5 years too late, hotels have been cheaper and better for a while now. All of these companies that touted revolutionizing industries have just become worse versions.
Netflix, airbnb, uber, etc all of them are worse for people than the things they replaced
Richard Wolf had a very good take on all of these Silicon Valley “disruptors”. It’s basically been the neoliberal US american MO for the past quarter century:
Step 1: get a bunch VC money by promising the moon
Step 2: “disrupt” by undercutting the established moon due to lack of regulation. Even though it’s an inferior product, it’s VC subsidised, so it’s cheaper than the established businesses.
Step 3: due to lack of regulation, your business drives established operators to bankruptcy. This is basically dumping but the regulation hasn’t caught up.
Step 4: become the monopoly and suck as much money as possible from your customers to generate “shareholder value”
American business practices summed up for pretty much my entire lifetime right here. No wonder we live in such a shit hole - society as a whole has mortgaged and undercut for an entire generation.
I’ve been the weird one in my friend group because I’ve refused to use Airbnb. Why would I want a less guaranteed place to stay that doesn’t have amenities and now costs more?
Yep, the one time I’ve tried to use AirBnB I had booked a nice place way in advance only to get it cancelled a few weeks later b/c the owner apparently needed it for something else. Or realised there was an event during that time where he could get more money.
Contrary to that, when the hotel we had booked for some time during Covid realised they weren’t open for the public yet, they moved our booking to a nearby higher tier partner hotel and they then even upgraded us. You won’t get this with AirBnB, I guess.
hotels have been cheaper and better for a while now
Strongly disagree. Here’s stuff I hate about hotels:
- housekeeping - just leave me alone and clean up when I leave
- rarely have separate bedrooms - I have young kids, so we can’t use the room once they go to sleep
- parking lot is a crime magnet
- more expensive for larger groups - we often travel w/ friends, so there’s often 10 or so of us
- minimal included entertainment - usually just TV and maybe pool; airbnbs often have kids toys, private hot tub, etc
Airbnbs are essentially the inverse of all of that.
We occasionally go to hotels, but if we can find an airbnb that’s a similar price for the scale we need, we go for that every time.
For large groups I suppose airbnbs are more reasonable, though it’s honestly not that big of a difference in pricing for vacation rentals.
Housekeeping is easy, just put the little do not disturb sign up, they won’t bug you.
I don’t have an opinion on the other stuff though.
I also didn’t mention a massive difference here: full kitchen. That goes into the cost as well, since now I can cook at the rental instead of eating out.
Hotels are fine, and we use them sometimes, but I definitely prefer airbnbs.
Long term/ extended stay hotels exist that will provide these things. But the vast majority of people don’t even consider those. They rely on what they can search up on Google for the area and algorithms don’t take into account that you need to bring your dog, want a separate set of bedrooms in the same suite, or that you’re looking for a kitchen.
I see this every time AirBnB is mentioned and every time I wonder if people even know extended stay hotels exist.
I’ve heard about them, but as you say, they don’t show up on searches. I’ll have to look harder then.
too little too late.
I share a lot of of the criticism towards AirBnB. However, I’ve often ended up using them either way. We travel with a dog and a toddler. They need to be allowed in the first place. And ideally we get a kitchen, a separate room so we can still have normal noise and light when the kid sleeps. Often we even find Airbnbs with toys, kids books, dog beds, treats on the table when we arrive, …
You simply don’t get that in hotels. At least not in a price range I’ve considered so far
i don’t think people need to justify Airbnb’s, it’s a great alternative to a hotel for many reasons including those you listed. What needs to be addressed is the damage the shareholders who are running the company are doing to society. let’s not give them too much credit about this choice: they are still sucking up homes from homeowners and removing money from the middle class. they only made this change because someone realized it will make them more money.
Their footnote section is doing a lot of work.
1 In some countries and regions taxes are included in the total price displayed. The total price including taxes is always displayed prior to checkout.
