
Airbnb Swings to a Loss as Costs Climb Ahead of IPO - mudil
https://www.wsj.com/articles/airbnb-swings-to-a-loss-as-costs-climb-ahead-of-ipo-11581443123
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zed88
Seems like the market economics is finally catching up with the silicon valley
formula. Good for the rest of us.

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samfisher83
Airbnb is pretty shady. Basically hosts can lie and Airbnb won't really help
you out. Plus you have to give them a picture. I don't think I will be using
them again.

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Jayschwa
Ditto. I cancelled a reservation because the "house rules" (which you can only
see after reserving) were super shady and basically stopped short of admitting
to being an illegal rental. I cancelled the reservation weeks before the stay,
but because it was after the initial 48 hours of booking, I got screwed out of
half the cost. Their support didn't give a damn either, despite me having used
the site many times over the past half decade with no problems. They lost
their way and I hope they crash and burn.

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hurricanetc
House rules, check in, check out, and cancellation policy are all available
upfront on the listing.

Even if what you said is true, and it isn’t, you still had time to review and
cancel inside the cancellation window. The fact that you chose not to is your
own fault.

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Jayschwa
Maybe the section was called something else, but the publicly available info
on the listing certainly didn't ask me to lie to neighbors, authorities, etc.
Whatever section it was could only be seen after booking. It's true I should
have inspected those details more closely after the initial booking, but it
was something that AirBnB shouldn't have been facilitating in the first place.
Shortly after I complained, the listing was deleted and recreated, and later
deleted again (whether on the host's part or AirBnBs, I do not know)

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dannyr
We already see Airbnb using dark, anxiety-inducing UX patterns (e.g. 5 other
people are looking...).

With them needing more revenue, this tactic will likely escalate.

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aguyfromnb
> _e.g. 5 other people are looking..._

And "Only $199 a night!" (Plus 100% in fees you see at check out).

AirBnB had a great opportunity to be a small platform to provide people a way
to rent their empty homes for a bit of extra cash every once in a while.

Instead, the VCs sniff it out and it turned into a multi-billion dollar
platform for real estate speculators, harming neighbourhoods and circumventing
laws, because "disruption".

Does anyone consider AirBnB a "good brand" anymore?

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seattle_spring
Are you two using a different Airbnb than I am? Fees are included in the
search when you have dates, and I've never seen the "other people are looking"
ever. Are you sure you're not thinking of Booking?

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dannyr
The domain name says airbnb.com and there's an Airbnb logo.

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seattle_spring
Can you share a screenshot of Airbnb saying "there are x other people
looking"?

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dannyr
Eh just look it up on the web.

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neonate
[https://archive.md/6llX5](https://archive.md/6llX5)

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2-to-15
Thank you

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corporateslave5
This is doom porn against air bnb. It’s a massively profitable website with
very low capital requirements.

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hurricanetc
Those facts also make it a risky bet because it is easier for competitors to
enter the market. Airbnb is only massively profitable because they have a
dominant position but what will happen if that position starts to slip and
they have to compete for listings? The surcharge is inevitably going to fall.

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xchaotic
In my part of the world the same properties are available through Airbnb and
booking.com. But booking also lists hotels so guess which one I use to book?

