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Airbnb asks people to donate money to landlords, backlash ensues

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Re: Airbnb asks people to donate money to landlords, backlash ensues

#81

Post by hoseja »

mdszy wrote: post #33
setgree wrote: post #22

I would prefer a world in which we didn't call some people griping on twitter "news". Two popular HN pieces have recently touched on how journalists and newspapers give twitter too much weight: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23833267 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23827073 All I'm seeing in this article is a few people trying to get that dopamine rush of engagement by dunking on "landlords" (not that all…

"some are just folks renting an extra room out" That's a landlord.

Person of land, please.

Re: Airbnb asks people to donate money to landlords, backlash ensues

#82

Post by zwirbl »

MrPowers wrote: post #51
zwirbl wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I fully agree with most criticisms, but fees for the final cleaning of the room (usually only once per 1 or 2 week stay) are oftentimes separate from the room (or apartment) price, but they have to be advertised

When you searched Airbnb for prices they wouldn't include cleaning or additional services. For my first few years using Airbnb, this wasn't a problem, but then folks began hacking the search algorithm and charging huge cleaning fees to get included in more searches. You'd select a place for $500 and find it was $700 when checking out. I started going back to hotels cause they were cheaper than Airbnb.

thank you for the clarification, I really thought it was normal business practice (which it can be), but this sounds much more like a scam

Re: Airbnb asks people to donate money to landlords, backlash ensues

#84

Post by ericpauley »

monkeynotes wrote: post #62
sleavey wrote: post #14

This was really short sighted given Airbnb have claimed since the beginning to regulators, local authorities and the public that they exist only to provide a platform for people to rent out their spare rooms when it's convenient for them. Their core claim is that they are not a hotel company, which is how they manage to skirt so many hotel regulations. Built into these claims is the assumption that the owners of the…

I have somewhat of a 'not in my backyard' opinion of Airbnb. I have admittedly used the service multiple times, but since I moved into a new house I've changed my view on the business model. Our neighbour Airbnbs multiple rooms in his house full time. He barely has parking for 3 cars, 2 cars if you don't want to be boxed in. However he rents out room for 6 people. He constantly has business moving through his house,…

Have you looked into reporting a zoning violation? The operation may violate existing laws relating to rental permitting or commercial use.

Re: Airbnb asks people to donate money to landlords, backlash ensues

#85

Post by dunham »

randomsearch wrote: post #41
spuz wrote: post #32

I really wonder how much pressure AirBnB must be feeling from hosts in order to go through with this idea. There's no way that they have done thinking it would not have some downsides. I really would like to know how they calculated that going through with this idea would be a better option than doing nothing.

My thoughts too. But why does Airbnb care? Presumably the landlords will just come back or be replaced, and it’s not like they have shown concern for ethics in a long time.

> But why does Airbnb care?

Maybe they’re taking a cut and their other revenue streams have dried up?

Re: Airbnb asks people to donate money to landlords, backlash ensues

#86

Post by [deleted] »

bkor wrote: post #59
jliptzin wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not disagreeing with you except about the cleaning fee. Hotels usually clean every room every day and have an on-site cleaning staff. The marginal cost to clean one room is pretty low, and it happens every day while you’re there, so it’s baked into the price. On Airbnb, typically your place is cleaned once after you leave whether you stayed one night or two weeks, and it’s more expensive than just cleaning a hotel ro…

> Not disagreeing with you except about the cleaning fee. Having different fees is fine. What is troublesome is that AirBNB doesn't immediately show the total price (including all surcharges). I think recently they finally were forced to do that in the EU (before that I used a browser addon). That the initial price includes all the additional surcharges has been mandatory for quite a while due to companies using this…

[deleted]

Re: Airbnb asks people to donate money to landlords, backlash ensues

#87

Post by pavel_lishin »

willis936 wrote: post #25
kozhevnikov wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Other articles of this topic mentioned this titbit: > The financial situation is especially dire for megahosts, some of whom bought up dozens of properties and built short-term-rental empires that made up their main source of income (about one-third of Airbnb hosts have more than 25 properties, according to the analytics site AirDNA). https://www.businessinsider.com/airbnb-asking-renters-to-don...

Is there some way I could solicit the megahosts for a donation?

There's probably lots of things in their properties that aren't nailed down.

Re: Airbnb asks people to donate money to landlords, backlash ensues

#88

Post by danpalmer »

I wonder if AirBnB knows how delusional they are about their own product?

They originally pitched it on a social message – stay with other people who enjoy travelling like you, sometimes you'll rent a room from someone, other times you'll rent out your room. Everyone cares about making this a great community.

However this is far from what they've become – most rooms/properties are full-time AirBnB rooms, many managed by management companies trying to skim as much profit as they can, and rented out by professional short-term landlords who clearly don't care about the community.

In the former product, I can imagine having a connection to some hosts, I can imagine emailing them to see if I could book a floating credit for some nights next year or tipping a fair bit more on a booking.

But that's not AirBnB. I've not stayed in a single place like that. Surely AirBnB must know what their product actually is? Does that mean this communication is just gaslighting customers into thinking they're something different?

Re: Airbnb asks people to donate money to landlords, backlash ensues

#89

Post by koolba »

claudeganon wrote: post #48
jliptzin wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is being inflated after the fact? When you book on Airbnb it shows you all the fees including cleaning fee before you book...

Go look at an Airbnb listing, it will be advertised at a lower, per night rate, but when you go to book, it can jump up as much as 50% with tacked on fees. Hotels don’t do this. I just went on the site and looked at an advertised $80 per night listing. On booking it became $137, with the $40 cleaning and $17 service fees. That’s a $137 room not an $80 one and I doubt it costs $40 to clean it.

Hotels do this all the time. Resort fees. Taxes. Surcharges. Amenities.

Only airlines publish full fares and that’s because of a federal law. I remember back in the day when it wasn’t the case and you had to click through to the final pricing page to do any serious fare comparison.

Re: Airbnb asks people to donate money to landlords, backlash ensues

#90

Post by rrrazdan »

Raed667 wrote: post #43
malechimp wrote: post #11

Being a regular customer in a very hot market (Dublin) I can attest that most of the places I've been to were grossly overpriced and let's not speak about the quality. Back in the fat cows era (up until a few months ago) it seemed that Airbnb was synonymous to "if you have a spare doghouse in a hot overpriced market then you can make very good money out of it". Not to mention how airbnb was contributing to such marke…

They must be so disconnected that they feel their hosts and guests are actually having a meaningful connection. Most of my Airbnb interactions don't go beyond the exchange of keys (or not even that with the key boxes). I have no sympathy for landlords or Airbnb, they are just going to have to deal with the market like everyone else.

I know your comment is for the majority but I have had meaningful connections with my hosts. Some I am still in touch years later.

If the host reached out to me on their own, I would probably help them. But to have Airbnb guilt trip people into donating is beyond me as well.

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