Uncommon Boston

Uncommon Boston

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Short term rentals are often unfair to the community. A friend asked, "Why won't your condo association allow short term rentals?" The building was in the city, old, walls not soundproof, residents had jobs and wanted a private, secure place to live. When using AIRBNB she got sight seeing and dinning suggestions from neighbors -- daily. Loud renters? Parties? Trash left in common areas? She explained how residents could call AIRBNB or the unit owner. The problem probably won't be resolved immediately. Short term renters disrupt the sense of community, reduce building safety, and could bother residents --- who don't profit from the rentals. She said that buildings residents were selfish. The building's residents selected a centrally located, guiet, private, safe place to live. Why should one owner profit from short term rentals at the expense of the other residents?

Greed ruins everything, every time. People were making a fair profit by being cost effective and hospitable. Then the round table conversations begin...You should charge double, people will pay...You should making cleaning an extra fee, people will pay...You should find reasons to keep the deposit, people will not like it but too bad, it's too late once you have their money...dont worry there's always someone who will pay. Until, low and behold word gets out you are a scamming a*****e and nobody books with you anymore. Then you cry and stamp your foot about how unfair it all is, well hardi ha ha.

It used to be significantly cheaper than a hotel. Now it's more expensive and defeats the purpose all together. At least in my state. Also the TJ Maxx slander cracks me up. Makes more sense to spend 20 USD on "last season" sheets than 80 USD at any other store. I just got a bunch of last season $45 thermal shirts and $58 flannels for $9.99 and $12.99 respectively. Plus a gorgeous $90 felt wool hat for $40. I love TJ Maxx.

The only good Airbnb's have done is it made the hotel/motel industry step up their game.

The business model changed due to greed and it ruined it. It started off you could only rent out accommodations in your primary residence and limited how many days a year you could do it.. It was awesome back then. You'd get some college kid's room for 50% of a hotel and a muffin on the way out the door.

I dont know where on the planet Airbnbs are making people clean...I run a airbnb room...there are no requirements except that if they bring their dog, the dog is not allowed on the bed. Other than that? No rules.

The only reason I can see for using AirBnb is if you have a large family gathering and want to rent a large house for it. Other than that, I don't really see the point.

Was looking for a house for a large party (parents and children) and the cleaning fee on airbnb was almost a night stay in price. And looking for same listing on booking. Com, they were less money. And no cleaning fee. Eventualy we found the property web site and contacted the owner directly. They gave us a FREE night, so we are palying 3 night for a 4 night stay. No cleaning fee

I just stayed at a hotel from Friday until today and spent $257. It was just a simple cheap hotel but it was clean and I didn't have to do a damn thing aside from turning in my keycard. I took a look at air bnb before booking and for what they were charging I could've stayed in my hotel for like a week or booked the fancy hotel and spa up the road with a massage. It's disgusting the fees they charge; they're Iike the ticketmaster of room rentals (for those who don't know, ticketmaster is a site to purchase event and concert tickets and the fees basically double the damn cost)

My AirBnB place in Ireland looked like a halted construction site, directions to key made no sense, owner sent a man who was living (squatting?) in the un-renovated area of the building over to show me where the key was. It was getting dark and there was no outside lighting but I'll still say he looked like he had probably killed at least one person already and now he knew I was staying at this semi-abandoned building in a rural area. I don't expect perfection on vacation but also don't expect to be murdered. No more rentals for me, hotels all the way!

Last time - late may this year - was in Dublin IE for few days. Airbnb was almost the price of hotel right in city center, without the time spent commuting. I looked up for few of them, but knowing the city, I wouldn't stay in most of them.

I absolutely understand what everyone is saying, and I agree it can be disruptive to local communities & can cause housing shortages when Airbnbs are in residential areas but in my experience, Airbnb has been mostly great. I've never used it in the US - just UK and Europe, so maybe that's why my experience is different. I've never had any additional cleaning fees - just tidy up after yourself and they get cleaners in before the next booking to do a proper clean. I like self-catering while on holiday and you have more space and privacy if you book a whole house or apartment. Most recently, 10 of us hired a small villa in Corfu for 9 days - it had a pool and lovely garden and was close to the beach. We arrived really late after a delayed flight but the caretaker was there to let us in. We broke a glass and one of the sunshades by the pool was damaged and we reported it - no extra charge. It worked out to under £50 per person per day.

