Ironically the same brown central south American cleaning crew cleans up for the hotels and airbnb, also they are disappearing because of ICE
$1k deposit, but yeah
I've been enjoying watching the Internet collectively bully that one AirBnB couple, Cassie and Jon.
I'm out of the loop on that one. What happened?
They're a couple that just go crazy with what they expect from people that stay at their place. The clip that I first saw that I think made them go viral was them upset the guests left the TV remote in a different room (on the table next to where they keep their rulebook), moved a footstool, left the bed unmade, and left a few things of food in the fridge in containers. They do charge a hefty cleaning fee and have some crazy rules with steep fines like charging I think like $50 for every minute past their early checkout time or something.
The basic problem of AirBNB was that it was never going to scale. Individual condo owners will never be able to compete with the efficiencies of scale of hotels. Having cleaning staff have to drive from building to building can never compete with a bunch of rooms in a single hallway.
The AirBNB concept does make sense for a few niche applications:
Small rental units in locations where big hotels aren't viable. (Think remote mountain cabins.)
Actual lived-in homes for people who are traveling and don't mind strangers staying in their house while they're away.
Neither of these scale. Cabin rentals can compete because it's not viable to build a hundred unit hotel on top of a remote mountain. But that market can't scale. Cabin rentals already have their own rental networks, and there are only so many of them. People renting out their actual residences can compete with hotels. You already have to pay your mortgage anyway, bringing in a short-term renter adds little marginal cost. But this model can't scale, as very few people actually want to rent out their own homes while they're out.
But AirBNB pulled the usual Silicon Valley bait-and-switch. Corner a market with unsustainably low prices, then raise them. The bait got many people to purchase rental units with the goal of renting them on AirBNB. But this was never going to be sustainable. Once AirBNB stopped subsidizing the rentals, the landlords have to raise the costs (both monetary and policy costs) to actually make the business profitable. And they simply cannot compete with the economies of scale of hotels.
Airbnb as a service for homeowners to rent to visitors is a great idea. Want to rent out your basement to weary travellers? Heres a service to do that.
Buying 20 single family homes to generate passive income is an incredibly stupid, antisocial, and dystopian idea.
Wait how are they even able to enforce the fee?
With your credit card, which they have on file.
They just give your card credentials to random people? Ffs I didn't know they do it like that. It's crazy that we just allow it.
I was previously using a separate card for them specifically, and way after the trip someone made an attempt to grab some ~200€ from my card. I've noticed instantly so I had a convo with bank and blocked.
Now it all makes sense. Fucking hell.
Seems you need a throwaway cards every time you want to use them then.
AirBnB became too many people’s “passive income”.
They don’t want to take care of the property or have too many to take care of, so they treat customers like house sitters for the luxury of renting the property as well as building equity off them.
Pretty messed up. In the early days Airbnb was ok, we used it a couple times, but I don’t think I’d want to mess with it today.
and it was being used by some corps to worsen the housing crisis too.
Gosh, I hate passive income. It doesnt do anything meaningful to society. Yet, the investor somehow gains more benefit from the invested resources than the people who create and use them.
They rebranded “Economic rent” to make it trendy. Adam smith is creating a vortex in his grave.
Somewhere in America a landlord is crying...
AirBnb became popular when hotels inflated prices around certain events or were at capacity. Since then, AirBnb owners have jacked up prices to be more expensive than hotels, and you have to deal with the "landlord attitude." It turned from a genuine service into another cash grab scheme.
And it also uses apartments that could've been regularly rented, worsening the housing crisis.
That applies to houses as well lol. For all of it, it goes even deeper too. It's not just that buildings that were going to be rented are now airbnbs, but that another avenue of revenue is once again tied to hoarding livable buildings with no plans of residing in them.
Enshittification strikes again!
Yeah, if it's the same price why the hell would you not stay in a hotel instead of "pretend this random house is a hotel, but now with the added magic of no regulation"
A kitchen and other amenities are a big reason
I stay at hotels like that sometimes.
A halfway decent kitchen
"Oops, left a mess (had a crumb on the counter). $350 cleaning fee."
with a service fee.
People always say this, but I've never run into any issues. Booking a cabin for the family or a week long stay through airbnb can still be the more cost effective option.
I always read the reviews and rules in depth before booking. The types of places that will pull what you describe usually are pretty apparent.
Obviously it's still fucked that I the consumer have to go through all of that when Airbnb could just make some standards, but oh well.
Personally now I avoid Airbnbs except for the two cases I mentioned. Groups and extended stays. Yes extended stay hotels do exist too, but they are hit and miss imo.
its cheap for large groups, but smaller groups not so much
Ive stayed in Airbnbs like 20 times in many cities, different states, even different countries. Literally have never had any issues like what people complain about whatsoever. My cat even scratched up an (admittedly already somewhat roughed up) couch at one, not terribly but it was damaged, and the guy didnt charge me anything at all.
The only issue I take with airbnbs is that there are so many that should be free market rentals or family housing rather than short term rentals
Don't forget having to find the cameras watching you, and text messages every 38 minutes telling you to leave 5 star reviews.
If you’re a party of 4 or fewer and are only staying for a couple of nights, a hotel with breakfast included is the better choice. Chain hotels also have a minimum baseline of quality so you at least have some expectation of consistency anywhere you go. Less chances of hidden cameras too.
Unless the point of your travel is the accommodation itself, you’ll likely only be in there for less than 12 hours a day, so all you really need is a secure room with a clean bed and bathroom.
Separate bedrooms and a kitchen have a pretty high value for a lot of travelers. You are making a big generalization here.
Post memes here.
A meme is an idea, behavior, or style that spreads by means of imitation from person to person within a culture and often carries symbolic meaning representing a particular phenomenon or theme.
An Internet meme or meme, is a cultural item that is spread via the Internet, often through social media platforms. The name is by the concept of memes proposed by Richard Dawkins in 1972. Internet memes can take various forms, such as images, videos, GIFs, and various other viral sensations.
Laittakaa meemejä tänne.
