3B854 t1_iv7eot1 wrote
Reply to comment by tonybotz in NYC proposes strict Airbnb registration rules to take effect in January by Eriosyces
Hotels are cheaper half the time
ctindel t1_iv7piv9 wrote
Hotels should be cheaper because you get less for your money it's a tiny studio apartment except with no kitchen and lots of times not even a fridge or couch. When you stay at an airbnb lots of times its multiple rooms, living room, kitchen, etc. The fact that airbnbs are cheaper AND have more amenities AND are more conveniently located to non-touristy places seems like a temporary misprice of market goods.
Airbnb absolutely shit the bed by allowing hosts to fuck around and set exorbitant cleaning fees though. I had another one that listed for a 3-bedroom in the headline/search results but then made us a pay an extra fee to get the unlock code for the 3rd bedroom when we showed up. Airbnb only refunded my money when I threatened to file a complaint for false advertising with the attorney general.
3B854 t1_iv854gg wrote
Airbnb is good for groups but that’s it. The idea was a hotel alternative but it is now a business. Just like house flipping. Not everyone can do it. Plus the fee abuse needs to be stopped.
smooth_rubber_001 t1_iv8c8lr wrote
Agreed. For my wedding in Japan, I had my entire family fly over to Tokyo. We're big on family so everyone wanted to stick together for the duration of the trip. I booked them (if I remember I think it was 15 relatives and my parents) an entire house close to Ikebukuro). It was the only option and it turned out to be WAYYYYYYYYYYYYYY cheaper than hotel rooms (Tokyo area hotels are notoriously expensive especially during Sakura season which is when my wedding was held).
Anyway, tangential story, I booked a single apartment studio for my mother and father when they came to visit (this was another time, a year or two after my wedding). It was hosted by a woman (forgot the name but it's important to the story) who claimed to have the best cleaning services and most awesome response times and blah blah blah. I picked up my parents at Haneda, brought them to the Airbnb, we checked in and it was a fucking dump. Bed had a shit ton of, what looked like male pubic hair, crusted yellow stains on the sheets and pillow cases, crusty yellow blotchy stains on the ceiling. Bathroom smelled like someone threw up in there, but it was spotless except for what looked like blood stains smeared all over one side of the wall. Floors were old as fuck. Basically, the apartment looked nothing like the photos which were heavily edited and all taken at angles to make everything look larger. I should have known better.
I reached out the host by phone. A man picks up instead of the host. He said he is the host's friend and that she's away (obviously bullshit because I was aware that in Tokyo lots of third party home managers help hosts rent their apartments or houses on Airbnb). I explain to him the situation calmly, and said I want a refund. He refused but said he could send cleaners to the apartment the NEXT day. I refused back at him and I demanded a refund. Guy said he needs to check and will call me back. Didn't call me back for 30 minutes so I try reaching out to him for the next hour and realize he is ghosting me.
Called Airbnb, they directed me to the US offices I guess. They made me send photos of the apartment, which I did. Support staff I spoke to was nice but apparently since I had already checked in they needed the host to unilaterally refund me or some bullshit excuse. I had enough, so I asked my wife (who is Japanese) to send a message in Japanese that went something like "If you don't refund me I will get the police involved. I will also reach out to NHK and other news outlets about this apartment from hell so that they have a cool story to report on. I will also seek out a lawyer and sue you into oblivion because I know you're probably illegally renting this apartment on Airbnb."
I got refunded almost right away after hitting send. Fucker. Just writing about the experience pisses me off lol, more so because I had fucked up so bad for my parents. I ended up getting them a hotel afterwards.
3B854 t1_iv8v30q wrote
That’s terrible. I had to threaten Airbnb for my money back as well. Such embarrassing behavior. If i had stock i would sell because it’s at its peak
ctindel t1_iv8drwh wrote
Excluding the bad host problems, airbnb is great for people who want to stay in a regular neighborhood around locals instead of in the touristy areas where hotels are licensed to operate. Let's say you're a parent from the midwest coming to visit your adult child who lives in queens or brooklyn, do you want to stay in wall street/times square/midtown where most of the hotels are or do you want to stay in the same neighborhood where your kid lives?
