10 ms·

Airbnb to halt all marketing, most hiring as losses mount

148 points by aaronbrethorst 7y ago

JMTQp8lwXL 7y ago
This is unfortunate for the folks at AirBNB. As someone who specializes in front end, I've admired their user interface and it is clear they have talented people.
- xiphias2 7y ago
  I see the continuous improvement in the frontend as well, but when I'm looking for a place to rent, trust issues are my #1 problem, not the usability of the UI. There are lots of properties with 0 reviews, and I see that multiple properties are managed probably by the same management company. It's just a sad situation when a nice owner of a nice apartment hires a bad management company, and AirBnB can't solve this situation, as I would love to stay in that place, but I'm scared of the hidden problems.
  - nojvek 7y ago
    AirBnb uses a lot of dark patterns. The price you see on the UI can be 50% lower, because cleaning fees and other taxes add up very fast. You can't even compare two listing and get an Apple to Apple comparison. Their customer support is hopeless, I've lost money on two stays where I wouldn't get a refund because the listing was inaccurate (smelly and bad hygeine). They have to learn from Amazon. I know Amazon has terrible practices for it's workers but as a customer, I can't think of any online company that comes as close to their customer obsession. I can buy anything with prime label, its delivered quickly and I can return it if I am not happy for any reason. This is what I want from AirBnB. A very generous refund policy, and transparency in its listing + pricing.
    - kevindong 7y ago
      > AirBnb uses a lot of dark patterns. The price you see on the UI can be 50% lower, because cleaning fees and other taxes add up very fast. You can't even compare two listing and get an Apple to Apple comparison. That's kinda normal even for the various hotel booking sites/chains. They almost universally display the average pre-tax/fees price per night. The issue is that taxes and resort fees (which are in of themself very, very bullshitty) frequently make up a meaningful portion of the total cost (double digit percentages) so you still get sticker shock when you click through and get to the checkout screen.
      - lonelappde 7y ago
        Most hotels don't have "fees" piled on. A few scammy places have mandatory amenity/resort fees not in the price. None have "cleaning fees". Taxes are additional but not vendor specific.
        kevindong 7y ago
        > A few scammy places have mandatory amenity/resort fees not in the price. I'd argue that most hotels in major metro areas now have resort fees. --- But yes I do agree that hotels don't have cleaning fees nor service charges.
    - jon2512chua 7y ago
      This is probably country-dependant. I’m from Australia and the prices shown are the final price, with everything included, because businesses here are legally required to do so.
  - subpixel 7y ago
    Airbnb would be every bit as successful with a Craigslist or Amazon interface, while saving millions in front-end salaries.
    - BigChiefSmokem 7y ago
      Millions to create that front-end?? Oh man please someone hire me I will only charge half that much. We are too spoiled.
- thijsvandien 7y ago
  I'm not particularly impressed with their UX though. Stupid things like a filter to only show places that allow smoking, but no option to only show places that don't. As a non-smoker, it's far from pleasant to stay somewhere that's covered in tar. Same with pets. If you have allergies, you might prefer not to count on the place being cleaned well enough. I've reported this shortcoming years ago, but nothing has changed since.
  - JMTQp8lwXL 7y ago
    That sort of decision (absence of filter for non-smoking listings) would be owned more by the Product org than visual designers or engineers. It's an appreciable criticism, but I don't think you can blame the people developing the interaction patterns for that.
- amiga_500 7y ago
  It's a website with pictures of the inside of a house, a calendar and a payment system.
  - azangru 7y ago
    Airbnb had Nicholas Gallagher (creator of react-native-for-web, now at Facebook), Leland Richardson (Enzyme, Lottie, now at Google), Jordan Harband (Enzyme). Pretty talented folks. Airbnb was also an early adopter of graphql and was doing some very interesting stuff with it. It must have been a priviledge to work there.
    - lonelappde 7y ago
      Sounds cool but not essential to the business. VRBO site is just as good without then.
chrisco255 7y ago
This oncoming economic recession is going to be deep and severe and we'll be living with the repercussions of shutting down the economy for many, many years. Lots of domino effects are in play.
- tjr225 7y ago
  Its as if running an economy on margins this thin is unsustainable. Maybe we should pay the government a little more to put some extra money aside so we can avoid this in the future.
  - votepaunchy 7y ago
    > Maybe we should pay the government a little more to put some extra money aside so we can avoid this in the future. Forget a rainy day fund, we’re $23+ trillion in debt with $100+ trillion in future obligations.
    - tjr225 7y ago
      :/
    - sailfast 7y ago
      On the plus side, US revenue / GDP figures are also pretty large so that’s not too insane of an obligation. One day we’ll get back level, perhaps. Also on the plus side: at this point money is construct and it doesn’t much matter how much debt you’re in, provided there is not too much money to be inflationary (not gonna happen in a depression) and there isn’t so little that liquidity dries up and there’s a panic to withdraw what’s there. So... queue the magic money machine for a bit until we can get this sorted.
      - mr_toad 7y ago
        > US revenue / GDP figures are also pretty large They just got a lot smaller, and tax revenues with them.
