r/technology • • 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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u/Klutzy-Football-205 7h ago

This sums up pretty much all of the *-sharing services.

It was neat when it was "I'm already going to the airport Wed @ noon, give me a bit of money and I'll get you there too!" These companies take an outsized portion of the proceeds and take 0% of the liability.

Too little, too late, AirBnB. They were silent for YEARS over these complaints. Let me guess, their bottom line got affected so it is finally time to act?

Even if a hotel is more expensive, I know what I'm getting, have genuine recourse options and am incredibly consistent experience if you stick with the same chain.

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u/opermonkey 7h ago

It's a trend in pretty much every business. Let's milk any trend we can for as much as we can as fast as we can.

Investors used to look at future gains now they just want immediate billions.

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u/xombae 3h ago

Enshitification

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u/StopReadingMyUser 4h ago

"y have slow money when can have fast money?"

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u/janderson75 6m ago

RIP BioWare (off subject til you said this, lol)

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u/stevedore2024 7h ago

The whole point of the gig economy was to shift all the costly complexity and overhead to little part-timers. Insurance, you're on your own. Repairs, you're on your own. Certification is irrelevant, restrictions are irrelevant, regulation is irrelevant, medallions (taxi licenses) are irrelevant, just break all the norms that have been instituted for the old generation of industry by charging less at first, then raise the prices so the profits flow to the centralized corpo-lords and not the gig workers left holding the bag. And then the public will get even more angry when the gig workers strike back and demand more, but the corpo-lords have already vested and moved onto the next thing they can ruin.

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u/nulla-nomen-eius 3h ago

profits flow to the centralized corpo-lords and not the gig workers left holding the bag

I honestly cannot understand the financials for Door Dash.

I ordered something today, I paid about $6 more than I would if I went there myself (without tip). I add a $5 tip to a $20 meal which is probably generous I think? How much would that driver receive if I hadn't added the $5? I don't think restaurants are doing heavy discounting for Door Dash, so I'd guess all their margin and payment to their gig driver is within the $6-8 on my $20 meal... so as the driver you have to get to the location, which might take you 10+ minutes and several miles... you have to park... you have to go in... you often have to wait for the food... then you drive another 10+ minutes and several miles to drop the food off which may take time if the orderer isn't watching/waiting. So you spend at least 20-25 minutes on this effort and you made what? $3-4? Even if you add $5 tip that's $8-9... you complete 2-3 of these in an hour and best case you're getting $16-27 for that hour, but you're also paying for fuel and consuming your vehicle... it just doesn't seem like a worthwhile thing unless every delivery is the ideal, which I'm sure they are not.

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u/Sexual_Congressman 2h ago

Doordash doesn't have "tips", the thing the app calls a tip is actually a bribe, since the driver can see it before they get your stuff and you can't take it back. In certain places, you won't get your order unless you offer the maximum bribe. Also, people who do it regularly aren't taking orders from some place they don't know on the other side of town to some other place 10 miles away.

The 20 or so doordash orders I've made were all fulfilled by someone who was already within half a mile of the source.

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u/nohandsfootball 48m ago

Ideally they're batching order deliveries, which would 2x-3x that per trip, maybe more depending on the restaurant / area. The drivers who come to my building often come with deliveries for others inside the building, But I live in an SF high rise, so the economics here are probably a bit different than more spread out areas.

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u/Alkein 5h ago

And if the hotel is overbooked and accidentally booked your room to someone else who got there first? they are pretty good for getting you set up in the next closest hotel that works for you (even outside their own chain/company). From what i've heard of airbnb, it can be quite a nightmare to get things sorted if something similar happens there.

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u/radda 5h ago

It sums up anything

Nintendo made a card game for kids about collecting and battling with little monsters and a bunch of fucking assholes turned it into an "investment"

Capitalism is a disease

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u/Akussa 5h ago

What's going to end up happening with this change is they'll just tack on a cleaning fee (or larger cleaning fee if they already do one). AirBNB and other similar services are just not worth it anymore.

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u/Crayshack 5h ago

When I have a problem with a hotel, I can complain to corporate and get something done. But usually I can just walk right up to the front desk and say, "I have X problem," and they fix it right then.

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u/ThxRedditSyncVanced 1h ago

Yea that last bit is a big thing.

Every year I like to go to GenCon. And every year someone has their Airbnb host see the prices of last minute hotels, and cancel on them to relist at a higher price, leaving people scrambling and either paying through the nose or now staying like 45 minutes by car away.

The times a hotel has cancelled on someone there last minute, they're putting them up for the night at somewhere nearby.

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u/GameFreak4321 29m ago

When I first heard "rideshare app" what I pictured was "find somebody who both lives near you and works near you to carpool with" and it would've had a chat and a system for sendjng your share of the gas money.

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u/dogsbestfriend77 4h ago

Bruh I had an AirBNB where I was visiting an Xbox friend who’s GF didn’t trust new people and she wanted me to get a BNB, first night together she trusts me, I ask the Host if I can get a refund since I’d be sleeping at their place for the week, and the host said “I can’t refund the booking costs since you already paid but I can refund the cleaning fee”. Like bruh I know it’d be hard to book new people, but, if that was a hotel, I’d have all my money back, no issue. Spent $600 on nothing