Airbnb Was Supposed to Save Capitalism. Instead, It Just Devolved Into Garbage.

🦊 OneRedFox 🦊@beehaw.orgmod to Socialism@beehaw.org – 55 points –
Airbnb Was Supposed to Save Capitalism. Instead, It Just Devolved Into Garbage.
jacobin.com
16

AirBnB was supposed to save capitalism

Some people will just say anything

"No bro you don't get it, man, this lets people with multiple properties get more money out of them instead of those pesky hotels with their employees and regulations, man"

AirBNb, uber, lyft are all designed to circumvent existing laws by setting up parallel systems. The companies set themselves up to be the gatekeepers, instead of existing regulatory systems. The enshittification is predictable.
The hardest thing in governance is:
Comprehensively reform a system in place while using it...

My entire family has switched back to hotels with no regrets. We've all separately had bad experiences with Airbnb and realized hotels would never get away with that shit.

Also, unmentioned in the article is the topic of how Airbnb has contributed to the destruction of the single family home ownership market.

Real BnBs all the way. Regulated, no bullshit fees, actual hosts and other guests to meet and talk to over breakfast. Unique and lovely.

As Ron Swanson would say,

"Dear AirBnB,

Be a Bed and Breakfast, or be nothing."

Ron Swanson --Its_Me_Xiphos

Last time I booked an AirBNB, I started driving 1hr up their way, then got a phone call from them saying they never approved it, and its not available, and I had to rebook. Then they changed their mind 30mins after, after I found somewhere else, and were reluctant about giving a refund

Another one we booked for NYE, the bin outside was full and overflowing.. Clearly the owners were on holidays and couldn't be arsed getting someone to clean the bins.. Had to bring the BBQ trash and stuff back. Also, we bought ice cream, but the freezer in the room was full of ice, so it was mostly wasted. We had to pour it down the drain

I hate hotels, and I hate the fact people like trump own a lot of them. But they are MUCH better than all the sketchy AirBNB's which were ruined by wankers buying up real estate trying to make a quick buck.

What is supposed to be the difference between capitalism and garbage ? Asking for a commie friend.

Capitalism is when it turns everything into garbage and then you hoard it among a handful of people. Garbage is the product of human activity that is useless. So it’s not that there is a difference between the two, but capitalism is both garbage and produces garbage itself.

I really want to meet someone who earnestly believes this lmao

Right? Since when any of these companies were built with any other goal other than make someone rich?

Yeah it was really cool when it started. But when people started running airBnBs as a business it turned into shit, and started ruining city centers too.

AirBnB started as a great example of a sharing economy, basically the peer-to-peer of travel lodging.

Now it is just a decentralized hotel system, but with no room service.

I have only had two AirBnB experiences in the past years (one of which was just a week ago). Maybe it's just different in Germany or I got lucky, but our AirBnB hosts were always available (and actual locals instead of unknown house moguls) for questions, offered very decent apartments (especially for the price) and were at most half as expensive as the cheapest hotel in the same area (not even gonna mention the fact that getting a hotel with two dogs is hard to impossible anyway).

Yes, there was the sudden cleaning fee of 20€ and the stupid AirBnB fee but it only bumped it up from around 60€ per night to around 80€.