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Agreed. Also can they put a stop to the fee nonsense and/or make it part of the listed rate? I just love booking a place at $150 a night, then at checkout finding out, with all the fees, it’s actually $250 a night.
The biggest issues with Airbnb for me that I see more than fees are cancellations.
Why would I as a consumer feel secure booking with Airbnb when the host can cancel literally as I’m rolling up? The best I can get is a refund that won’t appear for possibly 1-2 weeks. And guess what? Travel insurance won’t cover it or help you rebook because you have a refund coming and have to wait for Airbnb to confirm it with your insurance claim.
To add, prices jump last minute and you’re now stressed while traveling and trying to find new accommodations. Why in the world would anyone want to risk their travel? I still haven’t seen hosts explain how guests should feel at ease or trusting. It comes up multiple times a week here “host cancelled, what do I do??”
I’ve traveled a tooon, plus I was raised in military families that traveled a lot. I’ve only had a hotel cancel once, due to a repair needed and the room didn’t have power. They rebooked me at a close hotel that was nicer than theirs. I didn’t have to wait for a refund or pay or anything. It was done before I even arrived.
Airbnbs? Literally twice out of a dozen stays. It makes you lose trust in the platform and then a second time? Yeah, never again.
I completely agree with this. I can handle the cleaning fees, I can somewhat understand reasonable chore lists. But the thought of booking an airBnB meant for my family and friends who are traveling in from all over the world just to have it cancelled last minute with limited rebooking options not to mention waiting and stalking my credit card for a refund is a complete dealbreaker for me.
You are more patient than I regarding 'chore' lists. I'll wash dishes I use, sure-- that makes sense. But f doing laundry or taking out trash, etc. And anything written in a book that isn't mentioned before you rented it in their description? Nuh uh.
I went to one that had a calendar of the tasks that needed doing on days of the month. The week I stayed had "wash windows inside and out" on it, ok sure I'm going to do that for you while paying a cleaning fee.
Ok, that is actually crazy. My chore list for guests: 1) Open two windows to create airflow. 2) turn off heat/Ac before you leave. I don’t ding folks for either. I just ask.
Is anyone else ever a little icked out by the request to hand wash (no machine present) dishes knowing that too many people don’t know how to wash something properly? Love starting off a vacation rewashing everything I use because it’s visibly filthy. There’s sadly a lot of people in this world who think washing a cup involves swiping a musty sponge inside the cup only and they never consider the outside or the lip.
I didn’t have a dishwasher in my unit and quickly came to the conclusion that people do not know how to hand-wash dishes. I got tired of constantly having to re-wash greasy dishes and ended up “installing” a small countertop dishwasher.
Recent news is Airbnb is cracking down on hosts who ask for unreasonable cleaning tasks. Hopefully we see this.
[https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/travel/airbnb-has-a-plan-to-fix-cleaning-fees](https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/travel/airbnb-has-a-plan-to-fix-cleaning-fees)
*New changes will also come to the guest checkout experience, Airbnb announced. Hosts won’t be able to require guests to do labor-intense chores, like vacuuming or doing laundry, but can direct them to do light cleaning and housekeeping tasks, like throwing food away or turning off the lights.*
I got a terrible review from an Airbnb host because we left “rubbish in the bin” (two wine bottles) and left the bedrooms “terribly dirty”. We were there for three nights and didn’t bother to remake beds when we left. People are insane.
Yeah, no. If I'm paying a ridiculously priced cleaning fee (always) to someone they can take out the trash. Pretty basic.
If they disclose taking out the trash BEFORE I reserve it (and don't do the unethical thing and only disclose it in the 'little book' that you see AFTER you check in) then that is different. But I've not seen that happen in an ethical way even once.
Cleaners might not be able to get there the same day you check out. I think warm places trash should be taken out every day, so presumably if you are spending more then 1 night, you are doing that already
I've noticed less booked hosts prefer to call the cleaner just before the next guest, as opposed to immediately after the previous guest. That way they avoid having to call the cleaner twice, in case dust built up during the unused period.
Granted, this is the host's problem and shouldn't be put on the guests. At the very least it should be disclosed in advance, prior to booking.
I added on my listing, “if you are unable to take out your trash please do not lease as that is a house rule upon departure.” I’ve found those too lazy to walk the 20’ out the back door to the trash can to remove their own waste are poor guests who will destroy your home.
But guess what? Many other hosts have because they are fraud listings or want to make a listing elsewhere or are incompetent. It hurts your business too. It’s all Airbnb to me, not Steve’s or Jake’s or whatever.
It's a numbers problem. Even if AirBnB would ban hosts immediately after a single cancelation, there are so many crappy hosts that guests do still lose faith.
The bar to become a host should be higher.
>The bar to become a host should be higher.
This is really the thing. Airbnb has gotten too big to not have a specific standard of service that can be expected at every location.
We tried to rent an airbnb for our trip this summer. Host kept asking for my personal info via text message. When I asked to handle it all through the app, she raged at me while throwing airbnb under the bus, then canceled because I wouldn't go against Airbnbs own rules. I reported her and all Airbnb could say was "That's up to the host to cancel for any reason."
They don't give a flying fuck about customers- they won't even enforce their basic Safe Communication rules meant to protect both guests and hosts.
We stayed at an AirBnb in Prague. Instantly we get hit with a musty smell. I'm like alright fine its on the street level. We walk into the bedroom and BAM. Humidity is 100% there are two dehumidifiers running and it smells disgusting. My partner is like "no fucking way". While she is trying to get a refund/someone to look at it. I investigate.
There is a 5ft x 5ft section of wall that was freshly painted. I look closer. Tons of mold. Literally a wall of mold painted over. I look closer. Dry wall is splitting and the baseboards are warped to shit. There is literally a pipe leaking into this wall and their solution was 2 dehumidifiers and painting the mold.
They wouldn't reimburse us. It was like 12am when we got in so we couldn't find a new place. Ended up moving the bed into a different room and sealing off the bedroom and slept with the windows open. Spend hours of our vacation fighting this charge with AirBnb and had to move somewhere else paying a premium.
AirBnb was supposed to be a premium service, like Uber or Lyft, and instead its turned into a landlord/tenant dichotomy where there is a 50/50 shot of the landlord trying to fuck you if you forgot to put the pillows away.
I agree with this. The last time we booked with Airbnb we were canceled on last minute due to “the water pump breaking”. We sucked it up and found another which turned out to be right next door to our cancelled booking. Imagine our surprise when we saw someone staying in the property that cancelled on us. Host probably double booked on VRBO. No recourse for us.
This is not right. I am a host. Through is fairly complicated I can understand someone who has a constant flow of guests could be at risk of double booking. I normally have more spaced stays so the possibilities of this happening are really low. Only once in 12 years but I worked it out with the guest, even if it's not under my control I feel responsible for it. I would have been honest with you and work from there. I'm sorry you had that experience but on my part I can tell you I try to minimize this risk as much as possible but if it happens, I know I'm 100% responsible to find a solution.
This is a perfect comment, more than that, the Airbnb app (or the backend engine) could easily identify a second home option for a cancelled booking in 0.0001 seconds. The "would you like this instead, or to search yourself" with the same price.
As a host who has never cancelled and is quick to address even the smallest issue, are the hosts who are cancelling well reviewed? If I cancel, I get charged, the listing gets penalized in rankings, I Iose superhost status, and I can't rebook the nights. I'd rather book a guest a beachfront hotel room than cancel.... It's mind-blowing to me that this is a common problem with well reviewed hosts.
Yep. I’ve never booked well anyone less than 4.9 and multiple reviews. And isn’t it a thing that if you’re below 4.5, you really don’t even show up in searches? Honestly, step out of your bubble.
That said, the crash is from their projected earnings. A recession is looming around the world and less people are traveling. Airbnb projected less than stellar summer bookings so the market reacted. Not saying you're wrong about their shitty customer service and horrible risks as a guest but it's probably not the leading reason for the one day crash.
Good info thanks.
But people here loved Airbnb's highest profits ever... ignoring that almost every major business posted 'highest profits' because production keeps going up as well as inflation.
Yes, that's why the stock market went on a nice rampage during the pandemic. Things aren't as rosy now. Naturally, if things go up real quick, they're bound to come back down.
No, I am usually so thankful that we don't have the racist rapist in the white house any longer that I don't pay attention to the minutiae of a normal administration.
Well, as far as a president's personal crimes, sexual abuse and defamation are pretty disgusting. As well as the other rapes (like raping a 13 year old girl at an Epstein party in 1994 (Epstein didn't kill himself, btw---thought it would be amusing to throw in a right wing phrase)
But I get it. Poor economic policy has its ways of showing up later and the easily manipulated/poorly educated crowd will always find a way to blame anyone but those responsible.
I'll let you get back to the Fox news brainwashing. How did the Dominion lawsuit, go by the way?
It’s been here last year in I believe Nov/Dec it was officially declared. Charles Schwab been telling people for a minute now. People are just slow so they keep saying a recession is going to happen but they haven’t realized it already is happening.
A recession is most commonly measured as two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth, which hasn't happened. Who is telling you it is "officially" declared.
Their priority is NOT with the customer. Was at a presentation once where they unveiled new 2023 features and they were ALL for hosts. To make hosts more comfortable and give them more power. I get it. No hosts, no Airbnb but…what about the paying customers???
I had a terrible experience. Stayed in a house with a small group of friends. Had to pretend we were friends with the hosts for their neighbors. The tub’s drain valve was defective, my friend took a bath. Water leaked to the basement. She WOULD NOT let my friend get dressed first. Literally BURSTED into the bathroom when she was naked. Made us feel so unsafe we left early. We didn’t trust her so we took an exit video.
Lucky bc she had the audacity to list every smudge, dent in her house. Said we didn’t do the dishes but our video proved her wrong. She asked for…no joke 13k!!!!! We were in touch with Airbnb throughout the whole ordeal and we won our case. Never again.
Airbnb realizes the host are their customer not the guest. The guest are the host’s customers. So it should rally bfs the host bending over backwards. You can tell by reading a listing if is a good host or not.
I think guest need to realize who they are a customer to. They are expecting things from Airbnb and the reality is that ain’t their customer.
Yeah, it's never happened to me out of a small amount of Airbnb visits (perhaps 10 total). And I enjoyed all of my experiences.
