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Airbnb May 2022 Release

92 points by talhof8 4y ago

lysecret 4y ago
Just felt like I wanted to contribute something positive here. I have used Airbnb extensively for the past 5 years. I used to live 1 month at a time at one place and then switch. And I only had 1 singe visit (for a daily visit) where the host canceled and at this time I got back my money + 80 euro.
tr3ntg 4y ago
Categories look identical to the top-tabs they already had, no? Even their "OMG" tag is simply a rename of the previous "Offbeat". I don't get it.
paxys 4y ago
Split stays is a fantastic feature. Limiting it to just two homes seems weird though. I'd love to be able to stay in a city for 2+ months and change homes every couple weeks if I have to. At the moment finding places and timing all the dates is a nightmare.
atlasunshrugged 4y ago
Recent thread on Airbnb here https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31253306 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31253306
atlasunshrugged 4y ago
Of the changes while I think that the design categories are cool (who wouldn't want to stay in a Le Corbusier designed space at least once?) the "AirCover" stuff is probably most impactful and mitigates a major pain that I've had/been concerned about with booking (and from other threads on Airbnb sounds like others have too)
Varqu 4y ago
The AirCover policy looks like a game changer that elevates Airbnb basically to hotel-like level of service. Just wondering if they won't default to "we will just refund you" in case the host cancels (1st scenario) In that situation, if I get the info 1 day before arrival and just a refund, then I am screwed anyway since the prices on the market will be sky high.
- dilap 4y ago
  Yeah that was my thought too. "Or we'll refund you" is not that great of a guarantee.
  - stevehawk 4y ago
    Hotels overbook just like airlines, though, so I'm not sure how AirBnB is much worse in this situation? I recently lost a room due to overbooking and being the easiest guest to get cut (I was only staying for one night).
    - ohyoutravel 4y ago
      Airbnb isn’t a hotel, it’s a person renting out their house. Not a fungible thing like a hotel room. When I book Marriott I don’t care which room in the class of rooms I booked that I get. When I book an Airbnb I very much care that the house I selected is the one I stay in.
      - joshuajill 4y ago
        Airbnb is to a great extent hotels and property managers. The cosy little family business is not so common to come by.
        denton-scratch 4y ago
        The AirBnB that is my "neighbour" is run by a property manager - they run a chain of apartments on behalf of the owners. They aren't letting a room in their home; they live in another city. The owner seems to be an investment banker who lives overseas, and never comes here. From a landlord's point-of-view, their proposition is attractive: guaranteed monthly rent, they handle all admin, they hire cleaners. From a guest's point-of-view, it's good too; they have a full schedule of bookings and get rave reviews (this is a very attractive location). The standard of decor is high. But from my point-of-view it sucks, because they've degraded my owner-occupied home into a hotel suite, except with no concierge, no mailroom (the visitors have access to my mail deliveries), and no onsite manager.
pikseladam 4y ago
I really liked the new design. It is really hard to do it this simple yet useful.
boringg 4y ago
Split stays? I don't understand how that changes anything... isn't that just bundling to stays and packaging it under one reservation? Or is it that you can get shorter stays under the minimum number of days required to rent from a place? If so isn't that just pushing the cost to the home owner who now has to pay for the turn over service? Airbnb -- super interesting company, great business model out of the gate -- as we start to get to the mass adoption stage the prices keep getting silly and the quality outside of the core offerings kind of slips. I don't see how they continue to keep growth going without some major sacrifices.
- ramimac 4y ago
  I see the value just from a search perspective -- take as an example: * I'm looking to stay 8 days in Paris in fairly peak season * There is no good availability for a single Airbnb for 8 days * This lets me see good matches of "3 in spot one, 5 in spot two" as well as "4 and 4" etc. without needing to do a lot of filtering by availability and digging into individual listings
  - boringg 4y ago
    Got it - that makes a lot more sense. Instead of having to try and piece meal it yourself they give you great options. Actually now that you have clarified it -- it sounds pretty great once I test the functionality!
- numtel 4y ago
  I'm guessing that it's so that when you search for a long duration of stay, many of the listings will be unavailable but with split stays they can make it easier to figure out how to plan a longer stay, so you don't have to look at the availability calendars of a bunch of different listings.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
kumarvvr 4y ago
