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128 comments

  • AirBnB is a great idea that turned to shit because of greed.

    Someone wants a platform to rent out...

    • Their cottage when they're not using it or lending it to family or friends
    • Their home while they're away on vacation
    • A room in their home to run as a Bed-N-Breakfast

    Great. Marvelous, even.

    But then people realized that they could make more money from a property by AirBnBing it out rather than renting it out. So people start kicking out tenants and buying up properties to turn housing into AirBnBs, and often in areas that were already experiencing cost-of-living issues for locals.

    From there, I'm guessing that AirBnB started trying to take a bigger slice of the pie, and "Hosts" started passing on the costs to "Guests". At the same time, "Hosts" wanted more money with less work, so "Guests" started getting cleaning lists so the "Hosts" wouldn't have to pay cleaners -- just someone to come by and make sure everything was done, and call a cleaner if it wasn't (and charge the "Guest" for it).

    Enshittification hit AirBnB hard...and in turn, living within driving distance of anywhere tourists would want to be also got enshittified.

  • I was solely airbnb for years, down to literally nothing now. Won't even search the site anymore. Many reasons articulated by others, but just a pure garbage company and garbage "homeowners" who are mostly just vc conglomerates and bs fronts now - last time I looked, I saw a listing that was overpriced, but I was going to do it out of last minute need...

    Host was named Miranda and showed profile pic of a smiling younger women. Listing text was written in her voice. I had a specific question that I sent and received an odd, cold form response, not in her same tone. Then looked and saw that Miranda owned most every property in this beachfront area? She looked pretty young, but okay, good for you. Looked further and found that "Miranda" was actually just the name of a property management group. That wasn't her in the profile picture, she didn't exist. She wasn't going to answer my question, she didn't give a shit, because she was... not.

    Fuck you in your stupid greedy faces, hotels will do.

  • Airbnb is a fine example of a sort of variation on enshittification.

    The way it works is a new company with a new and notably cost-effective way of doing things comes along and is unsurprisingly wildly successful. And then, inevitably, that leads to them hiring a whole raft of executive parasites who all have to be paid obscene salaries for doing nothing of any real value, which means the company needs to raise prices and cut back on services in order to generate more profit to pay those salaries. And meanwhile, the new executives, with nothing of any note that they actually need to or even can do, but with a need to create some illusion that they're necessary, have pointless meetings in which they propose and wrangle about and eventually approve and implement new policies and new plans that are generally awful.

    And pretty quickly and not coincidentally the new company ends up at least as bloated, mismanaged, overpriced and under-performing as the companies they so recently replaced.

    See also: Uber, DoorDash and the entire streaming industry.

    • While you got the effects correct, you got the process wrong and that's important.

      The way it works is a new company with a new and notably cost-effective way of doing things comes along and is unsurprisingly wildly successful.

      The business model isn't based on cost effectiveness. Most of these companies work at a loss for a long time, providing artificially low prices in order to gain market share and push existing players out. This is isn't new. It's called dumping. Irs just been a bit obscured by buzzwords like "new technology" and "disruption."

      And then, inevitably, that leads to them hiring a whole raft of executive parasites who all have to be paid obscene salaries for doing nothing of any real value, which means the company needs to raise prices and cut back on services in order to generate more profit to pay those salaries.

      These executives aren't hired to do nothing and collect high salaries. Their salaries aren't what drives the price increases. The major shareholders who spent their money to sustain the company so far want to get return on that money. They install executives with this one goal - maximize profit - so they can get this return. This is what drives the hiring of sociopaths who drive prices up in order to increase profits at all costs. This is what drives hiring such people in all public corporations. You got the effects right but the reasons aren't to do with shit execs and their salaries. It's all to do with major shareholders search for growing profits. Everything else follows from there. This is important to understand in order to point the finger in the right direction. Misdirecting people's substantiated anger with the system has been a perennial tool used to maintain profit maximization for as long as possible.

  • Airbnb is expensive. It also is often awkward, I always seem to get places where the owner wants to give me a tour of the place when I show up. Checkout time is always a massive stress, trying to figure out where the outside bin is, how to start the dishwasher, and remembering to return all the furniture to it's original position, lest we break a rule and lose our deposit. You don't get mini bars or room service or daily housekeeping, and you have no idea if the host is secretly keeping tabs on you somehow. It's just so much more work to stay at an Airbnb than a hotel, with none of the cost benefits as a trade off.

    The other week we stayed at a Hilton and I checked in and out without speaking to a soul (via the app). It's a no brainer at this point.

  • I usually travel by car and with my dogs out of necessity.

    Airbnb is the most cost-effective when you need a room that allows dogs.

  • AirBnB is great for large groups, when all the hidden fees and cleaning duties can be split up between a dozen people. It actually works out to cheaper than a hotel, and it's much more intimate to be together in one place with big private common areas. Plus, those big 6+ bedroom AirBnBs aren't exactly hurting homebuyers by being off-market.

    But for just a few people? Hotels all the way.

128 comments