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I think one of the key takeaways for me is just how important the 29 day+ stay is for them as an emerging category which sounds right to me... in part because I

• DantesKite 5y ago
  That's one of the reasons why I picked AirBnB. Let me stay in a foreign city for work for a few weeks for a very low cost. Wouldn't have been able to do that without them.
• vmception 5y ago
  same! daily rates at hotels and airbnbs add up way too fast monthly stays at airbnb's are much closer to the local rental price, usually 10-20% above a local lease, but without the issue of actually leasing monthly stays are also furnished (whereas it can be very hard to find a furnished place to lease at all!) monthly stays also get around most short term stay restrictions created specifically in reaction to AirBnB, which makes it much more comfortable for someone that booked to not have to worry about who we talk to in the building or nearby I love being a situation to travel this way. Its pretty amazing to see that its currently become a crucial portion of their revenues.
  • phphphphp 5y ago
    Very much not my experience in Europe. I’d happily live in Airbnbs full time if the price was +~20% long term lease but in my experience the price is >100% even for 1 month stays. The problem, at least in Europe, is that so many Airbnbs are now being operated as “rent to rent” where a company (or individual) rents property long term specifically so they can then in turn rent it out on Airbnb (often through an intermediary that manages the property for them). The margins they need for confident profitability (considering voids etc) are ~100% over the long term rental cost. I’m astonished you’ve found that the prices are so similar: which location(s) is this in? I just moved out of an Airbnb I stayed in for a month where my average nightly cost was, quite literally, 200% over the amount that I would pay if I leased the property myself — and that’s not in peak season, and after negotiating. 5 years ago the cost was pretty similar but not now that Airbnb has become an industry and people have worked out how to squeeze every drop of profit out of it.
    • kblev 5y ago
      Same in UK, price is 2.5 - 3x of the long term lease rate
      • Namari 5y ago
        I am actually doing it right now, I pay about 1.2k for something that should be around 900 all included. Yes it's more but it's not double or triple as you suggest.
        • phphphphp 5y ago
          Where in the UK? I won’t go as far as to say it’s impossible that this is true, but I haven’t come across anywhere like that in the last year. Are you renting a full home or a room? A desirable location (a major city) or the middle of nowhere? I can’t imagine any UK city where you could find an apartment on Airbnb for £1200/month — at best you’d get a room for that price. If you’re willing to rent a room then sure, you’ll be able to benefit from people who don’t care about the economics, but for actual apartments, the economics don’t make sense. (And if you’re willing to rent a room, you can pay less than the long term local price with some savvy)
          • Namari 5y ago
            Yes in London and it's a room in a houseshare but maybe it's more like 800£ all included than 900.
            • phphphphp 5y ago
              Yeah — house shares are a totally different prospect. For clarity, I’m talking about whole homes, as an alternative to renting — I thought that was the context of the discussion, sorry if that wasn’t clear!
  • mupuff1234 5y ago
    More like 100-200% above local lease rates from my experience.
• agd 5y ago
  The main risk with this is that the host cancels at the last minute. Happened to me twice for long term stays (e.g. cancelling 2 days before start date) and it can completely ruin your plans.
  • SemanticStrengh 5y ago
    airbnb doesn't provide any guarantee mechanisms against this?
    • atlasunshrugged 5y ago
      Not really other than if it's close enough to the checkin time once I've had them help me book a hotel and comp it but it's still a massive pain
      • acchow 5y ago
        > Not really ... > help me book a hotel and comp it If they comped it, that sounds very much like they helped you a lot. Not sure how anyone could describe this as "not really" helping?
        • atlasunshrugged 5y ago
          I meant not really mechanisms to stop it and it was once in several times of it happening to me. Other times they've just recommended other airbnbs that were far less of a fit instead
    • agd 5y ago
      No. They may give you a voucher, however for us the voucher was only $100 (so far less than the additional cost of rebooking at the last minute) and secondly, the voucher had restrictions on which bookings you could use it on, and it expired within a month. I.e. It’s fairly useless.
      • chii 5y ago
• flatiron 5y ago
  Airbnb I can make my own meals. Even if I don’t ordering delivery is much easier than at a hotel. Also easier to wash my own clothes. Usually no Wi-Fi problems. Also easier to go exactly where I need / want to be.
  • slaw 5y ago
    You can make meals in Airbnb, but cannot when you rent the same property on vrbo or booking?
    • cko 5y ago
      He's probably comparing it to a hotel, which don't tend to have kitchens, cookware, and washing machines.
  • Symbiote 5y ago
    On a booking site like Hotels.com or Booking.com, the filter for this is generally "apart-hotel" or similar.
  • scarface74 5y ago
    Most hotel chains like Marriott and Hilton have extended stay brands where you get a kitchen.
• hn_throwaway_99 5y ago
  With the pandemic/post-pandemic, lots of folks can now afford to work remotely for extended periods. AirBnB's strength has always been in cities, but the cities are cracking down hard on STRs. E.g. NYC passed a law making rentals for < 30 days in the city illegal. I do wonder there is a regulatory risk that cities will push out the min time to, say, 60 days if they feel that they haven't solved their "AirBnB problem" with a 30 day min stay.
