Comment by baby | Hacker News Reader

Comment by baby | Hacker News Reader

I'll preface this by saying that AirBnb lies about its prices/night, and that really suck.

Having said that, I really really don't understand the other criticisms against AirBnb here. I travel a lot, for leisure and work, and I constantly stay at AirBnbs and have been for years.

Here is how it compares with hotels for me:

* I usually can't remember any hotel room I've stayed at (unless it's the marina bay sands), whereas I remember every single AirBnB I've stayed at.

* When I stay in an airbnb for tourism, I feel like I lived a bit in the city, never get that feeling with a hotel.

* Pick up never has lines, and is often pretty straight forward (they have more and more of these locks for self-checkin)

* The location is always better for the price, I've heard people saying otherwise, but I've travelled all over the world with AirBnB and always found a better place for cheaper. The bay area was pretty hard, but I switched to a room at someone's place (instead of the whole place) and I ended up staying in insanely nice places. (I definitely recommend trying this, it's always much nicer and I seldom run into the people living there.)

* AirBnBs have a kitchen

* I overall find hotels to be dirty. There's something about them that I really don't like. Unless the hotel costs a LOT of money (again, Marina bay sands <3) there's often that gross feeling. Especially in Vegas... Maybe I just think of all the people who've done stuff in the hotel room, as opposed to an AirBnB which feels like someone really lived there and respected the place.

So yeah, I don't buy the AirBnB has failed thing, because I'm a heavy user.

I might be wrong, but I hope not because AirBnB going bankrupt would be a real bummer IMO.

So yeah, I don't buy the AirBnB has failed thing, because I'm a heavy user.

AirBnB hasn't failed. It has plenty of users, and over $2bn in revenue. That's not enough though, because the costs of running the business are higher than $2bn and so we see articles about how it made a loss again.

It seems fairly clear to me that a large number of loss-making unicorn companies need to get their costs under control, and the obvious way to do that is to lose some staff, or pay them less. At the moment that's hard because there's enough competition between companies that people can choose where to work but eventually the need to cut costs will outweigh the need for "the best people", and salaries for new jobs will start to fall. The result for many developers will be that they have to either stay in their role for a long time or accept a pay cut to move company. It might be worth considering that possible outcome if you work in dev right now.

From the article:

> "The company has been spending heavily on marketing ahead of its public debut."

Airbnb doesn't have _that_ big a problem with costs; not like Uber, Wework, etc.

They were profitable in 2017 and 2018, and have been for most of their existence, unlike their fellow unicorns.

I also don't think staff is that big a cost for them; again, they're not like Uber, having to spend gazillions on both a huge on-the-ground workforce and bottomless-pit R&D for autonomous driving.

Unlike their unicorn peers, they're a fundamentally a very strong company, that has temporarily gone into deficit to accelerate growth leading up to their IPO, but they're still in good shape.

The coronavirus is an unexpected hit, but they'll fare much better than the rest of the travel industry.

Not sure what you mean about lying about prices.. I've booked 28 stays on 5 continents since 2014 and never been lied to.

Do you mean having to click on "price breakdown" to see the service and cleaning fees?

Do you mean hosts asking for cash payments for things like linens and key deposits? (These have happened to me, but it is against ToS and Airbnb took my side)

My current travel plans are chaos due to cancellations. We have up to 10 flight segments over a month away that we are eating 100% of the cost on due to a cancelled cruise. We are dealing with 3 airlines with multiple hour waits and confusing policies with no success so far.

AirBnB, by comparison has been a total delight. In the app, I push the "cancel" button, and it's like "yea, that's months away, no problem here's 100% to your credit card today"

> Not sure what you mean about lying about prices

challenge accepted: https://imgur.com/gallery/6UeavrH

* I've searched for 4 nights in SF some time in May

* the second result is 99$/night

* bill for 4 nights end up being 561$. 150$ magically appeared.

That's a 40% increase at checkout time lol.

Again I love AirBnB but this is scamy.

Your screenshot says "$492 total" which includes the cleaning and service fees. The service and cleaning fees are set by the host, and can be $0.

Then it adds the California taxes on the checkout page. That is what hotels do too.

Ah, looks like they added august last year, hadn't noticed that!

It is still hidden, and not the fair price (which they could calculate).

> That is what hotels do too

Hotels who do this are scammy IMO. I've only seen this in the US.

Scammy hotels?

I just tried on Marriott and Hilton in SF.

They both did this.

That's bad :/

hopefully they stop this anti-consumer practice. I'm hopping AirBnB can lead the way there.

Indeed, but this is completely baffling to anyone in Europe. Simple example: In the US, if I have $5 in my pocket, I can't go to a store and buy a thing that's listed as costing $5.00, because at the cash register some more money has magically appeared on the bill. In Europe on the other hand, you pay at the register the exact amount that is on the price sticker.

And yes, I know the difference is due to taxes not being included in the sticker price, but why oh god why is it up to me to do weird math to figure out if I actually have enough $$$ to pay for what I'd like to have.

> why is it up to me to do weird math to figure out if I actually have enough $$$ to pay for what I'd like to have.

Well, one reason is: to make you aware of the tax burden (and judge if that % is kept at a reasonable level), rather than hiding it in the total price.

And why do I, as a customer, have to expend that effort to "be aware of the tax burden"?

It also seems to have nasty incentives, I've never heard of people talking about taxes so much before moving to the US. Here everybody is afraid of taxes going up, and people who support Sanders' ideas are not voting for him because "he is going to raise the taxes".

But in my opinion it's backward, instead of being up-front about costs, they are HIDING costs. I can still see how much taxes is taken when I get a receipt in France for example, it's just not hidden from you at the beginning of the transaction.

Pro-tip: Use https://www.airbnb.com.au - the site will show the real final price, by Australian law.

What do you know, such issues can be resolved via proper regulation....

(Btw, you can also change the currency by clicking on the "world icon" at the top right).

> unless it's the marina bay sands

When you open the door to your 70th floor room and the blinds automatically open to a floor-to-ceiling view of the city...yup, memorable.

But I actually remember a lot of the hotels I've stayed at. It's the Sheratons and Marriotts that blur together. They're perfectly fine hotels, they're just all the same.

> and the blinds automatically open to a floor-to-ceiling view of the city

for me it was the harbor with a bunch of boats! Indeed memorable.

And a garden! For those who haven't been, it's the sort of garden where you'll see nighttime pictures as Chromebox backgrounds.

This is exactly my feeling too. There are still cases where I prefer hotels (business travel), but they just don't compare to Airbnb for vacations. Especially so if you have a group of people instead of 1 or 2.

While I agree with you, I remember my Airbnb stays for all the wrong reasons.

The pictures and description never matches what I find when I arrive and by that time, it's too late and Airbnb has rarely stepped in to help.

I know what I can expect at hotels, with Airbnb, I never fully know until I show up.

Just to be clear, the hotel cleaning is a problem I saw in the U. S., but not in Europe (granted my experience is limited). There might be some law at play there

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