DavidChouinard 7y ago
See the full list of which companies are freezing hiring: https://candor.co/hiring-freezes https://candor.co/hiring-freezes
ijpsud 7y ago
@aaronbrethorst I think this post was caught in some sort of spam filter. Might want to post it again (or somehow contact mod?). I asked about it over here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22707640 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22707640 Edit: Looks like @dang has replied and un-blocked it: https://news.ycombinator.com/reply?id=22708065&goto=item%3Fid%3D22707365%2322708065 https://news.ycombinator.com/reply?id=22708065&goto=item%3Fi...
dang 7y ago
Url changed from https://www.theinformation.com/articles/airbnb-to-halt-all-marketing-most-hiring-as-losses-mount https://www.theinformation.com/articles/airbnb-to-halt-all-m..., which was hard-paywalled, and which The Information has unlocked for HN readers. Thanks! https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=by%3Adang%20%22the%20information%22%20unlock&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
hawkice 7y ago
It would be good if they expanded their COVID-19 response to more trips booked in advance of the pandemic. I had something booked way in advance, starting April 15, and they still want me to be on the hook for a stay in a country no one can legally enter.
- onlyrealcuzzo 7y ago
  In fairness, I doubt Booking or any hotel would either.
  - beart 7y ago
    Unless booking at a special rate, almost every hotel I've ever been at allows no-fee cancellations (typically up to 24 hours before). I typically stick to one or two hotel brands so maybe that's why?
    - 8ytecoder 7y ago
      Pretty standard in all hotels I’ve stayed. That’s a major factor in me deciding to stick with hotels.
    - Carpetsmoker 7y ago
      I once accidentally entered the wrong checkout day when booking a hotel (one day too many); I immediately emailed and phoned them within minutes: they could not change the date, and had to pay one day extra. Work was paying, but don't really like spending other people's money, and what a terrible service.
      - lonelappde 7y ago
        What country? I've never seen that in the US unless you booked through an SEO scam third-party drop-ship web site.
        Carpetsmoker 7y ago
sowbug 7y ago
If I lived in an apartment building and for whatever reason couldn't take a videoconference in my home, I'd be interested in borrowing a neighbor's clean and quiet living room for the duration of the meeting. A micro-Airbnb or a nano-WeWork. With proper precautions, this could probably be done without risking infection.
- onlyrealcuzzo 7y ago
  Isn't this Peer Space?
  - gedy 7y ago
    They just laid off most of workforce
  - sowbug 7y ago
    I'm not familiar with that one, but I just heard on the radio about something called Covid Care, which is more what I had in mind. Of course you wouldn't want to encourage people to be walking around knocking on doors asking for random things right now. Online makes more sense. So that might be an opportunity for an online but only super-local forum for things like help taking a meeting because your kids are bouncing off the walls. Maybe that's Nextdoor or Craigslist. But those aren't sufficiently local to reach only the 100 or so people who live in your apartment building. Judging from the downvotes, this isn't a need that resonates with many people. But it does seem that this new situation would be a little more tolerable if people actually could communicate with the person who lives down the hall. Yet right now it's not safe to introduce yourself (at least I wouldn't open the door if someone knocked; I'd just talk through the window, which wouldn't make those introductions very comfortable). Edit: looked up Peerspace. That's more formal. This is more like "anyone mind if I do a videoconference in your living room for 30 minutes? My kids are doing their schoolwork and we don't have a place to move them" and broadcasting it to just the couple hundred people who live in your building. Same idea but residential for WFH rather than B2B.
- paxys 7y ago
  Most people don't need a multi-billion dollar app for that..they just knock on their neighbor's door.
georgeburdell 7y ago
What a really amazing turn-around from a few months ago. AirBnB was lauded as one of the few unicorns that were actually profitable and doing a good job justifying their valuation. With that said, they were a bad faith actor in many cities and caused rents to go up significantly [1], so I'm not sad they're taking it on the chin. [1] https://www.forbes.com/sites/garybarker/2020/02/21/the-airbnb-effect-on-housing-and-rent/#22c2361f2226 https://www.forbes.com/sites/garybarker/2020/02/21/the-airbn...
- amiga_500 7y ago
  Many? Can you name a city that they didn't exploit regulations to get an edge? They just marched in and started setting up illegal mini-hotels. When this blows up I'd love to know how that came to pass. Did every mayor in every big city really just decide not to act? There has to have been carrots and sticks here.
  - krrrh 7y ago
    It increased the value of homes, and homeowners have more political power than non-homeowners in most American cities just by numbers.
    - amiga_500 7y ago
      Most home owners hate airbnb in their area, so I disagree.
- ergocoder 7y ago
  To be fair, the crisis directly impacts their business. This is like saying "Apple was lauded as the best company last week. But a meteor hitting earth today completely wipe out human and apple. What a really amazing turnaround" When we laud a company, it, of course, doesn't include an extraordinary pandemic.
amiga_500 7y ago
Great. Look forward to it sinking without a trace, leaving all the people looking to exploit their local community for a quick buck in the lurch. I also believe that non-primary homes are not covered by most mortgage moratoriums.
