Airbnb is adding cleaning fees to a new ‘total price’ of bookings in search results after people complained listings were misleading::Airbnb’s CEO said that he’s heard guests “loud and clear” that pricing on the platform isn’t transparent and “checkout tasks are a pain.”
Can’t scroll past an air bnb post without stopping in to say fuck air bnb for its role in the housing crisis. It should be banned unless it’s owner occupied.
As many other things on the internet, the original idea was great (renting your couch or a room in your house for tourists to accommodate and feel a local experience, but once it reached the masses, and speculative companies bought properties just to rent them and pay cheap labor to maintain the rooms, it became BS one more time.
No matter what those whose drive is pure economical touch, they always ruin it.
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Money doesn’t turn people evil. Humans are inherently greedy. Money is the scalpel that exposes our true self.
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But Capitalism
Here’s a hint, capitalism isn’t the problem. Capitalism allows us to do what we want, which means we can be greedy. Freedom is a two edged sword. One that I will gladly take cuts from while it enables our way of life. No one else is responsible for your safety but you.
Capitalism is definitely the problem here. When profit above everything is the goal and how the system operates it’s always going to lead to things like this. Capitalism doesn’t “enable our way of life”, advances in technology allowed that all capitalism does is ensure the majority of those gains are going to the people at the top instead of society as a whole.
I dont think people are inherently greedy. We are taught from a young age the need for money which in turn makes people greedy. Ie nurture not nature
If people grew up on small farms with only a bartering system, i dont think people would hoard resources nearly as much.
It may be i want to see the best in people but i do believe most people would rather help others than not.
We are taught from a young age the need for money
Bartering isn’t any better than using fiat. Fiat allows economies to function at a level bartering can never approach. To say we ‘need’ money exposes your ignorance.
I really hate when people make this claim that humans are inherently greedy. I usually find that the people who believe in this are greedy people who want to believe that it’s natural. It’s a way for them to feel less guilty about a quality that can be deemed unsavory.
It doesn’t take much to find evidence that goes against this claim. Buddhist monks who take vows of poverty, teachers who teach to help children despite low salaries, family members who spend money to help other family members, true Christians who follow the footsteps of Christ, and the list can continue.
In addition, consider this, almost all of animalia on Earth takes only what they need. Lion prides aren’t hunting prey to the brink of extinction. Bees take only what they need to maintain a healthy hive. Historically, most Native American tribes only took from the land what they needed to live.
No, humans are not inherently greedy… Humans are inherently adaptable. This is something all animalia shares. And currently, our societal systems rewards those who make and hold onto the most money that they can. What this means is most of the “successful” people in our society are likely somewhat greedy. This causes some of us to believe that greed is necessary to survive, but most of us focus on being happy and having enough money to maintain that happiness. Money promises security, and security helps keep people happy; but you don’t need to be a multi-millionaire in order to be secure.
Money is not evil, it becomes evil when it becomes the primary purpose of doing something. Like if I choose to fix bikes in my home town the money is there to offset the costs but if I choose to make money fixing bikes in my home town then the purpose is entirely different.
It’s also obvious that most of the savings in the US anyway go away when you’re running it as a business. AirBnB has basically turned into VRBO, but apparently sketchier.
100%
In my city it is banned unless owner-occupied, but it’s not enforced (along with other small crimes like bike theft). Since its not enforced, and everyone knows it, nobody adheres to the rule! Whole condo blocks, townhouses etc, all bought up for vacation rental now.
I guess it’s much like everywhere else, but hey, at least we have a rule!
Finally. I’ve seen listings where the cleaning fees double the full cost
Just checked and I was shocked to see how much any place was for a weekend… but I guess it is a weekend and I was looking at August… so there is that. Idk, I just assumed it wouldn’t cost $380 to rent someone’s RV that is across a street (not even abutting) from a lake for 2 nights…
Yeah… Unfortunately it’s the only decent website/app I know that let’s you rent nice secluded cabins to vacation in so I’m stuck using it
I heard vrbo was supposed to be another popular option, I haven’t used it much though yet.
Oh I’ll check it out! Thanks!
Tell me again why I would ever choose to get a room through AirBnB? Or travel across a city using Uber? Or have my food delivered by GrubHub?
Everyone wants to claim they have no money, and yet all these services needlessly add cost and complexity to what used to be a far more simple and cheaper purchase just a few years ago. I’ll take a taxi to my hotel room and pick up my own food thankyouverymuch.
Where I am Uber is the only option for an on call taxi.
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Where I am there are taxis you can hail and prebooked. The hail taxis don’t come out here unless someone takes one out from the city, and the prebooked ones can only really be booked well in advanced. However I can summon an uber immediately.
