4 ms·

I like AirBnB a lot, but the whole marketing it as a community thing just seems... weird, and a little disingenuous. Granted I've only stayed in entire-appt bo

I like AirBnB a lot, but the whole marketing it as a community thing just seems... weird, and a little disingenuous. Granted I've only stayed in entire-appt bookings, but every single one of them has been run by a real estate person(s)/ entrepreneur managing multiple properties, who does not actually live there, and all of them have some self check-in so you never meet the person. It's really nothing more than a rev stream for these "hosts." I've been doing a lot of AirBnBs in Tokyo currently, and it's especially heinous here, like trying to up sell you on other stuff, or trying to justify a crappy, cheap bed because "it's factored into the price." I just don't know about AirBnB's whole 'community' angle.

varunjuice 12y ago
I think they can build a lot of ways in which the "community" angle adds value to a guest. For example, they could encourage hosts to provide a list of top 3 things to do / eat / see, and aggregate this for guests. Based on a guest's FB profile, they could suggest neighborhoods where they would enjoy staying, or connect guests to hosts who share similar interests. There is so much potential, and I won't hold the current lack of community oriented benefits against them. Startups put a stake in the ground, and then build towards it.
- practicalpants 12y ago
  AirBnB is fine how it is now (for me), I'm pretty indifferent to the 'community' aspect... It's just funny (and, well, dishonest) that they market it like it's so community oriented. Maybe it was community oriented before, but it is literally inundated with profit-seeking power users renting multiple apartments solely to tourists (no actual residents). That facet is incompatible with 'community.' Forcing them to recommend stuff isn't community, but it is a nice perk. Granted not everyone is like that on AirBnB, I'm sure there is much more community for shared apartments where you are living with travelers... but for whole apartments I would venture the large majority at this point are these profit seeking/multi property/ no residents types.

varunjuice 12y ago

I think they can build a lot of ways in which the "community" angle adds value to a guest. For example, they could encourage hosts to provide a list of top 3 things to do / eat / see, and aggregate this for guests. Based on a guest's FB profile, they could suggest neighborhoods where they would enjoy staying, or connect guests to hosts who share similar interests. There is so much potential, and I won't hold the current lack of community oriented benefits against them. Startups put a stake in the ground, and then build towards it.

practicalpants 12y ago
AirBnB is fine how it is now (for me), I'm pretty indifferent to the 'community' aspect... It's just funny (and, well, dishonest) that they market it like it's so community oriented. Maybe it was community oriented before, but it is literally inundated with profit-seeking power users renting multiple apartments solely to tourists (no actual residents). That facet is incompatible with 'community.' Forcing them to recommend stuff isn't community, but it is a nice perk. Granted not everyone is like that on AirBnB, I'm sure there is much more community for shared apartments where you are living with travelers... but for whole apartments I would venture the large majority at this point are these profit seeking/multi property/ no residents types.