  • ajsnigrutin 4y ago
    AirBnB is killing normal rental markets in quite a few cities here in slovenia, and the locals hate it, so there are huge pushes towards regulation and outright bans by basically everyone except people who actually profit on airbnb. Basically noone wants daily-changing "neighbors", half of them partying half the nights in their (multi-apartment) buildings, while finding an apartment for rent is getting harder and harder (and much more expensive). If airbnb was the thing it was marketed as in the beginning (you go on a vacation, rent the apartment out for that week or two), then sure... but people buy apartments (at currently overinflated prices) just to rent it out on airbnb full time.
  • whiddershins 5y ago
    FYI NYC did not recently pass a law about this. The law was existing, the city simply chose to start enforcing it.
    • hn_throwaway_99 5y ago
      Perhaps I'm just getting old, but 2016 was when New York State passed the law banning advertising whole homes on AirBnB for < 30 days, and I consider that relatively recent. https://www.theverge.com/2016/10/21/13361536/airbnb-new-york-cuomo-bill-ban-short-term https://www.theverge.com/2016/10/21/13361536/airbnb-new-york...
      • whiddershins 5y ago
        That’s a good point. I was thinking of NYC, which has had specific laws about short terms rentals (preventing ‘flophouses’ etc.) for as long as I can remember.
• lastofthemojito 5y ago
  One of Brian Chesky's tweets in the linked thread mentions "On May 11, we’ll introduce the biggest change to Airbnb in a decade". I wonder if it's something catering to the digital nomad/work-from-anywhere crowd rather than the current focus (vacationers).
  • yumraj 5y ago
    As far as I can think, there are two possibilities: - They are getting into the rental market, basically longer term rentals with short-term leases or something like that. - They are getting into property management under their own brand, where they will manage Airbnb branded properties (small Hotels and homes). Something similar to what Oyo rooms (https://www.oyorooms.com/us/ https://www.oyorooms.com/us/) does.
• Tiktaalik 5y ago
  Lots of new regulations in major cities bans sub 30 day rentals so Airbnb no these sorts of airbnb use are longer an option unless the user is trying to break the rules.
• johnwalkr 5y ago
  Checkin can be a hassle. It seems to depend on the city what the Airbnb checkin culture is. Sometimes you are given a security code (convenient), sometimes it’s inconvenient, having to meet the host at a predetermined time. In Vancouver, three times in a row I was given a security code and given instructions to go to a convenience store with a special locker, 4-5 blocks away from the unit, and do the reverse at checkout. Major hassle. And it’s usually not cheaper than a hotel anymore. Now I only use it for large groups for places like cabins.
  • scarface74 5y ago
    My wife and I are planning to become “digital nomads” for a few years[1] and my initial thought was AirBnbs. We decided to rent an AirBnb in another city as a test run. This was months ago. We haven’t stayed there yet. During the intervening time, as I thought about it and did more research on prices, we landed on we would be better off looking for Homewood Suites[2] and skip Airbnb. This isn’t a marketing pitch for Hilton, I am just most familiar with the brand. The other chains may be just as good. 1. We always know what we are getting. I can just go to the Hilton app and pick a hotel. I know I’m going to have a two room suite, kitchen, a work area, a small gym downstairs, probably a pool. It’s going to be hopefully well cleaned and if not, at least we know we have someone on staff. 2. We save 15%-20% overall between the highest end Amex cobranded card when booking stays via points and accumulating points any other time we spend by charging it. 3. I also travel for work and stay in Hilton hotels. I get reimbursed and get to earn points. 4. We never have to worry about cancellations. [1] there is no way we are selling our house and trying to buy later on with the crazy market. We are renting it out. [2] This is not an ad or endorsement. I just happen to always book an Embassy Suites for business trips and we prefer staying there for vacations. Homewood Suites is a cheaper brand. But still better than their lowest brand Home2Suites.
    • johnwalkr 5y ago
      I also like having backing of a reputable chain. I’ll look into homewood suites. If i need a hotel, usually I first try Marriot as that’s the one I collect points on. I like their cheaper brand Aloft, each hotel has a free thing usually attached to the bar, such as billiards or in one case a retro arcade. If nothing on there works for me, or if I need an apartment/kitchen, I use booking.com as a search engine. Then I book directly, unless booking.com is more flexible. Booking directly means you can usually call the front desk quickly and change your checkin/checkout dates and often can get early checkin and late checkout. Last month I was traveling for work and booked directly. Not only could I check in at 10am and take a nap, when plans changed I spent 5 minutes on the phone to extend one stay and shorten the next stay. My colleague used a travel agency and when he called them he got put on hold while they called booking.com! Ultimately he (well our company) paid for 2 hotel rooms that night. It’s even more important to book flights directly for the same reason. These days, Covid can easily change your plans. I’ve not gotten Covid yet, but I’ve had flights cancelled due to it, and once had to change my flights because my pre-travel Covid test was in the wrong format to return home.