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> Raise your hands if you’d rather go back to a world without Airbnb Step outside of the software bubble we’re in and I’d guess 80% or more people would prefer

> Raise your hands if you’d rather go back to a world without Airbnb Step outside of the software bubble we’re in and I’d guess 80% or more people would prefer a world without Airbnb. A significant part of the population does not use Airbnb and is also experiencing negative impacts of a housing shortage and affordability problems.

fallingknife 3y ago
The number of housing units has not kept up with population growth. There's your housing shortage. Blaming Airbnb for this is laughable.
- phone8675309 3y ago
  It’s not laughable if it’s exacerbating the problem
- ska 3y ago
  The lack of builds is the primary cause, sure. But parent is not wrong that in a lot of places airbnb is clearly making the rental market worse.
jdminhbg 3y ago
> Step outside of the software bubble we’re in and I’d guess 80% or more people would prefer a world without Airbnb This is delusional. Here's one survey, by YouGov, pegging their liked-to-dislike ratio at 3.4: https://today.yougov.com/topics/travel/explore/website/Airbnb-Website?content=all https://today.yougov.com/topics/travel/explore/website/Airbn... The software bubble is nothing compared to a political bubble.
- jacquesm 3y ago
  I suggest looking across the US border for a bit.
- harperlee 3y ago
  Sure, there’s no bias whatsoever in that survey, surely the old grandma living on an unspecified european city center that is against airbnb is as likely to respond as the young FAANG-salaried international US traveller that wants to travel cheap and authentic.
  - jdminhbg 3y ago
    On the one hand, we have survey data, with which we can quibble on methodology. On the other hand, we have an HN poster who just really doesn't like Airbnb and pulls a number from his nether regions guessing that everyone actually agrees with him. Truly a conundrum as to which might be closer to the truth.
    - harperlee 3y ago
      No conundrum, we can reject both.
      - jdminhbg 3y ago
        I'd rather keep the survey data from the respected polling firm, actually. No need to assign it a weight of 100% truth, but certainly useful.
- trilobyte 3y ago
  No need to hide the information on the methodology of the survey: "YouGov Ratings YouGov Ratings measures Airbnb’s popularity and fame every quarter. The latest data is based on 1532 nationally representative interviews of the US population, collected during Q2 2023."
username332211 3y ago
>Step outside of the software bubble we’re in and I’d guess 80% or more people would prefer a world without Airbnb. I have, and the ability to travel (affordably) seems fairly important to working class folks. The people I've seen complain about AirBnb are the same sort of people who sneer at Ryanair - definitely not "the masses". Then again, things may be different in the USA. I've always assumed the 40 year old man who has never seen the ocean is some sort of a ridiculous stereotype, but who knows.
- JohnFen 3y ago
  If you're on a budget, you're not using AirBnb (at least in the US). You're using budget motels.
  - username332211 3y ago
    Is that also true if you are (or are traveling with) a woman? I'm not much of a motel person and am mostly working with stereotypes here[1], but a cheap motel does not strike me as the place where a woman can safely return home by herself late in the evening. I guess, cheap AirBnbs may be at similar locations, but that doesn't seem to be necessarily (or usually) true. And often you can't quite figure out how unsafe the place is ahead of time, so you rent something and roll with it, but that's a discussion for another time. [1] Then again, so is everyone else. A guy a few comments down presented statistics, which were somehow refuted trough the careful deployment of a stereotype.
    - JohnFen 3y ago
      > Is that also true if you are (or are traveling with) a woman? I don't think gender is a factor here. But it depends on the neighborhood you're in, not whether or not it's a motel. However, that's not pertinent to the point that I was making, which is that Airbnbs are more of a luxury option, not a cost-saving option. The comment I was replying to appears to be asserting that being opposed to Airbnbs is elitist because it's being opposed to affordable options. In my experience in the US, that doesn't track. Airbnbs tend to be more expensive than someone who runs lean is likely to choose.

fallingknife 3y ago

The number of housing units has not kept up with population growth. There's your housing shortage. Blaming Airbnb for this is laughable.

phone8675309 3y ago
It’s not laughable if it’s exacerbating the problem
ska 3y ago
The lack of builds is the primary cause, sure. But parent is not wrong that in a lot of places airbnb is clearly making the rental market worse.

jdminhbg 3y ago

> Step outside of the software bubble we’re in and I’d guess 80% or more people would prefer a world without Airbnb This is delusional. Here's one survey, by YouGov, pegging their liked-to-dislike ratio at 3.4: https://today.yougov.com/topics/travel/explore/website/Airbnb-Website?content=all https://today.yougov.com/topics/travel/explore/website/Airbn... The software bubble is nothing compared to a political bubble.

jacquesm 3y ago
I suggest looking across the US border for a bit.
harperlee 3y ago
Sure, there’s no bias whatsoever in that survey, surely the old grandma living on an unspecified european city center that is against airbnb is as likely to respond as the young FAANG-salaried international US traveller that wants to travel cheap and authentic.
- jdminhbg 3y ago
  On the one hand, we have survey data, with which we can quibble on methodology. On the other hand, we have an HN poster who just really doesn't like Airbnb and pulls a number from his nether regions guessing that everyone actually agrees with him. Truly a conundrum as to which might be closer to the truth.
  - harperlee 3y ago
    No conundrum, we can reject both.
    - jdminhbg 3y ago
      I'd rather keep the survey data from the respected polling firm, actually. No need to assign it a weight of 100% truth, but certainly useful.
trilobyte 3y ago
No need to hide the information on the methodology of the survey: "YouGov Ratings YouGov Ratings measures Airbnb’s popularity and fame every quarter. The latest data is based on 1532 nationally representative interviews of the US population, collected during Q2 2023."

username332211 3y ago

>Step outside of the software bubble we’re in and I’d guess 80% or more people would prefer a world without Airbnb. I have, and the ability to travel (affordably) seems fairly important to working class folks. The people I've seen complain about AirBnb are the same sort of people who sneer at Ryanair - definitely not "the masses". Then again, things may be different in the USA. I've always assumed the 40 year old man who has never seen the ocean is some sort of a ridiculous stereotype, but who knows.

JohnFen 3y ago
If you're on a budget, you're not using AirBnb (at least in the US). You're using budget motels.
- username332211 3y ago
  Is that also true if you are (or are traveling with) a woman? I'm not much of a motel person and am mostly working with stereotypes here[1], but a cheap motel does not strike me as the place where a woman can safely return home by herself late in the evening. I guess, cheap AirBnbs may be at similar locations, but that doesn't seem to be necessarily (or usually) true. And often you can't quite figure out how unsafe the place is ahead of time, so you rent something and roll with it, but that's a discussion for another time. [1] Then again, so is everyone else. A guy a few comments down presented statistics, which were somehow refuted trough the careful deployment of a stereotype.
  - JohnFen 3y ago
    > Is that also true if you are (or are traveling with) a woman? I don't think gender is a factor here. But it depends on the neighborhood you're in, not whether or not it's a motel. However, that's not pertinent to the point that I was making, which is that Airbnbs are more of a luxury option, not a cost-saving option. The comment I was replying to appears to be asserting that being opposed to Airbnbs is elitist because it's being opposed to affordable options. In my experience in the US, that doesn't track. Airbnbs tend to be more expensive than someone who runs lean is likely to choose.