Airbnb and Vrbo are going downhill like a hippo on a water slide
washingtonpost.com
washingtonpost.com
> I’m writing to you from a home rental in France where we had to rent our sheets and towels.
Yes, that's a French thing, always has been - sorry if that's the first time the author went to France and rented a private flat there ...
> It was on the fifth floor of an apartment building and promised 180-degree views of the city below
Well, did that apartment had any reviews? Probably not. Did the owner had any other listings? Probably not either. But certainly, the apartment was cheaper than alternatives ...
> We just left a rental in Florence. There was a washer, but no dryer
Was that not clearly written on the airbnb listing? Plus, why would you even need a drier mid-June in Florence (when the temperature hovers between 30C and 40C during day time...) - must be an American thing somehow.
Well, I'm a full time nomad traveling 365 days a year. I don't always use Airbnb, sometimes I use booking.com for some week-ends. And sometimes I try to hit local platforms for much cheaper deals. The truth is that I either get gems or get partially scammed with offers better than they are (yes because on local platforms, there is no review of anything, just the promise of an agency at best or of a random local otherwise). I've more than 100 completed trip on Airbnb and never got scammed once - because well, I read the reviews, right, and use some common sense.
I'd love to see alternatives to Airbnb, but unfortunately there is nothing which comes even close.
Is this a common occurrence in French hotels?
About your question, in French hotels: 100% no. Obviously NOT, you don't have to come to the hotel with your own bed linen and whatnot. Hotels in France work exactly like anywhere else in Europe: you book it, you check in, you use the room, you check out, "ciao | bye bye | merci bonne journée" :3
In French AirBnBs (or "home rentals"), and in AirBnBs in Europe: it's a whole different story and it's so completely random. Owners make up rules and regulations, costs and additional costs.
I'm not talking about local 'tourist tax', but literally in some AirBnBs, you see a note when you arrive there: "if you touch that pile of towels, we charge 20€.", "If you leave any dishes to wash we charge 50€", etc. It's crazy in many ways: those costs are NOT announced beforehand (or never accurately), and the rules are completely wacky.
This is what the article is partly about, it has become a cash grabbing, tasteless experience, where greedy people with side hustles are not only destroying local housing prices, but also destroying the actual "(Air)BnB experience".
The conclusion could be "let's all go back to hotels", but this would be massively simplistic :(
Not just in France, in Germany also not uncommon when renting a "Ferienwohnung". You usually also pay extra for cleaning if you stay for more than a few days. That's just how it works here, but of course it needs to be mentioned in the listing.
> Plus, why would you even need a drier mid-June in Florence (when the temperature hovers between 30C and 40C during day time...) - must be an American thing somehow.
That's indeed hilarious, but oh the horror of putting wet clothes on a drying rack. Driers are simply not that common over here. Electricity is expensive, it's not good for your clothes, plus driers are the number one electrical appliance for creating house fires, so no thank you.
When you first started nomad-ding, how often did you get caught out by some custom you never heard of before?
When I travel somewhere - especially somewhere I don't speak the language - I make sure I know things like basic customs, politeness, emergency numbers, unexpected laws, etc.
You are a guest in their home.
This sounded wrong, so I asked my French expatriate friends and they're convinced you're smoking something strong. It's not normal to have to bring your own sheets and towels for a short-term stay in France, though it is normal for a longer-term stay.
I went another time to France some years ago and there wasn't anything either.
In both situations though, I asked the owner beforehand and made it clear that providing the linens was conditional for renting the apartment - it's not usual in France to provide linens, as weird as it seems.
But most hosts, especially the ones who care about reviews, will be accommodating.
> When [home rental marketplaces] started, it was kind of wonderful to be able to book somebody’s house or apartment. They cared about it. They left you gifts and flowers and long notes about the best little restaurants in the neighborhood.
> Now? I can’t remember when we were actually in somebody’s home. It’s always somebody’s side hustle. They own 10 of them and live six hours away and they don’t give a dead rodent about you. The decor is always Early Target. You got a complaint? Send an email and we’ll get back to you. Maybe by Thanksgiving.
The median room in these marketplaces is converging to the equivalent of a motel room, but without any services or amenities.
You're unlikely to get scammed, but if you want something nice, you must pay up... or stay in a hotel.
I would never rent out my home or extra dwelling without greeting the guests in person, being available for assistance, and maybe even showing up at checkout time.
Availability for assistance is great, but otherwise I have zero desire to encounter you, as a “consumer”.
then people can't afford nor rent nor buying homes in their homeplaces, due to these twats buying it all up to -profit-
Storms and loss of power are really common in the area and we would get a flood of really belligerent callers with the following circumstances:
- Lives over 1000 miles away out of state
- Owns multiple AirBNBs in the area
- The locks for their doors required an internet connection and power to function
- They didn't have a local property manager
- Their guests were locked out
It was hilarious because they were screaming and hollering and demanding immediate service from the internet company to get their locks fixed because they were too cheap to hire a local to service the properties and reboot the fiber ONT after a power outage.