eric_b 7y ago
AirBnB started out as a great service for travelers. The quality of the lodging and the prices were, in the beginning, lower than hotels, and had nicer amenities. Over the years it has gotten worse, to the point hotels are almost always a better bet in most locales if you value cleanliness or convenience. Not to mention the negative effects AirBnB has had on the local economies it operates in. I'm sure they were already in a tight situation financially and this is the nail in the coffin. Personally, I'd be happy to see them go. Seems like an experiment that isn't worth continuing to me.
- 78966hh888 7y ago
  I hate using AirBnB. We used it once during an extended stay in Milan and the apartment was horribly dusty (I have allergies), the maid practically worthless and the "host" in no way matched the persona presented on the site (a pleasant looking woman vs the angry man we actually talked to). But one thing I don't hear complained about enough: Having to share your home with AirBnB guests. We live in a luxury condo in a major metro. A number of the owners in our building are absentee (probably not even in country) and they AirBnB. Nothing like paying a small fortune for a home and facilities and then having to share your pool with a bunch of obnoxious travelers who think they're in a fucking hotel. We've tried to work with the company that manages our building but it's nearly impossible to stop, short of policing all of the residents. And it's illegal where we live! AirBnB doesn't give a shit. The offending owners (technically our neighbors) don't give a shit. Honestly, I'd love to see them tank.
  - setr 7y ago
    In my condo, AirBnB & general bad renters was enforced by HoA fines. However, my HoA was fine-happy and generally useless othwrwise
  - jddj 7y ago
    If it puts you at ease at all, rather than not being mentioned enough, that actually seems to be one of the most common complaints about Airbnb.
  - mr_toad 7y ago
Digory 7y ago
I’ll take 4 boxes of Trump cereal and 3 boxes of Biden cereal, please.
- lonelappde 7y ago
  The audience here is too young for that.
  - Digory 7y ago
    It was worth it! Though, if the HN crowd doesn't remember that story, I'm not sure anyone would.
FriendlyNormie 7y ago
AirBnb forces you to agree permanently to automatic withdrawals If you ever book using PayPal. Yesterday I noticed they had randomly withdrawn over $500 from my PayPal account over the past two weeks. I haven’t booked a stay with AirBnb for months, and their support refuses to acknowledge that it happened and doesn’t answer any questions. How convenient that this “mistake” happened just as they are running out of money. I wonder how many other people have experienced this “mistake” from AirBnb recently.
- osrec 7y ago
  Wow, that's crazy. Are you still unable to get your money back?
  - FriendlyNormie 7y ago
    In the latest response from the “AirBnb Trust & Safety Team”, they claimed that they looked into the issue and determined that my family member used my credit card unintentionally. The problem there is that I’ve never used a credit card with AirBnb, I’ve never given anyone else access to my AirBnb account, and the money was withdrawn directly from my PayPal account which has nothing to do with a credit card. Every time I contact AirBnb, they pretend to investigate it, wait a few hours, send me a random automated email unrelated to my complaint, and close the ticket. They still have my money. Edit: To the AirBnb team members who are getting paid to downvote me, why don’t you help push to get this resolved instead? It would be a shame if I blogged about this and linked directly to the blog with a full page interstitial ad on the Alexa 3000 website I personally own and control.
    - ornornor 7y ago
      At that point wouldn’t it be easier to ask PayPal to intervene and/or chargeback through your credit card? Plus it will sting more for Airbnb which it looks like you feel they’d deserve it.
      - FriendlyNormie 7y ago
mlonkibjuyhv 7y ago
As a part-time host the worst part about AirBnB handling of this is the full refunds to all guests. They have made it very clear we are in a completely one-sided relationship, and I can't be alone in my reaction to this.
- lonelappde 7y ago
  There are more guests than hosts, and guests think that's the best parts. If your hotel is a legal business, you can get a bailout from the government.
tim333 7y ago
Airbnb is a cool website to connect renters and letters but I wonder if they really need 7,000 people to do that?
sershe 7y ago
That would suck. Airbnb is great if you need housing in a weird location with no hotels (e.g. walking distance from something in Santa Clara), it's great for extra privacy (e.g. getting a TH in a quiet area in Europe away from both your loud hotel-mates and the loud tourists outside), it's great when you just want a bed on the cheap (everywhere; why pay for a hotel and its overhead when I need a place to store a backpack, shower and crash 8 hours a day). It's also great for weird places if that's your thing (I love it when they have a dog you can play with; sometimes there's house cooked meals; I actually once stayed in a house where the listing explicitly called out that a cat will likely come to your room and go into the bed :)). Oh yeah and places with assigned parking with no obnoxious valet system and parking charges are great everywhere. The only inconvenience is usually the key hand-off, but private places usually have lock boxes these days, and shared ones have people living there. The secret is never staying in airbnb-s that look like they are run like a hotel.
yalogin 7y ago
I have tried using Airbnb for accommodations in the last two years and always found them to be considerably expensive than a decent hotel. So never used it. I am beginning to think Airbnb could be just for a niche set of users.

