I've attempted adding a payout method several times. Each ti...
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I've attempted adding a payout method several times. Each time I attempt to add a payout method it locks my account and tells...
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I have tried to find a place in Atlanta area for my five-day travel in December, 2023, but I ended up to reserve a hotel instead. The "facical" cost of five-night sleep for most of places was lower than most of outside hotels (not motels). However, after including cleaning fee, service fee, and taxes (mostly around 20% of the cost), the final prices became 45-75% more than the original cost, which became equivalent to or more than the hotels'. Is this normal these days and for most areas? Or, are Abnb, host and/or local goverments carzy to rake travelors' money?
@Mike-And-Jane0 Yes, that could be the problem. I don’t know. Maybe one of the moderators know or Airbnb CS can answer that question.
The BMW vs Ford analogy doesn't really fit.
Why?
Because many of us can not afford a BMW for $90,000 and we cannot afford a Ford for $30,000, either. But we can afford a 15 year old car with 150,000 miles on it, for $3,000.
The 15 year old car is what Airbnb used to be like - an option that was way way less than any other option, that allowed low-income people like myself to actually travel.
But imagine if for some reason that all of those 15 year old cars suddenly cost $30,000, just like the new Fords. We would not be able to afford a car at all. We wouldn't be able to drive, we wouldn't be able to go anywhere. That is exactly what has happened with the Airbnb prices - people like me now have zero options for lodging.
Mike-And-Jean wrote:
"The great thing is that if the Airbnbs are too expensive people can book hotels instead."
Well that way of thinking doesn't work for many of us. The reason myself and many other former customers would rent Airbnbs is because we could not possibly afford to stay in a motel, even a cheap one was way out of our budget. So we hardly ever went anywhere. Then Airbnb came along with prices about 30% of what a cheap motel room would cost, so we were able to travel! Yayyyyy! We enjoyed several years of being able to take weekend getaways and even 4 or 5 day trips, and because of the rates being so much lower than cheap motels, we could actually do this! It literally changed life for many of us lower income folks.
But now everything has changed and the Airbnb prices are just as high, or higher, than the cheap motel rooms that we could never afford. Doesn't make sense why Airbnb hosts could do this for 1/3 the cost of a motel room 6 years ago, but they can't afford to do it for that rate now.
I long for the days when airbnb hosts were actually common people renting out a spare room in the house that they live in, instead of being entrepreneurs who are trying to make good investment income off of the platform.
That's just a blanket statement and doesn't apply to all airbnbs. My airbnbs are priced on the low end and are very affordable.
I have heard that airbnb prices are kinda crazy in USA though, and sometimes higher than hotel. Not sure about that...
My strategy would be to book hotel if the price is similar to hotel, and then book airbnb if the prices are significantly cheaper.
Edit: Just compared the prices for one of my rooms to a cheap hotel on expedia.ca. It's about like 1/3 of the price of a hotel room.
Zheng,
That is awesome that you are pricing your rooms appropriately, in the true original spirit of what Airbnb was originally intended for. Kudos!
I just wish that people here in the US would price them the same way, or actually rent out spare rooms in their residence the way they used to. Now it's all entrepreneurs buying houses to turn into Airbnbs instead of just regular people looking for a few extra dollars, and it is really bad for the customers like me because of that.
I can't really comment since I don't stay in Airbnb's often in the USA. Well, actually, I have never stayed in an Airbnb in USA so far.
I did a search for an Airbnb in Manhattan, NY, NY recently, and the prices were kind of whack like $500-600 for a room. The hotel prices were also whack, but not as high lol.
Even Airbnb's in surrounding areas didn't really represent a good deal. So yea, ended up getting an Inn instead. The Inn wasn't bad but the service was terrible, but with no (real) competition from Airbnb, I guess this is what happens.
When I say the inn wasn't terrible, I mean like it COULD HAVE been not terrible, but it ended up being terrible because they didn't give us a blanket/duvet/comforter at all, and there was only the bed spread. I was able to get a full refund through Expedia, but when I first tried to go through the Inn, my request was completely ignored.
You can search Airbnb only for rooms (with shared living spaces). There are still hosts who rent out rooms and the prices vary depending on the amenities. However expecting to pay $40/night for a room is not reasonable as I’ve rented rooms when traveling for conferences that had shared bathrooms and have never paid a rate per night that low. It’s usually $60-75/night and that was over a decade ago when I started as a guest on Airbnb. It also depends on where you are looking for your lodging. I think rooms now go for $70-85/night. You also need to look for hosts who don’t add on per guest fees and have low daily rates. You can toggle the map to see the full rate (daily and service fees included) in the US. Or you could just wait till check out to see all the fees (taxes included).