Looks like the transition to "experiences" is taking hold. Also, what the hell are "Grand Piano" homes ? Do people like to have big pianos in their vacation stays?
- Zealotux 4y ago
  I suppose if you're a professional piano player you might enjoy being able to train while on holiday, but I'm as curious as you, some of these prices sounds insane to me, $10k for one night?!
- jitl 4y ago
  Maybe it’s more about what kind of home has a ~$20,000+ musical instrument & a room big enough to hold it? That sounds like a fancy house to me.
- durnygbur 4y ago
  Considering their user base is mostly millennials and younger who will never afford to buy housing, there should be category "elephant in the room".
- AlwaysRock 4y ago
  I think its the type of thing that might appeal to someone who wants a fancy vacation home of a certain style. If there is a grand piano the rest of the house is probably pretty nice. Does seem like an odd category but maybe its just a bucket they realized they could fill with high priced rentals.
portlander52232 4y ago
I’ve lived in Airbnbs full-time for the last two years. While the existence of the service has enabled a fun lifestyle for me, my opinion of the company has fallen and fallen over that time: * I’ve paid them tens of thousands of dollars in service fees. Yet the customer service experience is on par with an airline or cable company. Getting bounced from person to person every hour, having to explain the situation a dozen times (really, a dozen), and in the end they rarely help me. * Easily 90% of listings contain some kind of misrepresentation. Probably half it’s something egregious. Airbnb doesn’t seem to care. Hopefully they’re trying to turn the ship here. We’ll see.
- atlasunshrugged 4y ago
  Agreed, I haven't lived in them full-time but I use the service quite a lot and have spent many many months in Airbnbs and definitely think it'd be a great idea if they had some sort of preferred service in the same way airlines do for frequent fliers that gave additional support. I luckily haven't had the same issue with you on the scale of misrepresentation for listings but agreed that many of them at least leave things out that would have been desirable to know (e.g. one in Armenia I stayed in was great, but while it technically had an elevator it looked pre-Soviet and liable to plummet to the bottom of the shaft at any minute, not to mention the rats in the trash room).
- dominotw 4y ago
  They use a 'dark pattern' where they don't really make clear how much you are actually paying for night till you are on the checkout page. Lots of hosts use this pattern and make their listing real cheap buck tack on a huge 'cleaning fee' and there are whole bunch of local taxes, service fees ect which you only know at the end. They count on people to just go through with checkout since they spent a whole bunch of time to get through that point. Compare this with kayak which shows you final price right on the search screen. And then there is a problem with reviews where a guest is not really motivated to write a bad review even if they have a bad experience because people are usually conflict avoidant. So almost all airbnbs have positive reviews 4.9 review average making the whole review section useless. Also, there is no way for user to sort reviews in ascending order of star rating.
medymed 4y ago
A redesign is nice but please consider a secure Airbnb app-controlled electronic door lock. Hardware is hard but it could reduce entry/exit and check-in friction and confusion.
- damian2000 4y ago
  Not to mention improve the safety of guests... https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2021-06-15/airbnb-spends-millions-making-nightmares-at-live-anywhere-rentals-go-away https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2021-06-15/airbnb-sp...
- jitl 4y ago
  Door hardware is harder than most kinds of smarthome gadget by a substantial margin. Failure has a much higher liability - a failed door (failing open or closed) renders the entire house worthless. Can’t say the same thing about an internet speaker. I have an electronic door lock and it needs monthly fiddling to stay in alignment, and I need to push the door in to allow it to unlatch. The door system as a whole needs to be fixed here - but if such issues happen for a guest trying to check in, and the door is Airbnb branded - who is gonna get blamed? Even worse - a door that fails to latch for the night, and no one notices… I think Airbnb has concluded (correctly) that this is a losing game.
  - medymed 4y ago
    And yet somehow many electronic door locks exist as commercially viable products. If Airbnb wants a turnkey solution, then a product that works like turning a key would be a big step.
    - jitl 4y ago
      …but none with the liability relationship that an Airbnb branded lock would imply. Probably the best path to defray the risks would be for Airbnb to partner with lock tech groups like Kivo for API-side integration, and then gently suggest hosts use a partner-supporter lock. From my eye the available commercial products are just beginning to be “good” - for example, NFC locks entered the market this year, so smarthome locks can finally provide the hotel-room authentication experience, if not the hotel-room unlatching experience.