This is unfortunate for the folks at AirBNB. As someone who specializes in front end, I've admired their user interface and it is clear they have talented people.

xiphias2 7y ago
I see the continuous improvement in the frontend as well, but when I'm looking for a place to rent, trust issues are my #1 problem, not the usability of the UI. There are lots of properties with 0 reviews, and I see that multiple properties are managed probably by the same management company. It's just a sad situation when a nice owner of a nice apartment hires a bad management company, and AirBnB can't solve this situation, as I would love to stay in that place, but I'm scared of the hidden problems.
- nojvek 7y ago
  AirBnb uses a lot of dark patterns. The price you see on the UI can be 50% lower, because cleaning fees and other taxes add up very fast. You can't even compare two listing and get an Apple to Apple comparison. Their customer support is hopeless, I've lost money on two stays where I wouldn't get a refund because the listing was inaccurate (smelly and bad hygeine). They have to learn from Amazon. I know Amazon has terrible practices for it's workers but as a customer, I can't think of any online company that comes as close to their customer obsession. I can buy anything with prime label, its delivered quickly and I can return it if I am not happy for any reason. This is what I want from AirBnB. A very generous refund policy, and transparency in its listing + pricing.
  - kevindong 7y ago
    > AirBnb uses a lot of dark patterns. The price you see on the UI can be 50% lower, because cleaning fees and other taxes add up very fast. You can't even compare two listing and get an Apple to Apple comparison. That's kinda normal even for the various hotel booking sites/chains. They almost universally display the average pre-tax/fees price per night. The issue is that taxes and resort fees (which are in of themself very, very bullshitty) frequently make up a meaningful portion of the total cost (double digit percentages) so you still get sticker shock when you click through and get to the checkout screen.
    - lonelappde 7y ago
      Most hotels don't have "fees" piled on. A few scammy places have mandatory amenity/resort fees not in the price. None have "cleaning fees". Taxes are additional but not vendor specific.
      - kevindong 7y ago
        > A few scammy places have mandatory amenity/resort fees not in the price. I'd argue that most hotels in major metro areas now have resort fees. --- But yes I do agree that hotels don't have cleaning fees nor service charges.
  - jon2512chua 7y ago
    This is probably country-dependant. I’m from Australia and the prices shown are the final price, with everything included, because businesses here are legally required to do so.
- subpixel 7y ago
  Airbnb would be every bit as successful with a Craigslist or Amazon interface, while saving millions in front-end salaries.
  - BigChiefSmokem 7y ago
    Millions to create that front-end?? Oh man please someone hire me I will only charge half that much. We are too spoiled.
thijsvandien 7y ago
I'm not particularly impressed with their UX though. Stupid things like a filter to only show places that allow smoking, but no option to only show places that don't. As a non-smoker, it's far from pleasant to stay somewhere that's covered in tar. Same with pets. If you have allergies, you might prefer not to count on the place being cleaned well enough. I've reported this shortcoming years ago, but nothing has changed since.
- JMTQp8lwXL 7y ago
  That sort of decision (absence of filter for non-smoking listings) would be owned more by the Product org than visual designers or engineers. It's an appreciable criticism, but I don't think you can blame the people developing the interaction patterns for that.
amiga_500 7y ago
It's a website with pictures of the inside of a house, a calendar and a payment system.
- azangru 7y ago
  Airbnb had Nicholas Gallagher (creator of react-native-for-web, now at Facebook), Leland Richardson (Enzyme, Lottie, now at Google), Jordan Harband (Enzyme). Pretty talented folks. Airbnb was also an early adopter of graphql and was doing some very interesting stuff with it. It must have been a priviledge to work there.
  - lonelappde 7y ago
    Sounds cool but not essential to the business. VRBO site is just as good without then.

