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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

#421

Post by wcarron »

Nextgrid wrote: post #407
wcarron wrote: post #343

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is exactly the entitlement I am speaking of. You want to go somewhere for an extended period. You want a proper kitchen. Your expectation is that the residents of a town or TheMarket should just... accomodate your desires? Regardless of their housing market, QoL, infrastructure, etc.? Sheesh, jamie. I typically eschew using this term, but someone taking a 2-4 week vacation is already highly privileged to be able…

Well, he wants and he is willing to pay, it's not like he's demanding it for free. The residents and the town should price it accordingly so that both sides benefit from the deal. Following your logic, going to the bakery to buy bread instead of making it myself is "entitled" and disregards the baker's quality of life since he'd be much more comfortable sleeping than waking up at 5am to start preparing the bread.

No, that was not my logic. You substituted your own. My argument is that under no circumstances is any entity 'required' to accomodate your desired market conditions. There are existing markets (i.e hotels) that towns/cities/whatevers provide. The mere desire from a consumer (or even massive group of them) does not oblige others to service that desire. And, the expectation that those desires are always met is the entitlement.

Many markets have demand, but society prevents their legal existence. For example, organ trades. I'm sure a lot of alcoholics would love just being able to go get a new liver whenever they want or when theirs fails. However, the... issues that creates have been deemed unacceptable and therefore, it's not allowed (obviously, it still happens illegally).

Some people want AirBnBs so they can have all the accoutrements of a home wherever they travel. Other people do not want such a market to exist, for a variety of reasons. I don't think that simply because an economic opportunity exists, it should be serviced or be allowed to be serviced. Obviously, advertisers want to increased the amount and effectiveness of their ads. FaceBook and Google would block out the sky and plaster it with ads if they could. Should they be allowed to?

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

#422

Post by scarface74 »

Firmwarrior wrote: post #415
vertis wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, we've stayed in accommodation like this as well. Often very shitty experiences in business aparthotels. Always good to have a list though.

I used to stay at Hyatt House pretty regularly, and it was a great experience Lately it's sucked just like every other hotel, since they don't clean the rooms and the employees are all overworked and stressed out. Still better than having to deal with all the huge fees and shenanigans from AirBNB IMO

Unfortunately, there are relatively few Hyatt Houses in the US.

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

#423

Post by mcculley »

ycombinator_acc wrote: post #420
mcculley wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 p…

Are you saying there are no bedbugs in hotels? If so, I have bed news for you.

No, that would be silly. I am aware of the risk of bedbugs. I know they are less likely in facilities regulated by local health departments.

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

#424

Post by aembleton »

netfl0 wrote: post #408
aembleton wrote: post #291

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For a whole month‽

https://www.marriott.com/travel-experience/extended-stay-hot... Seeing prices around 3K depending on a city, so yea.

I wasn't thinking of the price but the comfort. You wouldn't have a kitchen so would have to eat out all of the time. I like eating out every now and then but not for more than a few days in a row. Certainly not for a month.

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

#425

Post by d4rti »

njarboe wrote: post #197
nebula8804 wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can't win in this race. Do research in your tourist destination to avoid these places? Well Youtube is full of influencers pushing garbage info, Reddit is being quietly stuffed full of authentic sounding comments and you might as well forget Yelp/Tripadvisor. It seems like a massive scam perpetuated at all levels of the stack.

People used to buy travel books from known publishers where the author had at least gone to the restaurant or hotel at least once. I haven't bought one in decades, but maybe that is the future.

I've been a big fan of the Lonely Planet travel guides, and it's cheap enough to pick one up for the city - worth it even for just a couple of meals or ideas.

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

#426

Post by ptero »

ghaff wrote: post #294
ptero wrote: post #179

Hotels are not without failure, too. I stayed in both the hotels and AirBnbs often (as a rough guess ~75 hotel stays and 30 airbnb stays) and saw hotels full on arrival late at night, noisy rooms, electrical failures and one flood from a guest upstairs, who managed from room 6XX vacate rooms 5XX 4XX 3XX and 2XX -- quite an achievment! I may be lucky, but all my AirBnb stays were pretty good to excellent. I book for c…

I'm guessing that some of your AirBnB success is because you seem to choose fairly carefully and not just on price. That said, you also seem to have had bad luck with hotels. I've stayed in many hundreds and the percentage of memorably bad experiences I've had is tiny. I'm not sure if I have had the kind of record you have had even if I go back decades. I can't remember the last time a hotel gave away my room.

> That said, you also seem to have had bad luck with hotels.

That was not the message I tried to convey, sorry. I did a lot of business travel at one time, stayed in a lot of hotels and have no aversion to them at all. If I am traveling alone, I almost always stay in hotels. Family travel is usually with AirBnB.

I was simply saying that AirBnb should not be seen as universally evil based on a few stories, however horrible, as there are still use cases where it seems to work well. My 2c.

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

#427

Post by gryzzly »

AlexandrB wrote: post #205
gryzzly wrote: post #33

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.

Why would booking.com be any different? It's the same business model with the same economics and incentives.

because it used to have excellent support similar to amazon’s - call or message them and they will contact the hotel themselves and resolve issues. they even managed to waive cancellation fees for our family when we screwed it up ourselves and had non-cancellable reservation. so it wasnt a comparison of airbnb and booking, but current booking.com and the way it used to be
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