Are they also banning the host practice of renting out multiple rooms to guests who are strangers to each other?
I would prefer indoor cameras as protection from other guests.
Airbnb is banning indoor security cameras
361–370 of 527 posts
Re: Airbnb is banning indoor security cameras
#362Earlier quoted context omitted.
All of the above makes total sense (to me) when you realize that people don't know how to price rentals at all - just like the average person doesn't know how to price restaurant food. When you know truly how to price (and cost!) something, you know when and where you can offer discounts. If cost to acquire a tenant is $2k, then the discount to preserve a good tenant should be about $2k per tenant turnover time .
> the average person doesn't know how to price restaurant food Could you be more specific?
"It would cost less for me to buy the groceries and make this at home".
Re: Airbnb is banning indoor security cameras
#363Earlier quoted context omitted.
You knew this when making the booking? Why didn’t you book a hotel instead? Airbnb or the host have no incentive to change if people like you keep going back. They will change only when it starts to hurt their bottom line.
> You knew this when making the booking? You know about the cleaning fees at booking, but not necessarily the "rules" about cleaning.
Anything not disclosed in "house rules" section at the time of booking is not your responsibility.
Re: Airbnb is banning indoor security cameras
#364Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why would I not be able to be naked in all parts of the house?
Some houses have areas where it is fairly reasonable that people wouldn't be running around naked, e.g common areas shared with others, or rooms with a large amount of glass open to the exterior of the home. And in some cases it might even be illegal for you to be naked in those areas if exposed to others.
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Re: Airbnb is banning indoor security cameras
#365Earlier quoted context omitted.
If I had a group of graduate students at my beck and call I'd love to try to factor out what effect single-family rentals have had on the rental market in toto - because once you remove appreciation, they're often losing money each month, which means they're subsidizing the renters (and willing to do so because they're making it up on highly-leveraged appreciation).
Why would the math be different for apartment buildings? They also appreciate and they usually have better accountants to make sure no money is left on the table if it's available.
Apartment buildings get handled in a business-like manner, but are also apartments (which have downsides for the renters).
My theory is that single family homes get rented below what it costs to rent them and the landlords make it up via appreciation.
It's pretty obvious that there are places like this, where the rental prices are substantially below 1% of the purchase price (one of the "rule of thumbs").
Re: Airbnb is banning indoor security cameras
#366Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's hard to gauge cleaning effort: if a guest uses every dish in the kitchen without doing a wash up, they cleaning crew could be there for hours. But if a guest is tidy, then the cleaning fee should be nothing. The hard part is that you need to reserve and pay for a cleaning crew as if it was always a disaster.
> if a guest uses every dish in the kitchen without doing a wash up, they cleaning crew could be there for hours If it is $200 then that should cover 10 man hours of cleaning in a developed country. I had similar issues as a guest on Airbnb, paid a cleaning fee $100+ and then had complaints that I left food in the fridge (like normal a pack of milk or something not growing new lifeforms) and couch pillow on the floor…
Which developed country? The rates in a US city are generally higher than $200 for 10 hours.
Re: Airbnb is banning indoor security cameras
#367Earlier quoted context omitted.
> the average person doesn't know how to price restaurant food Could you be more specific?
"It would cost less for me to buy the groceries and make this at home".
Not that I always could or would care to go to the effort for a fancy meal, but in general it's going to be a lot cheaper to prepare most meals at home. Or maybe I'm misunderstanding you.
Re: Airbnb is banning indoor security cameras
#368Earlier quoted context omitted.
No, because math. As others have stated it can't be rolled into the nightly rate because it is only charged once per reservation. At least last time I booked on AirBnB it was clearly displayed as part of the total reservation price if you entered dates.
I stay at hotels all the time that don't do a cleaning on the first night. How could they possibly figure out the complex calculus of what to charge? Oh right, averaging .
As another user replied, hotels have a cleaning staff that they just pay a salary to - it is, for the most part, a fixed cost. The owner of a single rental/room really is usually paying a flat fee every time they need their placed cleaned, and thus can have widely different costs based on whether someone stays 1 night or 28. They simply don't have the luxury of averaging their costs over a wide base, no matter how many times you put that word in italics.
Re: Airbnb is banning indoor security cameras
#369Earlier quoted context omitted.
At this point the cleaning fees are just a scam to make the listing fee seem artificially lower. People did the same thing on eBay by making the items almost free but the shipping expensive, until they fixed the eBay interface, e.g. by letting you sort by price + shipping and showing shipping fees before you click.
This is also how airlines work these days. Separate airfare from fees and baggage, then trick travelers with low sticker prices.
Most of the many taxes and fees associated with air tickets are built in. Not checked luggage in particular in many cases although I don't pay that on my usual airline and rarely have it anyway. Otherwise, unless I want to upgrade, the price it gives me is what I pay.
Re: Airbnb is banning indoor security cameras
#370Earlier quoted context omitted.
Give it time. I'd not be surprised to read that Air BnB are going to curtail this behavior next. The only reason you're doing this is to game the system. Be honest and charge more.
No the logistics and economics don’t work to run an Airbnb the same as a hotel. Why would Airbnb add regulations that make their customers less profitable or financially viable?
Er, because they can.
And do.
As evidenced by the recent changes.
The point is, you should either charge cleaning costs and not require the customer to do anything other than leave it in a “used” state - or - not charge cleaning costs but require the customer at least does some basic cleaning.
Charging and also requiring customers to clean is unethical in my book.