4 ms·

Airbnb’s Plan to Build a Grassroots Political Movement

49 points by kawera 10y ago

xfour 10y ago
Not sure how well this is going to work judging from the last time they tried to buy a vote http://sfist.com/2015/10/23/airbnb_frantically_doing_damage_con.php http://sfist.com/2015/10/23/airbnb_frantically_doing_damage_... though admittedly that did work out in their favor in SF in the end.
- jaredandrews 10y ago
  This ad campaign still _blows my fucking mind_. How did this leave the 4x4 space of open office of whoever thought it was a good idea? I don't know how big of a company AirBnB is but presumably more than 1 person had to give this the thumbs up, right?! I absolutely love AirBnB as a user and I hope they can come to agreeable legal terms with the communities they are in. As a programmer and potential employee these ads say to me: "don't ever try to work at AirBnB, we only drink the finest Kool-aid and there is a lot of cyanide in it."
  - glup 10y ago
    My reaction was similar: before seeing that, I was sympathetic to the idea that short term rentals were a bold new territory requiring a new regulatory framework, like the 'employee' classification in online microtasking. Then I saw that campaign, which gives the impression that AirBnB either 1) has no idea what community is 2) doesn't care. Neither is acceptable, given their long-run goals.
  - mwfunk 10y ago
    I know absolutely nothing about the people that run AirBnB, but based on those ads my brain instantly imagined a small group of twentysomethings from rich families who'd never worked a day in their life prior to getting out of college, who have yet to mature intellectually or otherwise past the point of thinking that being really snotty and sarcastic and dismissive of their opponents is an effective form of argumentation, whose entire worldview is circumscribed by whatever bubble of funemployed trust fund hipster kids they socialize with and have always socialized with, but who somehow fell backwards into a good idea and accidentally ended up with some VC money and just enough competent friends/employees/business partners to get the thing off the ground, but still have no idea what they're doing and are just coasting from the momentum of a great idea and good-enough execution so far. Again, I have no idea what these people are actually like, but that's the mental image of the company that those ads (and other company statements and actions over the years) conjure up for me. If that's the intent of their marketing, then mission accomplished I guess, but I've got to think there are better messages they could be putting out there to help their cause.
    - ben_jones 10y ago
      I've met a few. All upper twenty-somethings who have drank so much of the Kool-Aid that absolutely everything else they taste tastes like Kool-Aid. I'd feel sorry for them if they weren't making a ton of money off it. Which is ironic because that's exactly what the Kool-Aid tells them: if it's profitable it's moral.
  - santaclaus 10y ago
    > don't ever try to work at AirBnB, we only drink the finest Kool-aid and there is a lot of cyanide in it I know a few folks who have interviewed at their SF office, and it sounds hella cultish. More personality screenings than technical screenings, recommended courses of study so you'll fit in culturally, etc...
mark_edward 10y ago
Is this the new polite way of saying Airbnb plans to build a new astroturf movement out of its contractors?
- smacktoward 10y ago
  "Organized in top-down fashion by a corporation in order to further its commercial interests" is a lot closer to the definition of astroturf movement than it is to grassroots movement, that's for sure.
  - droopyEyelids 10y ago
    Slight misunderstanding, I believe in marketing speech anything your company or a company you support does is defined as "grassroots" and anything a competing interest supports is defined as "astroturf"
    - eat__the_rich 10y ago
      NO. Astroturf is inherent BS upon any examination. Go back to your McMansion, McPologist.
      - dgacmu 10y ago
        Ahh, I believe there were some sarcasm tags there that didn't render in your browser.
      - deleted 10y ago
        [deleted]
    - CodeWriter23 10y ago
      Umm, no. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astroturfing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astroturfing
metaphorm 10y ago
better title: "Airbnb pays for lobbying"
godzillabrennus 10y ago
Funny, tech companies and legacy businesses are spending a lot of money lobbying but there is only one fund I've seen focused on this arena. If I were a VC I'd look closer. Seems like a good time to be in the industry. Though my words are self serving. Because, naturally, as any good entrepreneur should be doing, I am putting my efforts into this underserved market. My startup is in the grassroots lobbying space and we are starting our pilot with organizations in California on August 1st. We have two trade associations on board and are working on on-boarding a global non profit. If anyone is interested in bringing us into the government affairs or government relations department of their company and wants to chat they can email me hn <> at <> strapr <> dot com and I'd be happy to chat with them.
somenomadicguy 10y ago
tl;dr: Rich fratbros try to convince the proles to make them richer.
jsemrau 10y ago
In my opinion, having large scale technical infrastructure suppliers support openly a political agenda is dangerous. Before Uber and Lyft moved out of Austin they tried to rally their users in a similar way. The question is what will be next? The precedent has been set. (Not to sound overly dramatic) I wrote about it here: https://medium.com/@thisTenqyuLife/uber-and-lift-set-a-very-dangerous-political-precedent-bc6585126198#.5hbyb4wq9 https://medium.com/@thisTenqyuLife/uber-and-lift-set-a-very-...
mindslight 10y ago
Oh cuil, yet another political movement of people who've bought into the housing bubble, thinking they can outrace a treadmill. What could (continue to) go wrong?
fish_taxo_man 10y ago
Gross.
eat__the_rich 10y ago
How about they actually comply with what the affected municipalities are asking? Oh, that's right, it's a bunch of wealthy elite deluded scumbags who don't know what it's like to get constantly bombarded and destroyed by people like themselves.
lxmorj 10y ago
Illegal hotels / full-time Airbnbs are going to be problems. However, given that X% of homeowners are out of town Y% of the time, it's a waste of resources to leave X*Y% of residences empty on any given day. I like to travel. I like having an apartment. For a given amount of dollars, I can travel a significant amount more with Airbnb covering some of my rent while I'm gone.