I'm here to say that I have stayed in well over 100 Airbnbs...never had a problem, ever. Now, if it's under 3 nights, I'm in a hotel cuz it's just easier. But for a week or more, hotels are expensive. If I'm staying a week or longer I'm cooking meals, preparing my morning coffee, etc. While I'll accept there are bad eggs out there, careful observation of reviews and pics go a long way. As I said, 100+ stays and ZERO issues. Most bad stuff is squawkers... happy customers are typically quiet.

It worked because it was cheaper than a hotel. It became more expensive than a hotel and stopped working. Who would've known...

This is Capitalism at its worst. The instant a good idea is born, greedy people grab it up and try to make big money on it, and destroy the whole thing it was based on in the first place. It didn't take long, did it? I kinda feel bad for the people who bought up tons of properties for it, and turfed out long term tenants to make the place a Airbnb. But - not really, ya know?

Thanks for putting this out there. Thought I was in a small percentage feeling the crash of a beautiful idea. I've Airbnb'd for many years and was good stuff then. Not so much now. First red flag: takes 3 hrs to choose from 2 properties in small town! We've stayed at plenty but in last year mostly opted for hotel chains. There are issues here too, but easier to stomach. One property in ski resort town 10/18/2023 stated if the hot tub isn't working they will not refund because break downs are out of their control. They literally are telling you that you are being up charged for hot tub but they won't be responsible if you cannot use it. Pass on that.

It’s such a scam with all the additional fees. I’m currently in medical school clerkships which requires moving every 4-6 weeks. Airbnb seemed like a lovely option since the last time I used it (4-5 years ago) was nice. However, the areas I need to be have higher prices, which I expected, but what I didn’t expect was having to tack on $400-500 in fees on top of a $200 cleaning fee. Hard pass. I now use Furnished finder for traveling medical professionals and the prices are comparable to Airbnb before the fees.

AirBnB in itself is literally just an online platform with a marketing budget. Those "landlords" and their customers are what made it successful. Both are looking for the best price while doing s**t. It is the perfect example of our world and a metafor for all the other things going to s**t. Don't just blame the idiots for creating that platform, their success was in the hands of the morons using it.

And if that was not enough, airbnb also did a huge damage to the javascript community, setting styling rules that a lot of young developers think that are "best practices", and most suck

In the beginning, the prices were lower then hotels, nobody asked you to do stuff, and it was when I was using airbnb. Now I would have to loose my mind, to actually deal with this stuff, and also overpay as hell, and then also have the fees applied to already overpriced stay

Once again, please **DO NOT TAR ALL BNB HOSTS WITH THE SAME BRUSH." Our ratings are ALL 5 star; comments include spotlessly clean; we'll be back; perfect hosts; much bigger than expected; etc. It's clean because we the hosts do the cleaning. Guests return because they enjoyed their stay. They are greeted and welcomed to their annex. It would be difficult to change some of the photos because I can't get on top if the wardrobe! There are no cameras. Laundry is included in the booking price; why wouldn't it be? We provide an unusual thing called SERVICE. Shock surprise - we are in the UK.

I think that this is a problem mainly in the US. In Europe I never paid a cleaning fee or had a list of chores to comply to.

As an Airbnb owner and co-host the only issues came from a few entitled guests, mainly travel ball families, who couldn’t afford their stay and took it out by leaving bad reviews. While most of these families were respectful, a couple were unpleasant and left the units filthy when their unreasonable requests weren’t met. I don’t charge a cleaning fee or ask guests to do laundry or strip beds. I’m meticulous about cleanliness, using different vacuums for the kitchen and bathroom, and even making my own detergent to ensure everything is spotless. My units include a themed space and I once received a low rating of 3 stars because a parent complained about the themed unit’s decor being secured with museum putty. The listing clearly states the decor is part of the experience and not to tamper with the items, but this guest chose to ignore that. Unfortunately, Airbnb often sides with unreasonable guests, it feels like there’s a communication gap when dealing with international support.

