Also fuck enshittification!
$1k deposit, but yeah
I’ve been enjoying watching the Internet collectively bully that one AirBnB couple, Cassie and Jon.
I’m out of the loop on that one. What happened?
They’re a couple that just go crazy with what they expect from people that stay at their place. The clip that I first saw that I think made them go viral was them upset the guests left the TV remote in a different room (on the table next to where they keep their rulebook), moved a footstool, left the bed unmade, and left a few things of food in the fridge in containers. They do charge a hefty cleaning fee and have some crazy rules with steep fines like charging I think like $50 for every minute past their early checkout time or something.
Wait how are they even able to enforce the fee?
With your credit card, which they have on file.
The basic problem of AirBNB was that it was never going to scale. Individual condo owners will never be able to compete with the efficiencies of scale of hotels. Having cleaning staff have to drive from building to building can never compete with a bunch of rooms in a single hallway.
The AirBNB concept does make sense for a few niche applications:
-
Small rental units in locations where big hotels aren’t viable. (Think remote mountain cabins.)
-
Actual lived-in homes for people who are traveling and don’t mind strangers staying in their house while they’re away.
Neither of these scale. Cabin rentals can compete because it’s not viable to build a hundred unit hotel on top of a remote mountain. But that market can’t scale. Cabin rentals already have their own rental networks, and there are only so many of them. People renting out their actual residences can compete with hotels. You already have to pay your mortgage anyway, bringing in a short-term renter adds little marginal cost. But this model can’t scale, as very few people actually want to rent out their own homes while they’re out.
But AirBNB pulled the usual Silicon Valley bait-and-switch. Corner a market with unsustainably low prices, then raise them. The bait got many people to purchase rental units with the goal of renting them on AirBNB. But this was never going to be sustainable. Once AirBNB stopped subsidizing the rentals, the landlords have to raise the costs (both monetary and policy costs) to actually make the business profitable. And they simply cannot compete with the economies of scale of hotels.
Airbnb as a service for homeowners to rent to visitors is a great idea. Want to rent out your basement to weary travellers? Heres a service to do that.
Buying 20 single family homes to generate passive income is an incredibly stupid, antisocial, and dystopian idea.
-
AirBnB became too many people’s “passive income”.
They don’t want to take care of the property or have too many to take care of, so they treat customers like house sitters for the luxury of renting the property as well as building equity off them.
Pretty messed up. In the early days Airbnb was ok, we used it a couple times, but I don’t think I’d want to mess with it today.
Gosh, I hate passive income. It doesnt do anything meaningful to society. Yet, the investor somehow gains more benefit from the invested resources than the people who create and use them.
They rebranded “Economic rent” to make it trendy. Adam smith is creating a vortex in his grave.
Somewhere in America a landlord is crying…
AirBnb became popular when hotels inflated prices around certain events or were at capacity. Since then, AirBnb owners have jacked up prices to be more expensive than hotels, and you have to deal with the “landlord attitude.” It turned from a genuine service into another cash grab scheme.
And it also uses apartments that could’ve been regularly rented, worsening the housing crisis.
That applies to houses as well lol. For all of it, it goes even deeper too. It’s not just that buildings that were going to be rented are now airbnbs, but that another avenue of revenue is once again tied to hoarding livable buildings with no plans of residing in them.
Enshittification strikes again!
Yeah, if it’s the same price why the hell would you not stay in a hotel instead of “pretend this random house is a hotel, but now with the added magic of no regulation”
A halfway decent kitchen
“Oops, left a mess (had a crumb on the counter). $350 cleaning fee.”
People always say this, but I’ve never run into any issues. Booking a cabin for the family or a week long stay through airbnb can still be the more cost effective option.
I always read the reviews and rules in depth before booking. The types of places that will pull what you describe usually are pretty apparent.
Obviously it’s still fucked that I the consumer have to go through all of that when Airbnb could just make some standards, but oh well.
Personally now I avoid Airbnbs except for the two cases I mentioned. Groups and extended stays. Yes extended stay hotels do exist too, but they are hit and miss imo.