49 points by kawera 10y ago

xfour 10y ago

Not sure how well this is going to work judging from the last time they tried to buy a vote http://sfist.com/2015/10/23/airbnb_frantically_doing_damage_con.php http://sfist.com/2015/10/23/airbnb_frantically_doing_damage_... though admittedly that did work out in their favor in SF in the end.

jaredandrews 10y ago
This ad campaign still _blows my fucking mind_. How did this leave the 4x4 space of open office of whoever thought it was a good idea? I don't know how big of a company AirBnB is but presumably more than 1 person had to give this the thumbs up, right?! I absolutely love AirBnB as a user and I hope they can come to agreeable legal terms with the communities they are in. As a programmer and potential employee these ads say to me: "don't ever try to work at AirBnB, we only drink the finest Kool-aid and there is a lot of cyanide in it."
- glup 10y ago
  My reaction was similar: before seeing that, I was sympathetic to the idea that short term rentals were a bold new territory requiring a new regulatory framework, like the 'employee' classification in online microtasking. Then I saw that campaign, which gives the impression that AirBnB either 1) has no idea what community is 2) doesn't care. Neither is acceptable, given their long-run goals.
- mwfunk 10y ago
  I know absolutely nothing about the people that run AirBnB, but based on those ads my brain instantly imagined a small group of twentysomethings from rich families who'd never worked a day in their life prior to getting out of college, who have yet to mature intellectually or otherwise past the point of thinking that being really snotty and sarcastic and dismissive of their opponents is an effective form of argumentation, whose entire worldview is circumscribed by whatever bubble of funemployed trust fund hipster kids they socialize with and have always socialized with, but who somehow fell backwards into a good idea and accidentally ended up with some VC money and just enough competent friends/employees/business partners to get the thing off the ground, but still have no idea what they're doing and are just coasting from the momentum of a great idea and good-enough execution so far. Again, I have no idea what these people are actually like, but that's the mental image of the company that those ads (and other company statements and actions over the years) conjure up for me. If that's the intent of their marketing, then mission accomplished I guess, but I've got to think there are better messages they could be putting out there to help their cause.
  - ben_jones 10y ago
    I've met a few. All upper twenty-somethings who have drank so much of the Kool-Aid that absolutely everything else they taste tastes like Kool-Aid. I'd feel sorry for them if they weren't making a ton of money off it. Which is ironic because that's exactly what the Kool-Aid tells them: if it's profitable it's moral.
- santaclaus 10y ago
  > don't ever try to work at AirBnB, we only drink the finest Kool-aid and there is a lot of cyanide in it I know a few folks who have interviewed at their SF office, and it sounds hella cultish. More personality screenings than technical screenings, recommended courses of study so you'll fit in culturally, etc...

mark_edward 10y ago

Is this the new polite way of saying Airbnb plans to build a new astroturf movement out of its contractors?

smacktoward 10y ago
"Organized in top-down fashion by a corporation in order to further its commercial interests" is a lot closer to the definition of astroturf movement than it is to grassroots movement, that's for sure.
- droopyEyelids 10y ago
  Slight misunderstanding, I believe in marketing speech anything your company or a company you support does is defined as "grassroots" and anything a competing interest supports is defined as "astroturf"
  - eat__the_rich 10y ago
    NO. Astroturf is inherent BS upon any examination. Go back to your McMansion, McPologist.
    - dgacmu 10y ago
      Ahh, I believe there were some sarcasm tags there that didn't render in your browser.
    - deleted 10y ago
      [deleted]
  - CodeWriter23 10y ago
    Umm, no. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astroturfing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astroturfing

metaphorm 10y ago

better title: "Airbnb pays for lobbying"

godzillabrennus 10y ago

Funny, tech companies and legacy businesses are spending a lot of money lobbying but there is only one fund I've seen focused on this arena. If I were a VC I'd look closer. Seems like a good time to be in the industry. Though my words are self serving. Because, naturally, as any good entrepreneur should be doing, I am putting my efforts into this underserved market. My startup is in the grassroots lobbying space and we are starting our pilot with organizations in California on August 1st. We have two trade associations on board and are working on on-boarding a global non profit. If anyone is interested in bringing us into the government affairs or government relations department of their company and wants to chat they can email me hn <> at <> strapr <> dot com and I'd be happy to chat with them.

somenomadicguy 10y ago

tl;dr: Rich fratbros try to convince the proles to make them richer.

jsemrau 10y ago

In my opinion, having large scale technical infrastructure suppliers support openly a political agenda is dangerous. Before Uber and Lyft moved out of Austin they tried to rally their users in a similar way. The question is what will be next? The precedent has been set. (Not to sound overly dramatic) I wrote about it here: https://medium.com/@thisTenqyuLife/uber-and-lift-set-a-very-dangerous-political-precedent-bc6585126198#.5hbyb4wq9 https://medium.com/@thisTenqyuLife/uber-and-lift-set-a-very-...

mindslight 10y ago

Oh cuil, yet another political movement of people who've bought into the housing bubble, thinking they can outrace a treadmill. What could (continue to) go wrong?

fish_taxo_man 10y ago

Gross.

eat__the_rich 10y ago

How about they actually comply with what the affected municipalities are asking? Oh, that's right, it's a bunch of wealthy elite deluded scumbags who don't know what it's like to get constantly bombarded and destroyed by people like themselves.

lxmorj 10y ago

Illegal hotels / full-time Airbnbs are going to be problems. However, given that X% of homeowners are out of town Y% of the time, it's a waste of resources to leave X*Y% of residences empty on any given day. I like to travel. I like having an apartment. For a given amount of dollars, I can travel a significant amount more with Airbnb covering some of my rent while I'm gone.