Neither Airbnb, nor its hosts can seem to get a break. From ridiculous Airbnb host rules to ridiculous venues with views into the inside of a restaurant to hosts feeding guests mac and… dog food.
This is just the tip of the iceberg. And problems keep on keeping on in the form of superhosts pointing out their abrupt drops in clientele in recent times.
It didn’t take long for the internet to internet and react to these host rants, complaints, or just general comments by pointing out why it’s happening, and expressing their dissatisfaction with Airbnb as a whole.
Airbnb is back in the news again, this time because of "AirBnBust" and how some hosts noticed a decline in bookings
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This story’s a long one, so strap yourself in.
Twitter user @texasrunnerDFW, who’s a Texas-based housing analyst, pointed out in a tweet of hers that this thing called the AirBnBust is “upon us”. This refers to a movement that’s led by dissatisfaction with Airbnb and its hosts. And this in turn sparked a bit of a discussion online, mostly about how Airbnb should just stop.
The tweet featured two posts found on the Airbnb Superhosts public group on Facebook (bam and bam) where hosts are wondering about the sudden, seemingly unexpected drop in patronage. The comments under the original posts suggested that this is not an isolated occurrence as many others have been experiencing something similar.
Texas-based housing analyst pointed out how some Airbnb hosts were complaining of dropping patronage in a dedicated Facebook group
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This inevitably led to some speculations by said commenters, suggesting that this could be an issue that’s specific to a location (like waterside venues) that always occurs around fall, or that the current economic-energy crisis might also have something to do about it.
But folks responding to @texasrunnerDFW’s tweet were more straightforward on the matter. You see, besides guests being fed mac and dog food, Airbnb has had loads of issues with its hosts for a very long time and so now folks think that enough is enough.
It didn't take long for folks in favor of Airbnb not existing to point out why there is a decrease in bookings (and why hosts shouldn't be surprised)
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People have been pointing fingers at everything from the chore lists to ridiculous cleaning fees to secret cameras inside venues to some Airbnbs being less appealing on multiple levels than opting for a hotel room. Those who travel often also noted that since Airbnb relies so much on individual housing, it can’t really guarantee security against scams or and ensure quality like hotels can.
We’ve also briefly discussed some of the issues that Airbnb has had over the past years in this article, but it feels like neither Airbnb, nor its hosts will get a break any time soon. Besides the hiccups mentioned above, Insider points to other issues like an influx of 58,000 new rentals in the market, making competition much more fierce, the post-pandemic period whereby domestic travel peaked and is on the decline, and we can’t forget inflation and everything else that is happening in the world.
People pointed fingers at everything from the chore lists to cleaning fees to secret cameras to some Airbnbs being less appealing than a hotel room
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Though, it is important to note that Airbnb’s financial reports show that the company seems to be doing just fine. According to their own statement on Hospitality Net, from the 103 million nights and experiences that were booked in the second quarter of 2022, they’ve generated $2.1 billion in revenue. This entailed a 58% growth for them with $379 million of that being net income. This is not representative of the current situation as the numbers are yet to come, but nobody’s discarding the possibility that Airbnb might be fine, but a segment of its hosts—not quite.
Besides personal reasons, there are speculations that the drop in bookings might also be due to increasing competition, the post-pandemic decline, and global events
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We won’t even try to dive into the whole issue of Airbnb originally being a service for people who have a spare living space that they can passively earn from, and now there being reports of people buying out apartment buildings so that they could be turned into Airbnbs. Or folks booting long-term tenants to convert their living spaces into Airbnbs. Either way, not good.
Now, in the hosts’ defense, cleaning, upkeep and maintenance all come at a price. This is besides all the insurance fees, taxes, utilities, and other financial obligations that hosts might have which inevitably affect the end user. They are the ones who have to deal with neighbor complaints, deal with the damages, all the while risking crooks booking a stay and then dealing with apartment-wide theft.
Whatever the case, folks were more or less celebrating this because of what Airbnb has become and how it's no longer acceptable
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The tweet generated quite a bit of discussion, getting over 53,000 likes along the way with thousands of retweets. This is besides big online news outlets picking up the story to discuss #AirBnBust in more detail. And speaking of discussion, what do you think? What’s your experience with Airbnb? Do you see these problems, and are they actually problems? Let us know in the comment section below!