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Comment by buro9 | Hacker News Reader

Surge pricing for AirBNB, and suddenly we're back to looking our networks for floors to crash on and spare rooms to be had.

I guess the rule of thumb is that even when costs are eroded, profits increased, intermediaries disintermediated... the prices will rise to the maximum levels that the market will bear.

It just takes away the magic of being able to find that rare, cheap and great place. The sharing culture is now less sharing.

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> I guess the rule of thumb is that even when costs are eroded, profits increased, intermediaries disintermediated... the prices will rise to the maximum levels that the market will bear.

Price has always been about demand versus supply, not demand versus cost. Reducing costs in situations where supply is constrained by some other factor will just increase profits.

>Price has always been about demand versus supply

True, but it needs one of the two following conditions:

1. In the long run 2. In a fairly competitive market

The interesting part of AirBnB, though (imo, of course), has typically been sort of a couchsurfing where you cover some of the offering party's rent in exchange for the accommodation. That occupies a kind of awkward niche between fully-free and fully-commercial accommodations, where there is (or was) some kind of expectation of a relationship to cost: you don't stay free like with Couchsurfing, but the other party isn't trying to run a profit-maximizing hotel, either.

It's true that it's increasingly converging towards becoming a competitor to standard vacation-rental sites like booking.com and HomeAway, though, which come with different expectations.

Bullshit. Price has not always been about anything. Perception of price has been highly manipulated to fit the goals of sellers. Price has been manipulated to exploit the ignorance of buyers.

Your statement is both myopic and mentally violent with a touch of naivete - price is always an illusion which is modified to fit the actual relationship between buyer and seller.

There are so many instances where the price can actually mean "what the seller is comfortable getting for his product"

Shoot the "market can bear " bs in the face.

This is just the market getting more efficient (better pricing) with an increased supply (hotel + airbnb). It seems like an overall positive thing to me.

On the other side of this argument, from what I've seen on AirBNB, a significant percentage of owners have dramatically overpriced their accommodations. Consequently, widespread adoption of a yield management system like this would lower the prices of many places on many days (while increasing the occupancy rate).

How are you determining that they're "overpricing" their accommodations? For a lot of property owners, the reserve price may be driven by considerations like (perceived) risk to their personal property and the hassle of managing bookings rather than the price at which they'll maximize revenue.

You're absolutely right. We see this all the time, partly because owners don't know what a reasonable occupancy rate is and how they compare to other listings, partly because people have an attachment to their place and overvalue it, and partly because they are only willing to deal with the work of welcoming a guest for a certain price.

I prefer couchsurfing.com anyway. It's an example of the actual sharing economy, and without the grey-area legal shadiness.

This part of couchsurfing (the third auto-suggest result when I start typing couchsurfing into Chrome) is my concern:

http://www.businessinsider.com/couchsurfing-the-best-hook-up...

Concern troll is concerned

Please rethink these types of comments.

They don't do anything to improve Hacker News.

Why can't I down vote the concern troll? Or, why aren't those with the power to down vote able to detect the concern troll? A valid argument was made that couchsurfing.com is an actual sharing economy and AirBnB has stopped being one. The concern troll ignored and derailed the argument.

This comment is much more useful than your grandparent comment. Down voting might be the correct action (if you were able to), but a short meme/snark comment is almost never appreciated.

Thanks for HNplaining to me. The question was rhetorical. I know the answer: this is an echo chamber and AirBnB is precious.

No worries ;)

For what it's worth, I actually agree with your point. The parent of your first comment was (at least to some degree) derailing the conversation. I didn't even consider that it was a derailment until your second comment.

I think you did have something valuable to add to the discussion, but I did not initially see it because your first comment was so pointlessly unnecessary.

Based on you pointing out the behaviour, I will now try to recognise and downvote 'concern trolling' that derails conversations. It's unfortunate that you weren't able to communicate that more effectively the first time.

I haven't had any issues with that myself. I'm a straight male though, and so YMMV. If I'm hosting single women, I always make a special effort to be respectful and not do anything that could be construed as hitting on them.

I do know one friend who wound up dating a guy she hosted as a couchsurfer, but I don't know if anything happened when he was staying with her that first time.

The system still works. Women traveling alone have to exercise more caution, but that's true of most activities in life, unfortunately.

The review system on couchsurfing is good. I'm male, so I'm going to have an easier time, but I've never had a problem with couchsurfing. I've stayed with and hosted a few dozen people.

Before I take ANY guest or send a request, I go over their whole profile, their reviews, their photos. Do them seem cool? Do they seem normal, no creepy vibe? Do they have reviews? Do the reviews go beyond "Jack is a nice man. He stayed with me two days."?

If they are "yes" on all counts, not only have they been safe, but they've been among the most interesting people I've met in 28 years on this earth.

Women should heighten scrutiny on all counts, and also check for "do they only host women?". Do they have even a SINGLE negative review or sign of creepy behavior?

Suffice to say, I've met plenty of women travelers who find couchsurfing a great experience, including while traveling alone. I'm not speaking out of male ignorance.

Consensual sex concerns you... why?

I suspect a considerable number of price changes will be downward as the date approaches.

AirBnB will probably do this eventually. But BeyondPricing likely has plans far beyond AirBnB.

Higher prices make room for competition.

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