Olphs 4y ago
I thought "AirCover" was already the standard? Also this still doesn't address the issue that host can cancel your stay at any time and then you are left without any kind of accommodation in the middle of nowhere or unknown area
- JumpCrisscross 4y ago
  > thought "AirCover" was already the standard? Nope. Rented an Airbnb in Austin. Pool was a mess to the point of being unusable; host was noncommunicative. Complained to Airbnb. Gave the host five stars, but left them a note. Host left a negative comment on my profile. Airbnb refused to remove. Refused to provide even a modicum of a refund.
  - agd 4y ago
    As I understand it, Aircover is for cancellations by the host, it wouldn’t apply for the scenario you describe.
    - JumpCrisscross 4y ago
      > Aircover is for cancellations by the host, it wouldn’t apply for the scenario you describe The Get-What-You-Booked Guarantee claims to cover if "listing description wasn’t accurate about significant things," though it's unclear if something like a pool being unusable would qualify.
      - agd 4y ago
        Ah yes. Although that doesn’t seem to be new either? Of course if something is completely off (bedroom missing) they have to give you a refund for the remainder of the time.
- agd 4y ago
  Yes. I think it’s just a rebranding of the current offering.
agd 4y ago
Aircover seems a rebranding of the current policy? They already give a refund if the host cancels (as you would expect). And they already have discretion to find you alternative accommodation (although they never have for me). It’s still useless if your long term stay is cancelled at the last minute as it’s often impossible to find a replacement for a comparable price. This is the risk with using Airbnb for long term stays - last minute cancellations can (and do) happen.
monkeydust 4y ago
I am not a heavy Airbnb user. Most of what I read on AirCover aside from the 24-hour Safety Line I assumed was part of the standard service.
TekMol 4y ago
How is it possible that a website is so slow like AirBnBs? Everything I do on the site makes me wait. Even when I click on the calendar, it opens the widget and then slowlay paints the day numbers one by one.
- seydor 4y ago
  isn't that true for basically any website these days? spinner gifs are the trademark of this decade
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
thimkerbell 4y ago
Any category for "basic but secure"?
jackcarter 4y ago
Does anyone know if there's a secret advanced option to search by keyword? Some Airbnbs have free bicycles available, but there's no "bicycle" filter (possibly for liability reasons). There's also no way to search for homes that mention "bicycle". Instead, I have to comb through every listing. I think this used to be an option, but they took it away. This is the only feature I've ever wanted from Airbnb search.
reacharavindh 4y ago
>Check-In Guarantee If a guest can’t check into their home and the Host cannot resolve the issue, we’ll find them a similar or better home for the length of their original stay, or we’ll refund them. Were they not doing this until now?! I never had such an event occur to me, but I assumed if I can't enter the place I booked, the least I should expect is my friggin money back.
- d3nj4l 4y ago
  This happened to me before and I got a full refund, so it’s not a new thing at least.
- tr3ntg 4y ago
  My thoughts exactly. Every single new guarantee sounds like the bare minimum customer service capabilities I already assumed they had in place. When I pay Airbnb for a stay, I already expect: 1. to be able to freaking check in 2. to get what I paid for That's... what it means to pay for something, no? And if the promised service isn't delivered, some reparation is made. Either a full refund or something in between. That makes the whole "only on Airbnb" tag sound so funny. It sounds more like "Promised absolutely last by Airbnb"
- reustle 4y ago
  They did this before but it has gotten extremely hard to work with customer support for things like this. Bad CS alone has driven me more towards hotels for even longer stays.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
joshuajill 4y ago
I wonder if they allow the same lifestyle to their own subcontractors?
snake_plissken 4y ago
I just happened to go to the website this morning ([un]ironically some friends are coming to town and their host cancelled on them). At least for me this new design is unusable. All I wanted to do is enter a city/zip and I couldn't figure it how to do it. It feels like they are really pushing those high end lifestyle/adventure/experience options.
- axg11 4y ago
  I don't understand what you mean by unusable. I just went to Airbnb.ca, typed in a postal code in the very big entry form at the top, chose the next two nights and immediately received relevant results.
AlwaysRock 4y ago
