Y Combinator’s Airbed&Breakfast Casts A Wider Net For Housing Rentals As AirBnB | Hacker News Reader

Y Combinator’s Airbed&Breakfast Casts A Wider Net For Housing Rentals As AirBnB

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39 pointsthepanister12 comments

Feedback from posting my couch for rent:

#Street: Just the street or the number and the street? I'm guessing you want number and street because you ask for apartment number. (Added upon completion: The listing doesn't display number, but the map has the point correct. I like the choices you make on what to display and how; I didn't like being confused on what to enter.)

#City and ZIP: Just ZIP and lookup City/State or ask for all three: City, State, and ZIP. Don't do things that are different just to be different.

#Room Type: Is my Living Room a Shared Room? Probably, but don't make me think, I'm drinking. Perhaps add a few options to the drop down.

#Name of Space: Why only 15 characters? I can't fit "Pull-Out Sofabed" there.

#Availability: The calendars are confusing. I wanted to test by just listing it for the weekend. Perhaps your default should be "never available" instead of "always available", then have me chose days. To make the weekend the availability takes three time frames.

Here's my listing: http://airbnb.com/airbeds/show/5703

I know you ABNB people are here on HN and I want to talk to you. E-mail me or I'll get the TicketStumbler guys to stab you. That is all.

Hey Sachin, thanks for the comments. The street address is hidden until the host accepts the reservation. I think the other things you have pointed out need to be better optimized. We will be expanding the 15 character limit and updating the calendar, for example. Thank you for posting your room. More feedback is welcome.

I also was confused by the street thing, and reached the same conclusion as you (that is, since I was being asked for my apartment number, my street number was likely desired as well).

"Recently, HomeAway, a popular vacation rental site, raised $250 million in a venture round and was valued at more than $1 billion."

$250 million for a similar site? What am I missing? It's just so hard to fathom why a web startup would need so much money.

They acquired a whole bunch of home rental sites from around the world. That's one way to go, I suppose. Even with all of that money, I bet more people know about AirBnB from their inauguration housing thing than have ever heard of HomeAway.

You cannot just say they are similar. They have a similar concept maybe.

Homeaway caters to a different type of audience, the one that can drop a few thousands on a vacation trip.

AirBnB caters to cost savvy individuals who just want to spend a couple of days in one location and don't need that fancy pool.

Also AirBnB is a small team so they could be lean and mean. homeaway has been around for nearly 4 years and that massive amount of money they have is to not only cover their operation costs, but also acquire innovative young companies such as AirBnB.

Here's my take: AirBnB isn't just casting a wider net. They're changing their entire business model because the original one is severely flawed.

I've said this before: renting a room/bed out of your home like a hotel most likely violates multiple tax and business laws in just about every US city ... LET ALONE the severe liability someone faces should a guest in your home slip in the shower and break their collar bone.

I've worked at a resort hotel. Cities have specific bed taxes. Hotels have to be inspected. They have liability insurance. Vacation rental owners pay taxes. Some cities don't even allow short-term vacation rentals.

We've already seen the ride-sharing website ruled illegal in some cities. I predict the same thing will happen here.

If AirBnB wants to go the legitimate route and compete with VRBO, HomeAway, etc. ... great. But I've honestly been stumped by this site since it's inception. I have nothing but respect for YC/PG, but I honestly can't understand what they saw in the original business plan/model. If I was a VC, I wouldn't touch this site.

I really like the idea and the execution :) I don't like the large middle-men cut :-/

  > For each rental, AirBnB takes a 7 to 10 percent cut of the traveler’s payment (as the rental
  > price of the accommodation goes up, AirBnB will take less of a cut) and also takes a flat 3
  > percent cut of what the seller receives.

How do you expect them to make money for the service they provide? Are you arguing for no cut or a lower one?

How a about a more honest pricing structure, or at least more straight forward. note from the official FAQ: "There is no charge to list your room - it is free to post. We charge the guest a 5-12% service fee during the checkout process. The host receives the amount they set, minus a small 3% fee for credit card processing."

now that reads to me like the lessor ends up paying 3% of 112% of their posted rate, which means the customer actually ends up paying 15.8% (or 13.8% depends on which way you want to talk about percent, also this is at 12%) more than the lessor actually receives. Also I take it to mean that the $30 room in city X will magically become a $33 room when I actually try to stay there. Neither strikes me as very good from a customer experience point of view (customer being either side of the equation in this sentence), as well as somewhat unpredictable.

booking on any travel site (airfare, hotel) includes a fee at the end of the booking process. orbitz/expedia/hotels.com charge 16%+.

6-12% service fee actually favors the guest; the larger the total reservation, the smaller the fee.

3% is a flat fee for the host based on their raw listing price.

Yes, and that is terrible. To be fair, those others have to pay structure behind to support customers properly.

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