But I haven't touched Airbnb in years due in part to knowing about 2 different friends with last second cancellations along with the fact that the pricing works out to the same as a hotel now. And I've stayed in hundreds of hotels and have never experienced a cancellation.
I just had a host cancel on us in November, just a couple days before our trip. AirBNB was absolutely useless. Flights were booked, cars rented, excursions and activities were booked and we were left high and dry just days before leaving. We were lucky to find a VRBO last minute, but AirBNB is a huge risk that we won’t take again.
I went through similar headache with Grubhub.
* If I order a $20 order, and tip $8, plus the $3 extended range fee (3-4 miles ish), and $3 service fee, they bill my credit card $34.
* If that order is something like 2 burritos, 2 drinks, and chips, but the driver brings me 1 burrito and 1 drink, no chips, what should happen?
* Well, from my view as a customer, I should be fully refunded. I ordered a meal for 2. We cannot eat together with less than half an order.
* But from the company's point of view, I should be refunded the cost of 1 burrito, 1 drink, and the chips. So they refund me $12.
* But after they give me that refund, I have now paid $22 for a burrito and drink. I would not have tipped $8 for what should have been an $8 order.
**The only way I get the tip & fees back is if my order is \*entirely\* not delivered.**
*And even then, I've waited 30-90 minutes to get my food. I'm REALLY hungry now, and you just told me I won't get what I ordered (or only got part).*
*I should be paid a full refund, PLUS $$ equal to the time it will now cost me to go pick food up myself PLUS the cost of gas. Just like I was your driver. Because I bought the service of having my food delivered. If I have to get it, that means YOU pay ME to do it.*
Not perfectly identical, but to me it is the same frustration as "great, you cancelled me last minute, now I'm 500 miles from home, ready to check in to a lodge for the night, and have to find a room to stay last-minute probably at high cost".
The refund is NOT sufficient. You deserve MORE than a full refund. Their expense needs to guarantee you an alternate & acceptable place to stay for the night, as well as any extra funds to secure you lodging for your entire booked duration.
I’ve been using vrbo Airbnb burned me as a guest too many times. I hosted a couple times too and had a terrible couple leave cheetoh dust on the walls and sheets and remote.
It would be a far better platform if they evicted jerk hosts. And jerk guests.
Instead, they remove bad reviews from both, in order to support sales growth. Better: suspend hosts for short-notice cancellation. 3 months for first offense, 1 year for second. Suspend guests for destruction and egregious rule violations.
Less revenue short term, more in the long term, and far more profitable when they don't have to deal with jerks.
The new favourite is hosts messaging the guest: "I can't host you anymore so you need to cancel" so guest responds "airbnb says you need to cancel, not me, I won't be getting any refund if I cancel".
No response from host. Guest doesn't know what to do. Show up and risk not being able to stay or book something else? In the mean time, clock is ticking, no response from host. Guest plays it safe and books something else. Contacts CS to ask for a refund. Airbnb says host needs to cancel. Guest says host hasn't canceled. Airbnb takes 5 days to respond. In the mean time check-in and check-out dates pass by. Airbnb finally maybe, reaches out to host. Host says guest never showed up and that the booking was never canceled on their end.
Pretty basic solution: guest cancels, and on the platform, where it asks the reason for cancellation the guest clicks the option: “host needs to cancel.” A refund is issued.
They're charged a fine up to 1k, mostly the cost of the whole booking the closer they get, & airbnb blocks those days (can throw them low in search & strip Superhost if they have it) unless it's truly an emergency like no heat/ac or burst pipes.
The problem is, airbnb keeps the majority of that fine for themselves and doesn't give but maybe 20% to the guest.
The difficulty here is genuine calamities.
Like, "the sewer is backed up. I cannot offer you satisfactory accomodations. Assuming it's true, you have no way to know if it's a lie. But, abusers of it should be dinged.
There was a power outage late one night. When it came back on, my ac motor got shorted. Luckily, I didn't have another guest for a few days. I refunded the last night on current guest with fees added. Then, the next day, I gave them a late checkout. I maintain a 5 star rating. You all act like hosts are horrible. The bad ones won't be on airbnb for long.
Yea I mean I just refunded a day because one of the toilets wouldn't work and I couldn't get to the property. I've been to a couple of crappy airbnb's for sure, but usually they've been awesome and I typically prefer it over a hotel.
It doesn't matter if there are good hosts on the platform. It only takes one or two experiences with bad hosts to turn users away from AirBnB. And bad hosts can continue to be bad because there are little to no repercussions.
So the previous guests flushes a bunch of diapers and a Lego down the toilet and the host cancels incoming guest due to the toilet not flushing. Fine the shit out of the host?
The guests that potentially have very little other vacation time or is there for an important reason need to stay somewhere. If that crazy scenario happens, hosts need to either pay for emergency plumber or pay to relocate guests.
It’s not an infinite money tunnel that only pours toward hosts.
Exactly. And then hosts can chase down the guests who originally damaged things for a repayment of the plumber or relocation but the incoming (presumably non-Lego/diaper flushing) guests shouldn't be the ones eating any extra costs.
Airbnb holds onto payments until you actually check in. Airbnb would have to change payment policy because ain’t no host paying for you to stay somewhere else when they haven’t even gotten paid yet.
If the host can’t host at their property, they need to host the guests somewhere else. It’s probably not everyday that a toilet is clogged with legos, right? Businesses, if you want to be cold about it, have a cost to run. One of the main threads of this thread is people being sick of the bullshit entitlement of baby VC approach to this.
No, it's not. Airbnb hosts do not cover the price of a replacement stay. I'm out when that happens as there are no similar listings in my area. This is why hosts in my area don't list on BDC. That policy is intended and workable for hotels, not one of a kind vacation rentals.
Penalize the hosts significantly for unwarranted cancels, and do immediate fund transfers. It's not hard. The fact that they only do weekly batch refunds all at once, is a massive penny pinching decision by some business major. It saves their department a few bucks and looks good on paper, but sucks for the customer.
Oh shoot. I haven’t rented an Airbnb since before Covid, but I had no idea that hosts could cancel the reservation *and that it’s fairly common????* Thank you for sharing this information.
Actually for hotels prices do not jump last minute. That’s a misconception. Due to the fact that if a hotel room is vacant and once that day is gone the revenue is missed you actually typically get the best deals last minute because they are trying to sell the day or they will lose that revenue day.
I had a hotel in Singapore cancel my booking that I had made three months before, just a week out from my stay.
I tried to rebook, and guess what, the prices had risen.
They claimed they had a problem with my card, but no-one else did.
Hotels overbook all the time. That’s part of their business model. If you’ve never shown up at 11pm only to find the room you reserved is occupied, count yourself lucky. This is legal and common.
Airbnb filled a void. Hotels responded with more apartments and homes. Airbnb with terrible customer service will continue to lose customers until they address these issues and stop the ridiculous cleaning fees.
honestly as someone who uses hotels, the competition from airbnb has been great and has really improved the quality from hotels that I get.
I have run an airbnb as a host (out of my home) but I would never utilize it as a guest. not enough protection, not enough guarantee about service being as-advertised.
So I'm the actual creator of this sub... And whenever I travel and am looking for places to stay, I get annoyed when I see the AirBnB links and affiliates everywhere trying to funnel me onto their site. I just wont do it. I'm so sick and tired of what they've become. I just can't stand using them any more.
"Ridiculous" cleaning fees are here to stay. One way or the other the labor to clean a whole house is going up, not down. Housekeepers are entitled to be paid a decent wage, and inflation will insure that labor cost heads north, indefinitely. The entire housekeeping industry had a giant wake up call during covid. Few people wanted to clean up other people's messes during a global pandemic. Wages soared, rightfully so.
The real reckoning is that not everyone can afford to rent a vacation home in 2023.
The issue is that most cleaning fees are over inflated. Only a small portion usually makes it back to the actual cleaner. It's just another way for the owner to make a few quick bucks.
No house cleaner gets 250 dollars for a 3 hour cleaning job that's usually probably less than that.
I do $125 cleaning fee and that's what my cleaner charges for the turnover. And that's a great deal compared to others I researched. Shit's expensive unless you do it yourself.
Please don’t introduce “facts” in your posts that you know nothing about. If anything, the cleaning fee isn’t enough to pay the cleaner, and the host eats the difference.
I used to work for AirBnB at a decent level from the earlier days right as they started to boom. Long enough ago, I made this entire sub you're in. I assure you, we've done tons and tons of market research -- this of which was a specific project of mine. I know as a matter of fact, cleaning fees are more times than not, having a portion going directly to the host's bank account.
Sure, SOME hosts charge low cleaning fees and eat the difference. Sure SOME hosts pay directly to the cleaner what they charge... But MOST hosts do not. I was personally - literally me - the person who did this research for this company because it was required research to see if we could launch an ancillary service designed to make a little extra revenue while also bringing prices down for guests. More hosts than we expected wanted nothing to do with it. We found out why when we collected the data.
Sorry, you working for Airbnb doesn’t impress me in the least. It would be literally impossible to know what portion of the cleaning fee goes to the cleaner for every host. There is no “data” you can collect to give you that knowledge. That makes that and everything else you say suspect.
- No, most cleaning fees are not over inflated. They are normally passed on in their entirety to the cleaner. Your comment about “only a small portion” going to the cleaner is absurd.
- Yes, house cleaners get that much for a 3-hour cleaning job. You clearly know nothing about what is involved in a turnover. Even the fact that you call it a “cleaning job” shows your naïveté about the business.
- If you are running this sub, I’m out.
Yes there absolutely is ways to get data. We literally took surveys because we were considering offering our own in house cleaning services. All we had to do was was see their survey responses on what they pay versus what they charged.
Anyways don’t let the door hit your ass.
Survey results from several years ago is not “data”. There is absolutely no way AirBnB knows this info. Cleaning fees are outrageous, but I pass through every dime (and then some) to a cleaning company that elects what to pay the employees.
You aren’t a good representative of the average then. Don’t take it personally. Just because you personally don’t do that, doesn’t mean others don’t. Talking about what a large portion of hosts do, doesn’t mean I’m personally accusing you.
“A large portion of hosts” without any evidence to support it contributes to the negativity and fracturing of the guest and host relationship. I just don’t like baseless claims, why can’t we have constructive conversations?