Cool blog. I dont think the four coverages will change anything. I've been nomading from airbnb to airbnb across the USA for over a year now. Airbnb has been meh to poor everytime we have had to use their CS. The worse case was a home that we rented in Denver for a month (during peak renting summer months) was sold less than 30 days before we were to arrive. We'd booked it 90+ days in advanced. Airbnb told us they would help us find a similar or better home in the area. Very similar to their policy they just announced. But because it was summer and less than 30 days from our booking and we were looking to stay for ~35 days, there were no similar cost homes. The equivalent homes were 3k-5k more for the same time period in the same location. Airbnb said okay. Here is a refund and a $200 coupon to help you find another place. A refund is great but if all other similar homes are booked you could end up spending thousands more for a similar place like we did.
seydor 4y ago
I 'd like to see airbnb move to long-term rentals.
- denton-scratch 4y ago
  I used to let a flat through a property management company; 6-month lets. It turned out they were using AirBnB as an advertising platform.
pbourke 4y ago
We used Airbnb almost exclusively 5-10 years ago. We’re now back to nearly 100% hotels, with Airbnb as a backup option if there truly is not a suitable/available hotel. 1 out of 3 airbnb stays was deficient to the point of affecting the trip in some way: didn’t match the description, overbearing rules, maintenance/cleanliness issue that was difficult to resolve with absentee hosts, etc. The costs became equal to or more than hotels once you added in fees, and the experience was guaranteed to be less consistent than just booking a familiar hotel brand.
- AlwaysRock 4y ago
  I agree. If I didnt need a kitchen I would stay in hotels. So many airbnbs lie in ways that are smalll but important. Their "office space" is the kitchen table. Renting the "whole house" means you get one floor and while the helicopter owner gets the upstairs or a shed out back or the basement. This type of stuff is so common but there is no real way to get a partial refund or screen for it ahead of time.
- kilroy123 4y ago
  Same exact situation. I've used airbnbs almost exclusively for the past 6-8 years. I've spent 10s of thousands. It has become such a shit show. Especially, in other countries, and cultures. I don't think a redesign is what they need at all. The problems run far deeper.
thebiglebrewski 4y ago
Lmao at the example "split stay" - oh yeah, the average person is going to spend ~$14K for a month of travel at some national parks. Way to stay in all of those Airbnbs and see what it's like for an "average user" Brian!
r3trohack3r 4y ago
> In the unlikely event [we can't provide you the AirBnB you booked], we’ll find guests a similar or better home, or we’ll refund them. You had me until the refund. I understand it isn't always possible to find another place to stay last minute in a city - sometimes things are just fully booked. I get that, in that case, you'd have to issue a refund. But this doesn't give me the peace of mind they imply. It just tells me I can be stuck in a city with no shelter and left to fend for myself finding a place to stay. Peace of mind is AirBnB maintaining a reserve inventory by under-booking a city or maintaining relationships with hotels. Were they can guarantee an equal-or-better home or a refund and at least a studio apartment or hotel room.
r3trohack3r 4y ago
I recently had an experience where we locked ourselves out of an AirBnB by leaving my phone inside the apartment. The door code was in the AirBnB messages and protected by 2FA that required my phone - which was in the apartment. I got to another computer and couldn't log in. I tried to contact customer support - but it required an account. So I created another account and tried to message the host, but it wouldn't let me talk to them without a booking. So I entered all my credit card information into the new account and attempted to book with the host - but they had no bookings available. So I used the new account to reach out to customer service - they were unresponsive taking 30+minutes per message to respond. Given that what I was doing looked plausibly like a phishing scheme, you can imagine this would require a lot of back and forth, which basically rendered CS useless. I ended up solving the problem by checking the public records of the property to find the owners name. Then tried finding them on social media but all of their accounts were private. Luckily the AirBnB was in my (smallish) home town and I was able to find someone in my social circles that knew the host and shared their phone number. It was an absolute nightmare and I'm still not sure what I would have done had I not found someone who knew them.
ilrwbwrkhv 4y ago
Airbnb experiences are cool but for every other normal vacations, I prefer hotels. Turns out regulations do matter.
fangsout 4y ago
I'm a host for a cabin on airbnb and vrbo and I can say that it is remarkable that airbnb has achieved such a horrible reputation amongst hosts and guests alike. The truth is that the product is pretty great, until something goes wrong... Airbnb will refund a guest their money for seemingly any unverifiable accusation. I greatly prefer bookings from Vrbo despite their horrid tech simply because they are more reasonable when a guest sees a ladybug and wants a refund.

