I don't think about Airbnb.
I know a lot of hotel operators have a lot of anxiety over it as a potential 'competitor' (just as taxi owners and drivers in many places have duck fits over Uber), but . . . c'mon, people! As an alternative to a hotel stay, it's a completely different experience. Its relevance as a 'competitor' to hotels is limited to nonexistent.
As a wannabe competitor to hotels, it's not even anything new. Every hotel that seeks to maintain a good price point has the problem of potential guests seeking a cheaper solution that will work for them.
(Unless, of course, that hotel is a run-down voodoo hellhole with a TripAdvisor bubble score of 2.0 and a rate of fifty bucks a night give or take, inhabited by cockroaches and crackwhores -- and that hotel has to put up with the flipside of that same problem: potential guests wanting to avoid the place and find something better even if they have to pay a little more. Frankly, I'd rather run a good hotel and deal with the problem of 'alternatives' trying to compete with me on price, than run a bad hotel and have to deal with the problems of so much better being available that no one who has a choice wants what I have to offer. And that's before we even go there about having to put up with the guests of last resort that no other hotel will accept or allow to check in. There's a bottom in every barrel, but is that where you want to play?)
Usually, that wannabe competitor is a cheaper hotel, and we've always had those. If they overdo it, they give up profitability, they don't keep up their houskeeping and maintance, over time they begin downscaling, and that's the end of them -- if not the end of them altogether, at least the end of them as a relevant competitor.
Airbnb is no competitive threat to hotels. We're always going to be there. The reason that hotels were invented back in Bible times (i.e., visitors to ancient Sodom had to sleep in the town square unless someone offered to open his home to them, but by the time Jesus was born, someone had invented the 'inn') was to get us away from having to find someone (hopefully a family member or friend who lives there, but perhaps a total stranger that we hope is trustworthy) who'll let us crash at their place when we visit their city.
As long as someone is willing to allow people (often total strangers) to sleep over in their home, and someone is willing to accept an invitation to sleep over at someone's home, we'll never be able to compete with that. (I run hotels, and I'd rather stay over in a home with family or a friend who had the extra space than to stay in a hotel.) All Airbnb does is facilitate it, bring the homeowner and lodger together.
But even so, there really aren't that many such people.
Winston-Salem, N. C., for example, has 36 hotels -- maybe 20 or so I would spend the night in myself if I were traveling into town from elsewhere, or that I would put you up in if you came to visit me for a few days, if I didn't know you well enough to invite you to stay at the house, and if I wanted you to still like me after you left. But that's irrelevant here because the Airbnb rentals also vary in price and quality.
Looking up Winston-Salem on Airbnb for the nights of September 15-16, there are 136 rentals available (And many of those are in neighboring cities; including Greensboro, which has even more hotels). That's equal to what, competition from one or two added hotels in the area -- a four-county area?
(If you can get the rental - they're allowed to do a lot more to screen their guests than we, as a practical matter, can: confirmed online identity, no Facebook account with less than 100 friends, your former hosts get to rate you and if you smoked in the room, or left a nasty mess, or ran in and out and kept everybody up all night, or helped yourself to someone's belongings that weren't intended for your use (or as gifts to you?), or have a history of one- or two-star ratings from your hosts, the next one's not going to be so open to having you, etc. You, too, are going to spend a lot of time picking and sorting through what's there, with a view to 'will it work for you?', and 'is the price what you're willing to pay?' -- and the average price is no real savings off the price of an average hotel room. Unless you're a regular for someone who rents out their guestroom on Airbnb, at least hotels are -- usually, with the help ofTripAdvisor -- predictable; and it's faster and easier to settle on something and have your travel plans made already.)
Since the Airbnb rentals also vary in price and quality, spread out the 'competition' in Winston-Salem times (or more appropriately, divided by) 36.
Not much of a bite there out of any one hotel.
All the more true since anyone booking a rental on Airbnb isn't looking for a hotel, and anyone wanting to book a hotel room isn't going to bother with Airbnb, anyway.
It ought to be fun to play with, though. I just set up an account so I could.
Originally appeared on Quora
I know a lot of hotel operators have a lot of anxiety over it as a potential 'competitor' (just as taxi owners and drivers in many places have duck fits over Uber), but . . . c'mon, people! As an alternative to a hotel stay, it's a completely different experience. Its relevance as a 'competitor' to hotels is limited to nonexistent.