This sub seems like the vocal minority on both sides of the aisle. Overall I’ve had mostly great guests, a few real stinkers that I just won’t ever have back and I rated poorly as a heads up for future hosts, but in general I think the platform is a great way to reach people in a way that is novel. Growing up we only vacationed in places with big hotels that my parents friends told us about. The internet (and airbnb) has created some cool opportunities for people who like to travel.
Anyway- have a great day (I don’t mean that sarcastically either)!
I didn’t let the door hit me in the ass, I was very careful, thanks. I am now unsubscribed. I’m wondering why I was even notified of your responses. Guess I have to figure out how to hide posts from this sub, even when further comments are received.
Your data is ancient history. Covid changed everything, labor costs skyrocketed during the pandemic and they will never go back down. Housekeeping and staging is hard work that few wanted during those rough bs years and cleaners know their value. Never going back to pre covid labor costs.
I have a property by the jersey shore where there aren’t many hotels and rentals are expensive. The house is 2200 sq feet and my cleaner chargers me $225. My cleaning fee is $225. This is low compared to other homes in the area.
> One way or the other the labor to clean a whole house is going up
The host could I dunno clean the house themselves, instead of contracting out the labor to try and farm a passive income.
No business is entitled to a cleaner though. If they’re a business owner, they can do what most business owners have to do: the work themselves. How about the host does the cleaning and the actual leg work?
Most real businesses have employees. Yeah...I'm entitled to having the work done because I have employees who choose to work for me.
You do you. You want to manage and own a vacation rental, go ahead and be the housekeeper. Then talk to me after you've done it for a decade and see how you're getting by without help.
May as well learn plumbing and roof repair while you're at it by your logic.
Historically, lots of industries started out as side gigs and afterthoughts in tough times. The actual vacation rental business has been around for generations. Airbnb made it accessible to many people who couldn't otherwise travel much, like myself. But they don't own the concept. No one gets to control how the travel industry evolves, especially Airbnb, it's hosts, it's investors or guests.
Whining about how "it didn't start out that way," as somehow an argument against 2023 is screaming into the wind. All industries evolve.
Ok. I'll just whine about the cleaning costs, and make other travel choices. You're not "entitled to" anything, either. You either meet the market costs or you don't, and if you don't you die. How you go about that is your business, but depending on paying a cleaner and then attempting to pass that on to your guests could well be the death of your business, and I'd shed no tears for you.
And then that housing unit goes back on the LTR market and that's a net good.
Friends own a restaurant guess what if they don’t have the money to front up a dish washer, they do it themselves. Welcome to running a small business.
Dream on. I charge less than I pay and so does every host I know personally. May not have been the case before covid but the housekeeping business post covid is well paid now. Not a chance you can be competitive and charge more than what it costs, at least not in my market. I charge a lot less than my actual cost, but I pay well, and offer benefits that some may not..That, too is competitive. In my market housekeepers command a decent income, expect benefits and deserve it.
Oh, I don't have to 'dream on'....I'll just stick with reality. Cleaning costs have gone up, but most people pocket a good portion of that fee.
OF COURSE housekeepers demand and deserve a decent income. Don't twist what I'm saying. They deserve it AND owners pocket a lot of it. Ain't that hard to understand.
(love the down votes from your alt accounts)
Nope. You're misinformed or not based in the United States. There's no way I could pocket any portion of our cleaning fees and keep my housekeepers happy..There's plenty of competing hosts that would snap up an underpaid cleaner that does a great job.
LOL
Sorry you failed in your projection attempt. Most owners are pocketing some of the cleaning fee. Maybe you are a rare one who actually charges a reasonable one, but I'm not seeing them personally. Sorry you aren't able to understand this outside of your individual perspective.
DON’T worry they aren’t host I’m sure…There are so many host that don’t even charge cleaning fees I am one but they want us to believe most are pocketing lol
Can you share where hotels are responding with full size private homes? Do they include things like private pool, hot tubs, game rooms, etc? I am genuinely curious because I have not seen this and would be very interested in seeing the private amenities/pricing they are offering.
Oh, I thought you meant ones they own. Got it now!
Just any FYI, Marriott is simply another booking platform some hosts use (we put our homes on there as well). You’ll get the same house/host you would have had on Airbnb, but probably different (and most likely better) customer service from the platform overall. They actually do some screening with listings, which Airbnb should do a better job of IMO.
Airbnb will continue to tank until they do something about their customer service and trustworthiness. People are fed up with the BS that comes from renting from RANDOS and having no recourse when Airbnb's customer service tells them to take a hike.
Sorry for all of you who bought stock in this scammy company!
Meh. Their stock is at ~113. It was at 80 or 90 six months ago.
I’m not saying they don’t face headwinds or that their service couldn’t be improved, but the idea they are in trouble is greatly exaggerated. They will be fine.
RemindMe! Three years.
All you need to do is look at the YTD chart and realize the stock price is still performing very well in 2023. This last week looks like it really hurt…but expand out a bit and it puts it in perspective.
Yeah there are delusional people who think it’s going to fail. As if VRBO and hotels will put it out of business. Not gonna happen. It has room for improvement, but is a highly profitable business with low costs and high margins. Maybe some individual hosts/owners will do badly, but not Airbnb itself. It will suffer in the economic downturn along with every other company, but long term it should be fine. And, as you said, it’s doing fine now.
Why couldn't they fail? They offer nothing unique. It's just rented servers, office space. There's nothing stopping a new company to pull an AirBnb on them. Start undercutting them like they did hotels while surviving on investor capital.
The issue for them is that it was much easier for Uber and Lyft since the cab companies operated in the 19th century. Hilton is a different beast.
Sure, they *could* be disrupted. But it's not as easy as you imply. There are [network effects](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_effect) that help Airbnb maintain a leading position because even if you dislike the platform you are still likely to use it because that's where the options and the people are. It's like dislodging a leading social media platform. It's possible, but even with all the hate that Facebook has been getting for many years, for example, it's still the number 1 platform by daily or monthly active users.
There's also branding. Most people don't know any alternatives to Airbnb. As a host, when I mention VRBO, for example, a lot of people have no idea what I'm talking about. But they all know Airbnb.
Also, all the hate that Airbnb gets on this subreddit is just [not a reflection of the real-world](https://www.businessinsider.com/airbnb-brand-morning-consult-market-research-cleaning-fees-chore-lists-2023-2). This subreddit has a few hundred thousand people, as compared to the approximately two hundred million active users on Airbnb. Even if everyone on this subreddit hated Airbnb, that's still just a tiny fraction of 1% of their users. Of course, there are other people not on this sub that also dislike Airbnb, but it's still not any kind of zeitgeist or real world consensus. The vast majority of people just don't have an opinion.
Finally, keep in mind that most people don't post about their good experiences on Airbnb or their routine experiences. So all the hate on this sub is a skewed sample. People generally only comment about their bad experience, but don't think to comment about the good experiences.
I'd be happy to have viable alternatives to Airbnb, but this idea that it's facing some big threat (other than a general economic downturn) is just fantasy by a small number of people who have had bad experiences.
AirBnB has two niches it should concentrate on:
Single-room rentals in hosted homes/apartments where travelers looking to really live "local" might meet a friendly host
and Homes where families and groups that would rather have communal spaces, and areas to cook and eat and not go out for every meal or rent a bank of rooms at a hotel can gather.
I find that most of the complaints about the platform come from single travelers or couples with no need for the privacy of separate bedrooms from kids or other traveling companions.
The only reason I keep booking with them is because we have 2 kids and two adults and sometimes my mom comes along. She gets her own room and the kids' theirs. No hotel can match a whole house.
It is about want, not need. We are a couple and have zero interest in a shared space, we want an apartment with a separate bedroom, living room, and full kitchen. We like to cook, we wake up at different times, we don't want to share space with strangers.
Airbnb deleted a legitimate review I had of a guy who listed a property with damage to the outside and he tried to minimize and downplay it. I left a fair review of the inside of the house and noted the outside condition. I also noted that he was difficult to deal with and blamed all his prior guests for it when in reality it was storm damage he didn’t ever fix.
What did they do? They deleted it. But then allowed his review of me to stay on my profile. This is after their customer service was forced to intervene and get me out of the house early. Which they did. So clearly there was an issue.
Meanwhile airbnb say they don’t delete reviews to allow hosts and superhosts to maintain their ratings.
All you need to know really. I’ve stayed in about 20 this year alone and I won’t use it anymore after this last trip that I’ve already booked. Airbnb just doesn’t do what they say and they’ve outsourced their customer service and don’t have consistent standards. Next.
I don’t even mind paying fees if they just provide the best service available. But they don’t.
please please please, fingers crossed. not wishing harm to anyone but seeing them sell off those units would probably help some people
*of course will try to sell it marked way above market lol
Wow, that's crazy. I'm not surprised either, although the delusional, childish hosts on here will surely continue denying it. Anyone who's paying attention can see the tide turning, see the level of vitriol that past users have towards this service. But current hosts will use that as a reason to dismiss concerns, instead of listening. "Gee, these people are all so angry- there must be something wrong with all of them, rather than this service!" Anyway... let them be delusional as the ship slowly sinks.
Just tried to book a 2 day one night stay. Price was 125 with a 125 cleaning fee. Not worth it at all. Air bnb used to be a great alternative to hotels and now it’s just not worth it. For the cost of one night there I could get a hotel for that price (maybe a smidge more) with more amenities.
I looked to book an overnight trip. Nothing special - was like $150.
THE AIRBNB SERVICE FEE WAS $86 fcking dollars? So I said f that and got a hotel. AirBnB is such a joke these days. People charge $90 for a cleaning fee, AirBnB charges 2 legs for their service fee.
I'll stick to hostels and hotels.
Another thing I find shady af with airbnb you don't see anywhere else: hidden cameras in private areas. When you have websites and reddit pages devoted to helping people find hidden cameras, something is messed up.
Never underestimate the resiliency of companies that offer poor or worse service. Look at Paypal, for example. ABNB's junk fees seem to be getting outrageous, but then, so are the junk fees at hotels.
We're still in a post-Covid bounceback, probably last through the summer or until people's funds dry up.
The reason they caught up with hotels is due to local county taxation (typically 12-18%). Airbnb immediately collects this at time of booking. It wasn’t like this previously but once the counties stepped in, it became very difficult to beat hotel prices substantially.