They also either don’t know how notations work, or the AI they’re using to generate this doesn’t because it has a separate footnote with that same sentence later on.
I would be thoroughly unsurprised if some EU or other regulation came into effect so that they have to do this, and now they’re taking credit for being consumer friendly.
It’s actually a US regulation which goes into effect on May 10th. Most other booking sites should be following suit with something similar over the next few weeks.
That’s awesome! Hopefully AirBnB doesn’t donate a million dollars to Trump for an exemption.
I do kind of wish these things required some kind of disclosure instead of letting them pretend they’re super consumer friendly and don’t need any of that demonic regulation.
I guess: great concept, shitty company.
Like with so many “tech giants”, they had a great idea but greed is spoiling it. I wish we had more “public infrastructure” for this. I’d love to have OSS, tax-funded or at least heavily regulated SoMe, video sharing, home swapping/renting, local marketplace, … Those should not be industries, they should be part of our society’s fabric like the fire department or trash pick-up.
especially corporate landlords are even worst, they are doing the same,.
I must admit that I am biased in that regard, but still I believe blaming Airbnb is mostly a distraction. Even in the worst of the worst places like Barcelona they reach around 10% of rental properties. Usually it’s a few percent in touristy places and much less everywhere else. Is it good for renters? Of course not. But it’s not the biggest factor, by far.
Now if I look at the whole rental market in my country, Germany, what’s on Airbnb is just a drop in the bucket. And still people are struggling to pay rent, especially in the cities. Even in those places that nobody in their right mind would go as a tourist unless threatened with serious physical harm.
Rents here started increasing uncomfortably after rental properties owned by local governments were privatized for a quick buck. Those new, publicly traded companies quickly raised rents sharply, because of course they have to earn back what they paid for the properties, plus a nice payout to investors. For the last two decades they have continued raising rents, neglecting maintenance and bought each other until now we the biggest company alone has almost half a million rental units, in a country of 80 million people. Of course, they don’t own three houses in villages here and there, but whole blocks in cities, with local market shares of up to 25%. That is much more significant than a few percent that are lost to tourism.
And don’t get me started on cost of construction, the chronic lack of new buildings, empty real estate owned by speculators or money launderers,… or I might rant again 😉
Exactly!
I have young kids, and airbnbs offer a lot that hotels don’t, and they don’t have the crap I hate about hotels (housekeeping, sketchy parking lot, etc).
Surely we can find a solution where you and I can get what we want, while residents get what they want.
Yeah, I mean, there is a solution. Liberalized zoning and Georgist tax policies. The problem is rarely that there is a lack of space to live - it is that that space is poorly utilized. And this is true because (1) it is illegal to build what people want where they want it in many places and (2) investors and homeowners speculate on land value without providing value to anyone else.
Yup, I’m absolutely a fan of georgist tax policies.
Tried that many times. It has given me the exact same place for slightly cheaper than AirBnB once. Other times it was more expensive but most often of simply had worse choices.
I stopped using their site for anything years ago. This was one of the main reasons. Too little too late for me.
TOO LATE!
These companies are unbelievable. Create the most predatory system on the planet and when their bottom line tanks they turn around like they didn’t create the very thing they now want to “fix”.
Anyone have an ETA on the rocket to the sun?
Getting a rocket to the sun is easy. Getting it back is the hard part. Since you dont need the rocket to make it back, it sounds like you’re all set for operation “beam em up”.
Even by space flight standards, getting a rocket to the sun is very hard.
Naw easiest thing in the world! Move aside rolls up sleeves
I’ll hold your beer.
Thanks pal. Fuck just got a lick of a smoke in my eye. I’ll be ok just need a min.
What. The. Fuck.
They haven’t been doing this from the beginning? That’s shady as all hell.
