4 ms·

Your story shows an example of doing things the "proper way" - you operate by-the-book, you take responsibility for the property, and you're an active local sma

Your story shows an example of doing things the "proper way" - you operate by-the-book, you take responsibility for the property, and you're an active local small biz participant. The bigger issue is the people not doing these things. There are hosts (and guests) that simply don't give a fuck about others. Hosts (especially ones that don't live in the area) couldn't care less about their impact on the neighborhood as long as money keeps coming into their bank account, and will try their hardest to take shortcuts and avoid responsibility. Some "hosts" are more like wannabe slumlords. "Bad actor" guests also don't care about what happens to a place they are going to leave, which leads to things like trash, disturbances, and stealing. A problem with Airbnb is that properties are not siloed; there is an environment around them. There's many places on Airbnb that are better than hotels, and there's a lot of economic impact on local communities. Airbnb needs to re-evaluate how these places are part of a community rather than isolated from one. The "sunshine and rainbows" sentiment behind why Airbnb exists is a nice thought, but the platform is rolling into a snowball of consequences and externalities. Assholes are going to be assholes, so many bad experiences are not from normal transactions, but from assholes using Airbnb to their advantage and Airbnb turning their cheek.

TheGRS 8y ago
Personally I've had amazing experiences on AirBnB, to the point where I usually try to make an AirBnB work over a hotel. This of course is due to certain hosts going above and beyond the call of duty. And then I've had experiences where I wonder why I didn't get a hotel for slightly more. Usually in the city where the host owns 20+ properties and really don't give 2 shits about the experience. I do think this service needs to exist, if only to improve the overall travel experience, but yea they need to do some vetting or figure out a much better pricing structure. I love the idea of living like a local in some apartment building, but so far this experience has usually been pretty subpar for me.
nate_meurer 8y ago
I don't disagree regarding AirBNB specifically, but sweeping generalizations about vacation rentals are destructive in communities that really need them to survive. Dozens of towns across Colorado are depending on this sort of longer-duration vacation tourism for their survival. The ones who do it well will thrive without too much change to their character (and without being colonized by casino companies). And like I said in another comment, hotels are useless for attracting this kind of tourism. AirBNB should behave better, no doubt. And if they don't, they should be made to behave through thoughtful regulation that doesn't endanger the economy and character of places all over the country that are coming to depend on travelers.
- mlthoughts2018 8y ago
  I’ve spent a lot of summer trips hiking around small vacation towns in Colorado, and I’ve always found regular hotels to be a great way to do it. Occasionally I need to drive a bit more, but it’s not too bad. What I like about hotels is the consistency of service and cleanliness, availability of nearby food or other services. Don’t get me wrong: even though I’ve had some bad experiences with individual hosts on Airbnb, overall many host rentals are nice too. I just don’t understand your negative comments towards hotels. They pay their taxes, they bear their own costs of demonstrating compliance with the law, provide a good standard of safety, cleanliness and service. Obviously the hotel lobbying sucks, but I don’t see how anyone can think it’s worse than what Airbnb does. The hotel lobby is gaming a system in terms of competition, but from within a system overall that is not trying to in principle externalize all the burden onto citizens by skirting taxes. Airbnb is doing something very different, trying to flip tax collection and demonstration of compliance around to make it an optional nicety they choose to extend to local governments on their own terms.
  - nate_meurer 8y ago
    > I’ve spent a lot of summer trips hiking around small vacation towns in Colorado, and I’ve always found regular hotels to be a great way to do it. Occasionally I need to drive a bit more, but it’s not too bad. That sounds nice, and it suits a lot of people just fine. But try doing that with a family, and on a limited budget. I'll give you an example: last year I "rented" my own place for a week with family. We crammed thirteen of us into our house (it's properly equipped to sleep 12 but we've never had that many aside from our own family). My father-in-law took us out to dinner the first night, and we ate breakfast at restaurants most mornings. The cost of food was likely over a thousand dollars for the week, but it could easily have been double or triple that if we'd eaten out every day. As it was, some of our money went to the local grocery store instead of restaurants, and we were able to afford a week-long vacation instead of just a weekend. You can't do this in a hotel with mini-fridge and a microwave. If you want to bring your family on a week-long vacation in the Colorado Mountains, and if you're not wealthy, then you do it by renting my house, which has a full kitchen, enough rooms, beds, and foldouts for a large family, and costs half or even a quarter of what the same space a hotel would cost. So it's not that hotels are worse than vacation rentals. They're just different. They serve different markets. If places like mine didn't exist, the groups and families that stay there aren't going to stay in hotels instead; they're not going to come to this town at all, because hotels can't provide comfortable longer-duration vacations that are also affordable for most people. This is extremely important for ski vacations. Skiing is expensive enough as it is, that most people can afford just a few days a year with the hotel, food, and fuel costs that come with it. But my place can make it downright cheap in comparison.

