7 ms·

What took down Airbnb for me personally wasn't the government, nor was it the housing crisis, but rather the poor experience it offered. Years ago, staying at a

What took down Airbnb for me personally wasn't the government, nor was it the housing crisis, but rather the poor experience it offered. Years ago, staying at an Airbnb was a fun novelty and often I could save a buck. Now the novelty has worn off and the predatory fee structures make me weary. There aren't many things an Airbnb does in a place like NYC that a hotel can't do better. Hotels are ubiquitous and uniform. You generally always know what you're getting into, and if something is amiss you can usually get it corrected by staff on-site or migrate to a nearby competitor. With Airbnb, you'll be lucky if you can reach a human to help with what will inevitably go wrong. Instead of full-time housekeeping, you'll have to put up with the shoddy resetting that a bottom-rate contractor cleaner does between visits, and Airbnb will happily mark up prices for the privilege. I'll check out Airbnb again if I ever get the itch for an "experience," but otherwise... hotels, despite their flaws, are just a better product. Good riddance.

coffeebeqn 3y ago
Depends where you go. NYC sure but in a smaller place I still usually prefer to have a house or ideally a cabin rather than staying at the sad chain hotel next to the highway
- woodpanel 3y ago
  Well the sad chain hotel next to the highway at least doesn't hyper-gentrify the neighbours out.
- ghaff 3y ago
  Most hotel chains are boring but they're mostly there to mostly not take away from the experience of wherever you're visiting or passing through. For the most part, I value predictability of accommodation over the possibility that it may be exceptional (or awful).
  - ethbr1 3y ago
    I think this (experiential vs bland) and parent (urban vs rural) are huge components of the AirBnB experience. Generally speaking, most people prefer bed and breakfast experiences at their best: - Interesting home - Home furnishings / kitchen - Optional home cooked meals - Local recommendations - In a residential community However, there are only so many of those. Especially in urban areas, where an efficient supply of hotels already existed. Far fewer actual bed and breakfasts than AirBnB needs, once it went public. Consequently, it pulled an eBay/Amazon/Etsy and lowered its standards to increase volume to drive revenue. And in doing so, diluted and devalued their own product, because the worst experiences are synonymous with the best. What AirBnB should have done was recognize that they want to provide fundamentally different things: {Boutique bed and breakfast experiences} that meet strict standards but have lower volume (especially in urban areas) {Bland housing} that meets minimum standards but has higher volume Not doing so was an egregious marketing and product design failure on their part.
    - ghaff 3y ago
      Yeah. I've certainly stayed at B&B's/small inns--especially outside of cities on vacation--and have generally appreciated the experience. Some were listed on AirBnB although that's not how I booked them 99% of the time. Not sure that "good"/vetted B&Bs is a VC-scale business model. I do book trips through agencies that arrange housing at places they've had experience with (doing so at the moment) but that's basically a specialized travel agency-level scale model--not a VC one.
      - ethbr1 3y ago
        Agreed. And therein lays the bait-and-switch that AirBnB was forced to pull -- we'll market the best of our properties, but the average experience will be far worse. That's not a winning brand formula. Chain hotels, love them or hate them, are more honest about exactly what you're going to get.
        ghaff 3y ago
        >Chain hotels, love them or hate them, are more honest about exactly what you're going to get. Yep. I'm almost certainly not going to single out my whatever Marriott brand chain hotel as one of the highlights of my trip. And, maybe I had a decent view out my window and maybe I didn't. But I pretty much knew what I was getting. There were almost certainly no issues with checking in if my flight was delayed. And I could leave my luggage at the desk if I wanted to walk around before departing the city. But it's a case where "meets expectations" is what I'm looking for. I get that others, especially traveling with friends or family, have different needs than hotels are generally setup to cater to and that's fine. And if someone with local knowledge can book me a place with more character that's generally good too. But I admit that neither I nor my parents when I was growing up ever felt a need to cook meals where I was staying.
Brian_K_White 3y ago
"uniform" is exactly what I hate about hotels. If I never have to stay in a hotel again I will call that suceeding at life.