Ive stayed in Airbnbs like 20 times in many cities, different states, even different countries. Literally have never had any issues like what people complain about whatsoever. My cat even scratched up an (admittedly already somewhat roughed up) couch at one, not terribly but it was damaged, and the guy didnt charge me anything at all.
The only issue I take with airbnbs is that there are so many that should be free market rentals or family housing rather than short term rentals
Booking a cabin
To clarify - booking a cabin (presumably in the middle of the woods, no neighbours?) vs booking a hotel (also in the middle of the woods, no other guests)?
Or does cabin mean something else for you, e. g. any vacation house?
Woods, family vacations tended to often be in the mountains
Never been to a hotel in the middle of the woods with no other guests
Although other places could be appropriate for group travel. Like any vacation home
Never been to a hotel in the middle of the woods with no other guests
That’s my point. You’re not picking hotel alternative not because airbnb is better, but because there is no alternative.
That’s why I always leave a tip (what others call an “upper decker”).
I’ve really been working on upgrading this one but it really does the job
Who are you choosing? You have to do some research and never be the first one.
There’s a plethora of extended stay hotels that aren’t much, if any, more expensive than a regular hotel that have kitchens.
Yeah, and their “kitchens” suuuuck
What, you too good for a 24"x18" counter with a combination dishwasher, coffee maker, microwave, and minifridge?
They are at least half descent like you asked. If you wanted good, you should have been more specific.
No, they’re not half decent for preparing a meal.
A kitchen and other amenities are a big reason
I stay at hotels like that sometimes.
Don’t forget having to find the cameras watching you, and text messages every 38 minutes telling you to leave 5 star reviews.
I like hitting my vape a few times around the AirBnB.
I want them to hit me with a cleaning fee and them explain how they knew I was vaping unflavored eliquid.
It still stinks. You’ve just blown out your ability to smell it. Don’t vape indoors in shared spaces, it’s gross.
No, glycerin and propylene glycol don’t have a smell that would be noticeable, even if you’re looking for it.
It’s an airbnb, not a shared space
Do you think AirBnB houses just….stop existing after you check out or something?
you could say the same about any other rental
Yes, and we do.
For sure, people think they know where to put the cameras for the best show, but they really don’t. Gotta help them out with that.
If you’re a party of 4 or fewer and are only staying for a couple of nights, a hotel with breakfast included is the better choice. Chain hotels also have a minimum baseline of quality so you at least have some expectation of consistency anywhere you go. Less chances of hidden cameras too.
Unless the point of your travel is the accommodation itself, you’ll likely only be in there for less than 12 hours a day, so all you really need is a secure room with a clean bed and bathroom.
Separate bedrooms and a kitchen have a pretty high value for a lot of travelers. You are making a big generalization here.
Idk my airbnb had a heat alarm fitted on the ceiling directly above the stove, so when we decided to cook we discovered that it sets off above 45°C, is not a smoke alarm, and we were already overwhelmed with stress before that cataclysmic screech. I smashed it off the ceiling (because I can’t think through the noise to find the latch), told them “fuck you, hated the stay,” and I never got a fine. Left the pieces of alarm where they lay.
Those are supposed to be an improvement for small spaces where smoke alarms can be too sensitive and go off all the time. Of course, they’re supposed to be on the ceiling.
To be frank it was a very small space aha - kitchen was just round a corner from the living space, almost 3 walls of a square, and about 1.5 metres wide. Nowhere for the heat to go but up
Nobody in their right mind puts a smoke alarm in the kitchen anyway
But that is where fires start all the time…
You should at least put a photoelectric fire/smoke alarm in your kitchen, those are less sensitive than the ionization alarms, they will still go off if you burn something but, you will avoid the hassle of it going off because you decided to cook some french fries or something on a frying pan.
Many people I don’t think realize that usually, you can usually press the button on the alarm, and it will suppress the alarm as well. I see many folk removing the batteries until it’s away.
I’ve never stayed in an Airbnb, and after everything I’ve read online, I can’t think of a compelling reason to.
Edit: my goodness, such evangelism! Perhaps I should reconsider my position
I’ve had good luck, but most of the time for a 1 night stay a hotel is better.
