What Airbnb Is Doing Is So Wrong Here's How to Do it Right
While Airbnb increasingly treats hosts’ homes as corporate assets to exploit, it’s important to remain true to the original promise of home sharing: respecting property owners and offering travelers honest value.
In recent months, the vacation rental industry has witnessed a significant shift in how customers view AirBnb. The phrase “Why are people no longer using Airbnb?” has become an increasingly common search query, reflecting growing frustration among both hosts and guests. As Whimstay co-founder Alex Alioto puts it, “We have an advantage as an industry; we have value, we have space, we have options for the next generation of travelers, etc. Where the industry currently lacks, is the hospitality.”
This insight cuts to the heart of the current Airbnb crisis, a platform that once revolutionized travel has lost sight of hospitality fundamentals. Here’s how Airbnb’s policies are alienating users and how Whimstay is positioning itself as the solution both hosts and travelers have been waiting for by putting hospitality first.
New AirBnb Updates Are Upsetting Hosts
Airbnb’s latest platform changes reveal a concerning shift in priorities that increasingly favors corporate interests while restricting independent hosts’ autonomy and revenue potential.
Off-Platform Policy: Tightening Control
Airbnb’s new Off-Platform Policy implements several restrictive measures that disproportionately impact individual hosts. The policy prohibits hosts from collecting guest information for marketing purposes or adding guests to contact lists. This prevents hosts from building their own customer base.
There’s also a blatant double standard in the policy: hotels are exempted from these same restrictions, creating an uneven playing field that favors corporate lodging providers over individual hosts.
The policy stifles hosts’ ability to gather authentic feedback by prohibiting them from requesting reviews or surveys on non-Airbnb websites. This restriction not only limits hosts’ capacity to improve their offerings based on genuine guest input but also ensures that all feedback remains within Airbnb’s carefully controlled ecosystem.
Even technological amenities are affected. Keyless entry apps that require guests to create a separate account or install a third-party app to access the listing can no longer be required. This will affect countless hosts who have invested in these convenience-enhancing technologies. Hosts must now make these optional, potentially undermining security and seamless check-in experiences.
Services Platform: Your Home, Their Profit
Airbnb’s new Services platform allows guests to book various services directly through Airbnb, including catering, personal chefs, beauty services, massage, photography, and more. While this might initially seem like an enhancement to the guest experience, the implementation reveals Airbnb’s true intentions.
These services are “automatically allowed in your home” by default. Hosts who wish to opt out have to do so through customer service channels rather than having a simple toggle option in their dashboard. The most shocking part of this new initiative is that Airbnb captures 100% of the revenue generated from these services, services that take place in properties owned and maintained by hosts.
This arrangement effectively transforms hosts’ private properties into Airbnb’s service marketplaces without compensation, while creating additional liability concerns and potential wear and tear on hosts’ investments.
These updates collectively signal Airbnb’s pivot toward courting the hotel business while simultaneously restricting individual hosts’ ability to build direct relationships with guests or maximize their property investments. As the platform continues to implement policies that privilege corporate interests over its original community of independent hosts, many are questioning whether Airbnb has abandoned the principles that once made it revolutionary.
Why People Dislike Airbnb
The off-platform policy and new services platform controversy joins a list of other complaints that have damaged Airbnb’s reputation:
- Hidden fees that make the final price substantially higher than initially advertised
- Inconsistent cleaning standards and arbitrary cleaning fees
- Increasingly demanding checkout procedures
- Rising costs that often exceed comparable hotel options
- Declining customer service quality for both hosts and guests
These factors explain whys many people seem to dislike Airbnb, reflecting a genuine shift in market perception.
How to Do Vacation Rentals Right
The vacation rental industry has significant room for improvement, and successful platforms address several key pain points that frustrate both travelers and property owners:
Transparent Pricing Structure
The best vacation rental experiences feature clear, transparent pricing without hidden fees or surprise charges. Effective platforms present the total cost upfront rather than using bait-and-switch pricing tactics that leave travelers feeling misled. Working directly with hosts on fair pricing structures creates trust and eliminates the major frustration of discovering additional fees at checkout.
Host Autonomy and Partnership
Successful vacation rental platforms treat hosts as genuine business partners rather than resources to be exploited. The most effective approach involves designing systems that complement host operations without attempting to control them. Property owners should maintain full authority over their spaces without fear of algorithmic punishment for making reasonable business decisions about their properties.
Exceptional Customer Service
Quality customer service represents a crucial differentiator in the vacation rental space. The best platforms invest heavily in responsive, human customer service rather than relying solely on automated systems. Both hosts and guests benefit significantly when support teams are empowered to make reasonable exceptions when circumstances warrant flexibility, rather than being constrained by overly rigid policies that ignore individual situations.
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The Future of Vacation Rentals
As the Airbnb crisis continues to unfold, more travelers and hosts are questioning their loyalty to the platform.
New platforms represent an alternative vision, one where hosts remain in control of their properties, guests receive transparent pricing, and both sides benefit from a platform that facilitates rather than dictates the vacation rental experience.
The vacation rental industry is at an inflection point. As more people ask, “Why are people not using Airbnb anymore?” new platforms are providing the answer through actions rather than words. Alioto’s vision is clear: “As an industry, if we are ever going to catch hotels, we need to have consistency in hospitality. People need a sense of security, they need to have trust.”
By focusing on these fundamentals (clean properties, reliable bookings, and genuine hospitality) vacation rental platforms can champion a philosophy that benefits everyone involved.
Learn more about listing with Whimstay
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