And this was about 15 years ago, so I think the "recent decline" of AirBNB is exaggerated and that these owners have always been on the platform, they're now just the _only_ owners on the platform.
Welcome to capitalism, it enshittifed hospitality (among anything else it touched)
It is cleaned and inspected very thoroughly between guests. We wouldn't do it if we couldn't offer great service.
Certainly would never want to show up at check-in/check-out though, and it'd probably freak me out if someone did that at one we stayed at. It's not a hotel and it doesn't need to be treated as one.
I agree with the sentiment that Airbnbs are weird with the checkout chores and lack of regulation, but when traveling with friends I find it so much more enjoyable to be able to hang out and cook dinner and watch TV together rather than all being cramped in one couple's studio sitting on the beds and eating out every meal.
> I can’t remember when we were actually in somebody’s home. It’s always somebody’s side hustle. They own 10 of them and live six hours away and they don’t give a dead rodent about you. The decor is always Early Target. You got a complaint? Send an email and we’ll get back to you. Maybe by Thanksgiving.
Perhaps “staying in someone’s home” doesn’t scale? For example, there’s a point at which buying extra insurance feels necessary, maybe not for an occasional visit from a family friend, or even a friend of a friend, but there is a point.
That being said, I still use Airbnb but now only for very specific cases - e.g., some friends and I rented a large lakefront cabin earlier this year. Previously it was my first choice and now it is my last.
(I admit as well that I travel very regularly - around 100 nights so far in 2025 - and that a casual traveller may, understandably, have a different perspective)
1) much cheaper due to none of the tax and fee apparatus local govts attach to hotel stays
2) the ability to “stay like a local” in neighborhoods where residents live instead of hotel neighborhoods like Times Square , fisherman’s wharf, soma etc
1 is completely gone and has maybe gotten worse than hotels. 2 still holds to an extent but you mostly find professional spaces
My wife and I eloped and had a weekend getaway planned to celebrate. The place was out in the woods down back roads, had little to no lights (we got there at night), a narrow, unmaintained gravel driveway with literal boulders in it, and the cherry on top: none of the windows had curtains or blinds (you could just roll up the driveway and look right into the house). We left 20 minutes after getting there.
Resolving this required three days of back-and-forth with Airbnb "support," being repeatedly gaslit that this was somehow my fault (I sent in multiple videos with the support rep lying and telling me I didn't upload anything), and told that they could do a partial refund. I had to threaten the employment of the support rep before they'd escalate and finally admit this was sketchy and issue a full refund.
I knew things were unravelling when one stay at a different Airbnb about two years back left instructions that I had to place sheets and towels in the dryer before leaving (mandatory—with assumed threat of a negative guest review—despite having a separate cleaning fee).
On top of this, I've noticed a decent chunk of the new construction homes in my area are/were just being bought for the express purpose of being an Airbnb. So, instead of families having access to affordable housing, a town house with no yard, built with Alibaba-grade materials in Middle Tennessee (in a town most people haven't heard of) starts at ~$300-400K [1].
Airbnb was a great idea in the past, but now it's just not worth it. Much better to spend roughly the same on a nice hotel where you're staying.
[1] https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1561-Ansley-Park-Dr-Cooke...
> And while they’re penny-pinching on what you get, they’re dollar-grubbing on what you have to pay. You need a second job to pay for the maid service alone. Lately, they’ve stopped leaving soap. We’re paying for WiFi right now (20 euros a day). We stayed in a place in Rome once that gave us two towels for two weeks. No hand towels, no face towels, no bath towels. Just two in-between towels that looked like they’d been washed in the first aqueduct.
Why is the market failing here? Why is it that people with spare bedrooms or in-law suites aren’t beating the prices of professional - essentially mini-hotel owners? Or are they they just get booked to quickly.
I do Rover on the side; largely because I went through a divorce and I can't really afford a dog of my own--I might as well get paid to watch someone else's, right? The good thing about Rover is that I do a 'meet and greet' before I agree to host the animal and I know that the owner has to pay in advance, even with the platform taking a massive cut. This gives me great peace of mind that I will get along w/the dog; they will get along with me; and I will get paid at the end of it.
In the case of Airbnb, you don't have that luxury. You are handing over your, likely, biggest financial asset, to a stranger. While you know you're going to get paid, you're likely going to be missing things, have things broken/destroyed, and/or have to deal with nitpicky assholes about every little thing (on both sides).