If it’s multiple nights or a group that’s where airbnb is more appealing. You have to put in the work to read everything the owner posts and the reviews to figure out if they are they type to engage in shenanigans. It’s worked so far, but ridiculous to have to check for it
Yeah, when I’m traveling, the one thing I need to be rock solid reliable is the place that I’m staying. I can’t constantly have some anxiety about some bullshit shenanigans with that. No thank you
They’re good for big groups and certain locations.
My wife has a big online friend group that likes to get together a couple times a year in various places around the US. For 15ish people, AirBnB is cheaper than hotels and lets everyone stay together in one place with room to congregate and cook real meals. It’s also easier to find cabins and stuff in remote nature areas than hotels.
We’re also planning a weeklong trip to NYC, and even with rewards points AirBnB was cheaper than a hotel.
Outside those specific circumstances, if it’s just us and we’re only spending a night or two in a less expensive location, hotels are basically always better
the only reason o can think to use one is for partying and eat the fees.
Yeah its supposed to be a cheaper way to stay but I’d rather pay a little bit more for the structure, show up check in at the desk, then just leave when you’re ready. If I want cheaper travel I’d rather just camp
Might be an American thing. Never had any significant problem or excessive demand on Airbnb, both as a host and a guest, in Europe.
If you’re a low-maintenance kind of person that just wants a pull-out sofa to sleep on, a shower, and possibly a kettle+microwave to make coffee+bad food for a day or two, you can find Airbnbs at ¼ the price of a hotel.
At that price its going to be way out of where you want to be and possibly out of public transit network, be dilapitated and probably smell bad.
I’ve done this a lot, so I’m speaking from experience. I haven’t been compromising on location (closeness to where I need to be), only on comfort. It probably depends on where you’re travelling to though.
They’re good for extended stays with other people, where you want multiple bedrooms, a kitchen, and a living room. Or if you want a more private stay in a scenic area away from other people.
I’ve never done it myself, but there seem to be a couple of different reasons why it would be preferable over a standard hotel room.
-
Easier and cheaper way to get a huge living space with a kitchen for a large group of people.
-
The possibility of staying in a unique type of room that a hotel just can’t provide.
-
Hotels suck ass too. We stayed in a “luxury” hilton and it was shit. It looked nice at first, but then
- Everything was falling apart.
- You got a “complimentary” water bottle (like a kirkland style) if you were a member, but it was $2.50 (maybe even $3.50 which I think I would have remembered cuz it’s funny) if you weren’t.
- They charged you a $60 deposit in case you use that bottle of water or something? We got that back, but it was stupid that we had to check.
- We didn’t use the parking pass for 2 days and they refused to give that money back.
They’re only being a little nicer right now because they’re losing business. They’ll go back to huge shits if they get the market share back.
Maybe I misunderstand the parking pass thing, but I’m not sure why you would get the money back just because you didn’t use it. My assumption (which may be wrong!) is that while you had that pass, capacity was allocated to you and could not be sold to someone else. Like buying a seat ticket for a show and not showing up.
That said, I wouldn’t be shocked to learn that isn’t quite the case. I should probably give you the benefit of the doubt.
We asked and they said they would, then wouldn’t, multiple times. We were so annoyed at that point that we were going to annoy them back.
That’s just the Hilton for you, to be honest. I stayed in one in San Diego long time back for visiting a conference in the center right next to it. Was quite expensive and for that amount of money nothing special was given. I only had free wifi because I booked under the conference offer, so normally not even that was free.
Not my first choice. But I stay in cabins a lot and all the good ones use Airbnb or Vrbo because they have to. You got big companies like KOA, but those are typically crowded.
Places like that used to have their own listings and websites before the craze, but now if they aren’t listed they go unseen.
Im extra careful, but I typically find some amazing off the beaten path places. Lot of family owned and well cared for areas. Most also have some owner supplying homemade baked goods, fresh farm raised eggs, and produce pre-stocked. All completely free with a kind note.
Why does the airbnb logo look like testivaries and a pegina?
By “both” keys, you mean both sets of replacements you got because you kept locking yourself out of the room, right?