- xwdv 3y ago
  Stay at better hotels.
  - kbos87 3y ago
    The same answer holds true for a lot of complaints people have about airbnbs.
  - Brian_K_White 3y ago
    There is no such thing as a better hotel.
    - xwdv 3y ago
      There’s literally always a better hotel unless you’re staying in the best hotel of the world.
      - Brian_K_White 3y ago
        There's litetally no such thing as a better hotel when the problem is the fundamental nature of hotels. For a hotel to be good, it has to be so different as to no longer be a hotel. The best plate of dogshit in the world is either still terrible because it's still dogshit, or the dogshit has swapped out with other stuff and it's no longer dogshit.
        verdverm 3y ago
        You might try a 4/5 star hotel and then revisit your remarks here
        3y ago
sandworm101 3y ago
It was fine once upon a time when people used it for local accomidation. Now people rent airbnbs for parties, as drunken post-party crashpads, and even when they needed to isolate for covid. The customer base is now equally as shady as the professional airbnb landlords.
singpolyma3 3y ago
For me staying in an airbnb is always so much nicer and more trustworthy I haven't been willing to stay in a hotel in years
- ncphillips 3y ago
  This hasn’t been my experience lately. I’ve had worse accommodations for more money, and a list of chores I’m expected to perform for the hosts.
  - singpolyma3 3y ago
    Sounds like a good reason to leave bad reviews
    - saghm 3y ago
      If I'm traveling somewhere, I want to relax, not have to find last minute accommodations due to leaving somewhere because it turns out to be unreasonable. Hotels might be bland, but for the most part you know what you're getting.
flyingcircus3 3y ago
When I think of a hotel room, I picture a one room studio apartment with a desk chair, and maybe a couch. This studio apartment has no kitchen, but it might have a small refrigerator and a microwave. It's a cramped space, and not very functional, outside of sleeping. For most people, this means making a bunch of sacrifices from their normal living situation. Lodging that doesn't force people to make these sacrifices will continue to be in demand, even at higher prices than hotels.
- Scubabear68 3y ago
  This is why I always try to book a small suite (preferably with working kitchen). Not always much more money, and much more comfortable.
- ghaff 3y ago
  I do like having some level of refrigerator but, when traveling, I actually don't generally care if I don't have a normal living situation. I'm probably in that place at least partly to eat elsewhere and really don't care if it's like my house--where I'd be if that's what I wanted.
  - AYBABTME 3y ago
    If you travel with kids, house-like amenities are lifesavers. Feeding young kids with only restaurant food for days... isn't a realistic or healthy proposition.
    - maxfurman 3y ago
      Plenty of hotel rooms have kitchenettes, you've just got to find the right hotel.
      - ghaff 3y ago
        Yeah, it generally costs more but extended stay places and suites are fairly common. I sometimes rent them though I don't generally use anything beyond a refrigerator. AirBnB (and VRBO etc.) do tend to win when the objective is to rent an entire house.
kbos87 3y ago
I stayed in a 2200sqft new construction luxury condo for the same price as a 450sqft hotel room with one bed last week. Provided not in NYC, but the experience in many markets is one that hotels can’t touch.
kypro 3y ago
Your issue is that Airbnb isn't great for what you describe. Airbnb works best when you need something more or less than just a room to sleep. For example, I know people who use Airbnb because if they need somewhere cheap to sleep for the night and they don't need a nice hotel room so they're happy to rent a cheap bed at someone's house for the night. The reason I've personally used it before is because I'm staying somewhere (often for an extended period of time) and I want a place with a kitchen or living room. If what you're looking for is basically a hotel room, then yeah, hotels are going to be better 99% of the time unless you're looking for something a little more novel.
loveparade 3y ago
I agree and had the same experience. The underlying problem are the supply and demand dynamics. Most Airbnb listings I've seen are the equivalent of Youtube clickbait spam or Chinese FBS sellers on Amazon. They are made by "professional Airbnb hosts" who own dozens of properties with nearly-fake pictures and fake reviews who are trying to squeeze the maximum profit out of it without caring about providing a great experience. The failure of Airbnb is that it incentivizes this business model as opposed to incentivizing great experiences. Similar to how Amazon incentivizes low quality no-name brand products and fake reviews.