In the beginning, we had some beautiful experiences taking the whole family on trips and staying in AirBnBs. We didn't even mind paying the (usually) $100 cleaning fee back then. Any problems were quickly taken care of. The last three family trips have been increasingly more disappointing with long lists of rules and things we had to do, more and more cleaning ourselves with $200-$400 cleaning fees on top of that. Have a problem? They tell you "Oh, well, we will try to get to it before the next guests arrive" while we have to continue to deal with a drain that was stopped up when we arrived or an AC/heat that didn't work the whole time. Nope. Our families will be staying in hotels where we can enjoy our vacation instead of taking care of someone else's house.

This seems to be about Air BnB in the US. I'm curious - are self-catering holidays not a thing there? In the UK self catering has always been a popular holiday option with recent Air BnB's being viewed as a cheaper version. A lot of the comments are just anti the idea of self-catering such as feeding yourself and keeping the place clean.. This is what makes a holiday cheaper than staying in hotels and what Air BnB was originally based on.

Used Airbnb once. Stupid rules, cleaning fees but you must clean the bathrooms, vacuum and do all the dishes and start laundry and don't forget the "Hosts" dropping by in the middle of our stay for a surprise check-in.

That's what happened in Paris this summer. People were evicted to keep their flat for tourists for the Olympics and prices were above anything (1 000€ the night for a place with no bedroom). 1 week before the games, owners were all crying because nobody had rented their place. They all lost money on this and a lot of us were laughing hard !

I had one wonderful stay in Tucson at an Earth House. But had a terrible "stay" in Orlando. I told the super host that I'm allergic to bleach, and that I would stop breathing so I asked for the place to be cleaned with water, only, and I would bring my own cleaning supplies. No problem. Then I also told her that I have a service dog (he warns me to allergens and warns when my oxygen levels start to drop before I stop breathing). That was the problem. She couldn't deny me, so instead, when I and my friends arrived, I opened the door and, STOPPED BREATHING!! She had used so much bleach that the condo smelled worse than an indoor public pool. Then had the audacity to tell me that it was IMPOSSIBLE to be allergic to bleach and she'd never had anyone complain about her places being too "clean". No, I guess not. My friends stayed and killed dozens of german roaches during the 5 nights that they were there. And AirBnB removed my review because I didn't stay the night there.

All of these comments are from Americans? UK here and have a double room available on AirBnb with tv /drinks, snacks included. WiFi , Private bathroom; Breakfast / lounge room with TV and all facilities,with breakfast included. No added charges/ cleaning fees. In Oxford UK £50 a night.

We used AirB&B the once. It was during the height of Covid and we had not seen our son and DIL for almost a year. We met up halfway. We like the idea of our own entrance and hot tub as to not share with the public. We had a so many restrictions, a list of chores, got locked out once and the owners performed a surprise visit in the middle of our stay.

I love Airbnb and won't stay in a hotel. I have a large family that can spread out in a full house or condo. I enjoy being able to use the kitchen and laundry facilities. Also I'm not a self indulgent brat that can't clean up after myself.

AirBnb is straight garbage and I can’t wait for it to go away.

I would love to be a host someday if Airbnb is still around. Seems fun to decorate as well as have houses across the U.S. While a lot of these posts comment on ruining rentals, none of them point out how Federal, State and Local Protections on rentors also effected the market. I understand this helped a lot of people but with my family, it didn't. My family had a renter who decided to stop paying (30k in debt), steal from us (toiletries, food) and vandalize our cars and based on our local laws we couldn't evict for any of those reasons. She's gone now, but with fear of that happening again, my family is switching to AirBnBs.

Ugh. A a long time ago we did an AirBnB. It was great! cheaper than a hotel, in the country, no noise, the hosts were friendly retired people, etc. Now, you look online, they are more than a nice suite at a hotel. So, booking hotels it is! Some will argue, that you can save money by making your own meals. Uh, no. They are now so expensive even that is no longer in the equation. And with speculators grabbing places, evicting renters, etc. the apocalypse of this can't come soon enough. Was recently looking at AirBnB in Las Vegas...and expensive few nights at an apartment, or cheaper price at Mandalay Bay...guess what I chose.

Yes it was meant to be CHEAP. And nice, stay in a home with someone, pay far less than a motel, never mind hotel.