The early days of Airbnb, just like the early days of the web, had been stuffed with promise. Right here was a means for vacationers to see the world whereas assembly hosts and having fun with genuine experiences, all on a shoestring.
But this promise, just like the promise of the web itself, has been corrupted by greed, lack of competitors and poor product administration.
Sure, Airbnb is to journey what Fb is to the web. In a phrase: horrible.
The change was so gradual and incremental that there was by no means one second when Airbnb grew to become so terrible. However as distinctive mom-and-pop trip leases have given approach to company property administration behemoths, the attraction of Airbnb has slowly eroded till all that is left are unpredictable lodging experiences at excessive costs.
There are nonetheless occasions when reserving an Airbnb stays the most suitable choice for vacationers, simply as checking a Fb group continues to be one of the best ways to get some info. However the cons of staying at Airbnb properties so typically outweigh the professionals that extra vacationers — even cheapskate backpackers — would possibly rethink its outsized position within the journey universe.
The cons of Airbnb
Airbnb properties do not have full-time employees to deal with points
“Quirky” is a beneficiant approach to describe Airbnb properties. “Affected by a whole lack of high quality management or oversight” is likely to be a much less beneficiant means. Setting apart security considerations, which the platform spends millions of dollars to cover up based on a 2021 Bloomberg Information report, staying at an Airbnb is usually a sport of roulette.
Hear, I get pleasure from adventurous journey experiences. And in the beginning of my time utilizing Airbnb, I thought of bizarre hosts and their oddball ornament decisions a part of the enjoyable. However as internet hosting has develop into extra corporatized, the horror tales have develop into much less enjoyable — and extra miserable.
Checking right into a home that smells like vomit doesn’t make for an excellent story.
This factors to a serious distinction between motels and the present Airbnb: Inns have a full-time employees prepared to unravel issues. Even the crummiest lodge will not less than attempt to filter out a stench, whereas what you odor is what you get at many trip leases. Airbnb leaves it as much as the person hosts to resolve — or not resolve — the problems. (Don’t get me began on the fragrance-ridden laundry detergent favored by Airbnb hosts.)
I polled my NerdWallet colleagues on Slack, asking if any had Airbnb horror tales to share. The responses had been swift:
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“[Airbnb] knowledgeable me on the telephone that the particular itemizing for our reserving was simply … I don’t know, faraway from the positioning? Thought-about illegitimate? They ‘couldn’t inform me why this explicit itemizing was now not energetic on the positioning,’ simply that the corporate eliminated it sooner or later between after I booked and after I was supposed to remain.”
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“Then I observed that in putting in the lock, [the host] eliminated the outdated deadbolt so that you could not unlock the door from the INSIDE with out your telephone (assuming the glitchy app even labored). Holy fireplace hazard, Batman.”
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“We known as the host to ask for a vacuum and for him to do one thing with the marijuana. To ‘make up for our troubles,’ he supplied us a six-pack of Coors Mild.”
Actually, this final story sounds prefer it would possibly fall within the quirky/enjoyable class moderately than quirky/horror, nevertheless it was too good to not share.
My colleagues aren’t alone. A 2021 examine of greater than 125,000 Airbnb complaints on Twitter discovered that 72% of the problems had been associated to poor customer support and 22% had been associated to scams. The examine was carried out by knowledge scientist Asher Fergusson in partnership with researchers on the John Jay School of Legal Justice and the College of Colorado, Colorado Springs College of Public Affairs.
The purpose is: Are you able to think about any of those tales taking place at a decent lodge?
There’s no competitors
I spend a lot of my life ranking airlines and hotels. The competitors is fierce, with prime packages jostling each other for prime spots from 12 months to 12 months. This breeds improved experiences for purchasers who depend on rankings like these to decide on the place to spend their journey {dollars}.
Airbnb, however, has no significant competitors. Comparing it with rival Vrbo solely reinforces this level as a result of Vrbo someway manages to be even worse than Airbnb in each respect besides, probably, search performance. Even Fb has to compete with TikTok and Snapchat, whereas Airbnb enjoys a close to monopoly.
The platform, subsequently, has little incentive to enhance the expertise for purchasers. 12 months after 12 months, this lack of a aggressive whet has dulled Airbnb’s edge.
There’s no approach to discover offers
What about discovering offers on Airbnb?
Airbnb doesn’t have a loyalty program, which suggests there are not any “factors” to earn or promotional bonuses to stack. It leaves pricing as much as hosts, which is sensible, however this method signifies that discovering a deal for any given journey requires a mix of intense looking out and luck.
And right here’s one other concern: Airbnb doesn’t enable looking for listings by way of third-party websites like Google Resort Search or Hopper. Fundamental kind features which might be useful on these websites, like ordering outcomes by the best low cost, merely aren’t an possibility.
The truth is, Airbnb’s personal search device doesn’t enable sorting in any respect, which suggests outcomes are ordered by no matter profit-maximizing algorithm the holiday rental platform chooses.
This method is annoyingly just like Fb’s. Wish to view your information feed in chronological order? Too unhealthy, you’re trapped in Fb’s ecosystem and must play by its guidelines.
The identical customer-last logic applies to Airbnb’s search performance. This setup makes offers, in the event that they exist, unreasonably exhausting to seek out.
The underside line
There was no single second when Fb grew to become horrible. For a very long time, it was a helpful place to take a look at images of your mates and perhaps watch a humorous video. But 12 months after 12 months and grasping determination after grasping determination, it grew to become a wasteland.
Having dominated the competitors and strong-armed native rules, Airbnb has likewise begun to undergo from its personal success. It was as soon as an adventurous possibility for younger vacationers seeking to see the world with out going broke. Now it is a commercialized, unregulated mess.
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