92 points by talhof8 4y ago

Just felt like I wanted to contribute something positive here. I have used Airbnb extensively for the past 5 years. I used to live 1 month at a time at one place and then switch. And I only had 1 singe visit (for a daily visit) where the host canceled and at this time I got back my money + 80 euro.

tr3ntg 4y ago

Categories look identical to the top-tabs they already had, no? Even their "OMG" tag is simply a rename of the previous "Offbeat". I don't get it.

paxys 4y ago

Split stays is a fantastic feature. Limiting it to just two homes seems weird though. I'd love to be able to stay in a city for 2+ months and change homes every couple weeks if I have to. At the moment finding places and timing all the dates is a nightmare.

atlasunshrugged 4y ago

Recent thread on Airbnb here https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31253306 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31253306

atlasunshrugged 4y ago

Of the changes while I think that the design categories are cool (who wouldn't want to stay in a Le Corbusier designed space at least once?) the "AirCover" stuff is probably most impactful and mitigates a major pain that I've had/been concerned about with booking (and from other threads on Airbnb sounds like others have too)

Varqu 4y ago

The AirCover policy looks like a game changer that elevates Airbnb basically to hotel-like level of service. Just wondering if they won't default to "we will just refund you" in case the host cancels (1st scenario) In that situation, if I get the info 1 day before arrival and just a refund, then I am screwed anyway since the prices on the market will be sky high.

dilap 4y ago
Yeah that was my thought too. "Or we'll refund you" is not that great of a guarantee.
- stevehawk 4y ago
  Hotels overbook just like airlines, though, so I'm not sure how AirBnB is much worse in this situation? I recently lost a room due to overbooking and being the easiest guest to get cut (I was only staying for one night).
  - ohyoutravel 4y ago
    Airbnb isn’t a hotel, it’s a person renting out their house. Not a fungible thing like a hotel room. When I book Marriott I don’t care which room in the class of rooms I booked that I get. When I book an Airbnb I very much care that the house I selected is the one I stay in.
    - joshuajill 4y ago
      Airbnb is to a great extent hotels and property managers. The cosy little family business is not so common to come by.
      - denton-scratch 4y ago
        The AirBnB that is my "neighbour" is run by a property manager - they run a chain of apartments on behalf of the owners. They aren't letting a room in their home; they live in another city. The owner seems to be an investment banker who lives overseas, and never comes here. From a landlord's point-of-view, their proposition is attractive: guaranteed monthly rent, they handle all admin, they hire cleaners. From a guest's point-of-view, it's good too; they have a full schedule of bookings and get rave reviews (this is a very attractive location). The standard of decor is high. But from my point-of-view it sucks, because they've degraded my owner-occupied home into a hotel suite, except with no concierge, no mailroom (the visitors have access to my mail deliveries), and no onsite manager.

pikseladam 4y ago

I really liked the new design. It is really hard to do it this simple yet useful.

boringg 4y ago

Split stays? I don't understand how that changes anything... isn't that just bundling to stays and packaging it under one reservation? Or is it that you can get shorter stays under the minimum number of days required to rent from a place? If so isn't that just pushing the cost to the home owner who now has to pay for the turn over service? Airbnb -- super interesting company, great business model out of the gate -- as we start to get to the mass adoption stage the prices keep getting silly and the quality outside of the core offerings kind of slips. I don't see how they continue to keep growth going without some major sacrifices.

ramimac 4y ago
I see the value just from a search perspective -- take as an example: * I'm looking to stay 8 days in Paris in fairly peak season * There is no good availability for a single Airbnb for 8 days * This lets me see good matches of "3 in spot one, 5 in spot two" as well as "4 and 4" etc. without needing to do a lot of filtering by availability and digging into individual listings
- boringg 4y ago
  Got it - that makes a lot more sense. Instead of having to try and piece meal it yourself they give you great options. Actually now that you have clarified it -- it sounds pretty great once I test the functionality!
numtel 4y ago
I'm guessing that it's so that when you search for a long duration of stay, many of the listings will be unavailable but with split stays they can make it easier to figure out how to plan a longer stay, so you don't have to look at the availability calendars of a bunch of different listings.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

kumarvvr 4y ago

Looks like the transition to "experiences" is taking hold. Also, what the hell are "Grand Piano" homes ? Do people like to have big pianos in their vacation stays?

