361–370 of 427 posts
I swear, we’ve gone over the hill with these dotcom companies. I stopped using Amazon and went back to shopping at my grocery store, Costco, IKEA, etc. You get to actually see what you’ll be getting, bring it back the same day, and know it’s not some fake that you need to ship back the next day. Hell, even the dollar store sells me better junk than Amazon does, and cheaper too. I stopped using Uber and went back to t…
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> a good middle ground is the "serviced apartment" concept found in some places (entire apartment blocks reserved for short term rentals) You mean a hotel? Hotels are not inadequate for longer stays. If someone desires the comforts of a home, they can move there and actually rent/buy a home. > The reason AirBnB exists is that tourists are not properly accounted for in city planning and not properly serviced by hotels…
Most hotel rooms don't have kitchens. It's not unreasonable to want a kitchen if you're staying somewhere for a week or two. But expecting those people to buy or lease a home is unreasonable. Short-term rental of homes is the solution to this.
Now, should there maybe be an area of the city explicitly for short-term rentals, included in city planning? That's a different question; but it shouldn't be mixed in normal residential area, as all it does is make life worse for the actual residents.
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A system, but not AirBNBs system.
It's unreasonable to expect AirBNB to enforce your HOA rules. That's a private contract between you and your neighbors.
Requiring a letter explicitly allowing a listing from the managing agent on record prior to publishing the listing wouldn't be particularly onerous. Of course their listings would drop dramatically since most aren't by the book, but feature not a bug?
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As long as it's not damaging anything, why should I care about someone having cows? Damage is obviously a problem and not the issue at hand.
"As long as it's not damaging anything, why should I care about someone having cows?" Noise, smells, sanitation, etc
Same for whether it's sanitary enough to not be causing any damage.
And realistically I'm picturing roughly one cow would fit.
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In my experience, and I've stayed at a lot of them, BnBs usually have a hot sit down breakfast but it's not universal. I've certainly stayed at BnBs where the host is politely but firmly clear they're not there to entertain you and there will be coffee out in the morning and feel free to grab some yogurt from the fridge. While there is usually fruit and muffins that you can grab for lunch, they don't usually provide…
I've been to hotels like that: yeah, there's a breakfast room; but breakfast is a plastic cup of coffee, a roll, and a packet of cornflakes. I hate staying in hotels, but one benefit is getting a nice hot breakfast served to you.
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>You mean a hotel? Hotels are not inadequate for longer stays. If someone desires the comforts of a home, they can move there and actually rent/buy a home. What about a middle ground. If I go somewhere for 2-4 weeks? For that length of time I kind of want a proper kitchen, which I won't get in a hotel, but obviously it is not long enough to actually rent/buy a home.
>What about a middle ground. If I go somewhere for 2-4 weeks? For that length of time I kind of want a proper kitchen, which I won't get in a hotel, but obviously it is not long enough to actually rent/buy a home. Not everywhere but at least in the US suite hotels with small kitchens are pretty common. Most of the big chains have one or more suite hotel brands. (Though honestly I not infrequently travel for 2-3 weeks…
I'm guessing you're a high income individual with no kids then?
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A franchise is very comforting. All of those consistent, comfortable minimum standards constantly checked by employees from checklists; the excellent insurance; the ability to speak to someone in charge when something goes wrong and get a nearly instant reply... comforting. When I stay in them, I don't even have to wonder if I'm raising residential rents in the area (although I'm certainly raising commercial ones.)
You can give me an 80% product, and I won't be impressed. You can give me that same 80% product, but consistently, and I'll be your best customer. AirBNB can be great, but wow they can be very bad, and at the end of the day I'm too old for that type of shit. Holiday Inn Express might have beds fit for a Baggins, but everything down to the fold of the sheets and the pen/notepad is the same every time, and I cansure ap…
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I bet someone on Hacker News can set up a website that mirrors AirBnB reviews as they are posted. This would prevent revisionism. They can slap vacation ads on it and now they have a stable source of income!
That's an excellent idea. I'd even consider paying a subscription for it (assuming I used Airbnb again, which I might with this service). Could Airbnb challenge it legally though?
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>cleaning which can be 125-225 typically I agree with your point. Cleaning fees tend to make it hard to consider AirBnB for a weekend. That said, assuming the host doesn't just do it themselves, they're going to get a housekeeper in, rates are up for that sort of service, and that's about what it costs.
Then display it in the search criteria in the initial filter on the map view, instead of only when someone has selected the property and begins filling in dates. It's a bait and switch by selecting which UI components are displayed in that search screen, and hiding the added costs ("service fee" and "cleaning fee"). Also, unlike a hotel an Airbnb host will give you a list of items to do upon leaving. And often passiv…