[mlinsey]

This is pretty mild as "calling outs" go. I would summarize your first two points as "there is tremendous demand for this concept".

Your first point is that this basic concept has been so successful that governments have felt the need to regulate it to combat its adverse effects, which is a risk Airbnb is pretty well aware of. In fact, all of the adverse effects you list are true of hotels as well, except for "shorting cities on their hotel taxes". If municipalities eventually decide to force Airbnb to charge hotel taxes, that would diminish their appeal but probably not destroy the business. Hugely successful companies like Amazon are facing similar problems.

Your second point is essentially that the idea of providing an online marketplace to remove inefficiencies of brokerages is not a new one, and therefore Airbnb should not be "overly" congratulated. But we're not congratulating Airbnb for the novelty of the idea, but for building a business which is apparently worth a billion dollars. Many hugely successful startups have ideas which might be obvious.

As for your third point, there might be something legitimate there. I don't know anything about VRBO vs. AirBNB in terms of traction and customer satisfaction, but it appears from one of your other replies that your only evidence is anecdotal. My personal anecdotal evidence is that everyone I know has been very happy with using AirBNB.

[ChuckFrank]

Good points. Well stated. I clearly have overstated the VRBO vs. Airbnb customer satisfaction. I've changed it in my original post to reflect that correction.

[Jd]

I just did a quick compare and it looks like VRBO serves the high-end of the market exclusively, with stuff in Manhattan starting around $180/nt, whereas Airbnb starting at $80/nt. That in and of itself should tell you that probably people who only serve the high-end clientele are going to do better on average (e.g. in reviews), yet the market is much larger if you can serve both mid-to-low and high-end, and as far as I can tell Airbnb is doing both.

Which is to say, Airbnb says you have to have do due diligence yourself (which some people won't do, and will have bad experiences), whereas VRBO filters for you, but you will end up paying more on average.

That's to say, if asking which business model is better, I think you have to go 100% with Airbnb. Giving users more power makes them like you better in the long run, and even if there are more flakes, there will also be 10x more enthusiasts (potentially even celebrities which become investors/advisers). Customer enthusiasm isn't something you can immediately capture via looking at reviews, but I think the market is closer to the truth in its valuation then you are in your "call out."