r/technology • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 • 7h ago

Society New Airbnb rules ban hosts from making guests wash dishes, do laundry & other checkout chores

https://www.dexerto.com/entertainment/new-airbnb-rules-ban-hosts-from-making-guests-wash-dishes-do-laundry-other-checkout-chores-3420832/
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891

u/molie 7h ago

Honestly, this is the play especially when traveling alone.

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u/killmurer 7h ago

Even when travelling with my wife and kid. I mean not to worry about my kid spilling some drink on the bed. And have free breakfast options. Clean towels guaranteed. And generally some expected level of professionalism is just great.

Airbnb is too stressful for me.

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u/skraptastic 7h ago

I've used air bnb exactly twice now. First time was for a group stay for my sons 30th birthday. The house was fine. But it was not even at Best Western standards. Also there were no smoke detectors in the house.

Second time was in the UK this summer. The booked house had a plumbing issue and the host texted us while we were in the air to tell us they had to cancel the room. Fortunately they also booked us in a similar place, but it was across Cardiff, and we had to drive to the concert we had planned to walk to.

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u/xyourmomx 7h ago

This reeks of them rebooking the original room for way more and offloading you to a cheaper room.

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u/jimbo831 6h ago

This is almost certainly what happened. u/skraptastic probably booked it at their normal rate before they learned there was a concert nearby. So they cancelled the listing and rebooked it at a much higher rate.

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u/xyourmomx 6h ago

Anything that requires cancelling a users stay like this should require documented followup before it can be re-listed.

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u/jimbo831 6h ago

Agreed. As far as I know, Airbnb has no such requirement.

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u/xyourmomx 6h ago

I’m saying it SHOULD require. Of course it currently doesn’t cuz loopholes and exploits.

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u/Hokie23aa 7h ago

What do you do in that situation?

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u/jimbo831 6h ago

Stop using Airbnb.

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u/dishearten 7h ago

Yeah I am starting to think these reasons are bullshit.

I've had an airbnb cancel on me due to plumbing issues a couple years back and the exact same thing just happened to my inlaws.

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u/xyourmomx 7h ago

A lot of people don’t question plumbing issues. Especially if they already have a prepared solution. It just seems these plumbing issues always happen right around big events nearby for Airbnb’s. I’d be curious to see if the listing appeared bookable at that time after they moved you.

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u/Abalamahalamatandra 3h ago

And they could fix that by not allowing a new booking on any cancelled date - I mean, if there's a plumbing problem, there's a plumbing problem, right?

But curiously they don't fix it.

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u/big_trike 36m ago

Someone else offered more money on a different platform.

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u/PhazePyre 5h ago

For me it was nice when my dad and I stayed in a small mountain City visiting some family heritage sites in the region. Can be hard to get hotels, and at the time AirBNB was a bit more niche up here. Haven't used it since, but it sounds awful in major areas. The host was a super nice lady, just had an out building. Met us when we arrived around dinner time. was super nice and gave suggestions for places to eat (typically small city type of person) and just did it on the side during summer to make some extra money. Everything clean and spotless and let us know to text her if we had any issues.

So I can see it being great for small places without a lot of accommodation (small tourist industry or none at all). But outside of that, it just seems crazy to engage in that with someone who isn't certified, registered, or anything else to operate lodgings. Just some random person fucking around on an app. The same way I look at renting off a property owner rather than property management. EVERY nightmare story I've heard, literally every single one has been from colleagues/friends renting off a person, not a via a company. That person being the property owner. They always take forever, they often don't know their obligations or responsibilities as a landlord, and they always charge market rate, even if a dump or their mortgage is half that.

Why go through the shittier less competent people when you could go via the people who actually give a shit because it's their job, not a side hustle?

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u/NeedThatTartan 7h ago

Not having to phone some person with broken English to tell them there is no water in the shower and them being just as flabbergasted as me. Now every time I vacation somewhere I book a place with 24/7 front office.

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u/JustAnotherINFTP 7h ago

i stayed at an IHG and my room flooded, the water stopped working, and they've compensated me nothing and the hotel's manager is lying to corporate about it.

so it's not all roses

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u/cortesoft 5h ago

It depends on the purpose of the travel.

