Comment on Airbnb will now show users the total cost of their stay right away
FunnyUsername@lemmy.world 3 weeks agoi don’t think people need to justify Airbnb’s, it’s a great alternative to a hotel for many reasons including those you listed. What needs to be addressed is the damage the shareholders who are running the company are doing to society. let’s not give them too much credit about this choice: they are still sucking up homes from homeowners and removing money from the middle class. they only made this change because someone realized it will make them more money.
I guess: great concept, shitty company.
Like with so many “tech giants”, they had a great idea but greed is spoiling it. I wish we had more “public infrastructure” for this. I’d love to have OSS, tax-funded or at least heavily regulated SoMe, video sharing, home swapping/renting, local marketplace, … Those should not be industries, they should be part of our society’s fabric like the fire department or trash pick-up.
especially corporate landlords are even worst, they are doing the same,.
I must admit that I am biased in that regard, but still I believe blaming Airbnb is mostly a distraction. Even in the worst of the worst places like Barcelona they reach around 10% of rental properties. Usually it’s a few percent in touristy places and much less everywhere else. Is it good for renters? Of course not. But it’s not the biggest factor, by far.
Now if I look at the whole rental market in my country, Germany, what’s on Airbnb is just a drop in the bucket. And still people are struggling to pay rent, especially in the cities. Even in those places that nobody in their right mind would go as a tourist unless threatened with serious physical harm.
Rents here started increasing uncomfortably after rental properties owned by local governments were privatized for a quick buck. Those new, publicly traded companies quickly raised rents sharply, because of course they have to earn back what they paid for the properties, plus a nice payout to investors. For the last two decades they have continued raising rents, neglecting maintenance and bought each other until now we the biggest company alone has almost half a million rental units, in a country of 80 million people. Of course, they don’t own three houses in villages here and there, but whole blocks in cities, with local market shares of up to 25%. That is much more significant than a few percent that are lost to tourism.
And don’t get me started on cost of construction, the chronic lack of new buildings, empty real estate owned by speculators or money launderers,… or I might rant again 😉
turmacar@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
They’re footnote section is doing a lot of work.
They also either don’t know how notations work, or the AI they’re using to generate this doesn’t because it has a separate footnote with that same sentence later on.
I would be thoroughly unsurprised if some EU or other regulation came into effect that they have to do this, and now they’re taking credit for being consumer friendly.
brandon@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
It’s actually a [US regulation] (ftc.gov/…/federal-trade-commission-announces-bipa…) which goes into effect on May 10th. Most other booking sites should be following suit with something similar over the next few weeks.
turmacar@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
That’s awesome! Hopefully AirBnB doesn’t donate a million dollars to Trump for an exemption.
I do kind of wish these things required some kind of disclosure instead of letting them pretend they’re super consumer friendly and don’t need any of that demonic regulation.