3 ms·
Honestly, AirBnB is bidding you good riddance. They obviously want to be some big corporation competing with Marriott, Holiday Inn, etc. They aren't going to
by massysett 10y ago
Honestly, AirBnB is bidding you good riddance. They obviously want to be some big corporation competing with Marriott, Holiday Inn, etc. They aren't going to get there with people like you. They're going to get there by clearing the way for the professional "hosts" who are, in reality, setting up unlicensed hotels in apartment buildings.
If AirBnB is going to get big, they need to have anti-discrimination policies. Without such policies, the states and federal government will sue them into oblivion--whether any laws were actually broken or not. Civil rights groups will boycott AirBnB and any TV network that carries their advertising. The list of hurts goes on and on.
So there is no future for hosts like you who want to vet people. Vetting allows too much room for all sorts of unsavory discrimination. More importantly for AirBnB though, vetting gets in the way of AirBnB making money and competing with hotel chains.
This company dreams of being the "Uber of hotels." You're in their way. You're like the old-timey Lyft driver who wanted people riding in front and doing the fist bump. That's over.
The sort of hosting you want to do is going to have to route through some informal mechanism, like an email list or word of mouth or some web forum, or maybe a random Facebook group. It's incompatible with a Bigcorp that wants to make money, lots of money.
- spaceflunky 10y ago> Honestly, AirBnB is bidding you good riddance. Yeup. Airbnb told me to "go fuck myself" a long time ago. It was fun well it lasted I suppose. Brilliantly written comment I must say. Everything you said was spot on.
- dajohnson89 10y agoWhat percentage of their current revenue do you think comes from large, commercial operations (as opposed to single family homes ... maybe a side property being rented out)? No idea myself, but I would imagine comfortably under 50%....so it's hard to believe AirBnB aiming for this kind of pivot on the customer base, especially the one that got them to where they are today.
- massysett 10y agoThey are skating to where the puck is headed. Their future is unlicensed hotels. The "express booking" underscores this. No one renting out a room in his house wants it rented based on an instaclick. Lyft started out with the huge pink mustache and front seat rides. They ditched that stuff fast too.
- spaceflunky 10y agoSpot on again. How can I subscribe to your newsletter?
- spaceflunky 10y agoDoesn't matter what the percentage is today, it's what it will be in the future... It's a lot easier to say, "buy a second home or apt and make some money renting it out" than it is to say "make some money by letting a stranger go through all your personal shit. And if you don't, you're racist" "Home sharing" is over. Airbnb is all about being a broker for unlicensed mini-hotels now.
- brbsix 10y ago> The sort of hosting you want to do is going to have to route through some informal mechanism, like an email list or word of mouth or some web forum, or maybe a random Facebook group. It's incompatible with a Bigcorp that wants to make money, lots of money. Craigslist's sublet/temporary section is a pretty good place for this. I've found it works pretty well being able to rent a place for a few weeks while the owner is out of town/country. Obviously unlike AirBnB there is no false pretense of security, but that's fair enough seeing as how you (as owner/lessor) have the greatest incentive to look after that.