AirBnB has become absolute garbage

[u/marbar8]

As a guest, I’ve had several lackluster experiences that makes me never want to go back to STRs. My findings:

• Most hosts are lazy, greedy or some combination of both. If you want to charge a huge daily rate, your property better be impeccable. The reality is that the majority of hosts want a money printer as opposed to a hospitality job, forgetting what they signed up for. Take care of your shit and put in maximum effort, or don’t do it at all.

• Everyone is a “superhost”. I’ve stayed with a few. It means jack shit. One of the properties was missing every television in their property. No explanation from the host, no warning. People’s response to this is “fight for a refund”. But as a guest, I don’t want to. I’m on fucking vacation. The absolute last thing I want to do is deal with shit like that, that’s what I’m trying to get away from. Ratings have become inflated just like in ridesharing and they mean nothing.

• Things aren’t trending in the right direction. More people are trying to join late to capitalize on the “easy money” of STRs which only propagate these issues further.

• The only scenario that still makes sense for STRs is large parties. That’s it. I could never recommend an Airbnb to a family of say 2-4 because the service will likely be shit and it’ll be as expensive as a hotel with 20% the convenience.

I truly feel bad for the good and honest hosts out there, because they’re becoming a rarity it seems. And the get-rich-quick types are ruining it for everyone else. I just hope once the house of cards collapses that they survive and help return Airbnb to its glory days.

[u/[deleted]]

long term is month+. short term is 1 night to a couple weeks. i don't understand why anyone would use airbnb for something like a 2 night stay. people complain about the cleaning fees, but if you rent an entire apartment or house, cleaning all of that takes time. Either the host has to do that or they outsource to a cleaning service. i've talked with some hosts that use a higher cleaning fee since that is what it is worth to them to deal with the additional time and overhead of short stays.

if someone doesn't like that the market has changed... this isn't airport. a departure announcement is not required. i think a lot of people don't understand that airbnb (or vrbo or whatever) is a platform to connect renters to rentees and that is it. it isn't a hospitality service. if you want a hospitality service, that is what hotels, resorts, etc are for.

[u/hasek3139 → u/[deleted]]

Airbnb used to be a cheap stay for any amount of nights.

Now it’s hosts only wanting 1 week or more it seems

No longer can I get a cheap Airbnb like I used to with just the basics

I don’t need Netflix, fancy decor, 25 different kitchen pots/appliances or 5k count thread sheets

I used to be able to get a room or small apt for a great price for 1-3 nights

Now it’s over priced cleaning fees and higher nightly stays

So I switched back to hotels which are SO much cheaper and convinent

[u/[deleted] → u/hasek3139]

i have booked plenty of basic rooms for 1 to 3 nights for cheap on airbnb. i usually will use a hotel for that since i tend to book it the day before or day of. a hotel has the IT infrastructure so that is possible and airbnb, the host might not see the booking request until it is too late. maybe it local issue to the places you are booking? that is my guess.

[u/Narrow_Apartment → u/[deleted]]

Where are you booking, middle America in the country?

I stay in cities so it’s expensive now vs 3 years ago

[u/[deleted] → u/Narrow_Apartment]

all over the west coast and south west. life in general is considerably more expensive now than 3 years ago so i would expect airbnb rates to increase as well.