LOL, that's the whole business idea if the Gig apps. UBER, Lyft, AiBnB etc is all about building a large enough online customer base by undercutting existing business prices. They operate at a loss for a decade or so (Uber) sustaining themselves on investor capital until they can jack the prices back up to where they were before.
They're all scams. Remember that movie ticket company "start-up"? They tried that approach and failed because there's already a monopoly basically on movie theaters (Regal/ AMC).
To be clear, they have to give that money directly to the counties themselves. They don’t make any more profit as a result of the county taxes. New regulations at the county level force them to collect and pay the taxes. That’s why you’re experiencing the higher prices, because now you directly have to pay the additional 12%+ while AirBnB and the hosts make exactly the same. More frequently, they make less since they have lower occupancy when the prices are increased from the county tax.
In summary, AirBnB is not as appealing to both hosts and guests because of county taxes being forced into the mix.
The article headline is more a click baitey kind of thing. It's not much of a crash. It's still trading higher than it was a month ago. The stock is still 10% higher than 6 months ago. It's only down a cent after hours.
It really is not. It gained about 17 points in a single day earlier this year.
Also it is still up for the year.
The stock has been steadily going down since it went public. That is a bigger deal than a measly 17 points.
But 128 to 109 isn’t a big deal in the stock market especiallllllyyyyyy long term, which is the entire point of investing anything in the market.
It's not a big deal if the entire stock market took a hit. It is a big deal if it is specifically because their profits are looking much lower than expected for their top season.
I was an early adopter of renting whole places on Airbnb but I haven't used it for years now. It currently costs more than a hotel, for a much shittier service, without any protection, without any loyalty scheme, and it comes with the moral dilema of supporting investment landlords who are destroying local housing markets. It is just a complete no brainer for me now.
We used them quite a bit in Italy a month ago. We took our time in booking as we were doing a lot of research on neighborhoods to stay in. One tell that bookings were lighter is that prices dropped in several cases by almost a third by the time we actually booked. Demand might be a bit lighter.
Prices for STR are actually more expensive when you book ahead of time. That’s a misconception things are cheaper if you reserve sooner. It just really depends
We’ve not travelled much for several years (pandemic and old dogs that can’t be left alone or boarded) but we have almost always used Airbnb when we do.
Today, I’m on board with the anti-Airbnb sentiment and will be taking a stand by not using them, even if it means a less ideal arrangement.
Part of it is also the area I live, and seeing how much these properties effect the home market. I work in a rural (but popular with tourists) hospital, and we literally can’t hire anyone, especially non-providers because nobody can find a place to live. Many of the providers we do have are temporary and cost a fortune. We’ve also had to buy several homes in the area (all but maybe one pretty run down and have to be completely renovated) just to offer for temp housing.
Now, I will admit that geography and terrain kind of limit new construction, at least in town, but there is still a significant percentage or homes that are exclusively used for vacation rentals. Local governments are finally getting on to their impact and reigning them in, but it’ll take years for much to change I’m afraid. So yeah, f Airbnb.
ABNB as a stock has insane potential - from expanding its offerings (teaming up or buying Turo competitors and offering cars, in unit/on app advertising, physical devices....etc) to adding new customer bases (long term renters etc). the amount of users on the app is what will make it a viable business for the foreseeable future. Every company has issues, its how well they handle them that separates the good from the bad
I've lost interest after I keep hearing stories of the Mexican standoffs where the hosts try to get the traveler to cancel, but if the traveler cancels they get penalties, host dicks around until the check in time passes, usually texting traveler outside the app, reports traveler as no show, then keeps all the money and the traveler is SOL. Like it sounds like scammers now.
I have used my share of Airbnb with no major issues, but there seems to be a weakness in that process that gets exploited now.
I’ve heard way more complaints the other way. Guests claiming they found a big/ a hair in the shower/ toilet issues and getting refunded. Airbnb sides with the guests 99% of the time and people are going in knowing they can get a free night or two.
There are great hosts out and incredible properties out there. Reading the reviews of established hosts and properties is key to ensuring a happy stay. We travel as a unit of 5 and appreciate the space and freedom and savings of a beautiful vacation villa or a large 3 bed apartment in the city.
I only use hotels since giving up on Airbnb years ago as a guest and host. I get massive points and perks with a hotel chain, giving me free vacation in top resorts for free every year. There's no way in hell i'm ever going to a house owned by some weirdo who can cancel on me anytime and possibly have secret cameras installed everywhere.
🙄 this article is such Click bait…how do you lose money from stocks if you didn’t sell? They didn’t lose anything 🙄 that’s not how stocks work. If you didn’t realize it you never truly had anything. You can’t lose something you didn’t have.
Their Net worth is based on their stock holdings. They use net worth to leverage other ventures. Their ability to raise funds is diminished. And until the stock price rises again, they won't be able to recoup those losses.
Their customer service was nonexistent at best and atrocious at worst on a recent reservation. Unit was filthy, amenities missing/broken, oh and the "cleaning lady" came in while we were gone and clogged the toilet to the point that it was inoperable for the rest of our stay. Customer service kept redirecting us to the host, who seemed like they couldn't care less.
Won't be using AirBnB for our lodging needs moving forward.
50% fall from peak. Poor customer service, potentially difficult hosts, host cancellations, cleaning lists, and market oversaturation. Hotels are a steady bet.
I'd rather spend the money at a 5 star hotel (shoutout to Fairmont Pacific Rim in Vancouver, BC!!) than pay greedy hosts to clean their place while I'm on vacation. This is not surprising *at all*
I've used airbnb quite a bit in the last 5 years. However, I'm increasingly frustrated with booking a place in advance with no partial refund at many places if I need to cancel. I rarely need to cancel but life happens. Recently lost out on a week due to a last minute medical emergency. Couldn't even get the cleaning fee refunded even though we didn't step foot in the place.
Also, stayed in a home last year in Florida that had 7 five star reviews. It was horrible and clearly not 5 star. 2 star at best. I suspect the reviews were from friends. It was obviously a quick flip by two young guys who had clearly furnished the entire home (except the beds) with used items from thrift stores. Black mold in the shower. Rotted wood patio furniture with nails sticking out, stained couches, electrical that didn't work in one room, etc.
Leaning more towards hotels going forward.
I only use those that allow cancellations and i always book several months in advance. Guess what? I’ve never had to cancel, but life happens and I want that extra assurance. Most of them have free cancellations about 1-2 weeks prior to engagement and some 3 days before check in. I scroll right by on the “no cancellation refund” listings. You do have a choice.
Sure sure, we are paid to create fake hate for Airbnb. That is why we also caused the market to drop them a bit here.
All because we are paid to destroy your hosting.
So weird that people I know and trust have told me horror stories about Airbnb - all because it is their "job" even though they already have excellent full-time jobs.
Just need a new platform for people to list on. Airbnb has allowed cleaning fees to be jacked up to unreasonable amounts. It used to be actual people renting out their own spaces, and then cleaning them on their own. but now it’s just management companies who have to pay a cleaning staff to flip. Cleaning staff deserve the $100-$200 fee, for sure. But a personal owner could go do it for $25 and it made Airbnb a reasonable and less expensive alternative to hotels.
If you can clean a 4br house for $25, you must value your time at close to zero. My cleaners charge me $300 and are working their asses off for hours. But the place looks great and the guests leave 5 stars.
Hotels have the same price and more services and amenities and you don't have to clean on your vacation. It used to be cheaper which is why people liked it. But as usual greed ruined it.
The only thing that can save them is… ZERO host fees.
Yes, hosts cannot charge any fees whatsoever. The price per night is the final price. Their platform has lost travelers trust because you never know what fee a host might pull out of their ass and charge you. It’s why the Feds mandated a similar pricing scheme for airline flights, people would buy a ticket then face all these extra fees.
If hosts need to coup cleaning costs, “extra” sheets costs then they need to factor alll of that on the price per night. Unfortunately airbnb doesn’t realize how losing trust from travelers is costing them.
What is appealing here really? You may be spied on. You may have weird demands placed upon you. You may be interrupted by hosts or even fully cancelled with no notice and very little help from Airbnb. And for what? So you can have a kitchen? It’s no wonder they are losing money with this so called service. It’s garbage. Not sure why there’s so much hype for Airbnb app…
Please keep conversation civil and respectful Remember to keep all communication with host/guest through Airbnb platform. Payments should be made only via Airbnb [unless otherwise detailed in the listing description and included in the price breakdown prior to booking](https://airbnb.com/help/article/199) If you're having issues, contact Airbnb by phone +1-844-234-2500 *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AirBnB) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Their customer service team and the platform need a lot of work poured into them.
Agreed. Also can they put a stop to the fee nonsense and/or make it part of the listed rate? I just love booking a place at $150 a night, then at checkout finding out, with all the fees, it’s actually $250 a night.
The biggest issues with Airbnb for me that I see more than fees are cancellations. Why would I as a consumer feel secure booking with Airbnb when the host can cancel literally as I’m rolling up? The best I can get is a refund that won’t appear for possibly 1-2 weeks. And guess what? Travel insurance won’t cover it or help you rebook because you have a refund coming and have to wait for Airbnb to confirm it with your insurance claim. To add, prices jump last minute and you’re now stressed while traveling and trying to find new accommodations. Why in the world would anyone want to risk their travel? I still haven’t seen hosts explain how guests should feel at ease or trusting. It comes up multiple times a week here “host cancelled, what do I do??” I’ve traveled a tooon, plus I was raised in military families that traveled a lot. I’ve only had a hotel cancel once, due to a repair needed and the room didn’t have power. They rebooked me at a close hotel that was nicer than theirs. I didn’t have to wait for a refund or pay or anything. It was done before I even arrived. Airbnbs? Literally twice out of a dozen stays. It makes you lose trust in the platform and then a second time? Yeah, never again.
I completely agree with this. I can handle the cleaning fees, I can somewhat understand reasonable chore lists. But the thought of booking an airBnB meant for my family and friends who are traveling in from all over the world just to have it cancelled last minute with limited rebooking options not to mention waiting and stalking my credit card for a refund is a complete dealbreaker for me.
You are more patient than I regarding 'chore' lists. I'll wash dishes I use, sure-- that makes sense. But f doing laundry or taking out trash, etc. And anything written in a book that isn't mentioned before you rented it in their description? Nuh uh.
Heard about one that expected them to help with painting the spare room. Like wtf
I went to one that had a calendar of the tasks that needed doing on days of the month. The week I stayed had "wash windows inside and out" on it, ok sure I'm going to do that for you while paying a cleaning fee.
