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Comment by stev-0 | Hacker News Reader

> Uber and airbnb created value using technology by solving many pain points of consumers.

I don’t think this is as the USP airbnb was going for. Companies like Booking.com, trifago.com and Hotel.com existed prior to airbnb and had a pretty decent “human-less” UX.

I thought the usp of airbnb was that everyone with a place could rent it out on that platform. That should increase the supply. It worked pretty well for a while and still does so to a certain extend. Regulations make its service useless in some countries though.

I’m not sure what Uber did to improve the market but they’ve always been dearer than taxies where I’m from. I don’t mind giving a taxi central a call either…

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Those sites are for hotels. Hotels suck in many ways, a mid-range airbnb has more space and amenities than high end hotel suite. I've stayed at super expensive vegas suites and dubai hotels and their TV is shit at both places. Nice bedsheet but meh beds, less space, less privacy, can't compare their kitchen or sofa to even a low end apartment airbnb. Also, this is real-estate, "location, location, location". I've stayed at several airbnb's inside or right next to national parks!

Uber? Are you kidding me? You don't remember how horrible it was getting taxis to just show up? They cost a fortune by comparison too. And every cabbie tries to cheat you. I've even used Uber for daily commute and it was cheaper than my own car! Cost aside, the reliability and user experience is much better. Now, had taxis come together and built an app to improve ux, consumer cost,increase consumer base and reduce fraud the I'll give you thar Uber would have had to compete. But man, I for one was very glad to see their medallions' value get decimated for the horrible way they treated me in the past.

> Now, had taxis come together and built an app to improve ux, consumer cost,increase consumer base and reduce fraud the I'll give you thar Uber would have had to compete

This existed, it was called Hailo and they operated a (mostly) franchise based model. Uber drove them out of business by breaking the laws and spending more than they earned.

Never heard of them till today. I remember frantically searchit for something like this because finding a yellow cab to come pick me up when stranded caused me a lot of misery.

Hailo wasn’t even used in very many cities. This is a bad argument. It never had the scale of Uber/Lyft. Not even comparable.

It was incredibly successful in the UK and Ireland. They explicitly pulled out of the US because it cost too much money for marketing.

I'm just bitter that a decent service got wiped out by a competitor setting VC money on fire.

If it was a decent service then it’d still be around. The market decided it wasn’t as useful as Uber.

Airbnbs only make sense in rural areas. Hotels are more competitive in terms of price and location inside of cities. Cities have enough to do that I don’t want to be inside of my room that much during my trip, so space and TV simply don’t matter to me.

> Airbnbs only make sense in rural areas.

Not in my experience. The competition between hosts in cities make Airbnbs a much better value vs hotels in many cases.

Even in cities, would you rather have a clean well furnished apartment with plenty of space, nice tv, nice kitchern and a nice view or a hotel? The only pro I can think of by comparison is room service and maids cleaning up or if you actually make use of concierge services.

No. Some of us like interacting with people. Your dystopian and lonely viewpoint does not resonate.

Fair enough. You're right about me wanting to avoid interacting with people, especially when tipping is involved. But keep in mind, many people travel with others and airbnb is still a better option if you want to party a bit or have kids. Can't beat a private pool at an airbnb house or to entertain guests at a fancy airbnb.

Some of us also like not having to check every lamp and decoration in a bedroom/bathroom wondering if there's hidden cameras in it placed there by the "host"

> Those sites are for hotels.

I've actually booked apartments via booking.com

Though they're not as extensively listed as on Airbnb.

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