9 ms·

How Google I/O impacts Airbnb Availability

67 points by zaius 12y ago

jayshahtx 12y ago
What a great website with an intuitive product. Cherry on top is the extremely relevant blog post which is A) somewhat interesting B) obviously connected to their product C) not regurgitated industry information. This might not go viral, but this is what I define as good marketing/messaging efforts
- Apoorv02 12y ago
  I agree, they created something great and they are providing more non-biased information on the product.
iandanforth 12y ago
This just makes me hate beyondpricing. After all, as a consumer, I love paying more when demand is high. A good company (as opposed to an amoral capitalist company) would focus on increasing supply during times of high demand. Not restricting supply to those of significant means.
- jpatokal 12y ago
  Actually, per standard capitalist theory, if beyondpricing gets higher prices for Airbnb hosts during conferences, this should spur increased supply during that time, which in turn brings prices down.
  - crazy1van 12y ago
    Exactly. Higher prices provides the signal to increase supply. Consider an occasional host planning their upcoming schedule. Knowing you would get an 18% premium for Google I/O days could very well convince you to be a host those days instead of other more convenient days. That behavior triggers more supply for Google I/O, which is exactly what conference goers need. Without that increased supply, the conference goers will be paying even more with even fewer options.
    - cfang 12y ago
      Correct me if I am wrong, I guess only on the condition that everyone is using that service, that theory will apply. If only 10% of air-bnb users are using it, they will certainly benefit from it.
    - toomuchtodo 12y ago
      > Exactly. Higher prices provides the signal to increase supply. This assumes supply is elastic. Supply of housing in SF is anything but.
      - cheald 12y ago
        Short-term rental supply may well be, though.
        pjc50 12y ago
        Indeed. I know someone who's being evicted from their flat in Edinburgh so the owners can rent it out for 3x the normal rent during the Festival. Of course, that doesn't cause them to vanish; they now have to find somewhere less convenient to live. This is another example of how modern "elasticity" is pushed onto the people with least. Like zero-hours contracts.
        eyko 12y ago
        May being the operative word.
- potatolicious 12y ago
  I wouldn't be quite so harsh, they're acting in a completely rational, expected way. And on the face of it there isn't really a problem with helping people price better. But I look at this stuff in aggregate - surge pricing on Uber, primetime on Lyft, this service on AirBnb, etc etc, and I get a sinking feeling in my stomach. The utopian technocratic future Silicon Valley is bringing about seems to be one where every merchant everywhere is maximizing every penny they can extract from you at every moment, where everyone spends an inordinate amount of brain cycles trying to defeat pricing algorithms, driving an increasingly maddeningly complicated web of price-maximizers so complex and pervasive you have no chance of understanding what's going on. Individually these things all seem rational and understandable, but as a whole where do we draw the line? As what point do I pick up a chocolate bar and watch its price tag change in front of my eyes because the system knows I have a weak spot for Snickers? This seems dystopian to me, and perhaps more dystopian than this possible future is the fact that a lot of people in our industry would wet their pants in joy at the thought of that future.
  - haberman 12y ago
    There is natural competitive pressure to avoid this, because customers hate unpredictable pricing (observe grandparent). Customers will hate companies (and punish them in the marketplace) if they feel nickel-and-dimed or taken advantage of.
    - vertex-four 12y ago
      Until/unless we get to a local maxima where in certain industries, it'd be hard to change and still be profitable. We already see unpredictable pricing in most medium- and long-distance public travel systems, for example.
    - gambiting 12y ago
      Unless you have no other choice. In Poland where I come from all trains are state-owned and each journey costs exactly the same regardless of the time of the booking. The cost of the ticket for a train to the capital on Monday morning costs exactly the same if bought 5 minutes before departure and 6 months before departure. In the UK on the other hand, all train lines are private,and they charge whatever they like if there is demand. So a morning train to London will cost hundreds of pounds if bought 5 minutes before departure,but only 20 pounds if bought 3 months in advance. I find this offensive on the deepest level. I understand that this is how capitalism works,but it is against human freedom and flexibility, in order to do nothing else but maximize corporate profits.
- gambiting 12y ago
  You are getting horribly downvoted, I think it's because majority of HN will be very pro-capitalist and support every notion of squeezing every single penny out of a customer where a penny can be squeezed(because "why not?").
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
CmonDev 12y ago
Let me correct the title for you: "How Google I/O impacts Airbnb Unit Availability in San Francisco"
- grahamel 12y ago
  It was a bit of a confusing title, I read it as something to be announced at Google I/O will change something for Airbnb everywhere. A better title would be "How large conferences impact nearby Airbnb availability"
md2be 12y ago
What happened to the social component of airbnb. Maximizing revenue on everything, give me a break.

