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Illegal host, electric shocks, slugs, leaks and no support – How Airbnb failed

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Re: Illegal host, electric shocks, slugs, leaks and no support – How Airbnb failed

#31

Post by ThunderSizzle »

EZ-E wrote: post #18

I see more and more "middleman" apps such as airbnb or food delivery apps piling up more and more fees as they probably feel the pressure from an environment with increasing interest rates - without improving the service more than before. Back when these apps were released they were disruptive and competitive, but I wonder that in front of the increasing fees for a decreasing added value, the pendulum will swing back…

Personally, the pendulum already swang on food apps. I found it way too expensive and promoted too much personal laziness.

I dont mind paying for a real service, but these apps have also encouraged tipping culture, which was already going crazy. Now everyone wants a tip.

Just charge me the real cost, pay them a real wage, and if no wants to pay for it, then society doesn't want it.

Re: Illegal host, electric shocks, slugs, leaks and no support – How Airbnb failed

#32

Post by hef19898 »

kwhitefoot wrote: post #27

When I try to find a place to stay on Airbnb it looks like the prices are higher than what I can find on hotels.com or booking.com. And the web site is useless. There is no option to sort by price, the filters for maximum price don't work. It's going to have to be cheaper than a hotel or B&B to make it worth taking the risk and I'll have to be able to find it without scrolling all the way through the site. So far I h…

Booking.com replaced AirBnB for our travel needs in basically all cases. Only exception when booking.com doesn't show any available results, in which case AirBnB is a potential backup, not that this was actually necessary in the last 2 years or so before Covid, during covid and ever since.

Re: Illegal host, electric shocks, slugs, leaks and no support – How Airbnb failed

#33

Post by gryzzly »

Yeah I have come to realize that you are on your own and be ready for any emergency. Airbnb will not help in a timely manner. Worse, they will make you re-explain the situation while you are in stress of urgency.

Same goes for booking.com these days- no support response until after the problem.

Re: Illegal host, electric shocks, slugs, leaks and no support – How Airbnb failed

#34

Post by netsharc »

mudrockbestgirl wrote: post #16

It's not surprising at all. All of these review-driven P2P marketplace businesses end up with the same problem. After the initial phase of early adopters that offer generally high quality products, a flood of fake or low-quality listing tries to squeeze money out of the platform. These people are not listing their homes on Airbnb, they are trying to make a living by extracting as much money from the platform as they…

Makes me think that there's a market for a 3rd party website for reviews for AirBnB hosts (and probably guests).

But a new host might not get any guests if they don't have a review on this site, and if the guests avoid them, then no one will review them. An idea would be for a host to pay a refundable deposit, and the website could indicate them as so, "We have no reviews for this host, but they have guaranteed with $money that their listing is legitimate/accurate.". After the first review comes, they can get the deposit refunded. But aha, this doesn't protect against fake reviews by friends and accomplices of a dodgy host...

Re: Illegal host, electric shocks, slugs, leaks and no support – How Airbnb failed

#35

Post by JadoJodo »

dsego wrote: post #3

> The toilet was in a constant state of flowing. Just press the flush a few times or whack the water tank. Common problem with tanks in european households. If there is no water to flush, just fill a bucket, washbowl or pot with water and flush that way. Honestly, I stopped reading after this, seems like whining from someone without skills to deal with adulthood. Hey, maybe a lightbulb also burned out.

> Honestly, I stopped reading after this, seems like whining from someone without skills to deal with adulthood.

In the case where the terms of the living arrangement are “you can stay here 30 days for free, but you’ll need to take care of any issues you come upon yourself.”, this would be an appropriate response.

In this case, as mentioned in the article, they are “you can stay here for 30 days for $3,000”. Totally different story.

