I have a fondness for AirBnB. It’s gotten way bad in the past decade, since it’s being gamed.
Back then, there wasn’t much of a review system for shitty places. Today, Google Maps, Yelp, forums, social media - they can warn you about shitty places. And from my experience back then, a lot of hotels were scams.
Need a place to crash? You can either get a scary motel for like $40 that might have bed bugs, or a hotel for $300. I remember my first time in 2000 booking a hotel over the phone, having them save me a room, only to get there and these fuckers tried to upcharge me. I walked and they said, “Good luck finding a room in the middle of the night!” My mom eats specific foods because of her health issues, and Airbnbs often have shared kitchens. Hotels only recently started adding kitchenettes. And some hotels had locked devices. TV was extra. Fridge was extra. Touch snacks, fucking extra. You expected to pay $250 and here’s a bill for $600. Don’t want to pay? Well we’ll call the cops.
Airbnb and Uber gave people options, and you can give bad reviews to these bad actors. Having all this competition, hotels and taxis improved dramatically.
Of course, now Airbnb hosts (not Airbnb the company) took a lot of the shitty behavior that hotels used to do. Not to mention a lot of the Airbnbs are now owned by real estate companies who are trying to squeeze every penny.
So yeah, hotels have come back around to being a better service. And now if you get fucked over by the Marriot or something, take photos, leave a bad review, and they bend over backwards to apologize.
madjo@feddit.nl 3 weeks ago
It used to be the cheaper option compared to hotels. Because it used to be people renting out a spare room.
dogs0n@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
And now it is (helping) ruining the housing market for us normal folk, with all these “entrepreneurs” buying up houses to list for high short stay rents on airbnb.
buttnugget@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I would be shocked if it had any appreciable impact at all, but it certainly isn’t helping.
RubberElectrons@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
You’re wrong, sadly.
jali67@lemmy.zip 3 weeks ago
There’s a reason it is banned or considered being banned in some cities around the world.
Fuckfuckmyfuckingass@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
In large cities there are entire apartment buildings that have been converted to illegal hotels on Air BNB. It’s a huge problem, not the entire problem, but a damn big one.
bytesonbike@discuss.online 3 weeks ago
Yep! And those hosts bend over backwards. Like here’s a spare room, here’s some local chocolates from our town chocolatier. I made these jerkies. You’re invited to our 8pm fireplace time and have s’mores.
It was a real community. They still exist. But they’re overshadowed by shitty Airbnbs that want you to clean the gutters and mop the floors now for twice the price of a hotel.
RobertoOberto@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
Reading the plural form of “jerky” makes me feel oddly uneasy.
Is that just like… several pieces of beef jerky or deer jerky?
_stranger_@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I’m something of a jerkonnoisseur myself, and I have never considered the plural form of Jerky. This is like experiencing semantic satiation for the first time.
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helvetpuli@sopuli.xyz 3 weeks ago
Mass bound are one of the most difficult features in the English language for English as a second language learners.
People do this with the word “code” all the time, and I have a strong urge to correct it. But I usually don’t.