chrisco255 7y ago

This oncoming economic recession is going to be deep and severe and we'll be living with the repercussions of shutting down the economy for many, many years. Lots of domino effects are in play.

tjr225 7y ago
Its as if running an economy on margins this thin is unsustainable. Maybe we should pay the government a little more to put some extra money aside so we can avoid this in the future.
- votepaunchy 7y ago
  > Maybe we should pay the government a little more to put some extra money aside so we can avoid this in the future. Forget a rainy day fund, we’re $23+ trillion in debt with $100+ trillion in future obligations.
  - tjr225 7y ago
    :/
  - sailfast 7y ago
    On the plus side, US revenue / GDP figures are also pretty large so that’s not too insane of an obligation. One day we’ll get back level, perhaps. Also on the plus side: at this point money is construct and it doesn’t much matter how much debt you’re in, provided there is not too much money to be inflationary (not gonna happen in a depression) and there isn’t so little that liquidity dries up and there’s a panic to withdraw what’s there. So... queue the magic money machine for a bit until we can get this sorted.
    - mr_toad 7y ago
      > US revenue / GDP figures are also pretty large They just got a lot smaller, and tax revenues with them.

DavidChouinard 7y ago

See the full list of which companies are freezing hiring: https://candor.co/hiring-freezes https://candor.co/hiring-freezes

ijpsud 7y ago

@aaronbrethorst I think this post was caught in some sort of spam filter. Might want to post it again (or somehow contact mod?). I asked about it over here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22707640 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22707640 Edit: Looks like @dang has replied and un-blocked it: https://news.ycombinator.com/reply?id=22708065&goto=item%3Fid%3D22707365%2322708065 https://news.ycombinator.com/reply?id=22708065&goto=item%3Fi...

dang 7y ago

Url changed from https://www.theinformation.com/articles/airbnb-to-halt-all-marketing-most-hiring-as-losses-mount https://www.theinformation.com/articles/airbnb-to-halt-all-m..., which was hard-paywalled, and which The Information has unlocked for HN readers. Thanks! https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=by%3Adang%20%22the%20information%22%20unlock&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]

hawkice 7y ago

It would be good if they expanded their COVID-19 response to more trips booked in advance of the pandemic. I had something booked way in advance, starting April 15, and they still want me to be on the hook for a stay in a country no one can legally enter.