Zealotux 4y ago
I suppose if you're a professional piano player you might enjoy being able to train while on holiday, but I'm as curious as you, some of these prices sounds insane to me, $10k for one night?!
jitl 4y ago
Maybe it’s more about what kind of home has a ~$20,000+ musical instrument & a room big enough to hold it? That sounds like a fancy house to me.
durnygbur 4y ago
Considering their user base is mostly millennials and younger who will never afford to buy housing, there should be category "elephant in the room".
AlwaysRock 4y ago
I think its the type of thing that might appeal to someone who wants a fancy vacation home of a certain style. If there is a grand piano the rest of the house is probably pretty nice. Does seem like an odd category but maybe its just a bucket they realized they could fill with high priced rentals.

portlander52232 4y ago

I’ve lived in Airbnbs full-time for the last two years. While the existence of the service has enabled a fun lifestyle for me, my opinion of the company has fallen and fallen over that time: * I’ve paid them tens of thousands of dollars in service fees. Yet the customer service experience is on par with an airline or cable company. Getting bounced from person to person every hour, having to explain the situation a dozen times (really, a dozen), and in the end they rarely help me. * Easily 90% of listings contain some kind of misrepresentation. Probably half it’s something egregious. Airbnb doesn’t seem to care. Hopefully they’re trying to turn the ship here. We’ll see.

atlasunshrugged 4y ago
Agreed, I haven't lived in them full-time but I use the service quite a lot and have spent many many months in Airbnbs and definitely think it'd be a great idea if they had some sort of preferred service in the same way airlines do for frequent fliers that gave additional support. I luckily haven't had the same issue with you on the scale of misrepresentation for listings but agreed that many of them at least leave things out that would have been desirable to know (e.g. one in Armenia I stayed in was great, but while it technically had an elevator it looked pre-Soviet and liable to plummet to the bottom of the shaft at any minute, not to mention the rats in the trash room).
dominotw 4y ago
They use a 'dark pattern' where they don't really make clear how much you are actually paying for night till you are on the checkout page. Lots of hosts use this pattern and make their listing real cheap buck tack on a huge 'cleaning fee' and there are whole bunch of local taxes, service fees ect which you only know at the end. They count on people to just go through with checkout since they spent a whole bunch of time to get through that point. Compare this with kayak which shows you final price right on the search screen. And then there is a problem with reviews where a guest is not really motivated to write a bad review even if they have a bad experience because people are usually conflict avoidant. So almost all airbnbs have positive reviews 4.9 review average making the whole review section useless. Also, there is no way for user to sort reviews in ascending order of star rating.

medymed 4y ago

A redesign is nice but please consider a secure Airbnb app-controlled electronic door lock. Hardware is hard but it could reduce entry/exit and check-in friction and confusion.

damian2000 4y ago
Not to mention improve the safety of guests... https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2021-06-15/airbnb-spends-millions-making-nightmares-at-live-anywhere-rentals-go-away https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2021-06-15/airbnb-sp...
jitl 4y ago
Door hardware is harder than most kinds of smarthome gadget by a substantial margin. Failure has a much higher liability - a failed door (failing open or closed) renders the entire house worthless. Can’t say the same thing about an internet speaker. I have an electronic door lock and it needs monthly fiddling to stay in alignment, and I need to push the door in to allow it to unlatch. The door system as a whole needs to be fixed here - but if such issues happen for a guest trying to check in, and the door is Airbnb branded - who is gonna get blamed? Even worse - a door that fails to latch for the night, and no one notices… I think Airbnb has concluded (correctly) that this is a losing game.
- medymed 4y ago
  And yet somehow many electronic door locks exist as commercially viable products. If Airbnb wants a turnkey solution, then a product that works like turning a key would be a big step.
  - jitl 4y ago
    …but none with the liability relationship that an Airbnb branded lock would imply. Probably the best path to defray the risks would be for Airbnb to partner with lock tech groups like Kivo for API-side integration, and then gently suggest hosts use a partner-supporter lock. From my eye the available commercial products are just beginning to be “good” - for example, NFC locks entered the market this year, so smarthome locks can finally provide the hotel-room authentication experience, if not the hotel-room unlatching experience.