I have never had a ENTIRELY poor experience with Airbnb (or Vrbo for that matter) but I have been disappointed a bit at times. Take, for example, the off-the-grid cabin I rented over the winter w/my gf. We knew there was going to be an outhouse; what we didn't expect was that it was going to be VERY full, to the point that I chose not to use it for anything but to take a piss, as I was worried I'd touch the pile w/my ass. When I told the owner that, they didn't even reply--as if my expectations were too high that I didn't want to have my ass or junk touch a pile of someone else's shit. My poor gf didn't have the same luxury I did; however, at least she didn't have something hanging down into the very full tank.
I go out of my way when I watch dogs on Rover to be kind, empathetic, thoughtful, and to care for the dogs like I would care for my own. I'm certain there are Airbnb owners that are like me on Rover, but you get lost in the mix with those who do it and are late, incommunicado, and return your dog with bite and other red marks--as I've been told by owners who thought I was going above and beyond while I thought I was just following the golden rule.
YMMV.
1. A well-furnished, comfortable home — which often comes with a higher income bracket.
2. The time, energy, and motivation to handle hosting duties — managing logistics, cleaning, communication, etc.
The problem is, those two qualities rarely overlap. People with high-quality homes often have demanding careers or other priorities and don’t want the uncertainty or effort of renting to strangers — especially when guest quality can vary a lot.
That’s partly why platforms like Kindred are interesting. They focus on home exchanges, not rentals, so everyone involved is both a guest and a host. That creates better alignment in expectations and care. There’s no pricing involved, no taxes, and a built-in sense of trust — since it’s a mutual exchange.
It’s not a perfect solution, but it shifts the dynamic in a way that feels more human and less transactional.
If you’re curious, here’s a referral link with 5 free credits: https://livekindred.com?invite_code=MOH.AZI
Everyone I know who AirBNBs has horror stories. I've never had a hotel horror story. I've had minor disappointments but always the hotel went out of their accommodate me or my credit card company would have if they failed to meet their obligations.
Even for the niche reasons some people AirBNB for (large groups, extended stays), I've always found niche hotels offering the same. Even before AirBNB existed I could do things like book out an apartment-style hotel in Reykjavik to house 40 people for a week. That place is still operating now even.
The main thing about hotels is that you rarely book them for a week or a month. So if it's bad, it's usually easy to leave. Also, it's a business, so sometimes they care about their reputation.
Airbnb used to be good, but it's been awful for a while now. I'm not saying it's all bad, but it's mostly bad. If property rating is plummeting, they can simply reset and relist the property - Airbnb doesn't punish such behaviour. Unfortunately, if you need to stay somewhere long term, there are no global alternatives to Airbnb.
I pretty commonly book week stays in hotels and the only real friction I've found there is that I can't book some places online and have to call to make the reservation. I know how difficult that is for recent generations.
The thing about the long-term bookings that people don't understand is that there's risk on the property side. No-shows for bookings are unfortunately more common than you think and having a room locked out and not making money for multiple days is a major problem. Calling helps and sometimes I do it anyway because they'll give me a better rate than online...
If you have a large family or a group of ten friends, you can get a much better option for much less money via Airbnb than if you try to do the same thing at a hotel.
That said, I find the hotel experience generally better and I hate the Airbnb list of rules and chores.
Granted a local wouldn't be caught dead in that area, but staying in hotels has never stopped me from getting "the local experience". Maybe if you're traveling to a destination where there's only resorts.
Because most consumers of these services want a mini hotel. People don't want to stay in someone's spare bedroom.
And on the other side, hell of a lot more risk to put up a random stranger in your spare bedroom in the property you actually live in, than having some second property.
Browsing Airbnb the cheapest options available in my area are tents and RVs for 200-300 USD a night, and prices go up for there. Think about that for a moment, spending 250 USD a night to rent a tent, probably in someone's backyard.
Beyond ridiculous prices, Airbnbs have just become a pain. They often come with long lists of rules. Here are some of the most ridiculous that I've seen: clean everything before you go (what is my cleaning fee for?), put on the laundry (very common lately), or bag up the trash and take it out to the nearest t
2023 was already sketchy (building address and contact person didn't match the confirmation listing) but 2024 took things to a new low, with not only the address and contact person not matching, but access to the unit was through a crowded 1st floor curry restaurant and the curry restaurant's kitchen. One of the harried cooks was assigned to let us into the room.
The listing photos of course looked great in an anonymous IKEA kind of way, but in reality the unit was older and the flaws were not apparent when we made the reservation.
No one in the dozens of listing comments mentioned the unusual mode of entry. Is that because of the address mismatch (indicating listings are being reused) or the way Airbnb solicits feedback to keep negativity out of the public comments? Years ago I complained in the Airbnb public comments below another listing after the host lied about the location and left out the fact the door frames were 15 cm too low; the host blamed and disparaged me in the response with no positive outcome.
Yes, we have had some good Airbnb experiences. But over time the good places have been come rare jewels as investors and hustlers take over the platform.
