western, and Hilton.

[deleted]

Re: Airbnb to Acquire HotelTonight

#266

Post by opportune »

randomacct3847 wrote: post #100

I still to this day scratch my head over how we’ve normalized sleeping in another stranger’s bed, as as hosts have normalized complete strangers touching our stuff and having sex in our beds. It’s wild.

As opposed to a hotel where nobody else has ever slept in or had sex in the bed

Re: Airbnb to Acquire HotelTonight

#267

Post by cmod »

pastor_elm wrote: post #198
bertil wrote: post #176

It’s interesting that no one here, after 160 comments, is speculating about the impact to Booking.com B. is the 7th largest internet company in the world but because it’s in Amsterdam and not US based, hardly anyone think about them. They have incredible technology, often on-par with the big ones but I’m not anyone here could name one problem where they pionnered a solution. Disclaimer: I used to work for one of thei…

my favorite part about Booking is that it will tell me how many other people are currently looking at the last available room i'm looking it. Let's me know if i have to swoop it up quickly!

This is nothing if not a dark pattern, and I would be very suspicious of what metric triggers "looking at the room"
Post reply on HN