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Airbnb and Vrbo are going downhill like a hippo on a water slide

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Re: Airbnb and Vrbo are going downhill like a hippo on a water slide

#51

Post by nottorp »

ProllyInfamous wrote: post #46
nottorp wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No one's interested in getting our 0.0001 whatever coin sadly. They're chasing the whales who are willing to commit to a 10 year subscription.

This could be a neat addition to substack's platform/design/profits. ---- My local newspaper (the father of NYT) expects its largely-aged population to shell out $35/month for daily prints. Some bozo thought offering a free iPad would really jive with this population ( ̄_(ツ)_/ ̄)

I'm in a gloomy mood.

Suppose someone comes up with a platform that allows us to pay 0.05$ for one article. They count articles we've selected and charge us when it makes sense due to credit card fees, probably at $10 worth of views.

How long will it take till they start pushing ... a subscription?

Pay us $10/month for $12 worth of article views! 20% savings! *

* Terms and condisions apply. Your $10/month subscription is only good for the 3rd tier content, but there are $29 and $99/month subscriptions that allow access to 2nd tier and first tier. Price valid for a 3 year commitment.

Re: Airbnb and Vrbo are going downhill like a hippo on a water slide

#52

Post by mrjay42 »

moralestapia wrote: post #40
WinstonSmith84 wrote: post #34

So many bad takes, I'll put that on ignorance: > I’m writing to you from a home rental in France where we had to rent our sheets and towels. Yes, that's a French thing, always has been - sorry if that's the first time the author went to France and rented a private flat there ... > It was on the fifth floor of an apartment building and promised 180-degree views of the city below Well, did that apartment had any review…

>Yes, that's a French thing, [...] Is this a common occurrence in French hotels?

I'm French, I've been in hotels and AirBnBs all around the country and in many countries in Europe (Finland, Belgium, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany and France obviously).

About your question, in French hotels: 100% no. Obviously NOT, you don't have to come to the hotel with your own bed linen and whatnot. Hotels in France work exactly like anywhere else in Europe: you book it, you check in, you use the room, you check out, "ciao | bye bye | merci bonne journée" :3

In French AirBnBs (or "home rentals"), and in AirBnBs in Europe: it's a whole different story and it's so completely random. Owners make up rules and regulations, costs and additional costs.

I'm not talking about local 'tourist tax', but literally in some AirBnBs, you see a note when you arrive there: "if you touch that pile of towels, we charge 20€.", "If you leave any dishes to wash we charge 50€", etc. It's crazy in many ways: those costs are NOT announced beforehand (or never accurately), and the rules are completely wacky.

This is what the article is partly about, it has become a cash grabbing, tasteless experience, where greedy people with side hustles are not only destroying local housing prices, but also destroying the actual "(Air)BnB experience".

The conclusion could be "let's all go back to hotels", but this would be massively simplistic :(

Re: Airbnb and Vrbo are going downhill like a hippo on a water slide

#53

Post by deng »

WinstonSmith84 wrote: post #34

So many bad takes, I'll put that on ignorance: > I’m writing to you from a home rental in France where we had to rent our sheets and towels. Yes, that's a French thing, always has been - sorry if that's the first time the author went to France and rented a private flat there ... > It was on the fifth floor of an apartment building and promised 180-degree views of the city below Well, did that apartment had any review…

> Yes, that's a French thing, always has been - sorry if that's the first time the author went to France and rented a private flat there ...

Not just in France, in Germany also not uncommon when renting a "Ferienwohnung". You usually also pay extra for cleaning if you stay for more than a few days. That's just how it works here, but of course it needs to be mentioned in the listing.

> Plus, why would you even need a drier mid-June in Florence (when the temperature hovers between 30C and 40C during day time...) - must be an American thing somehow.

That's indeed hilarious, but oh the horror of putting wet clothes on a drying rack. Driers are simply not that common over here. Electricity is expensive, it's not good for your clothes, plus driers are the number one electrical appliance for creating house fires, so no thank you.

Re: Airbnb and Vrbo are going downhill like a hippo on a water slide

#54

Post by busterarm »

RankingMember wrote: post #21
busterarm wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is why I have always just gotten a hotel. Everyone I know who AirBNBs has horror stories. I've never had a hotel horror story. I've had minor disappointments but always the hotel went out of their accommodate me or my credit card company would have if they failed to meet their obligations. Even for the niche reasons some people AirBNB for (large groups, extended stays), I've always found niche hotels offering th…

For me, the value proposition is that, in an airbnb, you're embedded in the population and get more of the experience of a local. For example, when I was in New Orleans, we had little bands marching around right outside our window, something you wouldn't have gotten in a hotel. It just felt more organic than coming out of a gleaming tower to steep yourself in the area before retreating back to a generic hotel room. (…

I stayed at a hotel on Toulouse and Dauphine in the Quarter and had marching bands "outside my window" at least 3x a day. (Secondlines.com even has routes and schedules so you can plan your stay around this if you're so keen...)

Granted a local wouldn't be caught dead in that area, but staying in hotels has never stopped me from getting "the local experience". Maybe if you're traveling to a destination where there's only resorts.

