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Airbnb to Acquire HotelTonight

press.airbnb.com

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Re: Airbnb to Acquire HotelTonight

#321

Post by nstj »

dragonwriter wrote: post #237
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…

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

Can’t “really”?

Re: Airbnb to Acquire HotelTonight

#322

Post by atm0sphere »

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…

Thermite infested sounds awfully dangerous

Re: Airbnb to Acquire HotelTonight

#323

Post by ulfw »

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.

What kind of company pays YOU 425USD regardless of the price of the accomodation where you stay? Genuinely curious. All I’ve ever seen is (in your case) “you can expense per night up to 425USD”

Re: Airbnb to Acquire HotelTonight

#324

Post by toephu2 »

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…

Is hotels.com related to them in any way?

Re: Airbnb to Acquire HotelTonight

#325

Post by zeropnc »

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…

Uh, maybe you’re just complacent.... not to get into a war of anecdotes, but I live out of Air Bnbs and have lived in 100+ around the world. Very rarely is the place not as it seems, if ever.

Re: Airbnb to Acquire HotelTonight

#326

Post by dang »

Joe-Z wrote: post #161
dang wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

csallen didn't flag it, nor did the comment contain information beyond that you "loathe Airbnb" (as anyone can see who has showdead turned on in their profile). Would you please stop posting unsubstantive comments to HN? Especially please do not post to this site in the flamewar style.

So, I turned on "showdead" (thanks for the hint btw!) and the original comment I see is closer to my description of it. I understand you calling it unsubstantive (so I guess I were right in that we're not allowed to post opinions here), but it did contain more information than that: Obviously there's people who liked to use HotelTonight, who don't want to give money to AirBnb. These people are now in a predicament an…

I gave that user two replies because they posted two comments which broke the site guidelines. I didn't realize they were by the same person.

It's certainly possible to make the point that someone who likes HotelTonight might not like Airbnb. It just needs to be done without breaking the site guidelines. That's easy enough, so shouldn't be an issue. And it doesn't mean "we're not allowed to post opinions here". That's what people do all day on HN!

Re: Airbnb to Acquire HotelTonight

#327

Post by irq11 »

ultrasaurus wrote: post #236
irq11 wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Median 1 bedroom rent in Manhattan is $3300. $4700 a month for a short term lease isn’t bad at all.

The average Manhattan hotel room is considerably smaller than a 1-bedroom. I don't think I could live in that for any period of time. (Also fwiw, I doubt winter weekends are high season for Manhattan)

Median studio rent in Manhattan is around $2500.

$4700 is a good price for a daily rental with housekeeping.

Re: Airbnb to Acquire HotelTonight

#328

Post by manigandham »

linuxftw wrote: post #297
manigandham wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Last minute? That was HT's original thing, same day bookings in an easy app.

No, it wasn't there original thing. Last minute hotel deals have been a thing for decades online. Oh, they have an app? That doesn't make their ideal original, nor were they the first to book 'last minute deals' on an app anyway.

Last-minute same-night deals was HotelTonight's entire business before they added all the other features like memberships and future bookings. That's where the name comes from.

I didn't mean they were the first to do deals but nobody cares about that anyway. Users only care if it works for them, and HT has one of the smoothest apps with some of the biggest discounts. When I started using HT years ago, I could book a room in less than a minute at a lower price than any other online source.

Anyways, as to the original point, they might have lost money on some deals but not all of them, and this is directly from private hotel owners I spoke with.

Re: Airbnb to Acquire HotelTonight

#329

Post by dang »

redunculous5 wrote: post #134
Joe-Z wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe. I'm pretty sure I remember the "can't use HotelTonight anymore"-bit. Well, too bad we deleted this information because someone was uncomfortable with someone else's opinion...

Apparently dang doesn't like my comment and thinks its 'unsubstantive' but doesn't say why and keeps flagging my replies. I guess a negative opinion of Airbnb doesn't fly here. No doubt this will be flagged too.

Would you please stop posting trollish comments? It's not what this site is for, and if you keep doing it we will ban you.

People criticize Airbnb here all the time. Anyone can eyeball https://hn.algolia.com/?query=airbnb&sort=byDate&dateRange=a... to see that it's not an issue.

In case anyone cares, liking has nothing to do with this. I dislike many perfectly fine-for-HN comments, and like many of the ones we moderate. For example, I like internet rants, at least the well-crafted ones. They lessen the monotony of reading crud all day. But it doesn't mean we won't ban you for it.

Despite the complete conviction of every troll in the neighborhood, the rules here are relatively objective.

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