TheGRS 8y ago

Personally I've had amazing experiences on AirBnB, to the point where I usually try to make an AirBnB work over a hotel. This of course is due to certain hosts going above and beyond the call of duty. And then I've had experiences where I wonder why I didn't get a hotel for slightly more. Usually in the city where the host owns 20+ properties and really don't give 2 shits about the experience. I do think this service needs to exist, if only to improve the overall travel experience, but yea they need to do some vetting or figure out a much better pricing structure. I love the idea of living like a local in some apartment building, but so far this experience has usually been pretty subpar for me.

nate_meurer 8y ago

I don't disagree regarding AirBNB specifically, but sweeping generalizations about vacation rentals are destructive in communities that really need them to survive. Dozens of towns across Colorado are depending on this sort of longer-duration vacation tourism for their survival. The ones who do it well will thrive without too much change to their character (and without being colonized by casino companies). And like I said in another comment, hotels are useless for attracting this kind of tourism. AirBNB should behave better, no doubt. And if they don't, they should be made to behave through thoughtful regulation that doesn't endanger the economy and character of places all over the country that are coming to depend on travelers.

mlthoughts2018 8y ago
I’ve spent a lot of summer trips hiking around small vacation towns in Colorado, and I’ve always found regular hotels to be a great way to do it. Occasionally I need to drive a bit more, but it’s not too bad. What I like about hotels is the consistency of service and cleanliness, availability of nearby food or other services. Don’t get me wrong: even though I’ve had some bad experiences with individual hosts on Airbnb, overall many host rentals are nice too. I just don’t understand your negative comments towards hotels. They pay their taxes, they bear their own costs of demonstrating compliance with the law, provide a good standard of safety, cleanliness and service. Obviously the hotel lobbying sucks, but I don’t see how anyone can think it’s worse than what Airbnb does. The hotel lobby is gaming a system in terms of competition, but from within a system overall that is not trying to in principle externalize all the burden onto citizens by skirting taxes. Airbnb is doing something very different, trying to flip tax collection and demonstration of compliance around to make it an optional nicety they choose to extend to local governments on their own terms.
- nate_meurer 8y ago
  > I’ve spent a lot of summer trips hiking around small vacation towns in Colorado, and I’ve always found regular hotels to be a great way to do it. Occasionally I need to drive a bit more, but it’s not too bad. That sounds nice, and it suits a lot of people just fine. But try doing that with a family, and on a limited budget. I'll give you an example: last year I "rented" my own place for a week with family. We crammed thirteen of us into our house (it's properly equipped to sleep 12 but we've never had that many aside from our own family). My father-in-law took us out to dinner the first night, and we ate breakfast at restaurants most mornings. The cost of food was likely over a thousand dollars for the week, but it could easily have been double or triple that if we'd eaten out every day. As it was, some of our money went to the local grocery store instead of restaurants, and we were able to afford a week-long vacation instead of just a weekend. You can't do this in a hotel with mini-fridge and a microwave. If you want to bring your family on a week-long vacation in the Colorado Mountains, and if you're not wealthy, then you do it by renting my house, which has a full kitchen, enough rooms, beds, and foldouts for a large family, and costs half or even a quarter of what the same space a hotel would cost. So it's not that hotels are worse than vacation rentals. They're just different. They serve different markets. If places like mine didn't exist, the groups and families that stay there aren't going to stay in hotels instead; they're not going to come to this town at all, because hotels can't provide comfortable longer-duration vacations that are also affordable for most people. This is extremely important for ski vacations. Skiing is expensive enough as it is, that most people can afford just a few days a year with the hotel, food, and fuel costs that come with it. But my place can make it downright cheap in comparison.