Re: Airbnb and Vrbo are going downhill like a hippo on a water slide

#55

Post by gosub100 »

ergonaught wrote: post #23
krunck wrote: post #9

The problem is owners rent out their space and try to do all the work from afar. Cleaners are rented and just do what their told. No one really inspects the place between guests. No one maintains anything. It's just maximal profit extraction which turns everything into crap. I would never rent out my home or extra dwelling without greeting the guests in person, being available for assistance, and maybe even showing u…

A huge advantage for these services is that I don’t ever have to meet you in person. Availability for assistance is great, but otherwise I have zero desire to encounter you, as a “consumer”.

Then why not make a 6-figure investment in hospitality stocks instead of buying a house in a single neighborhood?

Re: Airbnb and Vrbo are going downhill like a hippo on a water slide

#56

Post by busterarm »

ergonaught wrote: post #23
krunck wrote: post #9

The problem is owners rent out their space and try to do all the work from afar. Cleaners are rented and just do what their told. No one really inspects the place between guests. No one maintains anything. It's just maximal profit extraction which turns everything into crap. I would never rent out my home or extra dwelling without greeting the guests in person, being available for assistance, and maybe even showing u…

A huge advantage for these services is that I don’t ever have to meet you in person. Availability for assistance is great, but otherwise I have zero desire to encounter you, as a “consumer”.

parent post reminded me of my experience living in Hilton Head and working for the local internet provider.

Storms and loss of power are really common in the area and we would get a flood of really belligerent callers with the following circumstances:

- Lives over 1000 miles away out of state

- Owns multiple AirBNBs in the area

- The locks for their doors required an internet connection and power to function

- They didn't have a local property manager

- Their guests were locked out

It was hilarious because they were screaming and hollering and demanding immediate service from the internet company to get their locks fixed because they were too cheap to hire a local to service the properties and reboot the fiber ONT after a power outage.

And this was about 15 years ago, so I think the "recent decline" of AirBNB is exaggerated and that these owners have always been on the platform, they're now just the _only_ owners on the platform.

Re: Airbnb and Vrbo are going downhill like a hippo on a water slide

#57

Post by drivingmenuts »

WinstonSmith84 wrote: post #34

So many bad takes, I'll put that on ignorance: > I’m writing to you from a home rental in France where we had to rent our sheets and towels. Yes, that's a French thing, always has been - sorry if that's the first time the author went to France and rented a private flat there ... > It was on the fifth floor of an apartment building and promised 180-degree views of the city below Well, did that apartment had any review…

Sure, you're a nomad, so you're used to how things work in other places, but a lot of people aren't, nor do know how to research local customs nor whom to ask before they arrive. I'm not a traveler, so if I suddenly did arrive in France, the whole bedding rental thing is a totally new concept that I'v never heard of before reading your comment. How would I even know to ask about that sort of thing, if my experience was entirely based on hotels, where that isn't a thing.

When you first started nomad-ding, how often did you get caught out by some custom you never heard of before?

Re: Airbnb and Vrbo are going downhill like a hippo on a water slide

#58

Post by _DeadFred_ »

Mistletoe wrote: post #20
busterarm wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is why I have always just gotten a hotel. Everyone I know who AirBNBs has horror stories. I've never had a hotel horror story. I've had minor disappointments but always the hotel went out of their accommodate me or my credit card company would have if they failed to meet their obligations. Even for the niche reasons some people AirBNB for (large groups, extended stays), I've always found niche hotels offering th…

Hotel every time for me. Let a professional clean it, I’m not traveling to do someone’s chores for them.

Pro Airbnb people always say it's better than a hotel if they have kids. My kids got sick like 1 out of 5 trips. And if I needed clean sheets/towels to accommodate that, I just called down. And I didn't have to worry about it impacting some voluntary social credit score.

Re: Airbnb and Vrbo are going downhill like a hippo on a water slide

#59

Post by moralestapia »

politelemon wrote: post #48
moralestapia wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Yes, that's a French thing, [...] Is this a common occurrence in French hotels?

And are you supposed to carry your own sheets in the luggage?

Yes, that's a French thing.

Re: Airbnb and Vrbo are going downhill like a hippo on a water slide

#60

Post by Tadpole9181 »

drivingmenuts wrote: post #57
WinstonSmith84 wrote: post #34

So many bad takes, I'll put that on ignorance: > I’m writing to you from a home rental in France where we had to rent our sheets and towels. Yes, that's a French thing, always has been - sorry if that's the first time the author went to France and rented a private flat there ... > It was on the fifth floor of an apartment building and promised 180-degree views of the city below Well, did that apartment had any review…

Sure, you're a nomad, so you're used to how things work in other places, but a lot of people aren't, nor do know how to research local customs nor whom to ask before they arrive. I'm not a traveler, so if I suddenly did arrive in France, the whole bedding rental thing is a totally new concept that I'v never heard of before reading your comment. How would I even know to ask about that sort of thing, if my experience w…

By doing basic research on the entirely separate country and culture you're going to? Does everybody seriously just lack critical thinking and expect everyone else to pick up the slack now?

When I travel somewhere - especially somewhere I don't speak the language - I make sure I know things like basic customs, politeness, emergency numbers, unexpected laws, etc.

You are a guest in their home.

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