If we are going to a city or the stay is a stop along the way, I’ll choose a hotel.

But our family loves to rent a cabin in the woods, and renting an air b&b or the equivalent is way nicer for that sort of experience.

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u/ManiacalShen 4h ago

Right, and people renting out their vacation home when they're not using it has always been a thing. Beach condo, lake cabin, whatever. Property management companies usually handled it, and still do, but now you can find them more easily on VRBO or AirBnB vs looking at local listings.

But AirBnB made it way too popular to grab up units people would otherwise be living in full time and fill them with rowdy vacationers that piss off the neighbors. Particularly in cities.

People buying up vacation units just to rent them out, to the detriment of people living and working in vacation communities, has also probably always been a thing, but I would bet AirBnB ramped up the scale of that, too.

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u/Rando-namo 7h ago

Free breakfast and no clean up vs cleaning fee and you need to clean - whatever will I do?

Three only reason to ever get an Airbnb is if you plan to be in your accommodations for the majority of time vs just sleeping and showering there.

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u/joshiness 1h ago

At this point, it's a toss up on whether we use an airbnb. If its my immediate family plus relatives we typically go for an airbnb. It's nice to be in a home with multiple rooms and a real kitchen to have breakfast together and to spend the evening together. Parking is typically easier (driveway plus street parking).

Now, if its just my immediate family. It's a toss up. Usually we pick the airbnb because of some special feature that a hotel won't offer. Beach house, remote from other homes, close to some attraction. Very rarely is it the cheaper option so we find ourselves mostly in hotels.

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u/FatherSquee 7h ago

I really liked hostels when I was traveling alone, but then again I was in my 20's.

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u/ftsapr 7h ago

Shoot, my wife and I used to do hostels all the time when we lived in Germany.

We were also in our 20s/early 30s though.

Now, we want the privacy.

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u/Scary-Maximum7707 7h ago

Then you're gonna love this set of movies about people traveling and visiting various hostels.

It's even called "Hostel", look it up.

And if you don't want spoilers, better not look it up, just get it and enjoy watching!

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u/totesandhose 7h ago

I love how realistic they are too, almost documentary-esque in how it portrays the average hostel experience.

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u/neurohero 6h ago

Paid for by the Tourism Board of Slovakia.

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u/MFbiFL 7h ago

Did you time travel from the early 2000’s?

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u/AvaryZig 7h ago

Yeah, but the long and slow way.

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u/el_diego 6h ago

Must've been on dial up with aol

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u/NordlandLapp 7h ago

They have a fitting username at least

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u/MFbiFL 7h ago

I guess. I lost count of the times that someone who’d never left my home town told me I was going to get Hostel’d when I studied abroad.

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u/Hollow_Rant 7h ago

Woke up from a coma and wondering why someone connected their Tivo to the internet.

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u/unirorm 7h ago

Lovely family movie ❤️💜❤️🩵

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u/FauxReal 5h ago

I've stayed in a hostel that has private rooms or smaller shared rooms that were empty too, still cheaper than a hotel and ABnB.

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u/Borkz 5h ago

I didn't even realize people still used it as a hotel alternative. I know the original pitch was more like rent somebody's extra room on the cheap, but that was decades ago and these day's it seems synonymous with renting a whole vacation home to split with friends or something.

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u/snorlz 2h ago

i have, but thats when i was staying 1 night and the hotels were significantly more expensive.

Like you said, they dont even fill the same niche and its disingenuous to act like they do. 8 friends going on vacation together are typically wanting a shared space without other people, which hotels cant do but airbnb can

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u/cozynite 4h ago

We moved back to hotels because our kids could make a mess without us worrying if we would get an extra fee when we left (like the time I accidentally left a toothpaste box in the bathroom garbage). The pool is also a bonus for them.

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u/ReverendDizzle 3h ago

Unless you need what renting a whole house would provide, staying in an AirBnB is silly.

I see the utility of it, and I've enjoyed a lot of great AirBnB rentals over the years but... unless you've got a party size big enough to merit renting a house, it's not worth the gamble. A reputable hotel chain provides the same experience over and over again in a clean an efficient fashion without the bullshit.