coffeebeqn 3y ago

Depends where you go. NYC sure but in a smaller place I still usually prefer to have a house or ideally a cabin rather than staying at the sad chain hotel next to the highway

woodpanel 3y ago
Well the sad chain hotel next to the highway at least doesn't hyper-gentrify the neighbours out.
ghaff 3y ago
Most hotel chains are boring but they're mostly there to mostly not take away from the experience of wherever you're visiting or passing through. For the most part, I value predictability of accommodation over the possibility that it may be exceptional (or awful).
- ethbr1 3y ago
  I think this (experiential vs bland) and parent (urban vs rural) are huge components of the AirBnB experience. Generally speaking, most people prefer bed and breakfast experiences at their best: - Interesting home - Home furnishings / kitchen - Optional home cooked meals - Local recommendations - In a residential community However, there are only so many of those. Especially in urban areas, where an efficient supply of hotels already existed. Far fewer actual bed and breakfasts than AirBnB needs, once it went public. Consequently, it pulled an eBay/Amazon/Etsy and lowered its standards to increase volume to drive revenue. And in doing so, diluted and devalued their own product, because the worst experiences are synonymous with the best. What AirBnB should have done was recognize that they want to provide fundamentally different things: {Boutique bed and breakfast experiences} that meet strict standards but have lower volume (especially in urban areas) {Bland housing} that meets minimum standards but has higher volume Not doing so was an egregious marketing and product design failure on their part.
  - ghaff 3y ago
    Yeah. I've certainly stayed at B&B's/small inns--especially outside of cities on vacation--and have generally appreciated the experience. Some were listed on AirBnB although that's not how I booked them 99% of the time. Not sure that "good"/vetted B&Bs is a VC-scale business model. I do book trips through agencies that arrange housing at places they've had experience with (doing so at the moment) but that's basically a specialized travel agency-level scale model--not a VC one.
    - ethbr1 3y ago
      Agreed. And therein lays the bait-and-switch that AirBnB was forced to pull -- we'll market the best of our properties, but the average experience will be far worse. That's not a winning brand formula. Chain hotels, love them or hate them, are more honest about exactly what you're going to get.
      - ghaff 3y ago
        >Chain hotels, love them or hate them, are more honest about exactly what you're going to get. Yep. I'm almost certainly not going to single out my whatever Marriott brand chain hotel as one of the highlights of my trip. And, maybe I had a decent view out my window and maybe I didn't. But I pretty much knew what I was getting. There were almost certainly no issues with checking in if my flight was delayed. And I could leave my luggage at the desk if I wanted to walk around before departing the city. But it's a case where "meets expectations" is what I'm looking for. I get that others, especially traveling with friends or family, have different needs than hotels are generally setup to cater to and that's fine. And if someone with local knowledge can book me a place with more character that's generally good too. But I admit that neither I nor my parents when I was growing up ever felt a need to cook meals where I was staying.