If cities didn't limit hotel locations and try to concentrate them in certain places, and hotels provided more kitchen-like amenities so people can cook for themselves when traveling this would all be less of an issue. But airbnb basically figured out that hotels aren't providing what a lot of people really want.
3B854 t1_iv8v4kp wrote
There are hotels in Brooklyn lol
ctindel t1_iv8vtc0 wrote
Hotels in the outer boroughs are clustered around the airport and expensive or trendy neighborhoods like Long Island city or downtown Brooklyn. The ones that don’t fall into those categories have frequently been taken over for use as homeless housing.
And anyway, all of the things being equal why wouldn’t you wanna living room and the kitchen for the same or less money?
GrayWing121 t1_ivao37q wrote
Found the AirBnB owner
tikihiki t1_iva2ll8 wrote
Hotels have 24 hour staff, are more consistent, clean your room each day, are conveniently located to touristy places. Both have pros and cons and I disagree that Airbnb's are objectively "worth more".
CactusBoyScout t1_ivajbi3 wrote
The entire initial appeal of Airbnb, in my view, was being away from designated tourist zones and having a kitchen if I wanted to cook. And that’s it.
But they ruined it with outrageous fees and host demands.
phoenixmatrix t1_ivdjre6 wrote
>and having a kitchen if I wanted to cook
There's plenty of hotels that have kitchens (at least in big cities). Just need to specifically look for one. Doesn't fix the other reasons, but that one one is overblown.
ctindel t1_iva3qpj wrote
The Marriott hotels I’ve stayed in lately don’t clean your room every day, I guess as a cost cutting measure.
There are plenty of airbnbs in touristy neighborhoods too. I’d say the majority of people would rather have more space and a kitchen than 24 hour staff. I agree about the consistency though obviously it’s a huge value that large chains bring, and rewards points. My coworkers for years, at least as far back as 2014 choose to stay in airbnbs on business trips but I like those rewards points!
I only stay at Airbnb when I’m going somewhere with a group and we want a house/cabin to hang out in together.
HuntOk3506 t1_ivb29t9 wrote
>> The Marriott hotels I’ve stayed in lately don’t clean your room every day, I guess as a cost cutting measure.
This is a US thing. Outside of the states the hotels do what they are paid for.
ctindel t1_ivbdldv wrote
Maybe. This only started during covid and persisted during the ensuing labor shortage. TBH I don’t want someone coming into my room during a stay so I always left the DND sign up anyway. I like not having to worry about a cleaning fee when I leave though, that was always some bullshit about Airbnb.
BarriBlue t1_iv9u0kn wrote
>Airbnb absolutely shit the bed by allowing hosts to fuck around and set exorbitant cleaning fees
AND simultaneously allowing hosts to make wild cleaning and check out rules for the guest to follow. Wtf. Cleaning fee? Fine. But why am I still expected to super clean before I check out? What am I even paying for then?
CactusBoyScout t1_ivaj43o wrote
Yeah last time I used airbnb was in Barcelona and I spent my entire last day there scrubbing the place clean and I still got a bad review from the host (mentioning cleanliness) and got charged a cleaning fee.
Fuck that I’ll just go back to hotels.
ctindel t1_iva24in wrote
Yeah get out there and rake up the leaves and mow the lawn!
TarumK t1_ivajdor wrote
Hotels are tightly regulated and pay really high taxes. That's why they're so much more expensive than airbnb.
ctindel t1_ivbdrdv wrote
Is it that they “pay high taxes” or that the city charges an exorbitant hotel tax on the occupants because it’s a way of taxing people who aren’t residents and therefore don’t get to vote on the taxes in the first place?
TarumK t1_ivbfl2o wrote
I mean a tax on hotels vs taxing the guests directly amounts to the same thing, either way It makes it more expensive to stay at a hotel than an airbnb.
bilbo_swagginz_boi t1_iv9ujzz wrote
When I’m traveling I’m generally not in the place I’m staying at all that much
ctindel t1_iva21xk wrote
You might not be but some people are.
pixel_of_moral_decay t1_ivbaowz wrote
Airbnb should technically be cheaper.