Re: Illegal host, electric shocks, slugs, leaks and no support – How Airbnb failed

#37

Post by mcculley »

mudrockbestgirl wrote: post #16

It's not surprising at all. All of these review-driven P2P marketplace businesses end up with the same problem. After the initial phase of early adopters that offer generally high quality products, a flood of fake or low-quality listing tries to squeeze money out of the platform. These people are not listing their homes on Airbnb, they are trying to make a living by extracting as much money from the platform as they…

This is a useful way to think about how markets/platforms evolve.

I have yet to use Airbnb. But it seems that the target customer has changed. I have been aware of them since they first showed up on Hacker News. They were pitched as renting an airbed where hotels are not a useful choice. That target customer is a demographic that I had aged out of before they started. If they were still marketing only to very young people willing to sleep on an airbed and not risk-averse to bedbugs, there would be a lot less disappointment. But of course the company wants to, as all do, grow to other customers and markets.

I wonder if the original investors always thought that they would try to compete with hotels for higher end customers as they do now.

Re: Illegal host, electric shocks, slugs, leaks and no support – How Airbnb failed

#38

Post by mudrockbestgirl »

netsharc wrote: post #34
mudrockbestgirl wrote: post #16

It's not surprising at all. All of these review-driven P2P marketplace businesses end up with the same problem. After the initial phase of early adopters that offer generally high quality products, a flood of fake or low-quality listing tries to squeeze money out of the platform. These people are not listing their homes on Airbnb, they are trying to make a living by extracting as much money from the platform as they…

Makes me think that there's a market for a 3rd party website for reviews for AirBnB hosts (and probably guests). But a new host might not get any guests if they don't have a review on this site, and if the guests avoid them, then no one will review them. An idea would be for a host to pay a refundable deposit, and the website could indicate them as so, "We have no reviews for this host, but they have guaranteed with…

It's fundamentally a problem of trust. Hotels and big brands work because you can trust them. Why do you trust them? Because they have skin in the game. If their products suck their brand suffers and that's what they want to avoid the most. If Apple releases crappy products they can't just create a new "BtwNotApple" brand. They can sell overpriced products because you're paying for trust/brand.

In these semi-anonymous marketplaces you fundamentally don't have trust. There is no skin in the game for sellers since their identity and brand is not sticky. If you get banned or do something against the ToS it's not a big deal. Regulation is a possibility, e.g. make people go to jail, but I doubt that could work on this scale. Or it would make innovation impossible. You need a fundamentally different incentive model.

Re: Illegal host, electric shocks, slugs, leaks and no support – How Airbnb failed

#39

Post by 2rsf »

kwhitefoot wrote: post #27

When I try to find a place to stay on Airbnb it looks like the prices are higher than what I can find on hotels.com or booking.com. And the web site is useless. There is no option to sort by price, the filters for maximum price don't work. It's going to have to be cheaper than a hotel or B&B to make it worth taking the risk and I'll have to be able to find it without scrolling all the way through the site. So far I h…

The pictures changes as your family grows, needing two or three hotel rooms or only special family rooms makes Airbnb more affordable.

Unless something has changed in the last months I always found a direct hotel order cheaper and easier than booking/hotels dot com, not to mention fake rates, irrelevant reviews or non existing rooms.

Re: Illegal host, electric shocks, slugs, leaks and no support – How Airbnb failed

#40

Post by miav »

Quite surprised by the amount of pitchforks here. I certainly don't think of AirBNB as a failure and I doubt most others would. Is there a problem with scams? Totally. But that's hardly exclusive to AirBNB, wherever there's a market, digital or physical, there will be scammers. This was the case for all of human history and it's on you to vet your stuff.

I've used AirBNB for long and short term stays, in Europe and in the US. Each time I stayed in a delightful places that was a genuine passion project for the hosts. Those places would not exist without AirBNB and similar services.

If you're on a tight budget and just need a place to stay at for a bit, it's obviously easier to go with a Marriott. But if you're willing to spend some time on searching the best place to complement your trip, AirBNB can get you the best experience.

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