Some hosts are threatening to strike, while others are plotting ways around Airbnb’s new restrictions. Guests, meanwhile, are celebrating.
AIRBNB HOSTS ARE melting down over a new policy banning them from making guests complete tasks that “would typically be performed by a cleaner,” like “stripping the bed, taking trash offsite, or washing and putting away dishes.”
The change, which applies to all bookings made on or after November 20, quickly sparked outrage after it was announced in an email to Airbnb hosts on Wednesday. Many began fuming online about losing the right to make their guests clean up after themselves.
“As hosts, we have a responsibility to protect our investments, our homes, and, in many cases, our personal living spaces,” one person wrote in Airbnb’s official forum for hosts. “The problem is that Airbnb increasingly expects hosts to accept the risks while limiting our ability to protect ourselves.”
I don’t even understand why people use Airbnb.
Every time I’ve looked at Airbnb, a hotel was cheaper and easier. Hotels certainly have some hidden fees, but nothing like airbnb has.
Oh look, this house is 60 dollars a night. That could work for my two night stay… oh wait, now that I’ve clicked the listing, it has a 400 dollar cleaning fee. I’ve worked in cleaning. cleaning a house does not cost 400 dollars, and thats assuming you have professional cleaners coming in to clean it, which we both know you don’t. You expect the guest to do all the cleaning, and you come in, spend 30 minutes doing the bare minimum touchup, and want 400 dollars for it.
So, in the long long ago, in the before time, Airbnb was a way to rent out your apartment or home for a week, while you were on vacation, or to rent out a spare room with minimal headaches. In fact, after Craigslist more or less died, it was THE way to do it.
Over time, this changed.
It was so much cheaper back in the day. Me and my wife would rent out either a guest suite or a room for a couple nights in new cities. I’m talking like $40/night with fees or a little more but with advantages of a kitchen and a couch vs a hotel suite.
Also we rented one twice to host big parties because neither us nor any of our friends in the city have a house big enough to host and comfortably sleep 15 people. Luckily that’s changing soon as my wife and I finally purchased a place in the city, and look forward to hosting our friends for years to come.
Tenish years ago I would use air bnb because it was a good bit cheaper than a mid level hotel and you’d get a whole house with a kitchen. Means I’d save money and could cook. But that’s changed and it’s usually more expensive for air bnb now
Hotels don’t rent out houses in the middle of nowhere for my friends and me to get trashed at for the weekend. They’re really nice if you want to get out of the city and relax in someone else’s house for a couple days.
Now, most Air Bnbs don’t allow you to have a bunch of friends to get trashed over a weekend… It’s in the listing rules.
Yeah, I exclusively use it for less populated areas where the hotels are sketchy at best. Its worked out well for me, but maybe I’ve gotten lucky.
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I haven’t even considered an Airbnb in close to 8 years. Pay a cleaning fee and have to strip the bed linens, take out all trash, and tidy everything…on top of a moldy af bathroom, having to check all potential locations for the hidden cameras, and getting texts every 30 minutes telling (not asking, TELLING) me to leave a 5 start review. Fuck you
exactly.
This type of thing isn’t normal.
You can choose not to rent a place that has a chore list.
Like a moldy bathroom is a health issue. If you report it the listing will be shut down.
Hidden cameras are the same, not really a thing.
Sounds a bit like you chose the cheapest listing and like to complain that it feels cheap.
Weird to blame the renter for being cheap on a litany of health, privacy, and labor related crimes at the behest of a wannabe landlord
Sure.
The thing is the same principle applies in any market. If you want to buy a car, and buy the cheapest you can find, its not going to be a good experience.
I dunno… I’ve never had an issue with my Hyundai, and was never told I had to keep it clean, while being charged a cleaning fee each month…
Sure, but you understand the absurdity of buying the cheapest car and then complaining about it.
I do not see the absurdity of buying a cheap car, and complaining about having to pay a monthly cleaning fee on the car…
Sure, but you understand the absurdity of buying the cheapest anything with no cleaning fee, and then complaining about it.
I don’t believe Toyota is selling Corollas with mold sewn between the seat cushions. But sure, keep blaming the poors.
Ooh, sick burn. Amazing.
If you buy the cheapest corolla you can find, it will have all sorts of things in the cushion seams.
You have to try pretty hard to find mould in an airbnb listing. People will mention that kind of thing in reviews.
If you choose the cheapest airbnb, or the cheapest hotel, it’s going to be gross.
renting would be different, it would be a semi-permanent, where you pay renting fees. but then you have the headache of going through rental laws/fees for your city.
I paid $80 for a room in the middle of LA
That’s kind of high for the middle of Louisiana. Just sayin.
Giving the year is extremely important context.
Literally a month ago
grats?
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We’ve used airbnb twice because it was for a whole house and I have a severely disabled daughter who can get loud and physically disruptive. Those were the only family vacations that we’ve ever been able to take because hotels generally can’t accommodate us. This isn’t a common requirement, and if not for that special use case, I’d pick a hotel every time.
When it first started it was good for traveling on a budget. But yeah then greedy assholes ruined it by trying to gouge every dollar they could out of it.
I think the hidden fees have been abandoned now. They were never a thing in Australia - the price is the price.
For groups of more than two people apartments and houses are usually significantly cheaper on AirBnB, and being fully self contained with a kitchen and laundry changes the calculation too.
sometimes it might be useful for a large group visiting that needed a whole house rather than trying to get hotel/motel for each person a room, im guessing its convenience and simplicity for groups. not useful if you are 1-3 people.
I guess it depends on the region. Used Airbnb a lot in spring when I did an Interrail tour through central/eastern Europe. Often it was just the cheapest option. Sometimes hostels with 10+ beds in a room are cheaper (also used these quit often in my first Interrail tour trough other parts of the continent a couple of years back) but not always.
Then also the thing with having a kitchen which can safe you some more money. Especially for breakfast, it’s crazy how hotels are pricing them.
Not trying to say that Airbnb is cheap(or isn’t destroying the housing market), it’s just that hotels are expensive. At least in the areas I travel.