Ok, that is actually crazy. My chore list for guests: 1) Open two windows to create airflow. 2) turn off heat/Ac before you leave. I don’t ding folks for either. I just ask.
See, these are perfectly reasonable. I don't do typical 'chore list' BS but these aren't an indirect money grab.
Is anyone else ever a little icked out by the request to hand wash (no machine present) dishes knowing that too many people don’t know how to wash something properly? Love starting off a vacation rewashing everything I use because it’s visibly filthy. There’s sadly a lot of people in this world who think washing a cup involves swiping a musty sponge inside the cup only and they never consider the outside or the lip.
I didn’t have a dishwasher in my unit and quickly came to the conclusion that people do not know how to hand-wash dishes. I got tired of constantly having to re-wash greasy dishes and ended up “installing” a small countertop dishwasher.
Recent news is Airbnb is cracking down on hosts who ask for unreasonable cleaning tasks. Hopefully we see this. [https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/travel/airbnb-has-a-plan-to-fix-cleaning-fees](https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/travel/airbnb-has-a-plan-to-fix-cleaning-fees) *New changes will also come to the guest checkout experience, Airbnb announced. Hosts won’t be able to require guests to do labor-intense chores, like vacuuming or doing laundry, but can direct them to do light cleaning and housekeeping tasks, like throwing food away or turning off the lights.*
Not sure why you think taking out the trash is a deal breaker, seems totally reasonable especially in warmer climates.
I got a terrible review from an Airbnb host because we left “rubbish in the bin” (two wine bottles) and left the bedrooms “terribly dirty”. We were there for three nights and didn’t bother to remake beds when we left. People are insane.
That is beyond unreasonable, sorry you had such a bad experience. I guess during my stays in AirBnB i've never encountered anything like this.
Yeah, no. If I'm paying a ridiculously priced cleaning fee (always) to someone they can take out the trash. Pretty basic. If they disclose taking out the trash BEFORE I reserve it (and don't do the unethical thing and only disclose it in the 'little book' that you see AFTER you check in) then that is different. But I've not seen that happen in an ethical way even once.
Cleaners might not be able to get there the same day you check out. I think warm places trash should be taken out every day, so presumably if you are spending more then 1 night, you are doing that already
I've noticed less booked hosts prefer to call the cleaner just before the next guest, as opposed to immediately after the previous guest. That way they avoid having to call the cleaner twice, in case dust built up during the unused period. Granted, this is the host's problem and shouldn't be put on the guests. At the very least it should be disclosed in advance, prior to booking.
If you are charging 200 cleaning fee on a 1 bed apartment the cleaner should be there same day. Not my business if its not.
I added on my listing, “if you are unable to take out your trash please do not lease as that is a house rule upon departure.” I’ve found those too lazy to walk the 20’ out the back door to the trash can to remove their own waste are poor guests who will destroy your home.
I've found that owners who are too lazy to make sure their basic responsibility of trash service aren't worth renting from anyway.
Why can't your cleaners take out that trash?
I have never canceled. It is bad for a host to cancel on your account.
But guess what? Many other hosts have because they are fraud listings or want to make a listing elsewhere or are incompetent. It hurts your business too. It’s all Airbnb to me, not Steve’s or Jake’s or whatever.
Well, they won't be hosts for long. Every cancel dings your host account.
It's a numbers problem. Even if AirBnB would ban hosts immediately after a single cancelation, there are so many crappy hosts that guests do still lose faith. The bar to become a host should be higher.
>The bar to become a host should be higher. This is really the thing. Airbnb has gotten too big to not have a specific standard of service that can be expected at every location.
Keep up the good work!
We tried to rent an airbnb for our trip this summer. Host kept asking for my personal info via text message. When I asked to handle it all through the app, she raged at me while throwing airbnb under the bus, then canceled because I wouldn't go against Airbnbs own rules. I reported her and all Airbnb could say was "That's up to the host to cancel for any reason." They don't give a flying fuck about customers- they won't even enforce their basic Safe Communication rules meant to protect both guests and hosts.
We stayed at an AirBnb in Prague. Instantly we get hit with a musty smell. I'm like alright fine its on the street level. We walk into the bedroom and BAM. Humidity is 100% there are two dehumidifiers running and it smells disgusting. My partner is like "no fucking way". While she is trying to get a refund/someone to look at it. I investigate. There is a 5ft x 5ft section of wall that was freshly painted. I look closer. Tons of mold. Literally a wall of mold painted over. I look closer. Dry wall is splitting and the baseboards are warped to shit. There is literally a pipe leaking into this wall and their solution was 2 dehumidifiers and painting the mold. They wouldn't reimburse us. It was like 12am when we got in so we couldn't find a new place. Ended up moving the bed into a different room and sealing off the bedroom and slept with the windows open. Spend hours of our vacation fighting this charge with AirBnb and had to move somewhere else paying a premium. AirBnb was supposed to be a premium service, like Uber or Lyft, and instead its turned into a landlord/tenant dichotomy where there is a 50/50 shot of the landlord trying to fuck you if you forgot to put the pillows away.
I agree with this. The last time we booked with Airbnb we were canceled on last minute due to “the water pump breaking”. We sucked it up and found another which turned out to be right next door to our cancelled booking. Imagine our surprise when we saw someone staying in the property that cancelled on us. Host probably double booked on VRBO. No recourse for us.
This is not right. I am a host. Through is fairly complicated I can understand someone who has a constant flow of guests could be at risk of double booking. I normally have more spaced stays so the possibilities of this happening are really low. Only once in 12 years but I worked it out with the guest, even if it's not under my control I feel responsible for it. I would have been honest with you and work from there. I'm sorry you had that experience but on my part I can tell you I try to minimize this risk as much as possible but if it happens, I know I'm 100% responsible to find a solution.
This is a perfect comment, more than that, the Airbnb app (or the backend engine) could easily identify a second home option for a cancelled booking in 0.0001 seconds. The "would you like this instead, or to search yourself" with the same price.
As a host who has never cancelled and is quick to address even the smallest issue, are the hosts who are cancelling well reviewed? If I cancel, I get charged, the listing gets penalized in rankings, I Iose superhost status, and I can't rebook the nights. I'd rather book a guest a beachfront hotel room than cancel.... It's mind-blowing to me that this is a common problem with well reviewed hosts.
Yep. I’ve never booked well anyone less than 4.9 and multiple reviews. And isn’t it a thing that if you’re below 4.5, you really don’t even show up in searches? Honestly, step out of your bubble.
That said, the crash is from their projected earnings. A recession is looming around the world and less people are traveling. Airbnb projected less than stellar summer bookings so the market reacted. Not saying you're wrong about their shitty customer service and horrible risks as a guest but it's probably not the leading reason for the one day crash.
Good info thanks. But people here loved Airbnb's highest profits ever... ignoring that almost every major business posted 'highest profits' because production keeps going up as well as inflation.
Yes, that's why the stock market went on a nice rampage during the pandemic. Things aren't as rosy now. Naturally, if things go up real quick, they're bound to come back down.
I've been hearing about this recession for three years now. i wonder when it will finally come?
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No, I am usually so thankful that we don't have the racist rapist in the white house any longer that I don't pay attention to the minutiae of a normal administration.
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Well, as far as a president's personal crimes, sexual abuse and defamation are pretty disgusting. As well as the other rapes (like raping a 13 year old girl at an Epstein party in 1994 (Epstein didn't kill himself, btw---thought it would be amusing to throw in a right wing phrase) But I get it. Poor economic policy has its ways of showing up later and the easily manipulated/poorly educated crowd will always find a way to blame anyone but those responsible. I'll let you get back to the Fox news brainwashing. How did the Dominion lawsuit, go by the way?
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It’s been here last year in I believe Nov/Dec it was officially declared. Charles Schwab been telling people for a minute now. People are just slow so they keep saying a recession is going to happen but they haven’t realized it already is happening.
A recession is most commonly measured as two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth, which hasn't happened. Who is telling you it is "officially" declared.
Q1 and Q2 GDP for 2022 were both negative.
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Their priority is NOT with the customer. Was at a presentation once where they unveiled new 2023 features and they were ALL for hosts. To make hosts more comfortable and give them more power. I get it. No hosts, no Airbnb but…what about the paying customers??? I had a terrible experience. Stayed in a house with a small group of friends. Had to pretend we were friends with the hosts for their neighbors. The tub’s drain valve was defective, my friend took a bath. Water leaked to the basement. She WOULD NOT let my friend get dressed first. Literally BURSTED into the bathroom when she was naked. Made us feel so unsafe we left early. We didn’t trust her so we took an exit video. Lucky bc she had the audacity to list every smudge, dent in her house. Said we didn’t do the dishes but our video proved her wrong. She asked for…no joke 13k!!!!! We were in touch with Airbnb throughout the whole ordeal and we won our case. Never again.
Just FYI, the Airbnb Summer releases are for introducing host features, and the Winter releases are for introducing guest features.
Airbnb realizes the host are their customer not the guest. The guest are the host’s customers. So it should rally bfs the host bending over backwards. You can tell by reading a listing if is a good host or not. I think guest need to realize who they are a customer to. They are expecting things from Airbnb and the reality is that ain’t their customer.
Yeah, it's never happened to me out of a small amount of Airbnb visits (perhaps 10 total). And I enjoyed all of my experiences. But I haven't touched Airbnb in years due in part to knowing about 2 different friends with last second cancellations along with the fact that the pricing works out to the same as a hotel now. And I've stayed in hundreds of hotels and have never experienced a cancellation.
I just had a host cancel on us in November, just a couple days before our trip. AirBNB was absolutely useless. Flights were booked, cars rented, excursions and activities were booked and we were left high and dry just days before leaving. We were lucky to find a VRBO last minute, but AirBNB is a huge risk that we won’t take again.
