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Comment by shereadsthenews | Hacker News Reader

It really seems to depend on the city. For about $100/night in Zurich I stayed once in a huge top floor flat and once in a bedroom with private bath in a giant palace with plenty of room to entertain dozens, which I did. My company's negotiated hotel rate was $425/night and I pocketed the balance.

In NYC all of the Airbnb inventory is bedbug-ridden hovels. Perhaps this simply reflects the housing stock of the region.

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It definitely varies. In NYC, I stayed in a 4000sqft Chelsea apartment, with a private bathroom, grand piano and incredible art, for $125 a night.

It does depend on more than just the city.

There’s no chance this is true. Please share the listing

There's every chance this is true. Except I just checked the listing, and it's now $181.

What kind of company pays YOU 425USD regardless of the price of the accomodation where you stay? Genuinely curious. All I’ve ever seen is (in your case) “you can expense per night up to 425USD”

I haven't seen that high, but some companies pay the government per diem rate, which depends on the city. Some cities are $200/day for food alone.

At that particular company at that time you could bank the difference between actual spending and allowance and either spend it on travel in a different way (such as airfare upgrades), donate 100% it to designated charities, or cash out a fraction of it at the end of the year.

people who can afford a nice place in NYC probably dont want to rent out their place to strangers.

Illegally to boot.

Reading through these comments I'm proud to say I knew airbnb was the kind of thing I'd never want to participate in and I never did and never will.

Like Facebook. Some things are rotten to the core.

That might be because it's against the law now to rent a full apartment for less than 30 days. It's actually been illegal but they started cracking down moreso lately.

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