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Airbnb to Acquire HotelTonight

press.airbnb.com

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Re: Airbnb to Acquire HotelTonight

#311

Post by [deleted] »

secabeen wrote: post #284
jasonjei wrote: post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Totally agree about leaving luggage with the porter between early check in and checkout. On top of the predictable check-in, check-out, security, and elite membership benefits like 4pm late checkout, free waters/lounge access, keycard recovery.

Whereas I want none of those things. I want a living room I can hang out in while the kids are asleep, a kitchen where we can make breakfast so we aren't spending $15/head on food the kids don't like, a fridge and a microwave to store/reheat leftovers, and a nearby park or backyard to play in. I agree that predictable check-in is nice, and I will seek out AirBNBs with code-based checkins. YMMV.

[deleted]

Re: Airbnb to Acquire HotelTonight

#312

Post by jfoster »

throwaway-1283 wrote: post #193
dpandya wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whether or not a company is a "tech" company is kind of a muddled question, but taking even a brief glance at https://airbnb.io/ (their engineering blog) makes it clear that AirBnB does some pretty serious engineering. For example, their post about their work in search ranking is quite interesting [1]. [1]: https://medium.com/airbnb-engineering/machine-learning-power...

I'm not suggesting they don't have engineering challenges, but if you stack ranked the engineering challenges by difficulty across Airbnb, Uber/Lyft, Google, FB, Netflix, Amazon, Dropbox, Pinterest, etc. I don't see how Airbnb would not very easily rank last by a long shot. Airbnb is basically just a prettier craigslist with a payment transfer mechanism and messaging. It isn't to say it isn't a great business, just t…

So does it even matter whether they are or aren't?

Internet schminternet.

https://youtu.be/GltlJO56S1g

Re: Airbnb to Acquire HotelTonight

#313

Post by PhoenixReborn »

OkGoDoIt wrote: post #135
fady wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amazing app. I was in Bordeaux, having dinner, time slipped away, drank too much...what to do? HotelTonight. I would find something, book it, and be done. Back to dinner. I did this 7 different times all around France. It was a perfect experience. The fact that the UI/UX makes super duper easy to view, book, set, & forget. I think its better than opening a chrome tab or any other mobile app thus far. Don't even try t…

That aspect never occurred to me since their stated value proposition was always super cheap last minute deals. But their prices were never particularly great so it kind of failed at that one job. If it had been positioned more of a super-simple Uber for hotel rooms then maybe I would’ve approached it from a different angle and not been so disappointed.

Anecdotally - I've always gotten excellent deals in the Bay Area and I've used HT there a lot. It usually gets me prices about 15-20% less than what I'd get via the traditional booking sites. What makes you say it failed at its one job?

Re: Airbnb to Acquire HotelTonight

#314

Post by Roedou »

shereadsthenews wrote: post #277
stef25 wrote: post #229

What's amazing at Airbnb is their ability to make places look so much nicer in the pictures than what they look like in reality. After staying in a crack house in Barcelona, a dirty dark hole in Manhattan, a "private" villa in France where the owner was screwing an endless stream of boyfriends behind the flimsy kitchen door at 10AM, a thermite infested apartment in Sicily with horrid beds, I still feel like a total a…

It really seems to depend on the city. For about $100/night in Zurich I stayed once in a huge top floor flat and once in a bedroom with private bath in a giant palace with plenty of room to entertain dozens, which I did. My company's negotiated hotel rate was $425/night and I pocketed the balance. In NYC all of the Airbnb inventory is bedbug-ridden hovels. Perhaps this simply reflects the housing stock of the region.

It definitely varies. In NYC, I stayed in a 4000sqft Chelsea apartment, with a private bathroom, grand piano and incredible art, for $125 a night.

It does depend on more than just the city.

Re: Airbnb to Acquire HotelTonight

#315

Post by ghaff »

jasonjei wrote: post #246
ghaff wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Totally agree about leaving luggage with the porter between early check in and checkout. On top of the predictable check-in, check-out, security, and elite membership benefits like 4pm late checkout, free waters/lounge access, keycard recovery.

If you don’t have a car, the ability to check a bag is often unappreciated if you have a late afternoon or evening flight. Lockers are pretty much non existent most US places in my experience even for hand luggage and, you’re pretty restricted in what you can do for half a day if you’re hauling a backpack around.

Re: Airbnb to Acquire HotelTonight

#316

Post by wbronitsky »

dc_gregory wrote: post #288
wbronitsky wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Downvotes simply silence a post. If someone doesn't agree, they can rebut, but that is not what a downvote is.

In this case, its a slap on the wrist for a comment that doesn't positively contribute.

I fail to see how calling out that Nazis are unequivocally evil is not positively contributing when someone is trying to gain sympathy for being discriminated against for being a Nazi. I bet you would also say that it’s “not the time” to have these sorts of discussions. Too bad, I’m not going to be quiet about this. It’s deeply sad to me that this community is willing to quickly rally around Nazis and shame people who speak against them.

Re: Airbnb to Acquire HotelTonight

#317

Post by CPLX »

louisswiss wrote: post #196
mrcodedude wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"My experience using other booking sites for 'cheap deals' has been that you're often treated as a lower-tier customer, for example being given worse rooms (ground floor, no windows etc). The HotelTonight experience is the opposite. ~25% of the time, I receive a room upgrade without asking" They're all OTAs. You're just as likely to get a "good" room with HotelTonight as you would with Priceline, Hotwire, etc. The qu…

> You're just as likely to get a "good" room with HotelTonight as you would with Priceline, Hotwire, etc. Can't speak for every hotel (obviously), but I know for a fact this isn't true for several. Hotels always have better and worse rooms - it's very rare to have a building where there isn't a loud/dark/musty room or two. In most hotels where I know a member of staff, they freely admit to having several 'worse' room…

I’ve had the same experience

Re: Airbnb to Acquire HotelTonight

#318

Post by zeruch »

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…

Hotel Tonight has found me some last minute bargains (usually in the class I like, which is "Hip") but for corporate style accommodations, its less advantageous. It's selections are pretty interesting

Where it is fantastic is in UX. It is simple, clean and staggeringly efficient. And I've used it on three continents equally well.

Re: Airbnb to Acquire HotelTonight

#319

Post by TheAdamist »

crushcrashcrush wrote: post #97

Fantastic product, super concerned about AirBnB acquisition - not because of what they'll do to the product, but I guarantee their partnerships with hotels and hotel groups will evaporate when contracts expire. A hotel working with Airbnb is like BlockBuster working with Netflix to share customer data. The hotels groups aren't as fucking stupid as Blockbuster was, though.

I'm worried about the 3rd party vendor thing, either way you look at it, if I want a hotel tonight bi do not want a Airbnb, or vice versa. I wish Amazon had an Amazon only setting, etc.

Re: Airbnb to Acquire HotelTonight

#320

Post by jhanschoo »

amha wrote: post #282
dragonwriter wrote: post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> a thermite infested apartment in Sicily Thermite can't really infest things. You probably mean “Thermian”. (Ok, more likely: “termite”.)

A thermite infested apartment would be pretty awesome, though.

There are extreme hobbies, and then there are extreme hobbies.
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