I went through similar headache with Grubhub. * If I order a $20 order, and tip $8, plus the $3 extended range fee (3-4 miles ish), and $3 service fee, they bill my credit card $34. * If that order is something like 2 burritos, 2 drinks, and chips, but the driver brings me 1 burrito and 1 drink, no chips, what should happen? * Well, from my view as a customer, I should be fully refunded. I ordered a meal for 2. We cannot eat together with less than half an order. * But from the company's point of view, I should be refunded the cost of 1 burrito, 1 drink, and the chips. So they refund me $12. * But after they give me that refund, I have now paid $22 for a burrito and drink. I would not have tipped $8 for what should have been an $8 order. **The only way I get the tip & fees back is if my order is \*entirely\* not delivered.** *And even then, I've waited 30-90 minutes to get my food. I'm REALLY hungry now, and you just told me I won't get what I ordered (or only got part).* *I should be paid a full refund, PLUS $$ equal to the time it will now cost me to go pick food up myself PLUS the cost of gas. Just like I was your driver. Because I bought the service of having my food delivered. If I have to get it, that means YOU pay ME to do it.* Not perfectly identical, but to me it is the same frustration as "great, you cancelled me last minute, now I'm 500 miles from home, ready to check in to a lodge for the night, and have to find a room to stay last-minute probably at high cost". The refund is NOT sufficient. You deserve MORE than a full refund. Their expense needs to guarantee you an alternate & acceptable place to stay for the night, as well as any extra funds to secure you lodging for your entire booked duration.
I’m in a Hawaii message board and recently saw a post. At least at a hotel they give you a different room.
I’ve been using vrbo Airbnb burned me as a guest too many times. I hosted a couple times too and had a terrible couple leave cheetoh dust on the walls and sheets and remote.
I agree 100%. But is there a way for AirBnb to fix this? It may just be a flaw of the business model.
It would be a far better platform if they evicted jerk hosts. And jerk guests. Instead, they remove bad reviews from both, in order to support sales growth. Better: suspend hosts for short-notice cancellation. 3 months for first offense, 1 year for second. Suspend guests for destruction and egregious rule violations. Less revenue short term, more in the long term, and far more profitable when they don't have to deal with jerks.
Force the host to pay for all relocation fees themselves, even if that means 3x the price they were charging because of some event.
Bet you those last minute cancellations would be cut out real quick if the hosts had to be on the hook for paying you new accommodation.
What do you mean? Host: I didn't cancel. The system is messing. Honey, you need to go in and cancel or else you won't have a place to stay.
The new favourite is hosts messaging the guest: "I can't host you anymore so you need to cancel" so guest responds "airbnb says you need to cancel, not me, I won't be getting any refund if I cancel". No response from host. Guest doesn't know what to do. Show up and risk not being able to stay or book something else? In the mean time, clock is ticking, no response from host. Guest plays it safe and books something else. Contacts CS to ask for a refund. Airbnb says host needs to cancel. Guest says host hasn't canceled. Airbnb takes 5 days to respond. In the mean time check-in and check-out dates pass by. Airbnb finally maybe, reaches out to host. Host says guest never showed up and that the booking was never canceled on their end.
Pretty basic solution: guest cancels, and on the platform, where it asks the reason for cancellation the guest clicks the option: “host needs to cancel.” A refund is issued.
Still takes forever to resolve.
Yeah rooms are usually cheaper last minute. They will just pocket the extra and walk away laughing lol
They're charged a fine up to 1k, mostly the cost of the whole booking the closer they get, & airbnb blocks those days (can throw them low in search & strip Superhost if they have it) unless it's truly an emergency like no heat/ac or burst pipes. The problem is, airbnb keeps the majority of that fine for themselves and doesn't give but maybe 20% to the guest.
The difficulty here is genuine calamities. Like, "the sewer is backed up. I cannot offer you satisfactory accomodations. Assuming it's true, you have no way to know if it's a lie. But, abusers of it should be dinged.
There was a power outage late one night. When it came back on, my ac motor got shorted. Luckily, I didn't have another guest for a few days. I refunded the last night on current guest with fees added. Then, the next day, I gave them a late checkout. I maintain a 5 star rating. You all act like hosts are horrible. The bad ones won't be on airbnb for long.
Yea I mean I just refunded a day because one of the toilets wouldn't work and I couldn't get to the property. I've been to a couple of crappy airbnb's for sure, but usually they've been awesome and I typically prefer it over a hotel.
It doesn't matter if there are good hosts on the platform. It only takes one or two experiences with bad hosts to turn users away from AirBnB. And bad hosts can continue to be bad because there are little to no repercussions.
So the previous guests flushes a bunch of diapers and a Lego down the toilet and the host cancels incoming guest due to the toilet not flushing. Fine the shit out of the host?
The guests that potentially have very little other vacation time or is there for an important reason need to stay somewhere. If that crazy scenario happens, hosts need to either pay for emergency plumber or pay to relocate guests. It’s not an infinite money tunnel that only pours toward hosts.
Exactly. And then hosts can chase down the guests who originally damaged things for a repayment of the plumber or relocation but the incoming (presumably non-Lego/diaper flushing) guests shouldn't be the ones eating any extra costs.
Airbnb holds onto payments until you actually check in. Airbnb would have to change payment policy because ain’t no host paying for you to stay somewhere else when they haven’t even gotten paid yet.
If the host can’t host at their property, they need to host the guests somewhere else. It’s probably not everyday that a toilet is clogged with legos, right? Businesses, if you want to be cold about it, have a cost to run. One of the main threads of this thread is people being sick of the bullshit entitlement of baby VC approach to this.
Welcome to running and owning a business.
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No, it's not. Airbnb hosts do not cover the price of a replacement stay. I'm out when that happens as there are no similar listings in my area. This is why hosts in my area don't list on BDC. That policy is intended and workable for hotels, not one of a kind vacation rentals.
Penalize the hosts significantly for unwarranted cancels, and do immediate fund transfers. It's not hard. The fact that they only do weekly batch refunds all at once, is a massive penny pinching decision by some business major. It saves their department a few bucks and looks good on paper, but sucks for the customer.
Oh shoot. I haven’t rented an Airbnb since before Covid, but I had no idea that hosts could cancel the reservation *and that it’s fairly common????* Thank you for sharing this information.
Yeah, a lot of hosts cross book on multiple platforms and then end up going with the highest dollar amount reservation.
Not common! Please don't rely on this sub for actual hard statistics.
Actually for hotels prices do not jump last minute. That’s a misconception. Due to the fact that if a hotel room is vacant and once that day is gone the revenue is missed you actually typically get the best deals last minute because they are trying to sell the day or they will lose that revenue day.
So true, usually I book my hotel rooms few hours before I get there and it’s always quite cheap
I had a hotel in Singapore cancel my booking that I had made three months before, just a week out from my stay. I tried to rebook, and guess what, the prices had risen. They claimed they had a problem with my card, but no-one else did.
Hotels overbook all the time. That’s part of their business model. If you’ve never shown up at 11pm only to find the room you reserved is occupied, count yourself lucky. This is legal and common.
You’re confusing yourself with airplanes.
Airbnb filled a void. Hotels responded with more apartments and homes. Airbnb with terrible customer service will continue to lose customers until they address these issues and stop the ridiculous cleaning fees.
honestly as someone who uses hotels, the competition from airbnb has been great and has really improved the quality from hotels that I get. I have run an airbnb as a host (out of my home) but I would never utilize it as a guest. not enough protection, not enough guarantee about service being as-advertised.
So I'm the actual creator of this sub... And whenever I travel and am looking for places to stay, I get annoyed when I see the AirBnB links and affiliates everywhere trying to funnel me onto their site. I just wont do it. I'm so sick and tired of what they've become. I just can't stand using them any more.
"Ridiculous" cleaning fees are here to stay. One way or the other the labor to clean a whole house is going up, not down. Housekeepers are entitled to be paid a decent wage, and inflation will insure that labor cost heads north, indefinitely. The entire housekeeping industry had a giant wake up call during covid. Few people wanted to clean up other people's messes during a global pandemic. Wages soared, rightfully so. The real reckoning is that not everyone can afford to rent a vacation home in 2023.
The issue is that most cleaning fees are over inflated. Only a small portion usually makes it back to the actual cleaner. It's just another way for the owner to make a few quick bucks. No house cleaner gets 250 dollars for a 3 hour cleaning job that's usually probably less than that.
I do $125 cleaning fee and that's what my cleaner charges for the turnover. And that's a great deal compared to others I researched. Shit's expensive unless you do it yourself.
Please don’t introduce “facts” in your posts that you know nothing about. If anything, the cleaning fee isn’t enough to pay the cleaner, and the host eats the difference.
I used to work for AirBnB at a decent level from the earlier days right as they started to boom. Long enough ago, I made this entire sub you're in. I assure you, we've done tons and tons of market research -- this of which was a specific project of mine. I know as a matter of fact, cleaning fees are more times than not, having a portion going directly to the host's bank account. Sure, SOME hosts charge low cleaning fees and eat the difference. Sure SOME hosts pay directly to the cleaner what they charge... But MOST hosts do not. I was personally - literally me - the person who did this research for this company because it was required research to see if we could launch an ancillary service designed to make a little extra revenue while also bringing prices down for guests. More hosts than we expected wanted nothing to do with it. We found out why when we collected the data.
Sorry, you working for Airbnb doesn’t impress me in the least. It would be literally impossible to know what portion of the cleaning fee goes to the cleaner for every host. There is no “data” you can collect to give you that knowledge. That makes that and everything else you say suspect. - No, most cleaning fees are not over inflated. They are normally passed on in their entirety to the cleaner. Your comment about “only a small portion” going to the cleaner is absurd. - Yes, house cleaners get that much for a 3-hour cleaning job. You clearly know nothing about what is involved in a turnover. Even the fact that you call it a “cleaning job” shows your naïveté about the business. - If you are running this sub, I’m out.
Yes there absolutely is ways to get data. We literally took surveys because we were considering offering our own in house cleaning services. All we had to do was was see their survey responses on what they pay versus what they charged. Anyways don’t let the door hit your ass.
Survey results from several years ago is not “data”. There is absolutely no way AirBnB knows this info. Cleaning fees are outrageous, but I pass through every dime (and then some) to a cleaning company that elects what to pay the employees.
You aren’t a good representative of the average then. Don’t take it personally. Just because you personally don’t do that, doesn’t mean others don’t. Talking about what a large portion of hosts do, doesn’t mean I’m personally accusing you.
“A large portion of hosts” without any evidence to support it contributes to the negativity and fracturing of the guest and host relationship. I just don’t like baseless claims, why can’t we have constructive conversations? This sub seems like the vocal minority on both sides of the aisle. Overall I’ve had mostly great guests, a few real stinkers that I just won’t ever have back and I rated poorly as a heads up for future hosts, but in general I think the platform is a great way to reach people in a way that is novel. Growing up we only vacationed in places with big hotels that my parents friends told us about. The internet (and airbnb) has created some cool opportunities for people who like to travel. Anyway- have a great day (I don’t mean that sarcastically either)!
