AirBnb (YC W09): Europe Without Hotels | Hacker News Reader

AirBnb (YC W09): Europe Without Hotels

travel.nytimes.com

45 pointsfleaflicker20 comments

Writing this from a nice, quiet room in London that my wife and I found via Airbnb. We arrived to find that our guesthouse had flooded and most everything not outrageously expensive in London was booked, so we posted to the standby list on Airbnb and had a great place at a great price in less than an hour. We showed up a few hours ago and met the owner, a very (very) nice lady in her 50s who decided to try and bring in a bit of extra cash by renting out her spare room. She made us tea while we swapped life stories and then she showed us around the neighborhood. All in all, a great experience with Airbnb and I highly recommend giving it a try.

Perhaps the title should be amended to show that this article is a big deal because it is a NYT Travel piece about AirBnB.

It's not a "piece about AirBnB":

"While AirBnB is the largest of these new services, it isn’t the only one. A half-dozen upstarts have emerged in the last two years, with names like iStopOver.com and Crashpadder.com, offering the convenience of a hotel, the comforts of a home and the price tag of an up-market hostel. Call them social B&B networks, or maybe peer-to-peer hotels."

It's the featured example in a story about the type of product. Very much a PR win for AirBnB.

I came here to say the same thing. My first thought upon reading the title was that it would be about traveling the parts of Europe where hotels don't exist (i.e., the non-touristy areas).

Once the first big crime happens, these same newspapers are going to turn around and scare the hell out of everybody.

it was on the cover of today's travel section, i initially posted it with airbnb in the title.

there's an interesting paragraph towards the end about the legal issues

When I contacted AirBnB about its stance on the questionable legality of listings in some cities, a spokesman declined to comment.

i'm also curious if they've had any safety issues (thefts, stalkers, etc).

We're pretty active on AirBnB and don't worry too much about theft. The fact that they require people's credit cards is a pretty good deterrent. If I was a woman traveling/hosting by myself I would be much more cautious, but no doubt it's safer than something like couch surfing.

The legal issue is certainly the bigger problem. The hotel industry has a ton of political clout and the only reason laws are not more widespread is that it hasn't been on their radar until recently. It will be interesting to see how AirBnB deals with increasing regulation-- if Barney Fife starts kicking in doors it could be PR nightmare for local government.

Are there any sort of estimates from AirBnB of how safe overall it is? One of the main things keeping me from subletting (I live in a touristy area, so there's plenty of demand) is a worry that the risk/reward isn't that great, since it only takes 1 in 100 people trashing my place to cost me a lot more than the 100 sublets get me. Even for lower-level damage/theft, it seems like it'd be difficult to recoup the costs. If someone steals my stereo system, does AirBnB help out in any way? Or even without malicious renters, if say someone spills something and ruins my carpet, will AirBnB help me bill them for the replacement cost? It seems that requiring a CC isn't much help unless they're willing to charge the CC for me. I guess I could use the information about their identity to sue them, but I'm not sure how sympathetic courts will be to a lawsuit for damages incurred during an illegal sublet (and the lawsuit wouldn't be worth filing for damages in the $1k-$5k range anyway).

Renter's insurance?

My renter's insurance explicitly excludes any damages or theft by a subletter. I think most have a similar clause, though I could be wrong?

I think you may be outside of the target demographic. The people that would sublet their digs through services like these are most likely not worried about a stain on the carpet.

It's like hitchhiking for houses, just like you wouldn't take hitchhikers in your limo you probably won't sublet your fancy apartment. But a basic place with people that are not too nervous about appearances or that trust their sense of character judgment should be a fine way to make this work. You get to meet new and interesting people, life is risky anyway, this sort of thing seems pretty low on the risk ladder.

Also, in Europe the general sentiment is much less litigious than the United States and someone suing someone else here for small stuff like that is practically unheard of. Usually it would be understood that the party at fault would cover the damage.

If you're talking about renting out a room while you also live there, I can definitely see that reducing the risk. The article seemed to be talking about people subletting out their apartments while they're out of town, though. People around here do do that, but incidence of major damage is not that infrequent (it seems to be a favorite topic of the local paper, and comes up every few months). Often, people require damage deposits to mitigate the risk from that, which AirBnB doesn't seem to allow.

In particular, since I'm near the beach, people like to rent out apartments and houses for bachelor parties, spring-break trips, graduation parties, etc., and those can end up causing significant damage, occasionally in the $10k+ range (beer-drenched walls requiring drywall replacement and repainting, etc.).

I don't really have a lot of choice about whether I'm worried about carpet stains or other damage, anyway. If there's damage when I move out that wasn't there when I moved in, my landlord will charge me for it. It's not a fancy apartment by any stretch, but I'm still not allowed to damage it.

If you are renting the property and you leave it to total strangers without supervision then I really understand.

My situation is a small farmhouse, I've given the keys to this place to quite a few people and only one didn't live up to expectations so I ended the arrangement. But for the most part it's been pretty positive, and I would do it again. I think it really boils down to being totally clear about what is and is not allowed and/or expected.

People on Airbnb with these concerns charge a refundable security deposit (which the site does allow).

This sounds great, but I see problems on the horizon. If you are using a site like AirBnB I assume you are able to avoid paying hotel related taxes. Many cities get a significant portion of their revenue from these taxes. There are already laws on the books in many cities that restrict AirBnB style rentals. It's only a matter of time before cities begin enforcing those laws.

I was very hopeful for AirBnB as we are travelling around the world and any way to save on accomodation is great. However, we just had a terrible experience with our first let in Montreal, Canada. To be fair - AirBnB support staff is helpful but the apartment we picked up was a disaster - the owner didn't live there - it was just a letting company. And they gave us wrong instructions to pickup the keys so we ended up trying to find a hotel at 11PM in the night just so we don't sleep under the bridge :( Hopefully next time it will be better...

Excited to come across this article as I just quit my job to go backpacking across Europe for a few months with my girlfriend. I had planned to stay in hostels and use couch surfing but I'm glad to see a few more options available. Thanks!

Single page: http://travel.nytimes.com/2010/07/18/travel/18couch.html?ref...

It would be cool if AirBnB had suggested travel itineraries through different countries that integrated with the service. Just a suggestion.

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