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Yea, one of the reasons uber is so popular is because it is cheaper and faster in most places. The business model sucks for the drivers, but it is mostly an upgrade to taxi services for people who use it to commute.
It sucks for drivers, which is why it’s cheaper, I guess. That has to change, because that money clearly belongs on the executive, not translated into savings to customers!
When I used to use it, over 10 years ago, it was great for couch surfing for a six pack and staying in peoples spare rooms for like $20. Did it all over Australia and Europe in college.
Now I think they’ve positioned themselves as being high-end hotel alternatives, because there’s more margin there. It was never good for that.
Today they’ve positioned themselves as a means for landlords to make a large amount of money from short stay holiday rentals instead of residential rental.
It allowed me and my friends to sleep in London for pennies compared to a hotel room.
And yet when I looked at places in Vegas, they were all shittier and more expensive than actual hotels. I really wanted to save money, so I really tried to give it a chance, but nothing that came up was worth it when I could just get an actual hotel. And the more I thought about it, I’m also just not comfortable using AirBnB as a single woman. Maybe other people have felt totally safe and had nothing happen and that’s great. But I know I would never feel one hundred percent certain there’s no cameras, and that whoever’s renting it wouldn’t just walk right in.
I’ve also seen those AirBnB management companies renting out rooms in the larger LV casinos for the same price, with the same amenities, and with the same resort fees. That one’s a total mystery to me.
And now they’re advertising AirBnB “rooms” or whatever it’s called where you sleep in a bedroom in the same house as the owner? While the owner is just…there?! That would just be so uncomfortable and awkward to begin with, but it also just kind of seems like a matchmaking app for serial killers.
Airbnb was originally the room concept, it’s was for couch surfing! Now it’s used to jack up housing prices for the profit of the few, naturally!
From what I’ve been able to work out - AirBnB doesn’t make a lot of sense in the US at this point - it often costs as much or more than an actual hotel or resort or more traditional house rental, and there’s all these extra gotchas with it that make it really… well - not interesting to me because of uncertainty, and that’s just financial and if you’re actually going to have a place to stay when you get there. Some of that was potentially worth it when it was 1/3 the cost I guess, but now that it’s popular, people aren’t doing it “for cost” or “to get a little extra for an unused room or whatever” but as a business. And guess what? Hotels, being competitive, already have close to the cheapest IT CAN BE in a given area to stay as a business venture.
On the resorts rentals, it’s really weird, but many places have partnered with AirBnB to I guess get them listed there also - basically like companies that have listings on eBay, Amazon, Walmart online, NewEgg for the same thing. It’s just a place people go more than say expedia. Of course, I do wonder how many people who are inclined to stay in those resorts are going to AirBnB anyway, vs just direct to the resort or more traditional booking methods.
Edit: Remembered - I’ve been told it’s very different in Europe still, so I guess it pays to check when traveling to other countries. If you’re ok with the tradeoffs for the savings.
Can’t speak for Vegas, that’s on an entirely different continent. But it helped that there were 5 of us.
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Doubt.
Quick google search shows quite a few hotel rooms under $100/night. Divide that with 1 or 2 other people and you’re talking about having a clean, safe place to stay with no other headaches for the night for roughly the cost of a reasonable meal.
And yet it happened…
We were sleeping with 5 of us, at that point you simply can’t beat a cheap AirBnB for price.
Frankly I trust my real-life experience literally doing it over your quick Google search.
I can believe you - people when travelling are so used to hotels they’re stuck in that “Hotel Room” mindset, which is great if it’s 2 people, or 2 couples that share a room. I don’t think many people have looked into “larger accommodations” so the “economy of scale” as it were can kick in. And I can see renting an entire house if you’ve got enough people going, for long enough, to be more economical. I know it has been for 1week or so. It’s hard to compare most hotels where people tend to stay for less than 5 days IME, and have less than 4 people to larger group trips.
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In cities yes. It still is unparalleled for renting small holiday homes in “rural” areas. E.g. Scottish Highlands, French Brittany.
That is the proper use case, where you would otherwise book an other B&B.
Indeed, I’ve used airbnb several times now to rent a vacation home in the French/Belgian/German countryside. For that it’s great. Cheaper than renting a bungalow somewhere and you have more space.
I get food through doordash because I can’t be arsed to pick up my own food on a lazy weekend. I’m also on the edge of nowhere, so I tip well. (This is a rare treat, not my primary means of feeding myself.)
Airbnb has never had appeal for me. I like the clear expectations of a standard hotel room.