Olphs 4y ago

I thought "AirCover" was already the standard? Also this still doesn't address the issue that host can cancel your stay at any time and then you are left without any kind of accommodation in the middle of nowhere or unknown area

JumpCrisscross 4y ago
> thought "AirCover" was already the standard? Nope. Rented an Airbnb in Austin. Pool was a mess to the point of being unusable; host was noncommunicative. Complained to Airbnb. Gave the host five stars, but left them a note. Host left a negative comment on my profile. Airbnb refused to remove. Refused to provide even a modicum of a refund.
- agd 4y ago
  As I understand it, Aircover is for cancellations by the host, it wouldn’t apply for the scenario you describe.
  - JumpCrisscross 4y ago
    > Aircover is for cancellations by the host, it wouldn’t apply for the scenario you describe The Get-What-You-Booked Guarantee claims to cover if "listing description wasn’t accurate about significant things," though it's unclear if something like a pool being unusable would qualify.
    - agd 4y ago
      Ah yes. Although that doesn’t seem to be new either? Of course if something is completely off (bedroom missing) they have to give you a refund for the remainder of the time.
agd 4y ago
Yes. I think it’s just a rebranding of the current offering.

agd 4y ago

Aircover seems a rebranding of the current policy? They already give a refund if the host cancels (as you would expect). And they already have discretion to find you alternative accommodation (although they never have for me). It’s still useless if your long term stay is cancelled at the last minute as it’s often impossible to find a replacement for a comparable price. This is the risk with using Airbnb for long term stays - last minute cancellations can (and do) happen.

monkeydust 4y ago

I am not a heavy Airbnb user. Most of what I read on AirCover aside from the 24-hour Safety Line I assumed was part of the standard service.

TekMol 4y ago

How is it possible that a website is so slow like AirBnBs? Everything I do on the site makes me wait. Even when I click on the calendar, it opens the widget and then slowlay paints the day numbers one by one.

seydor 4y ago
isn't that true for basically any website these days? spinner gifs are the trademark of this decade
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thimkerbell 4y ago

Any category for "basic but secure"?

jackcarter 4y ago

Does anyone know if there's a secret advanced option to search by keyword? Some Airbnbs have free bicycles available, but there's no "bicycle" filter (possibly for liability reasons). There's also no way to search for homes that mention "bicycle". Instead, I have to comb through every listing. I think this used to be an option, but they took it away. This is the only feature I've ever wanted from Airbnb search.

reacharavindh 4y ago

>Check-In Guarantee If a guest can’t check into their home and the Host cannot resolve the issue, we’ll find them a similar or better home for the length of their original stay, or we’ll refund them. Were they not doing this until now?! I never had such an event occur to me, but I assumed if I can't enter the place I booked, the least I should expect is my friggin money back.

d3nj4l 4y ago
This happened to me before and I got a full refund, so it’s not a new thing at least.
tr3ntg 4y ago
My thoughts exactly. Every single new guarantee sounds like the bare minimum customer service capabilities I already assumed they had in place. When I pay Airbnb for a stay, I already expect: 1. to be able to freaking check in 2. to get what I paid for That's... what it means to pay for something, no? And if the promised service isn't delivered, some reparation is made. Either a full refund or something in between. That makes the whole "only on Airbnb" tag sound so funny. It sounds more like "Promised absolutely last by Airbnb"
reustle 4y ago
They did this before but it has gotten extremely hard to work with customer support for things like this. Bad CS alone has driven me more towards hotels for even longer stays.

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joshuajill 4y ago

I wonder if they allow the same lifestyle to their own subcontractors?

snake_plissken 4y ago

I just happened to go to the website this morning ([un]ironically some friends are coming to town and their host cancelled on them). At least for me this new design is unusable. All I wanted to do is enter a city/zip and I couldn't figure it how to do it. It feels like they are really pushing those high end lifestyle/adventure/experience options.

axg11 4y ago
I don't understand what you mean by unusable. I just went to Airbnb.ca, typed in a postal code in the very big entry form at the top, chose the next two nights and immediately received relevant results.

