Also fuck enshittification!
This is the Fed’s fault.
There should have never been less than 3 percent mortgages. They basically gave away free home equity to an entire generation. And you know what they did? Bought 2nd homes and allowed VRBO/AirB&B to thrive. Now with “normal” interest rates, none of this makes any sense.
I booked a AirBNB once, and we had already driven an hour, and the owner said they never approved the booking, and “Airbnb messed up” when I called an hour into the drive
Nope, she clearly had forgotten to disable it that night. Then, after I argued, she said “oh just wait 10 mins, I’ll see if I can fix it”, and wanted me to sit there for 10mins in my car doing nothing.
Another time, its was NYE, it was $400 a night, and the bin there was overflowing at the BBQ, and, we bought ice cream but the freezer was frozen over completely, so it wouldn’t fit.
It only took thirty minutes of looking at how AirBnb operates for me to choose a hotel, on the one occasion I considered AirBnb.
It used to be that hotels overcharged and airbnb was a way to get around that.
Now, hotels overcharged and airbnb raised the cost of rent/housing.
It gets worse.
I was just really put off by the scrutiny in renting the place. And the cost…it was not cheap, none of the options were.
In a way I understand, but if I’m renting an apartment or standalone dwelling for a weekend I’d like to at least have a couple of drinks after going out and let smokers smoke outside, which is what I was looking for. We’re not talking raging party here, just winding down after a show.
The experience just looking at the option really sucked. It didn’t take long for me to decide it wasn’t the way. That was confirmed when I went the traditional option and got a great apartment right on the river that met all the requirements for hundreds less than the AirBNB options.
I absolutely despise the social media feel of AirBnB. I already hate creating more accounts. Why the fuck do I need to make a whole ass profile and tick off a bunch of interests and whatever, and then when I see a property I want to rent, send a personal message sucking up to the property owner? Yeah, no. Lots of options out there that don’t involve that bullshit ant it baffles me that anyone finds it attractive.
Seems more like data farming than renting a room
Deposit at a hotel? I haven’t seen that before.
These days they just put a hold on your credit card which basically has the same effect.
It’s common for cheaper hotels, at least in the US. They don’t call it a deposit, but an extra hold they place on your card when checking in. Probably to deter people from doing dumb stuff like smoking in a smoke-free room.
actually it’s for people who are so fucking gross that they smear shit on the walls. that stuff needs specialized cleaning (expensive since it’s a biohazard)
Yeah I have a couple of times
I have, they want to get a deposit in case you use their services or something. Hotels suck too.
Edit: Airbnbs suck when they’re bought out by corporations. I’ve seen that a few times. Hotels are all owned by corporations. I try my luck more with airbnbs depending on where it is.
Is this like one of the most upvoted posts on lemmy?
I either camp in the wild or use a good solid well established Hotel with a decent service and restaurant, preferably near a beach with a pool. No shitty BnB bullshit fake ikea crap condo is ever going to top that. AirBnB is from stupid asses for stupid asses. Don’t tell me about the exceptions. I am talking about the rule.
AirBnB is not for ‘cheap’ stays anymore (if it ever was), it works a lot better when you use it to find quirky/interesting places to stay (like a treehouse!). People still try to use it to replace a hotel though. $100/night can usually get you a decent room with breakfast at a hotel in most areas.
Do most people care about “quirky” places to stay, or do they just want somewhere to crash?
That being said, the only use I see for AirBnB is if you’re with a group of people and you can get a whole house and you can split the cost.
It was a cool way for my wife and I to spend a night in a treehouse for our anniversary and wasn’t very expensive (and within reasonable driving distance of our home). Maybe ‘quirky’ is the wrong word but more ‘interesting’? 🤷♂️
I know some people that have had good experiences using AirBnB for long term stays but overall I’m not a huge fan. It can be nice to have access to a kitchen instead of having to eat out, but for a place to just crash I’d definitely prefer a hotel.
Air bnb people definitely don’t like that their rates don’t cover property taxes and they run a deficit every month. They charge fees to stay in the black. They’re just capitalist that think you have to make money on everything
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:
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Small rental units in locations where big hotels aren’t viable. (Think remote mountain cabins.)
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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.
It’s also good for family reunion or just traveling with your own family or kids and want a kitchen/ multiple rooms.
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.
Wasn’t that the original idea? I swear when my friend first used it he made it sound like crashing in a spare room.
Yeah because it was a paid knock off of couch surfing. I made so many great friends in my trip to Europe because most of those doing it were college students or recent grads who wanted some extra cash and meet people.
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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
its cheap for large groups, but smaller groups not so much
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.
with a service fee.
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.
Just having a fridge and a toaster helps loads in saving costs if you are staying for a while. Search “apartment” instead of “hotel” to find these places.
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
Plenty of options around here. Staybridge has dinner and drinks Mon-Wed
I stay at hotels like that sometimes.
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.
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.
and it was being used by some corps to worsen the housing crisis too.
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…
Ironically the same brown central south American cleaning crew cleans up for the hotels and airbnb, also they are disappearing because of ICE
So, higher airbnb cleaning fees are coming?
$1k deposit, but yeah
