Airbnb (YC W09): The Rise of the One-Room Hotel

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2010/11/the-rise-of-the-one-room-hotel/66439/

by robg • 16 years ago

32 21 16 years ago

SriniK• 16 years ago

Really like Airbnb hack for hotel system. I haven't used the service but following comment from the article makes sense. Does Airbnb have any process or protection to avoid this?

There's always the danger that something bad will happen to someone who rents a room, touching off a Craiglist-killer-like panic.

dave1619• 16 years ago

I'm also curious what protection or approach is taken to avoid bad things happening to single females renting a room through Airbnb.

makmanalp• 16 years ago

The hotels lobbying against airbnb and its likes in NYC comes off as cowardly to me.

Yes, there are health and security concerns and yes, they can be addressed by some common sense procedures such as checking ratings before you go and sending a friend the address of where you're staying, and maybe let them check in on you by phone if you're that paranoid.

Furthermore, the "craigslist killer" was also suspected to have been involved in three cases of assault and murder in actual, major hotels: Westin, Mariott and Holiday Inn based on similar criminal characteristics. Prosecution was stopped when he committed suicide. Crime can happen anywhere. Also, have you never heard of bedbug cases in hotels?

Viva creative destruction.

wait• 16 years ago

If you're talking about the bill that makes something like Airbnb illegal, their founder commented on it during StartUp School. If I remember correctly, he said that the bill was in response to people who would buy apartment buildings and use all the rooms to make them into an unlicensed hotel.

They talked with the sponsor of the bill and he said that they wanted to work with each other, or something to that effect. I haven't looked into it any more than watching his talk, so I could be wrong.

That's not to disagree with you, though. I find it a cowardly move, as well.

racecar789• 16 years ago

Airbnb does run a risk of pushback by state/local governments. Cities create residential/business zoning for valid reasons. Airbnb disregards this zoning and turns every house into a potential hotel.

Nobody likes living next to a rental property.

That said, still a very ingenious idea and I wish them the best.

spaghetti2• 16 years ago

Hopefully state/local governments will realize the potential increase in tourist spending that Airbnb makes possible. I paid $X for a week of lodging via Airbnb. The equivalent hotel would have cost easily 3X. So now I've saved 2X... and since I'm on vacation I have no problem just spending 1.5X on purely fun stuff (restaurants etc). Also note that having to pay 3X for a traditional hotel would strongly discourage me from going on vacation all together.

robg5• 16 years ago

Dear esteemed HN Editor,

Why add the YC branding to the title? If anything, the branding adds a weird reason to read the article. Without, it's simply an interesting idea in which a YC company is winning. I like the latter much better.

pg5• 16 years ago

It's the default, which means the question is not when to add it, but when not to, and it's too much work to decide not to in a few cases where it might seem wrong for some subtle reason.

robg5• 16 years ago

Seems like that default oversteps the need for editors. It's not adding clarity. It's pimping information for promotion, not genuine interest.

c2• 16 years ago

Don't forget one of the side functions of hacker news is advertising for YC. There's a reason hacker news is news.ycombinator.com and not it's own separate domain.

pg5• 16 years ago

Actually we originally intended to put the site at startupnews.com (when it was called Startup News), but the guy who controlled the name wouldn't let us have it. That turned out to be very fortunate, because if the site had been at startupnews.com it would have been much harder to change the focus.

robg5• 16 years ago

Organic advertising seems more genuine, and powerful, than simple branding. I'm happy to provide the advertising if there is an interesting phenomenon in which X is an instance. But I wouldn't post something simply to advertise.

spaghetti2• 16 years ago

I'm standing in a beautiful cottage I reserved via Airbnb right now. Using Airbnb has been a great experience and I've recommended it to about a dozen people so far. Keep up the good work!!

Airbnb (YC W09): The Rise of the One-Room Hotel

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