1 million nights booked at Airbnb (YC W09) • Hacker News Board

Re: 1 million nights booked at Airbnb (YC W09)

#51

Post by smackfu » Fri, Feb 25, 2011, 2:54 PM UTC

jackowayed wrote: post #43

emmett wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, impressive! And based on actual data, as opposed to numbers I made up :-)

Wouldn't be surprised if they tweak their thresholds for comping rooms to fill rooms that would otherwise go vacant.

They also have tweaked pricing to keep rooms filled. The same room at MB is going for $70 on 3/13 (Sunday) vs. $270 on 3/16 (Wed). (To be honest, sophisticated enough that I don't even really understand that. Usually it is the weekends that have the prices jacked.)

Re: 1 million nights booked at Airbnb (YC W09)

#52

Post by karanr » Fri, Feb 25, 2011, 4:34 PM UTC

krmmalik wrote: post #29

karanr wrote: post #27

Ok AirBnB, great work so far. you've got 11 months till my honeymoon, get me some more choices: GO!

I have my honeymoon coming up in 8 weeks and wasnt sure if AirBNB was a good idea for that(?) You've convinced me to at least give it a serious consideration. Unfortunately i've never seriously used AirBNB before. Any advice?

Yeah I think Airbnb would be a great alternate to expensive luxury hotels. From what I have seen, even some hotels seem to post listing at comparable prices here. Ultimately its really up to you what kind of honeymoon you like. Do you want one where you get room service, and other hotel luxuries at your beck and call, or do you want to be left alone and handle everything yourself. In my view, the best of both worlds would be one of these beach front villas, with a private beach, and hiring a butler for the stay so you don't have to worry about having service.

Re: 1 million nights booked at Airbnb (YC W09)

#53

Post by gustaf » Fri, Feb 25, 2011, 7:13 PM UTC

jonknee wrote: post #19

r00k wrote: post #12

Last night I was wondering if Airbnb has the kind of traffic that would make it feasible to buy a condo somewhere popular (downtown Boston, for example) with the goal of renting it full-time. I'd love to hear from people who've rented out rooms/apartments through Airbnb in a popular area. How was the demand?

Depending on the city it does, but many of those cities are quickly trying to shut it down. Hotels and other officially sanctioned places of lodging aren't too jazzed on the idea of unregulated (and thus untaxed) competitors. An example, New York City has banned rentals for less than 30 days. Enforcement is another issue though, so I guess we'll have to wait until May when the law goes into effect to see what happens…

People are already doing that on Airbnb, at least in New York. We'll have to see if the new law will have any impact the basis of it is a huge mess.

Re: 1 million nights booked at Airbnb (YC W09)

#54

Post by krmmalik » Mon, Mar 07, 2011, 8:22 PM UTC

karanr wrote: post #52

krmmalik wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have my honeymoon coming up in 8 weeks and wasnt sure if AirBNB was a good idea for that(?) You've convinced me to at least give it a serious consideration. Unfortunately i've never seriously used AirBNB before. Any advice?

Yeah I think Airbnb would be a great alternate to expensive luxury hotels. From what I have seen, even some hotels seem to post listing at comparable prices here. Ultimately its really up to you what kind of honeymoon you like. Do you want one where you get room service, and other hotel luxuries at your beck and call, or do you want to be left alone and handle everything yourself. In my view, the best of both worlds…

Sorry for the late reply. I'm going to Sorrento, Italy. I ended up getting a hotel for very cheap, but i really need to consider the AirBNB idea more. My wife and i werent sure about how much privacy we were going to get amongst other things. I'd love to hear more about how you would have done something like this. I think i need to learn to be a little more adventurous when it comes to this kind of stuff.