I rather not have my food messed with by some random delivery person thankyouverymuch
Around here, bags of food for delivery are sealed up tighter than Ft. Knox (figuratively). Tape, staples, plastic bag around the outside tied up in knots you have to cut to get through. Plus, food deliverer germs are no worse than food preparer germs. I have enough innate germaphobe in me that I actively refuse to worry about my food being tampered with in ways I won’t notice. If I did that, I’d never eat any food I didn’t prepare myself, from ingredients that came in their own wrapper (banana, cantaloupe, live mussels).
No thanks. Between all the extra plastic and waste to keep people from tampering my stuff, to food getting cold and rubbery if left in a container for too long, to extra cost, it’s all a big fat no from me.
It’s great playing a cleaning fee when the host expects you to strip the bed and take it to the laundry, empty the bins and leave the place spotless
Since they’re gonna keep the fee anyway, might as well floss yer ass on the sheets I guess!
“Yup yup, we hear you loud and clear, everyone, it’s all good bro”
[Doesn’t turn full price on by default]
Incoming follow-up, if challenged…
“So we actually paid an expert consultant to tell us that a percentage of our user population actually wants to be actively deceived whenever they use our service. So by default we will still obscure these non-negotiable fees that you will definitely pay in the final pricing.”
The amount the owner often asks you to do yourself would make you think they should be paying you the fee.
It’s almost as if they don’t want people to use their service.
Decent hotels were cheaper than airbnb’s last time I went traveling.
If you want more than one room AirBnBs are a viable option. But then you can book them through booking.com just as well.
However for solo travelling you’re generally right, hotels are better.
AirBnB fucking sucks now. There needs to be a term like “slum lords” for AirBnBs. They outsource so many properties to property managers and the house is disgusting PLUS they charge you the cleaning fee.
Just stick with hotels.
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I will never understand how this is a fucking thing. Let alone so fucking much? Don’t want to have to pay to clean up after your guests leave? Then I guess you are in the wrong fucking business assholes.
It was only just recently that the flood of “Airbnbust” articles seemed to abate a little. I can never tell if Airbnb is going great, or it’s terrible.
For my own part, I’m happy for this update. Despite the complaints, Airbnb is usually a great option for families with little kids, where the alternative is usually “book multiple hotel rooms, and split the parents between them.” Price transparency is good, and I won’t book a place that has a task list for me.
It’s gotten to the point where I wonder if the hotel industry is astroturfing posts about Airbnb’s.
For families they’re a great option instead of being in a single room and being able to prep meals and save on eating out.
I don’t like what they’ve done to the housing market however and should be taxed heavily.
Definitely a good fit for families, being able to stay in a house has allowed us to do things we couldn’t have otherwise. We just got back from a trip that would have taken at least 3 hotel rooms (me, the wife, 3 kids, and my parents), and we paid less than the price of 2 rooms for a gorgeous 4BR beach house with 5 beds. We priced it out and it would have cost the same for 2 hotel rooms, which would have meant no grandparents, and my wife and I sleeping in separate rooms, and at least one kid on a couch.
So, yeah, new use cases enabled that weren’t possible before. That’s cool!
As for taxes, Airbnbs are taxed same as hotels here (15%), and the property owner also pays $10k/yr in property tax on top of that (per public records), so I’m not sure what else would make sense there. In some markets (esp cities) I get the concern about rent impacts, but this isn’t the kind of place that is ever going to be a long term rental. It seems like a parallel market to me, but I’m open to learning otherwise.
See, I think this is the big issue - totally different travel instances. AirBnB was sold (back in the day) as cheaper than a Hotel room, and I think a lot of these posts are people saying, well, I wanted a cheaper hotel room, but the market doesn’t actually support making cheaper hotel rooms when done professionally as a business because hotel rooms are very competitive so there’s likely to be one at whatever price point you want that’s profitable.
So anyone who was in the “market” for a single hotel room now feels like AirBnB is a ripoff, and I tend to agree.
For larger accommodations when travelling - they’ve always existed, Suites / Long Stay hotels / Timeshare Resorts / and traditional house rentals. But I was ignorant of these “being an option” because I always assumed they’re be prohibitively expensive. AirBnB and I guess other market forces have really made that not the case anymore, and there’s likely to be something in most places, especially if it’s a tourist area. And I think a lot of people are like me - “Oh, that rent a house, those people are rich”. “Oh a Suite? Mr Moneybags over here”. When in reality it’s often not that much money when you compare - especially for larger family groups.
I wonder which other fees won’t be rolled into the total price
Tax
Great, now fix where listings outside of your price filter keep appearing. And it’s not just places where there are so few options in one’s price range that it would otherwise be no results.
Last time i stayed with Airbnb, the host complained that I didn’t sweep the floor and take out the trash. I paid the cleaning fee!
