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

bloomberg.com

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

#31

Post by notyourwork »

southphillyman wrote: post #30

I have started using hotels more lately after almost exclusively booking with airbnb for several years. 1 thing that I really appreciate about Airbnb still is that it allows you to stay in areas that usually don't have a lot of hotels, like Manhattan Beach CA or some other mostly residential area that also makes sense for tourist to stay. I would hate for them to fail and lose those options on a large scale

I stopped because the quality went way down. I used to get real hosts and now it’s mass scaled corporate rentals without a front desk to go talk to. Hotels at least have a front desk to go get help from and they are consistent in quality.

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

#32

Post by flavor8 »

resters wrote: post #19
danielovichdk wrote: post #10

My experience with AirBnb has been good but often I feel I miss something. If possible I always almost choose a hotel, because it seems cleaner, service oriented, often has breakfast and a place to have a drink or a coffee. There are places that is more suitable for renting a private place, but in where there are tourists there are often better offers at hotels.

I’m the opposite. I have had so many good experiences at Airbnb properties and a few years ago I started being a host. It’s a fantastic platform. You really do have to read the reviews, though, both as a guest and as a host.

The review system is flawed.

https://www.businessinsider.com/why-airbnb-reviews-are-a-pro...

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

#33

Post by alexandec »

I've had bad experiences with multiple Airbnbs including:

  - showing up at night with the key not in the agreed location, and not being able to contact the owner until the next day
  - showing up and someone else was already in the unit
  - a webcam was plugged in and placed on the bedside table with no warning
  - conditions in the unit were significantly worse than those shown in the photos
All these listings had great reviews. Airbnb needs to make some real changes or they will lose further trust among customers.

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

#34

Post by southphillyman »

notyourwork wrote: post #31
southphillyman wrote: post #30

I have started using hotels more lately after almost exclusively booking with airbnb for several years. 1 thing that I really appreciate about Airbnb still is that it allows you to stay in areas that usually don't have a lot of hotels, like Manhattan Beach CA or some other mostly residential area that also makes sense for tourist to stay. I would hate for them to fail and lose those options on a large scale

I stopped because the quality went way down. I used to get real hosts and now it’s mass scaled corporate rentals without a front desk to go talk to. Hotels at least have a front desk to go get help from and they are consistent in quality.

Yup, this is why I'm using hotels more now. Too many random problems, hosts who are in another country when I'm trying to solve issues, and accommodations that are often inconsistent with what was portrayed in the listing.

With all of these factors I really need a good deal for it to be worth the hassle

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

#35

Post by ThePhysicist »

danielovichdk wrote: post #10

My experience with AirBnb has been good but often I feel I miss something. If possible I always almost choose a hotel, because it seems cleaner, service oriented, often has breakfast and a place to have a drink or a coffee. There are places that is more suitable for renting a private place, but in where there are tourists there are often better offers at hotels.

In the beginning it was nice, you could actually meet interesting people. Now it mostly feels anonymous and impersonal, often you end up sharing an apartment with two or three other tenants and the landlord doesn’t even show up once. I prefer hotels now, price-wise the difference to AirBnB isn’t very large.

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

#37

Post by teachrdan »

jedberg wrote: post #7

I wonder if this is just seasonality for their business. A lot of people travel in Nov/Dec, but mostly it's to see family, so they often already have a place to stay when they get where they're going. I suspect summer is their big quarter. I wouldn't be surprised if they made their fiscal year start in March so that they can get that strong quarter at the beginning of the year, like how Apple starts their in Septembe…

Not according to the article:

"The world's biggest home-sharing company reported a loss of $276.4 million excluding interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, compared with a loss of $143.7 million a year earlier"

The loss increased by almost 100% versus the same time last year--and that's before COVID-19. This really makes me wonder how their planned IPO this year will perform.

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

#38

Post by CydeWeys »

At this point I'm rooting for them to go bankrupt and fail, because they continue illegally operating in my city. It is illegal to lease entire units in NYC for <30 day spans, yet AirBnb does absolutely nothing to stop these listings and indeed refuses to cooperate with the city government in shutting them down.

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

#39

Post by 3pt14159 »

I have a friend who got into hosting AirBnbs pretty early. Bought a 4 unit place in a rough part of Toronto that was still pretty close to downtown and lived in one of the units while he AirBnbed out the other three. Occasionally he'd go on a trip and AirBnb out his own unit.

It was enough money for him to cover his mortgage and not have to work if he watched his spending. He's bleeding money now and it started about two months ago. This virus is going to hammer leveraged AirBnb hosts for a while and I think we'll start to see a wave of AirBnb bankruptcies.

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

#40

Post by dman »

alexandec wrote: post #33

I've had bad experiences with multiple Airbnbs including: - showing up at night with the key not in the agreed location, and not being able to contact the owner until the next day - showing up and someone else was already in the unit - a webcam was plugged in and placed on the bedside table with no warning - conditions in the unit were significantly worse than those shown in the photos All these listings had great re…

Same here - over time the positive surprises at Airbnb stays are becoming rarer.
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