Pricing was the biggest advantage and unique thing about $ABNB It was meant for people who want to do budget travelling because if you are travelling somewhere you just need a place to crash at night. With prices on ABNB running wild and $100-150 being normal nowadays. Why the 🦆 one would chose Abnb stay, compromise their privacy and take all the tantrums of the host where they place their arbitrary sticky notes with set of rules over a 3/4 star hotel where you can throw your tantrums ? $ABNB is here to stay but it will saturate much faster than anticipated maybe not in terms of #of new Abnb homes but in terms of revenue for sure. It will be another Booking.com, Expedia ….. ——- There are some competitive advantages which can’t be denied like: 1. ease of expansion in any area of the world 2. access to kitchen 3. Group booking is cheaper 4. Long term stays are cheaper Counter arguments: 1. There can be other companies in the space which can offer the same like hipcamp. Also, note that these remote areas get less crowd in general so less revenue is generated from there. Most of the revenue comes from hot spot areas with high population density like any other business. 2. Doubtful if people use kitchen if they have just booked a single room in the whole house. Who cooks food at home when travelling anyways? Purpose of travelling is to explore and try cuisines 3. This is clear advantage 4. Hotel can give incentives for long term stays too in the future. It’s all about strategical shift so nothing unique about it. Also, Definition of long term here vary because if you are talking about 6 months+ then you better look for a long term rental instead of Abnb Peculiar cases like 1-2 months is more suitable ——— Whosoever says unique experience in a remote place is an unique MSP. That looks good in paper because there is 0 operational overhead but those areas get less number of visitors which leads to less transactions/bookings -> less revenue generation Bulk of the revenue will come from area with high population density due to higher number of transactions but there it has less competitive advantages than a hotel because of same price range. Group stays is an advantage but I would be curious to see what’s the %age of revenue coming from group stays and booking whole houses/condos as compared to booking just a room in a house. ( personally I think majority of revenue is still coming from hotspot areas with single room booked in a whole house) ———- Simply put Abnb is DoorDash of stays with a much better profit margin ( 😏 thanks to cleaning fee )
Agreed. It was supposed to be an alternative to expensive hotels. Now the prices are more expensive to hotel. I'm slowly using vbro (also expensive lol) and booking.com more and more.
Same. With hotels you also get breakfast albeit shitty one. Also cleaning service. Airbnb hosts have a cleaning manual that might take hours when you leave. It’s like paying them cleaning fee but cleaning it yourself. I started looking for hotels more often now.
Vrbo is expensive but their motto is whole vacation homes compared to Airbnb which can be shared spaces. I think the price reflects the amount of space you get but Abnb a little high, agreed.
Yeah Airbnb has been useless for a minute now
Couldn’t agree more
I think Airbnb remains a good option for group situations (we frequently use it for groups of 6+) as the cost ends up being cheaper than multiple hotel rooms. Additionally, having private amenities like a private pool can be great. But for solo or couple traveling, it no longer makes financial sense. Hotels are more reliable and often cheaper now. I also know many renters who are switching to Vrbo because they do a better job screening applicants so there’s less risk to your property.
This.
It’s annoying when one room is 10x better than the other room(s). I’d rather just book my own hotel sometimes than fight my friends for the en suite
Yep! It was supposed to be the economical alternative. Especially, during rough times like a recession 😂
They are still great for big groups - especially when you require a kitchen or a slightly longer stay. For solo/couple situation or work travel, I have always preferred hotels.
ABB is still cheaper for longer term stays and is super popular with digital nomads. It also becomes cheaper when the group of people is bigger as you don’t need additional hotel rooms and split amongst more people. I’m interviewing there now and would work there despite business model just for the flexible work program they have 🌎
Airbnb does seem to be losing talent very fast these days. Lots of people leaving
In addition to being useful for groups, it's also interesting for hosts of unique places. It offers experiencing of living ways you can't otherwise purchase.
Small section of travel enthusiasts But that won’t carry the company forward in terms of revenue.
Because everything else is also increasing in price.
Not as much as abnb