Airbnb is not having a great time
Ben Guttmann
Incoming Executive Director of Queens Economic Development Corporation | Marketing Exec./Professor/Author
Thanks to a somewhat-notable intervening event in 2020 that scrambled global travel, my wife and I just returned from a much-belated honeymoon in Spain. Like we initially planned 2.5 years ago, we enjoyed lots of jamon, Manchego, and Rioja – but unlike our initial plan, we spent the entire two-week trip around the country in hotels, not Airbnbs.
In fact, everywhere we’ve traveled since easing back into things last year has found us landing in hotels. Starting with our first escape to a steeply discounted (though lovely) hotel in Philadelphia as vaccines initially rolled out last winter, and continuing on to Oaxaca, Paris, and Rhode Island since then, I have checked into more traditional front-desks in the past year than in the eight years combined since I stayed in my first-ever Airbnb.
And it seems that I’m not alone here. Airbnb has a big, looming problem – it’s a brand on the brink.
After the most recent spat of disturbing accounts of hidden cameras in rentals, the company once again starting trending on Twitter as other guests describe creepy hosts, exorbitant fees, and lackluster digs. These type of critiques have cropped up with some regularity over the past decade of the platform’s rising popularity, but something feels different about this moment.
People put up with a lot of things to save money. If you’ve ever flown on a cramped Spirit Airlines flight, grabbed some plasticky quasi-food from Dollar General, or assembled a $9 coffee table from IKEA, you’ll know that the bar for customer experience can be pretty low as long as the price is right. And travelers will grin and bear it through convoluted check-ins, weird shower fixtures, and dull kitchen knives if it means that they can stay in Rome for fifty bucks a night.
But when the price is wrong, customers revolt. Since the beginning of the pandemic, with business travel evaporating overnight, many hotel rates have been more affordable than ever. At the same time, Airbnbs, especially those in more rural or beachy “escape the city” locales, have seen prices skyrocket. More and more, hosts are no longer somebody with an extra room trying to make rent (like I was a few years back when a roommate moved out), but rather entrepreneurial mini-hoteliers building their empires one rental at a time.
On TikTok, Twitter, and other platforms, you’ll see viral post after viral post of former frequent Airbnb customers rediscovering the benefits of a regularly-cleaned room, a staffed and secure front desk, and honest and transparent pricing of a traditional hotel. Below each post, you’ll find hundreds of comments complaining about $300 cleaning fees for a two night stay (often accompanied by a chore list to strip the bed and take out the trash), and hidden cameras and noise detectors clandestinely recording guests in their recent Airbnbs.
This “awakening” is happening at the exact wrong time for Airbnb. With the summer of 2022 shaping up to be much more of the ebullient post-vax season of travel and celebration than last year’s promising-but-fizzled summer, many people are taking their first big trips in more than two years. If Airbnb doesn’t see where the winds are blowing and ignores this quickly shifting perception, they are likely to be left on the tarmac as the rest of the travel industry continues its recovery.
Communications and Media Relations Strategist
2 年Great stuff and perfectly reflects what I'm seeing a lot of my peers saying. One thing you didn't mention is that millennials and Gen Z are waking up to the reality of what AirBnb has done to the housing market over the last decade - which is a PR crisis they can't hide from or ameliorate. The short-term rental market is oversaturated (soaked, really) in hot tourist areas like Denver, while permanent residents can't afford housing... and we can't forget how Gen Z had no mercy when landlords and folks who own multiple AirBnbs started freaking out in the early days of the pandemic because they'd overleveraged themselves and weren't prepared for demand to plummet. That sentiment isn't going anywhere, any time soon. You and your wife are doing something really cool with that farmhouse upstate, so I hope you'll be insulated from this mess - but the bad actors are going to fail bigtime and we'll all be better off when much of that single-family housing stock returns to the market for sale.
MBA | Veteran | CAP Associate
2 年We had this experience just last weekend when six total couples checked into a huge home only to be extremely disappointed with the advertised vs actual property. There were broken beds, stained sheets, climate control via texting the owner, blaring alarm for 20 minutes, and an overall underwhelming experience. We checked out within an hour and got a full refund. One thing the company is doing now is transitioning from just a property rental platform to an experience providing platform. The thought is that additional features will justify the price increase as compared to hotels. As mentioned in your article however, consumers are deciding to stick with more traditional measures and it will significantly hurt the company.
Strategic Partner Manager
2 年Feels like their only remaining market is for short term rentals for “unique spaces” (cool houses for big groups, sleeping in a sailboat in a tree). Used to think of it as a way to save a few bucks, but last year when I tried to rent a log cabin with no running water in upstate NY for $275 a night…I had a ‘what am I doing here moment’.
Brand Innovators ’40 Under 40′ Northeast Class of 2023 | Hermes Gold Award 2022 (Healthy Conversations podcast)
2 年First, congrats on the honeymoon! Second, we just had this experience for our first family trip. We have an almost-two year old now and our friends brought their 4 month old, so an Airbnb mansion seemed fitting just a short drive away - big fees, constant texting from the host, excessive lists to attend to, and underwhelming accommodations. Airbnb has always been a mixed bag in my experience, hotels too, but a brand on the brink (let’s write the book!) is especially disappointing after all the goodwill and support we all felt for the employees they laid off and sincerely tried to help, esp here on LInkedIn
Experienced Experiential Experiencer
2 年We gave up on AirBNB a few years ago for the simple reason that it was not worth risking the pleasure of a holiday on so many unknown variables. To be honest, it always struck me as a somewhat daft notion but the low cost and pretty pictures were initially quite tempting. Now the cost is not low and but the chances of getting what you pay for are. Plus, it really isn't a full holiday if you're not coming back to a clean room and fresh linens.