I price competitively based on the area with hotels and amenities I provide for my listing and am always lower as we have a full kitchen, washer/dryer, and several amenities hotels never provide. It depends on the host and the listing.
I do recall there was a host in Portland, OR who rents out beds in their home. They have a room with 4-6 beds and travelers know that it is similar to a hostel in that you will have a bed, access to a bath, and many people travel there and enjoy the interactions. It has also allowed them to care for their disabled child, be home, and make a living while meeting great people. Perhaps you could check them out as their rates are low because it is a bed and a shared experience (not a private room).
Lorina,
Thank you for your thoughtful and well-written response - I really appreciate that!
You are right - there are no Airbnbs in my price range anymore, except for when a big group of us all go in on a small house together and split the cost 6 or 10 or 12 ways. We did this in the Tri-Cities, Washington, back in April. It was a really good house, and the total cost for each of us came to $82, and that was for all 3 nights - Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. So $27 per night per person. Very affordable, just like the very early days.
I actually use Craigslist the way people used to use Airbnb. I put a "room wanted" ad up for the area I want to stay in. I get a bunch of responses, and actually get to choose from several people who all meet or beat my $40/night or $250/week maximum.
Once I paid $1,200 for an entire month (in a Denver suburd) , but that is way more than I am comfortable paying ... but it is still much less than almost any other option.
Then years later I went back to the same area and found a place for just $100/week, so I stayed for 3 weeks. And the woman I stayed with was a wonderful host and we still keep in touch!
In Phoenix last summer I paid $200/week for a bedroom. The guy who lived there was great to me, and we became friends and still keep in touch.
So there are truly affordable lodgings to be had, in the original grassroots spirit of Airbnb, but you just have to look outside of Airbnb to find them because Airbnb seems to have become more businesslike and moved very far away from their air mattress/spare room origins.
When you type the @button you can choose a person to notify. You’re welcome! I’m glad you still find ways to get to places inexpensively and find great people who host you. I might be a little cautious on Craigslist as you never know you may get.
There are people who still rent rooms for a low rate, and if you shared a room with a friend and they had no extra person fee you may get a deal. I’ve seen some people rent out an airstream or tiny house on their property for a lower rate than a 1 bedroom/bath. So they exist but you may have to apply better filters.
If you’re in Europe you can look up hostels as they are a much more economical way to travel and more popular there than in the US.
I used to have so much fun renting riverfront airbnb's near me to get out of the city when it was affordable 3-5 years ago. The same places now cost similar to a trip to Hawaii for a simple weekend. It also is tough to pay so much to check in at 4pm or later on day 1 and leave by 11 am on day 3, after spending all morning meeting rental requirements. It feels like one day of enjoyment for way to much money. I get excited to look and leave the app discouraged and frustrated. There is also a lack of places to rent which means people are still somehow okay renting places for a weekend that are equivalent to Hawaii trips or week-long stays using hotels. It's a bummer to rent in Washington or the PNW.
@Sam7385 Sadly the price of pretty much everything has gone up in recent years. I guess local places can charge similar prices to Hawaii because guests do not have the expense of getting there.
I can't stay at Airbnbs anymore, either, due to the extremely high prices. They used to be way way less than a motel but now they are more. Only time I stay in them now is if it is for a full house and we have a group of 6 or more of us and we split the cost between us. Gotta come out to $40/night/person (but ideally even less) or we won't do it. But when it is just me traveling alone, I just can't afford to do Airbnb anymore - even a 3 star motel is nicer, more convenient, and costs less.
@Tom4563 Excellent plan. If you don't like the Airbnb price book a hotel. As long as all guests behave like you then hosts will either price their places appropriately or go out of business.
But what happened to the many years when Airbnbs were far less than a cheap motel? That used to work for everybody, but now it doesn't.
Why?
Why can't Airbnbs be regular people renting out spare beds in their homes like it was in the beginning? It was literally started because people would buy an air mattress, pump it up, and get someone to pay a few bucks to be able to stay there overnight. If if worked for those regular people in their regular homes back then, why can't it work for them now?
You mention Airbnb hosts going out of business if they don't maintain these higher prices. But they aren't even supposed to be "in business". Remember the origins - it was just Bob and Lisa making a few extra bucks off of their spare bedroom. Or Cathy, recently widowed, putting an air mattress in her family room and renting it out to a weary traveler, hostel-style. Or Jim renting out a spot on his 1 bedroom apartment's living room floor for the night. Those folks, in those types of situations, is what the entire model was based on. And they were most certainly not "in business".
Do you think that maybe those "grass roots" Airbnb folks have been pushed out by entrepreneurial types who are looking at it as an investment strategy instead of a way to get a few extra bucks? Do you think Airbnb itself grew so large that they now need to do only midscale and upscale rentals in order to meet all of the overhead expenses that they have picked up as they became so big?