this post was submitted on 17 Jul 2023
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Tell me again why I would ever choose to get a room through AirBnB? Or travel across a city using Uber? Or have my food delivered by GrubHub?
Everyone wants to claim they have no money, and yet all these services needlessly add cost and complexity to what used to be a far more simple and cheaper purchase just a few years ago. I'll take a taxi to my hotel room and pick up my own food thankyouverymuch.
Where I am Uber is the only option for an on call taxi.
Where I am they are few and far between, will definitely take longer to arrive (if they arrive - no way to know if they are coming or not) and will be more expensive. They drivers will also almost certain try to long-trip you, hassle you for more tips, etc.
Uber isn’t perfect but it’s way, way better than a taxi here
Where I am there are taxis you can hail and prebooked. The hail taxis don't come out here unless someone takes one out from the city, and the prebooked ones can only really be booked well in advanced. However I can summon an uber immediately.
Today I took and Uber and a taxi for the same trip and Uber was considerably cheaper. This was in Europe.
Yea, one of the reasons uber is so popular is because it is cheaper and faster in most places. The business model sucks for the drivers, but it is mostly an upgrade to taxi services for people who use it to commute.
It sucks for drivers, which is why it's cheaper, I guess. That has to change, because that money clearly belongs on the executive, not translated into savings to customers!
When I used to use it, over 10 years ago, it was great for couch surfing for a six pack and staying in peoples spare rooms for like $20. Did it all over Australia and Europe in college.
Now I think they’ve positioned themselves as being high-end hotel alternatives, because there’s more margin there. It was never good for that.
Today they've positioned themselves as a means for landlords to make a large amount of money from short stay holiday rentals instead of residential rental.
It allowed me and my friends to sleep in London for pennies compared to a hotel room.
And yet when I looked at places in Vegas, they were all shittier and more expensive than actual hotels. I really wanted to save money, so I really tried to give it a chance, but nothing that came up was worth it when I could just get an actual hotel. And the more I thought about it, I'm also just not comfortable using AirBnB as a single woman. Maybe other people have felt totally safe and had nothing happen and that's great. But I know I would never feel one hundred percent certain there's no cameras, and that whoever's renting it wouldn't just walk right in.
I've also seen those AirBnB management companies renting out rooms in the larger LV casinos for the same price, with the same amenities, and with the same resort fees. That one's a total mystery to me.
And now they're advertising AirBnB "rooms" or whatever it's called where you sleep in a bedroom in the same house as the owner? While the owner is just...there?! That would just be so uncomfortable and awkward to begin with, but it also just kind of seems like a matchmaking app for serial killers.
Airbnb was originally the room concept, it's was for couch surfing! Now it's used to jack up housing prices for the profit of the few, naturally!
From what I've been able to work out - AirBnB doesn't make a lot of sense in the US at this point - it often costs as much or more than an actual hotel or resort or more traditional house rental, and there's all these extra gotchas with it that make it really... well - not interesting to me because of uncertainty, and that's just financial and if you're actually going to have a place to stay when you get there. Some of that was potentially worth it when it was 1/3 the cost I guess, but now that it's popular, people aren't doing it "for cost" or "to get a little extra for an unused room or whatever" but as a business. And guess what? Hotels, being competitive, already have close to the cheapest IT CAN BE in a given area to stay as a business venture.
On the resorts rentals, it's really weird, but many places have partnered with AirBnB to I guess get them listed there also - basically like companies that have listings on eBay, Amazon, Walmart online, NewEgg for the same thing. It's just a place people go more than say expedia. Of course, I do wonder how many people who are inclined to stay in those resorts are going to AirBnB anyway, vs just direct to the resort or more traditional booking methods.
Edit: Remembered - I've been told it's very different in Europe still, so I guess it pays to check when traveling to other countries. If you're ok with the tradeoffs for the savings.
Can't speak for Vegas, that's on an entirely different continent. But it helped that there were 5 of us.
Doubt.
Quick google search shows quite a few hotel rooms under $100/night. Divide that with 1 or 2 other people and you're talking about having a clean, safe place to stay with no other headaches for the night for roughly the cost of a reasonable meal.
And yet it happened...
We were sleeping with 5 of us, at that point you simply can't beat a cheap AirBnB for price.
Frankly I trust my real-life experience literally doing it over your quick Google search.
I can believe you - people when travelling are so used to hotels they're stuck in that "Hotel Room" mindset, which is great if it's 2 people, or 2 couples that share a room. I don't think many people have looked into "larger accommodations" so the "economy of scale" as it were can kick in. And I can see renting an entire house if you've got enough people going, for long enough, to be more economical. I know it has been for 1week or so. It's hard to compare most hotels where people tend to stay for less than 5 days IME, and have less than 4 people to larger group trips.
In cities yes. It still is unparalleled for renting small holiday homes in "rural" areas. E.g. Scottish Highlands, French Brittany.
That is the proper use case, where you would otherwise book an other B&B.
Indeed, I've used airbnb several times now to rent a vacation home in the French/Belgian/German countryside. For that it's great. Cheaper than renting a bungalow somewhere and you have more space.
I get food through doordash because I can't be arsed to pick up my own food on a lazy weekend. I'm also on the edge of nowhere, so I tip well. (This is a rare treat, not my primary means of feeding myself.)
Airbnb has never had appeal for me. I like the clear expectations of a standard hotel room.
I rather not have my food messed with by some random delivery person thankyouverymuch
Around here, bags of food for delivery are sealed up tighter than Ft. Knox (figuratively). Tape, staples, plastic bag around the outside tied up in knots you have to cut to get through. Plus, food deliverer germs are no worse than food preparer germs. I have enough innate germaphobe in me that I actively refuse to worry about my food being tampered with in ways I won't notice. If I did that, I'd never eat any food I didn't prepare myself, from ingredients that came in their own wrapper (banana, cantaloupe, live mussels).