We are tired of dealing with host shenanigans and Airbnb's tricks ("superhost!") for prices that honestly aren't that great when compared with midranged hotels. We used a hotel on our return trip to my spouse's country earlier this year and will be doing it this way going forward.
So now there are middle men salaries to be paid and so they need to find ways to maximise profits.
Good for startups and software Devs as there is a resulting demand for tech platforms and integrations
An example of one of their conferences https://barcelona.scalerentals.show/
1. Large groups and families 2. Places where having a kitchen would be a great thing (either due to cost or because there’s not as many restaurants around) 3. If you wanted to stay in a specific location
Why they don’t work for all other cases:
1. They are more expensive than hotels, but without the conveniences of a hotel 2. Cleaning fee scam 3. Enshitification of offerings by larger landlords. Cheap interiors and missing conveniences. If I rent an Airbnb and they do not have plates and cutlery, I’d rather stay in a hotel.
Yes, this. I strongly value all of the above items, and I greatly dislike the corporate, samey-feel of hotels. However, I recognize that I am a small part of the market; business travel is over 50% of hotel revenue pre-COVID, and business-people do not value the above features much at all.
VCs love when a new product offering emerges into a market that wasn't satisfying a market segment well. For a few years, it looks like the new market entrant can disrupt the entire industry, and if they time it right, the VCs can exit via an IPO or sale near the peak of the froth and reap ludicrous profits. AirBNB was this, there was a period where the market view was that AirBNB would destroy the hotel industry. Of course, it didn't happen, and the stock purchasers were the ones holding the bag.
- A massive hotel chain with economies of scale, purpose built properties, decades proven systems and hospitality processes
- Individual startup hoteliers renting out non-purpose built spaces with ikea furniture, no economies of scale, no systems, ad hoc processes and expensive platform fees as overhead
The highest end Airbnbs still offer what used to be available in the early days, but it just doesn’t make sense anymore for most people
Every abnb I have stayed at where it was the owners property has been great. Cheaper, instant responses, no chores, flexible everything.
The ones I have stayed at there were remote operations with a contract service doing the owners work are the ones that have given bad experiences.
I wish there was a way to filter these ones out.
I had a host in 2012 in SF -a sweet alcoholic of an old man- who flashed me full frontal nudity before check-out. I had an apartment in Shenzhen in 2014 literally covered in roaches. I lasted one night. This year I stayed in an apartment in Andermatt with beautiful cherry wood floors, a phenomenal kitchen, sauna, a huge outdoor space and full view of the mountains for half the price of the nearest hotel room. Worse now than before? Bullshit.
None of my guests have ever paid for a sheet. I comp extra nights if they're unbooked. I offer every towel under the sun, a warm body to check you in at any time and some wine and snacks if you arrive very late free of charge. I'm still nowhere close to being the most welcoming host in the city. There are great experiences to be had out there. If you want personality, to relate with the owners and get a good deal at the expense of total predictability, airbnb is for you. Ignore any listing that doesn't match the vibe. If you're looking for the travel equivalent of eating at Subway, a chain hotel will be a better option.
It took 17 years for Airbnb to address the hidden cameras. Obviously doesn’t fix the problem, but still crazy it took them that long to even make a policy about it.
Unrelated note to publishing platforms: Instead of using Archive to read your stuff, I'd rather pay for your content; but until a mechanism to send microtransactions to one-off view individual articles, I'm not going to ever sign up monthly (e.g. send 0.0001 XMR to address 1MADEup5649879846513216547, which then creates a machine-local cookie to allow viewing of content indefinitely/timed). Perhaps a GUI similar to the old .RSS feeds, with a central CC/crypto processor which pays per article?
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My local newspaper (the father of NYT) expects its largely-aged population to shell out $35/month for daily prints. Some bozo thought offering a free iPad would really jive with this population ( ̄_(ツ)_/ ̄)
Suppose someone comes up with a platform that allows us to pay 0.05$ for one article. They count articles we've selected and charge us when it makes sense due to credit card fees, probably at $10 worth of views.
How long will it take till they start pushing ... a subscription?
Pay us $10/month for $12 worth of article views! 20% savings! *
* Terms and condisions apply. Your $10/month subscription is only good for the 3rd tier content, but there are $29 and $99/month subscriptions that allow access to 2nd tier and first tier. Price valid for a 3 year commitment.
I think this could be countered by having the platform take (e.g.) 10% of each transaction, which might disincentivize subscription models..?
I feel this issue echoes digital piracy, which I was happy to cease until there were dozens of individual platforms created. If you make it easier to not steal than to steal, less people will steal (is my premise, at least).
For background: I am a blue collar electrician, not a techie. I just want a simple method of paying for consumed news — without having to pay for access to an entire newspaper (which I only want to read ONE article).