AlwaysRock 4y ago

Cool blog. I dont think the four coverages will change anything. I've been nomading from airbnb to airbnb across the USA for over a year now. Airbnb has been meh to poor everytime we have had to use their CS. The worse case was a home that we rented in Denver for a month (during peak renting summer months) was sold less than 30 days before we were to arrive. We'd booked it 90+ days in advanced. Airbnb told us they would help us find a similar or better home in the area. Very similar to their policy they just announced. But because it was summer and less than 30 days from our booking and we were looking to stay for ~35 days, there were no similar cost homes. The equivalent homes were 3k-5k more for the same time period in the same location. Airbnb said okay. Here is a refund and a $200 coupon to help you find another place. A refund is great but if all other similar homes are booked you could end up spending thousands more for a similar place like we did.

seydor 4y ago

I 'd like to see airbnb move to long-term rentals.

denton-scratch 4y ago
I used to let a flat through a property management company; 6-month lets. It turned out they were using AirBnB as an advertising platform.

pbourke 4y ago

We used Airbnb almost exclusively 5-10 years ago. We’re now back to nearly 100% hotels, with Airbnb as a backup option if there truly is not a suitable/available hotel. 1 out of 3 airbnb stays was deficient to the point of affecting the trip in some way: didn’t match the description, overbearing rules, maintenance/cleanliness issue that was difficult to resolve with absentee hosts, etc. The costs became equal to or more than hotels once you added in fees, and the experience was guaranteed to be less consistent than just booking a familiar hotel brand.

AlwaysRock 4y ago
I agree. If I didnt need a kitchen I would stay in hotels. So many airbnbs lie in ways that are smalll but important. Their "office space" is the kitchen table. Renting the "whole house" means you get one floor and while the helicopter owner gets the upstairs or a shed out back or the basement. This type of stuff is so common but there is no real way to get a partial refund or screen for it ahead of time.
kilroy123 4y ago
Same exact situation. I've used airbnbs almost exclusively for the past 6-8 years. I've spent 10s of thousands. It has become such a shit show. Especially, in other countries, and cultures. I don't think a redesign is what they need at all. The problems run far deeper.

thebiglebrewski 4y ago

Lmao at the example "split stay" - oh yeah, the average person is going to spend ~$14K for a month of travel at some national parks. Way to stay in all of those Airbnbs and see what it's like for an "average user" Brian!

r3trohack3r 4y ago

> In the unlikely event [we can't provide you the AirBnB you booked], we’ll find guests a similar or better home, or we’ll refund them. You had me until the refund. I understand it isn't always possible to find another place to stay last minute in a city - sometimes things are just fully booked. I get that, in that case, you'd have to issue a refund. But this doesn't give me the peace of mind they imply. It just tells me I can be stuck in a city with no shelter and left to fend for myself finding a place to stay. Peace of mind is AirBnB maintaining a reserve inventory by under-booking a city or maintaining relationships with hotels. Were they can guarantee an equal-or-better home or a refund and at least a studio apartment or hotel room.

r3trohack3r 4y ago

I recently had an experience where we locked ourselves out of an AirBnB by leaving my phone inside the apartment. The door code was in the AirBnB messages and protected by 2FA that required my phone - which was in the apartment. I got to another computer and couldn't log in. I tried to contact customer support - but it required an account. So I created another account and tried to message the host, but it wouldn't let me talk to them without a booking. So I entered all my credit card information into the new account and attempted to book with the host - but they had no bookings available. So I used the new account to reach out to customer service - they were unresponsive taking 30+minutes per message to respond. Given that what I was doing looked plausibly like a phishing scheme, you can imagine this would require a lot of back and forth, which basically rendered CS useless. I ended up solving the problem by checking the public records of the property to find the owners name. Then tried finding them on social media but all of their accounts were private. Luckily the AirBnB was in my (smallish) home town and I was able to find someone in my social circles that knew the host and shared their phone number. It was an absolute nightmare and I'm still not sure what I would have done had I not found someone who knew them.

ilrwbwrkhv 4y ago

Airbnb experiences are cool but for every other normal vacations, I prefer hotels. Turns out regulations do matter.

fangsout 4y ago

I'm a host for a cabin on airbnb and vrbo and I can say that it is remarkable that airbnb has achieved such a horrible reputation amongst hosts and guests alike. The truth is that the product is pretty great, until something goes wrong... Airbnb will refund a guest their money for seemingly any unverifiable accusation. I greatly prefer bookings from Vrbo despite their horrid tech simply because they are more reasonable when a guest sees a ladybug and wants a refund.