onlyrealcuzzo 7y ago
In fairness, I doubt Booking or any hotel would either.
- beart 7y ago
  Unless booking at a special rate, almost every hotel I've ever been at allows no-fee cancellations (typically up to 24 hours before). I typically stick to one or two hotel brands so maybe that's why?
  - 8ytecoder 7y ago
    Pretty standard in all hotels I’ve stayed. That’s a major factor in me deciding to stick with hotels.
  - Carpetsmoker 7y ago
    I once accidentally entered the wrong checkout day when booking a hotel (one day too many); I immediately emailed and phoned them within minutes: they could not change the date, and had to pay one day extra. Work was paying, but don't really like spending other people's money, and what a terrible service.
    - lonelappde 7y ago
      What country? I've never seen that in the US unless you booked through an SEO scam third-party drop-ship web site.
      - Carpetsmoker 7y ago

sowbug 7y ago

If I lived in an apartment building and for whatever reason couldn't take a videoconference in my home, I'd be interested in borrowing a neighbor's clean and quiet living room for the duration of the meeting. A micro-Airbnb or a nano-WeWork. With proper precautions, this could probably be done without risking infection.

onlyrealcuzzo 7y ago
Isn't this Peer Space?
- gedy 7y ago
  They just laid off most of workforce
- sowbug 7y ago
  I'm not familiar with that one, but I just heard on the radio about something called Covid Care, which is more what I had in mind. Of course you wouldn't want to encourage people to be walking around knocking on doors asking for random things right now. Online makes more sense. So that might be an opportunity for an online but only super-local forum for things like help taking a meeting because your kids are bouncing off the walls. Maybe that's Nextdoor or Craigslist. But those aren't sufficiently local to reach only the 100 or so people who live in your apartment building. Judging from the downvotes, this isn't a need that resonates with many people. But it does seem that this new situation would be a little more tolerable if people actually could communicate with the person who lives down the hall. Yet right now it's not safe to introduce yourself (at least I wouldn't open the door if someone knocked; I'd just talk through the window, which wouldn't make those introductions very comfortable). Edit: looked up Peerspace. That's more formal. This is more like "anyone mind if I do a videoconference in your living room for 30 minutes? My kids are doing their schoolwork and we don't have a place to move them" and broadcasting it to just the couple hundred people who live in your building. Same idea but residential for WFH rather than B2B.
paxys 7y ago
Most people don't need a multi-billion dollar app for that..they just knock on their neighbor's door.

georgeburdell 7y ago

What a really amazing turn-around from a few months ago. AirBnB was lauded as one of the few unicorns that were actually profitable and doing a good job justifying their valuation. With that said, they were a bad faith actor in many cities and caused rents to go up significantly [1], so I'm not sad they're taking it on the chin. [1] https://www.forbes.com/sites/garybarker/2020/02/21/the-airbnb-effect-on-housing-and-rent/#22c2361f2226 https://www.forbes.com/sites/garybarker/2020/02/21/the-airbn...

amiga_500 7y ago
Many? Can you name a city that they didn't exploit regulations to get an edge? They just marched in and started setting up illegal mini-hotels. When this blows up I'd love to know how that came to pass. Did every mayor in every big city really just decide not to act? There has to have been carrots and sticks here.
- krrrh 7y ago
  It increased the value of homes, and homeowners have more political power than non-homeowners in most American cities just by numbers.
  - amiga_500 7y ago
    Most home owners hate airbnb in their area, so I disagree.
ergocoder 7y ago
To be fair, the crisis directly impacts their business. This is like saying "Apple was lauded as the best company last week. But a meteor hitting earth today completely wipe out human and apple. What a really amazing turnaround" When we laud a company, it, of course, doesn't include an extraordinary pandemic.

amiga_500 7y ago

Great. Look forward to it sinking without a trace, leaving all the people looking to exploit their local community for a quick buck in the lurch. I also believe that non-primary homes are not covered by most mortgage moratoriums.

eric_b 7y ago

AirBnB started out as a great service for travelers. The quality of the lodging and the prices were, in the beginning, lower than hotels, and had nicer amenities. Over the years it has gotten worse, to the point hotels are almost always a better bet in most locales if you value cleanliness or convenience. Not to mention the negative effects AirBnB has had on the local economies it operates in. I'm sure they were already in a tight situation financially and this is the nail in the coffin. Personally, I'd be happy to see them go. Seems like an experiment that isn't worth continuing to me.

