Also fuck enshittification!

  • shirasho@feddit.online
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    22 days ago

    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.

  • RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world
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    21 days ago

    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.

    • diffaldo@lemmy.dbzer0.comOP
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      21 days ago

      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.

  • wizardbeard@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    22 days ago

    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

  • Schmoo@slrpnk.net
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    20 days ago

    The hotel can get away with it because they underpay an exploited worker to do all the cleaning. AirBnBs are so particular about cleaning because the owner is either doing it themselves or hiring an independent contractor. It’s bourgeoisie vs. petite bourgeoisie.

  • WoodScientist@lemmy.world
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    21 days ago

    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:

    1. Small rental units in locations where big hotels aren’t viable. (Think remote mountain cabins.)

    2. 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.

    • Dnb@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      21 days ago

      It’s also good for family reunion or just traveling with your own family or kids and want a kitchen/ multiple rooms.

    • Funkt4st1c@lemmy.world
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      21 days ago

      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.

      • Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works
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        21 days ago

        Wasn’t that the original idea? I swear when my friend first used it he made it sound like crashing in a spare room.

        • k0e3@lemmy.ca
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          20 days ago

          Yeah because it was a paid knock off of couch surfing. I made so many great friends in my trip to Europe because most of those doing it were college students or recent grads who wanted some extra cash and meet people.