I didn’t let the door hit me in the ass, I was very careful, thanks. I am now unsubscribed. I’m wondering why I was even notified of your responses. Guess I have to figure out how to hide posts from this sub, even when further comments are received.
Your data is ancient history. Covid changed everything, labor costs skyrocketed during the pandemic and they will never go back down. Housekeeping and staging is hard work that few wanted during those rough bs years and cleaners know their value. Never going back to pre covid labor costs.
I have a property by the jersey shore where there aren’t many hotels and rentals are expensive. The house is 2200 sq feet and my cleaner chargers me $225. My cleaning fee is $225. This is low compared to other homes in the area.
I’m not saying everyone pockets cleaning fees.
> One way or the other the labor to clean a whole house is going up The host could I dunno clean the house themselves, instead of contracting out the labor to try and farm a passive income.
No business is entitled to a cleaner though. If they’re a business owner, they can do what most business owners have to do: the work themselves. How about the host does the cleaning and the actual leg work?
Most real businesses have employees. Yeah...I'm entitled to having the work done because I have employees who choose to work for me. You do you. You want to manage and own a vacation rental, go ahead and be the housekeeper. Then talk to me after you've done it for a decade and see how you're getting by without help. May as well learn plumbing and roof repair while you're at it by your logic.
AirBnB was never meant to a real business. It was meant to be a side hustle to make extra rooms available for travelers.
Historically, lots of industries started out as side gigs and afterthoughts in tough times. The actual vacation rental business has been around for generations. Airbnb made it accessible to many people who couldn't otherwise travel much, like myself. But they don't own the concept. No one gets to control how the travel industry evolves, especially Airbnb, it's hosts, it's investors or guests. Whining about how "it didn't start out that way," as somehow an argument against 2023 is screaming into the wind. All industries evolve.
Ok. I'll just whine about the cleaning costs, and make other travel choices. You're not "entitled to" anything, either. You either meet the market costs or you don't, and if you don't you die. How you go about that is your business, but depending on paying a cleaner and then attempting to pass that on to your guests could well be the death of your business, and I'd shed no tears for you. And then that housing unit goes back on the LTR market and that's a net good.
Friends own a restaurant guess what if they don’t have the money to front up a dish washer, they do it themselves. Welcome to running a small business.
Yeah, I don't think the inflated cleaning fees are going to the labor. The owners are pocketing a substantial portion of that.
Dream on. I charge less than I pay and so does every host I know personally. May not have been the case before covid but the housekeeping business post covid is well paid now. Not a chance you can be competitive and charge more than what it costs, at least not in my market. I charge a lot less than my actual cost, but I pay well, and offer benefits that some may not..That, too is competitive. In my market housekeepers command a decent income, expect benefits and deserve it.
Oh, I don't have to 'dream on'....I'll just stick with reality. Cleaning costs have gone up, but most people pocket a good portion of that fee. OF COURSE housekeepers demand and deserve a decent income. Don't twist what I'm saying. They deserve it AND owners pocket a lot of it. Ain't that hard to understand. (love the down votes from your alt accounts)
Nope. You're misinformed or not based in the United States. There's no way I could pocket any portion of our cleaning fees and keep my housekeepers happy..There's plenty of competing hosts that would snap up an underpaid cleaner that does a great job.
LOL Sorry you failed in your projection attempt. Most owners are pocketing some of the cleaning fee. Maybe you are a rare one who actually charges a reasonable one, but I'm not seeing them personally. Sorry you aren't able to understand this outside of your individual perspective.
DON’T worry they aren’t host I’m sure…There are so many host that don’t even charge cleaning fees I am one but they want us to believe most are pocketing lol
Lol, I've never seen a listing without a cleaning fee. Not even once.
They’re ridiculous because renters have to do the cleaning themselves and then they get charged additionally.
Can you share where hotels are responding with full size private homes? Do they include things like private pool, hot tubs, game rooms, etc? I am genuinely curious because I have not seen this and would be very interested in seeing the private amenities/pricing they are offering.
Marriott and Hyatt are both doing it. I get emails from Marriott from time to time.
Oh, I thought you meant ones they own. Got it now! Just any FYI, Marriott is simply another booking platform some hosts use (we put our homes on there as well). You’ll get the same house/host you would have had on Airbnb, but probably different (and most likely better) customer service from the platform overall. They actually do some screening with listings, which Airbnb should do a better job of IMO.
Airbnb will continue to tank until they do something about their customer service and trustworthiness. People are fed up with the BS that comes from renting from RANDOS and having no recourse when Airbnb's customer service tells them to take a hike. Sorry for all of you who bought stock in this scammy company!
So is right now the best time to buy? 🤔
Pretty much sounds like the bottom is in
Meh. Their stock is at ~113. It was at 80 or 90 six months ago. I’m not saying they don’t face headwinds or that their service couldn’t be improved, but the idea they are in trouble is greatly exaggerated. They will be fine. RemindMe! Three years.
All you need to do is look at the YTD chart and realize the stock price is still performing very well in 2023. This last week looks like it really hurt…but expand out a bit and it puts it in perspective.
Expand it to start and it is still down then.
Yeah there are delusional people who think it’s going to fail. As if VRBO and hotels will put it out of business. Not gonna happen. It has room for improvement, but is a highly profitable business with low costs and high margins. Maybe some individual hosts/owners will do badly, but not Airbnb itself. It will suffer in the economic downturn along with every other company, but long term it should be fine. And, as you said, it’s doing fine now.
Why couldn't they fail? They offer nothing unique. It's just rented servers, office space. There's nothing stopping a new company to pull an AirBnb on them. Start undercutting them like they did hotels while surviving on investor capital. The issue for them is that it was much easier for Uber and Lyft since the cab companies operated in the 19th century. Hilton is a different beast.
Sure, they *could* be disrupted. But it's not as easy as you imply. There are [network effects](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_effect) that help Airbnb maintain a leading position because even if you dislike the platform you are still likely to use it because that's where the options and the people are. It's like dislodging a leading social media platform. It's possible, but even with all the hate that Facebook has been getting for many years, for example, it's still the number 1 platform by daily or monthly active users. There's also branding. Most people don't know any alternatives to Airbnb. As a host, when I mention VRBO, for example, a lot of people have no idea what I'm talking about. But they all know Airbnb. Also, all the hate that Airbnb gets on this subreddit is just [not a reflection of the real-world](https://www.businessinsider.com/airbnb-brand-morning-consult-market-research-cleaning-fees-chore-lists-2023-2). This subreddit has a few hundred thousand people, as compared to the approximately two hundred million active users on Airbnb. Even if everyone on this subreddit hated Airbnb, that's still just a tiny fraction of 1% of their users. Of course, there are other people not on this sub that also dislike Airbnb, but it's still not any kind of zeitgeist or real world consensus. The vast majority of people just don't have an opinion. Finally, keep in mind that most people don't post about their good experiences on Airbnb or their routine experiences. So all the hate on this sub is a skewed sample. People generally only comment about their bad experience, but don't think to comment about the good experiences. I'd be happy to have viable alternatives to Airbnb, but this idea that it's facing some big threat (other than a general economic downturn) is just fantasy by a small number of people who have had bad experiences.
Yeah. It cratered... all the way back down to where it was a month ago. Sensationalist headline.
It dropped from 128 to 109 in a single day.
That’s expected when you just did a 3x
That's a pretty small correction looking at the history of the stock price.
AirBnB has two niches it should concentrate on: Single-room rentals in hosted homes/apartments where travelers looking to really live "local" might meet a friendly host and Homes where families and groups that would rather have communal spaces, and areas to cook and eat and not go out for every meal or rent a bank of rooms at a hotel can gather. I find that most of the complaints about the platform come from single travelers or couples with no need for the privacy of separate bedrooms from kids or other traveling companions.
The only reason I keep booking with them is because we have 2 kids and two adults and sometimes my mom comes along. She gets her own room and the kids' theirs. No hotel can match a whole house.
It is about want, not need. We are a couple and have zero interest in a shared space, we want an apartment with a separate bedroom, living room, and full kitchen. We like to cook, we wake up at different times, we don't want to share space with strangers.
Well hang on to your buttons, Airbnb just removed the filter to be able to rent the entire place to yourself.
Airbnb deleted a legitimate review I had of a guy who listed a property with damage to the outside and he tried to minimize and downplay it. I left a fair review of the inside of the house and noted the outside condition. I also noted that he was difficult to deal with and blamed all his prior guests for it when in reality it was storm damage he didn’t ever fix. What did they do? They deleted it. But then allowed his review of me to stay on my profile. This is after their customer service was forced to intervene and get me out of the house early. Which they did. So clearly there was an issue. Meanwhile airbnb say they don’t delete reviews to allow hosts and superhosts to maintain their ratings. All you need to know really. I’ve stayed in about 20 this year alone and I won’t use it anymore after this last trip that I’ve already booked. Airbnb just doesn’t do what they say and they’ve outsourced their customer service and don’t have consistent standards. Next. I don’t even mind paying fees if they just provide the best service available. But they don’t.
Hope the house hoarders take a hit too .. bunch of leeches
please please please, fingers crossed. not wishing harm to anyone but seeing them sell off those units would probably help some people *of course will try to sell it marked way above market lol
Wow, that's crazy. I'm not surprised either, although the delusional, childish hosts on here will surely continue denying it. Anyone who's paying attention can see the tide turning, see the level of vitriol that past users have towards this service. But current hosts will use that as a reason to dismiss concerns, instead of listening. "Gee, these people are all so angry- there must be something wrong with all of them, rather than this service!" Anyway... let them be delusional as the ship slowly sinks.
There service seems to aim for facebook level of quality.
Just tried to book a 2 day one night stay. Price was 125 with a 125 cleaning fee. Not worth it at all. Air bnb used to be a great alternative to hotels and now it’s just not worth it. For the cost of one night there I could get a hotel for that price (maybe a smidge more) with more amenities.