67 points by zaius 12y ago

What a great website with an intuitive product. Cherry on top is the extremely relevant blog post which is A) somewhat interesting B) obviously connected to their product C) not regurgitated industry information. This might not go viral, but this is what I define as good marketing/messaging efforts

Apoorv02 12y ago
I agree, they created something great and they are providing more non-biased information on the product.

iandanforth 12y ago

This just makes me hate beyondpricing. After all, as a consumer, I love paying more when demand is high. A good company (as opposed to an amoral capitalist company) would focus on increasing supply during times of high demand. Not restricting supply to those of significant means.

jpatokal 12y ago
Actually, per standard capitalist theory, if beyondpricing gets higher prices for Airbnb hosts during conferences, this should spur increased supply during that time, which in turn brings prices down.
- crazy1van 12y ago
  Exactly. Higher prices provides the signal to increase supply. Consider an occasional host planning their upcoming schedule. Knowing you would get an 18% premium for Google I/O days could very well convince you to be a host those days instead of other more convenient days. That behavior triggers more supply for Google I/O, which is exactly what conference goers need. Without that increased supply, the conference goers will be paying even more with even fewer options.
  - cfang 12y ago
    Correct me if I am wrong, I guess only on the condition that everyone is using that service, that theory will apply. If only 10% of air-bnb users are using it, they will certainly benefit from it.
  - toomuchtodo 12y ago
    > Exactly. Higher prices provides the signal to increase supply. This assumes supply is elastic. Supply of housing in SF is anything but.
    - cheald 12y ago
      Short-term rental supply may well be, though.
      - pjc50 12y ago
        Indeed. I know someone who's being evicted from their flat in Edinburgh so the owners can rent it out for 3x the normal rent during the Festival. Of course, that doesn't cause them to vanish; they now have to find somewhere less convenient to live. This is another example of how modern "elasticity" is pushed onto the people with least. Like zero-hours contracts.
      - eyko 12y ago
        May being the operative word.
potatolicious 12y ago
I wouldn't be quite so harsh, they're acting in a completely rational, expected way. And on the face of it there isn't really a problem with helping people price better. But I look at this stuff in aggregate - surge pricing on Uber, primetime on Lyft, this service on AirBnb, etc etc, and I get a sinking feeling in my stomach. The utopian technocratic future Silicon Valley is bringing about seems to be one where every merchant everywhere is maximizing every penny they can extract from you at every moment, where everyone spends an inordinate amount of brain cycles trying to defeat pricing algorithms, driving an increasingly maddeningly complicated web of price-maximizers so complex and pervasive you have no chance of understanding what's going on. Individually these things all seem rational and understandable, but as a whole where do we draw the line? As what point do I pick up a chocolate bar and watch its price tag change in front of my eyes because the system knows I have a weak spot for Snickers? This seems dystopian to me, and perhaps more dystopian than this possible future is the fact that a lot of people in our industry would wet their pants in joy at the thought of that future.
- haberman 12y ago
  There is natural competitive pressure to avoid this, because customers hate unpredictable pricing (observe grandparent). Customers will hate companies (and punish them in the marketplace) if they feel nickel-and-dimed or taken advantage of.
  - vertex-four 12y ago
    Until/unless we get to a local maxima where in certain industries, it'd be hard to change and still be profitable. We already see unpredictable pricing in most medium- and long-distance public travel systems, for example.
  - gambiting 12y ago
    Unless you have no other choice. In Poland where I come from all trains are state-owned and each journey costs exactly the same regardless of the time of the booking. The cost of the ticket for a train to the capital on Monday morning costs exactly the same if bought 5 minutes before departure and 6 months before departure. In the UK on the other hand, all train lines are private,and they charge whatever they like if there is demand. So a morning train to London will cost hundreds of pounds if bought 5 minutes before departure,but only 20 pounds if bought 3 months in advance. I find this offensive on the deepest level. I understand that this is how capitalism works,but it is against human freedom and flexibility, in order to do nothing else but maximize corporate profits.
gambiting 12y ago
You are getting horribly downvoted, I think it's because majority of HN will be very pro-capitalist and support every notion of squeezing every single penny out of a customer where a penny can be squeezed(because "why not?").
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]

CmonDev 12y ago

Let me correct the title for you: "How Google I/O impacts Airbnb Unit Availability in San Francisco"

grahamel 12y ago
It was a bit of a confusing title, I read it as something to be announced at Google I/O will change something for Airbnb everywhere. A better title would be "How large conferences impact nearby Airbnb availability"

md2be 12y ago

What happened to the social component of airbnb. Maximizing revenue on everything, give me a break.