Brian_K_White 3y ago

"uniform" is exactly what I hate about hotels. If I never have to stay in a hotel again I will call that suceeding at life.

xwdv 3y ago
Stay at better hotels.
- kbos87 3y ago
  The same answer holds true for a lot of complaints people have about airbnbs.
- Brian_K_White 3y ago
  There is no such thing as a better hotel.
  - xwdv 3y ago
    There’s literally always a better hotel unless you’re staying in the best hotel of the world.
    - Brian_K_White 3y ago
      There's litetally no such thing as a better hotel when the problem is the fundamental nature of hotels. For a hotel to be good, it has to be so different as to no longer be a hotel. The best plate of dogshit in the world is either still terrible because it's still dogshit, or the dogshit has swapped out with other stuff and it's no longer dogshit.
      - verdverm 3y ago
        You might try a 4/5 star hotel and then revisit your remarks here
        3y ago

sandworm101 3y ago

It was fine once upon a time when people used it for local accomidation. Now people rent airbnbs for parties, as drunken post-party crashpads, and even when they needed to isolate for covid. The customer base is now equally as shady as the professional airbnb landlords.

singpolyma3 3y ago

For me staying in an airbnb is always so much nicer and more trustworthy I haven't been willing to stay in a hotel in years

ncphillips 3y ago
This hasn’t been my experience lately. I’ve had worse accommodations for more money, and a list of chores I’m expected to perform for the hosts.
- singpolyma3 3y ago
  Sounds like a good reason to leave bad reviews
  - saghm 3y ago
    If I'm traveling somewhere, I want to relax, not have to find last minute accommodations due to leaving somewhere because it turns out to be unreasonable. Hotels might be bland, but for the most part you know what you're getting.

flyingcircus3 3y ago

When I think of a hotel room, I picture a one room studio apartment with a desk chair, and maybe a couch. This studio apartment has no kitchen, but it might have a small refrigerator and a microwave. It's a cramped space, and not very functional, outside of sleeping. For most people, this means making a bunch of sacrifices from their normal living situation. Lodging that doesn't force people to make these sacrifices will continue to be in demand, even at higher prices than hotels.

Scubabear68 3y ago
This is why I always try to book a small suite (preferably with working kitchen). Not always much more money, and much more comfortable.
ghaff 3y ago
I do like having some level of refrigerator but, when traveling, I actually don't generally care if I don't have a normal living situation. I'm probably in that place at least partly to eat elsewhere and really don't care if it's like my house--where I'd be if that's what I wanted.
- AYBABTME 3y ago
  If you travel with kids, house-like amenities are lifesavers. Feeding young kids with only restaurant food for days... isn't a realistic or healthy proposition.
  - maxfurman 3y ago
    Plenty of hotel rooms have kitchenettes, you've just got to find the right hotel.
    - ghaff 3y ago
      Yeah, it generally costs more but extended stay places and suites are fairly common. I sometimes rent them though I don't generally use anything beyond a refrigerator. AirBnB (and VRBO etc.) do tend to win when the objective is to rent an entire house.

kbos87 3y ago

I stayed in a 2200sqft new construction luxury condo for the same price as a 450sqft hotel room with one bed last week. Provided not in NYC, but the experience in many markets is one that hotels can’t touch.

kypro 3y ago

Your issue is that Airbnb isn't great for what you describe. Airbnb works best when you need something more or less than just a room to sleep. For example, I know people who use Airbnb because if they need somewhere cheap to sleep for the night and they don't need a nice hotel room so they're happy to rent a cheap bed at someone's house for the night. The reason I've personally used it before is because I'm staying somewhere (often for an extended period of time) and I want a place with a kitchen or living room. If what you're looking for is basically a hotel room, then yeah, hotels are going to be better 99% of the time unless you're looking for something a little more novel.

loveparade 3y ago

I agree and had the same experience. The underlying problem are the supply and demand dynamics. Most Airbnb listings I've seen are the equivalent of Youtube clickbait spam or Chinese FBS sellers on Amazon. They are made by "professional Airbnb hosts" who own dozens of properties with nearly-fake pictures and fake reviews who are trying to squeeze the maximum profit out of it without caring about providing a great experience. The failure of Airbnb is that it incentivizes this business model as opposed to incentivizing great experiences. Similar to how Amazon incentivizes low quality no-name brand products and fake reviews.