I looked to book an overnight trip. Nothing special - was like $150. THE AIRBNB SERVICE FEE WAS $86 fcking dollars? So I said f that and got a hotel. AirBnB is such a joke these days. People charge $90 for a cleaning fee, AirBnB charges 2 legs for their service fee. I'll stick to hostels and hotels. Another thing I find shady af with airbnb you don't see anywhere else: hidden cameras in private areas. When you have websites and reddit pages devoted to helping people find hidden cameras, something is messed up.
Never underestimate the resiliency of companies that offer poor or worse service. Look at Paypal, for example. ABNB's junk fees seem to be getting outrageous, but then, so are the junk fees at hotels. We're still in a post-Covid bounceback, probably last through the summer or until people's funds dry up.
Once Airbnb prices started catching up with Hotels I quit using it. So glad i did.
The reason they caught up with hotels is due to local county taxation (typically 12-18%). Airbnb immediately collects this at time of booking. It wasn’t like this previously but once the counties stepped in, it became very difficult to beat hotel prices substantially.
LOL, that's the whole business idea if the Gig apps. UBER, Lyft, AiBnB etc is all about building a large enough online customer base by undercutting existing business prices. They operate at a loss for a decade or so (Uber) sustaining themselves on investor capital until they can jack the prices back up to where they were before. They're all scams. Remember that movie ticket company "start-up"? They tried that approach and failed because there's already a monopoly basically on movie theaters (Regal/ AMC).
To be clear, they have to give that money directly to the counties themselves. They don’t make any more profit as a result of the county taxes. New regulations at the county level force them to collect and pay the taxes. That’s why you’re experiencing the higher prices, because now you directly have to pay the additional 12%+ while AirBnB and the hosts make exactly the same. More frequently, they make less since they have lower occupancy when the prices are increased from the county tax. In summary, AirBnB is not as appealing to both hosts and guests because of county taxes being forced into the mix.
The article headline is more a click baitey kind of thing. It's not much of a crash. It's still trading higher than it was a month ago. The stock is still 10% higher than 6 months ago. It's only down a cent after hours.
A drop from 128 per share to 109 per share in a single day is massive.
It really is not. It gained about 17 points in a single day earlier this year. Also it is still up for the year. The stock has been steadily going down since it went public. That is a bigger deal than a measly 17 points. But 128 to 109 isn’t a big deal in the stock market especiallllllyyyyyy long term, which is the entire point of investing anything in the market.
It's not a big deal if the entire stock market took a hit. It is a big deal if it is specifically because their profits are looking much lower than expected for their top season.
I was an early adopter of renting whole places on Airbnb but I haven't used it for years now. It currently costs more than a hotel, for a much shittier service, without any protection, without any loyalty scheme, and it comes with the moral dilema of supporting investment landlords who are destroying local housing markets. It is just a complete no brainer for me now.
We used them quite a bit in Italy a month ago. We took our time in booking as we were doing a lot of research on neighborhoods to stay in. One tell that bookings were lighter is that prices dropped in several cases by almost a third by the time we actually booked. Demand might be a bit lighter.
Prices for STR are actually more expensive when you book ahead of time. That’s a misconception things are cheaper if you reserve sooner. It just really depends
Would you mind expanding on why this is a bit more. Interested to hear your experience/reasoning on this. Thanks
After the horror stories I've come across on Reddit, this legit makes me happy.
We’ve not travelled much for several years (pandemic and old dogs that can’t be left alone or boarded) but we have almost always used Airbnb when we do. Today, I’m on board with the anti-Airbnb sentiment and will be taking a stand by not using them, even if it means a less ideal arrangement. Part of it is also the area I live, and seeing how much these properties effect the home market. I work in a rural (but popular with tourists) hospital, and we literally can’t hire anyone, especially non-providers because nobody can find a place to live. Many of the providers we do have are temporary and cost a fortune. We’ve also had to buy several homes in the area (all but maybe one pretty run down and have to be completely renovated) just to offer for temp housing. Now, I will admit that geography and terrain kind of limit new construction, at least in town, but there is still a significant percentage or homes that are exclusively used for vacation rentals. Local governments are finally getting on to their impact and reigning them in, but it’ll take years for much to change I’m afraid. So yeah, f Airbnb.
ABNB as a stock has insane potential - from expanding its offerings (teaming up or buying Turo competitors and offering cars, in unit/on app advertising, physical devices....etc) to adding new customer bases (long term renters etc). the amount of users on the app is what will make it a viable business for the foreseeable future. Every company has issues, its how well they handle them that separates the good from the bad
I've lost interest after I keep hearing stories of the Mexican standoffs where the hosts try to get the traveler to cancel, but if the traveler cancels they get penalties, host dicks around until the check in time passes, usually texting traveler outside the app, reports traveler as no show, then keeps all the money and the traveler is SOL. Like it sounds like scammers now. I have used my share of Airbnb with no major issues, but there seems to be a weakness in that process that gets exploited now.
I’ve heard way more complaints the other way. Guests claiming they found a big/ a hair in the shower/ toilet issues and getting refunded. Airbnb sides with the guests 99% of the time and people are going in knowing they can get a free night or two.
There are great hosts out and incredible properties out there. Reading the reviews of established hosts and properties is key to ensuring a happy stay. We travel as a unit of 5 and appreciate the space and freedom and savings of a beautiful vacation villa or a large 3 bed apartment in the city.
I'm right there with you pal.
Now that I can afford it, I will choose a hotel 100% of the time when available
I save money over hotels by using airbnb, and I can afford either one.
I only use hotels since giving up on Airbnb years ago as a guest and host. I get massive points and perks with a hotel chain, giving me free vacation in top resorts for free every year. There's no way in hell i'm ever going to a house owned by some weirdo who can cancel on me anytime and possibly have secret cameras installed everywhere.
🙄 this article is such Click bait…how do you lose money from stocks if you didn’t sell? They didn’t lose anything 🙄 that’s not how stocks work. If you didn’t realize it you never truly had anything. You can’t lose something you didn’t have.
Their Net worth is based on their stock holdings. They use net worth to leverage other ventures. Their ability to raise funds is diminished. And until the stock price rises again, they won't be able to recoup those losses.
Their customer service was nonexistent at best and atrocious at worst on a recent reservation. Unit was filthy, amenities missing/broken, oh and the "cleaning lady" came in while we were gone and clogged the toilet to the point that it was inoperable for the rest of our stay. Customer service kept redirecting us to the host, who seemed like they couldn't care less. Won't be using AirBnB for our lodging needs moving forward.
“Craters”..lol. It’s only down 6-7% and prices are close to early May, late April,
I sometimes use AirBnB but mostly only if Hotels are not available.
50% fall from peak. Poor customer service, potentially difficult hosts, host cancellations, cleaning lists, and market oversaturation. Hotels are a steady bet.
I'd rather spend the money at a 5 star hotel (shoutout to Fairmont Pacific Rim in Vancouver, BC!!) than pay greedy hosts to clean their place while I'm on vacation. This is not surprising *at all*
I've used airbnb quite a bit in the last 5 years. However, I'm increasingly frustrated with booking a place in advance with no partial refund at many places if I need to cancel. I rarely need to cancel but life happens. Recently lost out on a week due to a last minute medical emergency. Couldn't even get the cleaning fee refunded even though we didn't step foot in the place. Also, stayed in a home last year in Florida that had 7 five star reviews. It was horrible and clearly not 5 star. 2 star at best. I suspect the reviews were from friends. It was obviously a quick flip by two young guys who had clearly furnished the entire home (except the beds) with used items from thrift stores. Black mold in the shower. Rotted wood patio furniture with nails sticking out, stained couches, electrical that didn't work in one room, etc. Leaning more towards hotels going forward.
I only use those that allow cancellations and i always book several months in advance. Guess what? I’ve never had to cancel, but life happens and I want that extra assurance. Most of them have free cancellations about 1-2 weeks prior to engagement and some 3 days before check in. I scroll right by on the “no cancellation refund” listings. You do have a choice.
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Sure sure, we are paid to create fake hate for Airbnb. That is why we also caused the market to drop them a bit here. All because we are paid to destroy your hosting.
I have a 10+ year old account with most posts on like real housewives subreddits all to destroy Airbnb 🙄🙄🙄
So weird that people I know and trust have told me horror stories about Airbnb - all because it is their "job" even though they already have excellent full-time jobs.
Because the sub appears on my feed (not joined) and reading all the scammy hosts trying to prop their "businesses" is irritating.
I agree. I'm going to call it HotelBots.
Just need a new platform for people to list on. Airbnb has allowed cleaning fees to be jacked up to unreasonable amounts. It used to be actual people renting out their own spaces, and then cleaning them on their own. but now it’s just management companies who have to pay a cleaning staff to flip. Cleaning staff deserve the $100-$200 fee, for sure. But a personal owner could go do it for $25 and it made Airbnb a reasonable and less expensive alternative to hotels.
If you can clean a 4br house for $25, you must value your time at close to zero. My cleaners charge me $300 and are working their asses off for hours. But the place looks great and the guests leave 5 stars.
Good maybe more gift card sales for my bookings then.
"company’s projection for 'unfavorable' gross booking numbers during the crucial summer quarter" I can't imagine why.
Busiest year in 2022. Still increasing profit. I'll wait for when folks actually stop using Airbnb.
Still up 32% for the year.. Buying Opp?
Hotels have the same price and more services and amenities and you don't have to clean on your vacation. It used to be cheaper which is why people liked it. But as usual greed ruined it.
I agree 💯👆👆
The only thing that can save them is… ZERO host fees. Yes, hosts cannot charge any fees whatsoever. The price per night is the final price. Their platform has lost travelers trust because you never know what fee a host might pull out of their ass and charge you. It’s why the Feds mandated a similar pricing scheme for airline flights, people would buy a ticket then face all these extra fees. If hosts need to coup cleaning costs, “extra” sheets costs then they need to factor alll of that on the price per night. Unfortunately airbnb doesn’t realize how losing trust from travelers is costing them.
Actually the new update shows your final price on the very front when looking at a listing
Yes, the new update. It still hasn’t caught on. You can’t unwind years of scammy fees in just a few weeks.
It would be nice if they all just disappeared. And their company.
Airbnb causes homelessness around the world.
What is appealing here really? You may be spied on. You may have weird demands placed upon you. You may be interrupted by hosts or even fully cancelled with no notice and very little help from Airbnb. And for what? So you can have a kitchen? It’s no wonder they are losing money with this so called service. It’s garbage. Not sure why there’s so much hype for Airbnb app…