They had it originally and when they removed it is when I stopped using them. Like every other fucking “Uber of” tech company, they couldn’t compete with the traditional thing they were trying to “disrupt” once the VC money dried up, and tried to cover for that with deception. Fuck them, I’ll just book a hotel.
the only way there were going to disrupt is offer a cheaper sustainable service, that turned out to be the opposite in the long run, and airbnb has even caused harm in housing too.
In future news, AirBnB has gone bankrupt due to lack of bookings.
Theres been only a couple times in my life where I considered an AirBnB over a motel/hotel.
Every time I ended up staying at the Hotel/Motel, because it ended up being cheaper.
I remember looking at an airbnb that was like 25 dollars a night, and went to check out… and had to do a fucking comic book double take because the 25 dollars a night (was only needing it for one night) ended up being like 250 dollars thanks to bullshit cleaning fees and other exploitative, hidden bullshit.
So if that 25 dollar a night place is now being displayed as 250 dollars a night… then I forsee AirBnB bookings plummeting.
the motel I ended up at instead was only 75 bucks all in, just as point of reference.
Are you traveling alone? If so, that makes a ton of sense.
I’ve had a really good experience w/ airbnbs, but we generally go as larger groups (i.e. 2-3 families, so 10 or so people). We check the fees and whatnot before signing up so there are no surprises, and generally speaking, it ends up cheaper for us vs a hotel.
Wouldn’t this make Americans uncomfortable, they aren’t used to seeing the actual cost of something until one step away from checkout, or sometimes not even then.
before taxes
Why is
the Westlike thisEdit: America. Sorry for bundling you functional EU countries into this
We always see prices after tax in the EU
Unfortunately, Canada too. Very annoying.
Feeding on the simple minded and ensuring the feeling of taxes is like the devil.
Total price display? Always been there. Always been a legal requirement.
(Not in your place? LOL)
I remember when things like Uber and Air BnB came along the media was saying it was the death of cab companies and hotels. Well enshittification marches on and they’ve both become bogged down in costs, fees, rules, etc.
and it has mostly reversed, now cabs/ or other rideshares and hotels are lower costs.
Any alternatives? Especially European?
Booking.com they also have private hosts on their platform
Never book flights through booking.com, they use a third party company called GoToGate who have the worst customer service possible and do not refund, and only try to charge for more.
They tried to not refund my whole flight so I talked to customer support which refused so I charged back with my credit card and they reversed the original refund and gave me the whole refund
Never book with that site or any of its affiliates
HomeExchange looks good and is European.
It naturally lacks the depth of listings that Airbnb does but will grow if people use them
VRBO. Idk if it’s European.
It’s American.
And it does all the same bullshit airbnb does. Even if they have different policies (spoiler: they’re the same) they cause the same problems related to using homes as profit machines for assholes.
I never stayed in an Airbnb, always found easier and/or better options at hotels, or an apartment at booking.com. People act like Airbnb came up with the concept of renting apartments, while websites like this have been doing this for a decade by the time it came around.
Booking is also pretty scummy. There was a blog post a few years ago from a hotel that always showed up as sold out, even it had plenty empty rooms. In the end it was a “feature” where other hotels could “promote” their business in a city so it would show up first, but the competition would also be listed as unavailable to force visitors into the promoted business. The other thing is that booking will show “only one room left” to pressure you into booking right now, but what ot actually means is that a hotel might only allocate 20 of 100 rooms to booking, and still has 81 free rooms if you call them directly.
Hotels have always been better in my experience.
Unless you want something like a fishing cabin on a river, but even then I’ve started to look at resorts because after all the fees, they work out to the same price as an airBNB.
Same price, fewer chores.
Is that because their founder joined trump’s team and they face a massive boycott?
Yeah they can improve their UX all they want but since their co-founder is part of DOGE and wants to mess with social security, it makes choosing alternatives easier.
It’s because FTC regulations requiring fee-inclusive pricing go into effect on May 10th. Everyone dealing with short term rentals and hotels in the US will be updating to this over the next few weeks.
