[fasthands9]

I disagree. In the long run there was never a way for individual hosts to compete with hotels on price. Hotels have economy of scale so of course they are going to be better bang for the buck in places where both are options.

I think airbnb is still the better option in many situations - such as when you are willing to pay a premium to be in nature or you going on vacation with 6+ people.

I don't really see how better tech would ever prevent this outcome. Perhaps this disappointing in terms of continual growth, but I think it was inevitable and still provides a good path for the company to be uniquely useful.

[darkerside]

The only way to compete against the economy of scale was the original thesis of AirBnB. People were renting out their primary homes to bring in an extra stream of income. It was never going to be mainstream profitable to buy a normal apartment and rent it out on AirBnB.

[OccamsMirror]

> It was never going to be mainstream profitable to buy a normal apartment and rent it out on AirBnB.

It was never meant to be. It definitely has been though. Lots of people making much more money renting out AirBnBs rather than using their property for long term leasing. Which has obviously compounded the housing issues most cities are currently experiencing.

[pas]

Cities ossified to unimaginably bad levels, which clamped down demand for large-scale construction, which significantly contributed to the productivity of said industry stagnating since "forever".

Compared to these structural problems short term tourist rentals are a complete red herring.

[fasthands9]

I don't think this is material to the user?

Say I own a house and I just rent it out a few weeks a year. Even if it's not a source of income I am still going to price it to the highest amount that people are willing to pay.

[lotsofpulp]

> there was never a way for individual hosts to compete with hotels on price.

That way was to skirt laws around obtaining hotel permits and zoning and paying all the relevant hotel taxes and business insurance.

[xdfgh1112]

Exactly. Airbnb was much cheaper than hotels when it started because of this.

[fkyoureadthedoc]

And better. It was all around a better experience, analogous to Uber vs taxi. But while Uber is still more convenient than taxi, I haven't even considered using AirBnB in years.

[hidingfearful]

agreeing (strongly) that uber is better than taxi, and yet again on price it is because uber skirts the law-- drivers typically do not have commercial insurance etc and also uber subsidized rides for a long time with VC money.

[lotsofpulp]

That does not seem to be true:

https://www.uber.com/us/en/drive/insurance/?city=portland

>When you earn with a transportation network company (TNC), referred to here as ridesharing, most states require extra—and costly—insurance.

>Uber maintains this commercial insurance on your behalf. What’s covered depends on factors such as who was at fault; whether you were offline, online, en route, or on-trip; and your personal insurance policy. Learn more about the commercial insurance coverage Uber maintains on your behalf below.

[fasthands9]

This is a very good point.

But I still think it was inevitable that cities caught up, either by restricting AirBNB units or giving in and allowing more hotel construction. There was no path for Airbnb to grow for 30 years without it ending up with basic econmics.

[ricardobeat]

They shouldn’t be competing. Renting out space on AirBnB was supposed to be an occasional thing and not a full time business.

[bgnn]

Here in Europe there are a lot of local websites for this kind of group accomodations in nature etc. and often the hosts there are much much more approachable and friendly, plus it's often cheaper than Airbnb.

One big example is Gites de France [1] with 55k listings, which is a 70 year old guide. Most of these aren't anywhere else. It doesn't make sense to look elsewhere when travelling in France. Other countries often have something similar, maybe in a smaller scale. For example there are holiday homes websites in the Netherlands, with close to 1000 listings [2].

[1] https://www.gites-de-france.com/en [2] https://www.vakantieadressen.nl/

[lm28469]

> I disagree. In the long run there was never a way for individual hosts to compete with hotels on price. Hotels have economy of scale so of course they are going to be better bang for the buck in places where both are options.

Reminder that airbnb was supposed to be about renting your place when you were out of town, not buying 5 buildings to become an hotel chain yourself...

At least hotels don't ask you to clean the dishes, switch of the fridge and do the laundry before you leave