As a wannabe competitor to hotels, it's not even anything new. Every hotel that seeks to maintain a good price point has the problem of potential guests seeking a cheaper solution that will work for them.
(Unless, of course, that hotel is a run-down voodoo hellhole with a TripAdvisor bubble score of 2.0 and a rate of fifty bucks a night give or take, inhabited by cockroaches and crackwhores -- and that hotel has to put up with the flipside of that same problem: potential guests wanting to avoid the place and find something better even if they have to pay a little more. Frankly, I'd rather run a good hotel and deal with the problem of 'alternatives' trying to compete with me on price, than run a bad hotel and have to deal with the problems of so much better being available that no one who has a choice wants what I have to offer. And that's before we even go there about having to put up with the guests of last resort that no other hotel will accept or allow to check in. There's a bottom in every barrel, but is that where you want to play?)
Usually, that wannabe competitor is a cheaper hotel, and we've always had those. If they overdo it, they give up profitability, they don't keep up their houskeeping and maintance, over time they begin downscaling, and that's the end of them -- if not the end of them altogether, at least the end of them as a relevant competitor.
Airbnb is no competitive threat to hotels. We're always going to be there. The reason that hotels were invented back in Bible times (i.e., visitors to ancient Sodom had to sleep in the town square unless someone offered to open his home to them, but by the time Jesus was born, someone had invented the 'inn') was to get us away from having to find someone (hopefully a family member or friend who lives there, but perhaps a total stranger that we hope is trustworthy) who'll let us crash at their place when we visit their city.
As long as someone is willing to allow people (often total strangers) to sleep over in their home, and someone is willing to accept an invitation to sleep over at someone's home, we'll never be able to compete with that. (I run hotels, and I'd rather stay over in a home with family or a friend who had the extra space than to stay in a hotel.) All Airbnb does is facilitate it, bring the homeowner and lodger together.
But even so, there really aren't that many such people.
Winston-Salem, N. C., for example, has 36 hotels -- maybe 20 or so I would spend the night in myself if I were traveling into town from elsewhere, or that I would put you up in if you came to visit me for a few days, if I didn't know you well enough to invite you to stay at the house, and if I wanted you to still like me after you left. But that's irrelevant here because the Airbnb rentals also vary in price and quality.
Looking up Winston-Salem on Airbnb for the nights of September 15-16, there are 136 rentals available (And many of those are in neighboring cities; including Greensboro, which has even more hotels). That's equal to what, competition from one or two added hotels in the area -- a four-county area?
(If you can get the rental - they're allowed to do a lot more to screen their guests than we, as a practical matter, can: confirmed online identity, no Facebook account with less than 100 friends, your former hosts get to rate you and if you smoked in the room, or left a nasty mess, or ran in and out and kept everybody up all night, or helped yourself to someone's belongings that weren't intended for your use (or as gifts to you?), or have a history of one- or two-star ratings from your hosts, the next one's not going to be so open to having you, etc. You, too, are going to spend a lot of time picking and sorting through what's there, with a view to 'will it work for you?', and 'is the price what you're willing to pay?' -- and the average price is no real savings off the price of an average hotel room. Unless you're a regular for someone who rents out their guestroom on Airbnb, at least hotels are -- usually, with the help ofTripAdvisor -- predictable; and it's faster and easier to settle on something and have your travel plans made already.)
Since the Airbnb rentals also vary in price and quality, spread out the 'competition' in Winston-Salem times (or more appropriately, divided by) 36.
Not much of a bite there out of any one hotel.
All the more true since anyone booking a rental on Airbnb isn't looking for a hotel, and anyone wanting to book a hotel room isn't going to bother with Airbnb, anyway.
It ought to be fun to play with, though. I just set up an account so I could.
I'm Michael Forrest Jones and I approved this message. Any other answer, no matter how well-intentioned, even by someone who really does know how I think and wants to give me a fair characterization, should be considered suspect as to authenticity and accuracy -- as should always be the case with questions on Quora posted as "What does [Quora user] think of x?"
As a Quora user for some years now, it's a milestone of sorts for me: I've noted the phenomenon before and thought it was kind of weird, but I myself have never before had the entire world asked, via Quora, for my opinion on something. :-)
Thanks for the vote of appreciation, though.
Originally appeared on Quora
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