In every city there are multiple hosts who buy/rent out entire apartment complexes and turn them into AirBnBs. That's a hotel, not a bed and breakfast.
A majority of the airbnb hosts nowadays are professionally managed ones at this point. I would say out of my last 10 stays, only 2 of them were hosts who actually lived in them. Airbnb is essentially a hotel operation at this point.
I think early on in AirBnB's existence I've had the delightful experience, interesting hosts, etc.
The last 2-3 years though, it has been less than stellar with both super host and non-super hosts stays for a majority of the stays, so I stopped using AirBnB. I'm sure there are still a lot of hosts that have a property they treat properly, treat the guests good, and care about hospitality etc. but the general vibe I get is that a lot of superhosts are folks with a bunch of properties doing the bare minimum while charging the absolute maximum. Just personal experience in the US though.
They recognize it exists. I'm even hearing podcast ads from Marriot or similar touting how much more reliable they are.
AirBnBs I've stayed in the past few years have all been janky, weird, and not really any cheaper than hotels. I don't have to do chores at hotels, and I can always get (and return) the key promptly. I've also been told on several occasions not to let anyone else in the building know I was an AirBnB guest. AirBnB used to be better, but the advent of "professional hosts" with many properties really degraded things. They often have the typical landlord mentality of expecting a lot of reward with little work or risk.
I couldn't agree more. We do a ton of travelling to rural and touristy small towns, and the experience of renting from a super host blows hotels out of the water (and is usually cheaper, or at least similar in price).
Even if Airbnb goes under, there seems to be more than enough demand from both owners and travellers for VRBO or someone else to pick up. It may be different in apartments and townhomes, but I don't see this trend disappearing anywhere else.
Indeed, for many Airbnb hosts occupy their property at least part of the time. In fact, I think that's the niche it has filled best. There were already rental agencies (indeed, online ones!) to deal with permanent short-term rental properties. Airbnb offered a particularly hassle-free conduit for those who just want to rent their property out some of the time, such as folks who have multiple properties in various locations, occupy it seasonally, travel a lot for work, live abroad part-time, etc.
AirBnB hosts are unrealistic with their expectations. The raising costs, ridiculous cleaning fees, absurd "house rules", etc. make AirBnB pretty much a no-go for me these days.
Hotels have great amenities, really good customer support, and not too much BS.
With AirBnB it's an absolute gamble if you're going to get a good host or a wannabe slumlord. I don't think this is AirBnB's fault though, just general human greed, wanting to make easy money by providing as little value as possible.
Last time I traveled, I found a bunch of the places I saw on Airbnb listed on other sites for cheaper. More alarming, there were significantly more negative reviews on these other sites (even on a site like Booking), than there were on Airbnb.
I'm sure Airbnb will continue to grow, but it seems awfully saturated to me already. I'm amazed at how many listings there are for my neighborhood (in NYC). All these hosts with a dozen locations that they barely maintain. Hard to find verify a host actually cares about a place they rent.
If I like an Airbnb property listed by a business, I often look them up to see if they offer a better deal on their website. Airbnb is a fantastic distribution for such listings. I recently discovered a startup (Limehome) through Airbnb - it offers consistent home-like stays in multiple cities in Europe. If I were traveling for a short vacation or for business, I would probably prefer something like this over an independent host.
If Airbnb intends to have zero control over the end user experience, I think they will eventually lose out to a player which offers consistent hotel-like convenience with home-like comfort/experience.
Right now it's ripe with places (sometimes entire buildings) dedicated to AirBnB, to the point where they put a dent in the local renting market.
reply