What Airbnb Is Doing Is So Wrong Here's How Whimstay is Doing it Right
While Airbnb increasingly treats hosts’ homes as corporate assets to exploit, Whimstay remains 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. Additionally, hosts can no longer collect fees outside the platform for necessities like parking or local taxes.
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 from providers like Sonos and Nest 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 Whimstay Is Getting It Right
While Airbnb struggles with user satisfaction, Whimstay has emerged as an alternative that addresses many pain points in the vacation rental space:
Transparent Pricing Structure
Unlike Airbnb’s often convoluted fee structure, Whimstay offers clear, transparent pricing. Our model focuses on providing actual discounted rates rather than bait-and-switch pricing that leaves travelers feeling misled. We also work directly with hosts on pricing. By eliminating hidden fees and presenting the total cost upfront, Whimstay has removed one of the major frustrations travelers experience with Airbnb.
Host Autonomy and Partnership
Whimstay treats hosts as genuine business partners rather than resources to be exploited. Our platform is designed to complement host operations, not control them. Property owners maintain full authority over their spaces without fear of algorithmic punishment for declining optional services.
Exceptional Customer Service
Perhaps the most striking difference between the two platforms is customer service quality. While Airbnb has become notorious for difficult-to-reach support and algorithmic decision-making, Whimstay has invested heavily in responsive, human customer service.
Hosts and guests alike report significantly better experiences resolving issues with Whimstay’s support team, who are empowered to make reasonable exceptions when circumstances warrant flexibility, something Airbnb’s increasingly rigid system rarely allows.
Learn more about listing with Whimstay
The Future of Vacation Rentals
As the Airbnb crisis continues to unfold, more travelers and hosts are questioning their loyalty to the platform.
Whimstay represents 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.
As Alioto emphasizes, “Since we’re a smaller marketplace we have more control over who is listing on our platform. We’re doing vetting. We’ll honor those that honor hospitality, we can’t and won’t fill our marketplace with hosts who don’t care.”
The vacation rental industry is at an inflection point. As more people ask, “Why are people not using Airbnb anymore?” companies like Whimstay 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) Whimstay is championing a philosophy that benefits everyone involved.
Learn more about listing with Whimstay
+ Articles:
Download