They pay illegal labor in cash for things like cleaning vs employees who you pay things like payroll taxes on. Hotels also pay for things like insurance.
Investors on Airbnb have basically extracted all the value they could at this point.
ctindel t1_ivbdcyo wrote
Yeah I understand why the owners’ cost structures are lower I just meant from the perspective of value provided, a well run Airbnb unit offers more value than a well run hotel.
crek42 t1_iv805jv wrote
This is parroted all over Reddit and if people just took a moment to think about it you’d quickly realize you’re not making a fair comparison. Hotels are, the vast majority of the time, 350 square feet and simply don’t work for a family or groups. Rentals are entire apartments or homes with a yard or other amenities. Surely it’s easy to comprehend that rentals are a better value if you consider the above.
smooth_rubber_001 t1_iv8dd7y wrote
There are definitely pros and cons to Airbnb, the good experiences I had with Airbnb, I genuinely loved them because I was traveling in large groups with either friends or family and we wanted to have that big house / 4-5+ bedroom condominium experience.
But damn, their cleaning fees can be absurd for single travelers. I've seen listings in America where the cleaning fees are 4-5x more than the nightly room cost.
crek42 t1_iv8dlvb wrote
Yea exactly — they serve different needs. My family of 4 cannot stay in a hotel without spending buckets of cash. It’s just more fun having a house to rent when I have the family vacationing and friends/other family visit.
kjuneja t1_iv9ej09 wrote
>simply don’t work for a family or groups
You've made an oversimplification. Hotels are fine (and "work") for short stays with our without families.
socialcommentary2000 t1_iv9luqe wrote
They literally also have entire brands from Hotel chains dedicated to making your family vacation enjoyable.
AirBNB is not a substitute for actual hotels unless you're some kind of rare edge case, like getting a summer share where lots of people are attending or the odd off "I need to haul like 15 people to a destination" type shit.
Hotels know this, too and they're not losing out on much money by not specifically catering to these much rarer odd sized groups.
The Youtube creator Modern MBA did a great video detailing why the industry doesn't consider AirBNB a threat and doesn't have to.
crek42 t1_iva8brp wrote
I mean, of course they’re a substitute. You think if rentals didn’t exist people just wouldn’t travel? The hotel lobby fights for short term rental regulation all the time in Washington — do they do that because they don’t see them as a threat?
socialcommentary2000 t1_ivaysxm wrote
Wouldn't you? Why not? Put yourself in the position of being an established hotelier. You've gone through the capital costs to be above board in running an enterprise. You're insured and indemnified against loss, you've taken the proper code steps for things like safety and food handling standards. You've developed relationships with suppliers and clients...et cetera et cetera.
You've done all this and then a matchmaking app that's specifically there to get around all of that built up structure comes along. Now, the neat thing is, in the end, it's not really affecting your bottom line. This has been borne out, it's not a theoretical. Hotels are not suffering because of AirBnB.
Wouldn't you twist the knife just to make a point?
I would. Alls fair in love and commerce, eh?
crek42 t1_ivb1pe3 wrote
I mean all you have to do is google it. Hotels aggressively lobby against short term rental regulations.
crek42 t1_iva840q wrote
Yea they’re “fine” but why would you want to bring your family to stay in a hotel when you can rent a whole house with a yard? Growing up, when the family wanted to go to beach we never stayed in a hotel but rented a home and friends and family would come down to visit for a day or two. Same with everyone else I knew. It’s the de facto choice when you want to travel without just your partner.
kjuneja t1_ivaejcx wrote
Because sometimes you're only staying somewhere a day or two. Airbnb is great for long stays with big groups. Otherwise the fees counter the value
jwarnyc t1_ivanlpv wrote
Hotels offer half the home
utamog t1_ivbii41 wrote
It’s good to have the competition
3B854 t1_ivgcbdd wrote
What competition when the cleaning fee cost an entire night hotel stay and i still need to clean after myself?b
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