78966hh888 7y ago
I hate using AirBnB. We used it once during an extended stay in Milan and the apartment was horribly dusty (I have allergies), the maid practically worthless and the "host" in no way matched the persona presented on the site (a pleasant looking woman vs the angry man we actually talked to). But one thing I don't hear complained about enough: Having to share your home with AirBnB guests. We live in a luxury condo in a major metro. A number of the owners in our building are absentee (probably not even in country) and they AirBnB. Nothing like paying a small fortune for a home and facilities and then having to share your pool with a bunch of obnoxious travelers who think they're in a fucking hotel. We've tried to work with the company that manages our building but it's nearly impossible to stop, short of policing all of the residents. And it's illegal where we live! AirBnB doesn't give a shit. The offending owners (technically our neighbors) don't give a shit. Honestly, I'd love to see them tank.
- setr 7y ago
  In my condo, AirBnB & general bad renters was enforced by HoA fines. However, my HoA was fine-happy and generally useless othwrwise
- jddj 7y ago
  If it puts you at ease at all, rather than not being mentioned enough, that actually seems to be one of the most common complaints about Airbnb.
- mr_toad 7y ago

Digory 7y ago

I’ll take 4 boxes of Trump cereal and 3 boxes of Biden cereal, please.

lonelappde 7y ago
The audience here is too young for that.
- Digory 7y ago
  It was worth it! Though, if the HN crowd doesn't remember that story, I'm not sure anyone would.

FriendlyNormie 7y ago

AirBnb forces you to agree permanently to automatic withdrawals If you ever book using PayPal. Yesterday I noticed they had randomly withdrawn over $500 from my PayPal account over the past two weeks. I haven’t booked a stay with AirBnb for months, and their support refuses to acknowledge that it happened and doesn’t answer any questions. How convenient that this “mistake” happened just as they are running out of money. I wonder how many other people have experienced this “mistake” from AirBnb recently.

osrec 7y ago
Wow, that's crazy. Are you still unable to get your money back?
- FriendlyNormie 7y ago
  In the latest response from the “AirBnb Trust & Safety Team”, they claimed that they looked into the issue and determined that my family member used my credit card unintentionally. The problem there is that I’ve never used a credit card with AirBnb, I’ve never given anyone else access to my AirBnb account, and the money was withdrawn directly from my PayPal account which has nothing to do with a credit card. Every time I contact AirBnb, they pretend to investigate it, wait a few hours, send me a random automated email unrelated to my complaint, and close the ticket. They still have my money. Edit: To the AirBnb team members who are getting paid to downvote me, why don’t you help push to get this resolved instead? It would be a shame if I blogged about this and linked directly to the blog with a full page interstitial ad on the Alexa 3000 website I personally own and control.
  - ornornor 7y ago
    At that point wouldn’t it be easier to ask PayPal to intervene and/or chargeback through your credit card? Plus it will sting more for Airbnb which it looks like you feel they’d deserve it.
    - FriendlyNormie 7y ago

mlonkibjuyhv 7y ago

As a part-time host the worst part about AirBnB handling of this is the full refunds to all guests. They have made it very clear we are in a completely one-sided relationship, and I can't be alone in my reaction to this.

lonelappde 7y ago
There are more guests than hosts, and guests think that's the best parts. If your hotel is a legal business, you can get a bailout from the government.

tim333 7y ago

Airbnb is a cool website to connect renters and letters but I wonder if they really need 7,000 people to do that?

sershe 7y ago

That would suck. Airbnb is great if you need housing in a weird location with no hotels (e.g. walking distance from something in Santa Clara), it's great for extra privacy (e.g. getting a TH in a quiet area in Europe away from both your loud hotel-mates and the loud tourists outside), it's great when you just want a bed on the cheap (everywhere; why pay for a hotel and its overhead when I need a place to store a backpack, shower and crash 8 hours a day). It's also great for weird places if that's your thing (I love it when they have a dog you can play with; sometimes there's house cooked meals; I actually once stayed in a house where the listing explicitly called out that a cat will likely come to your room and go into the bed :)). Oh yeah and places with assigned parking with no obnoxious valet system and parking charges are great everywhere. The only inconvenience is usually the key hand-off, but private places usually have lock boxes these days, and shared ones have people living there. The secret is never staying in airbnb-s that look like they are run like a hotel.

yalogin 7y ago

I have tried using Airbnb for accommodations in the last two years and always found them to be considerably expensive than a decent hotel. So never used it. I am beginning to think Airbnb could be just for a niche set of users.