What's amazing at Airbnb is their ability to make places look so much nicer in the pictures than what they look like in reality.<p>After staying in a crack house in Barcelona, a dirty dark hole in Manhattan, a "private" villa in France where the owner was screwing an endless stream of boyfriends behind the flimsy kitchen door at 10AM, a thermite infested apartment in Sicily with horrid beds, I still feel like a total asshole when leaving a negative review. I'm not sure why I keep going back to it.
Those who have used HotelTonight, can you comment on your experience?<p>For me, there have been several rare occasions when I needed a room at last minute, but HotelTonight was never actually cheaper than any other aggregators or booking directly with the hotel. All being equal I vastly prefer booking direct so I get my points and elite benefits. I guess they have a fancy interface, and that's... it? Maybe it's market dependent (I only tried it in NYC and SF)?
It’s interesting that no one here, after 160 comments, is speculating about the impact to Booking.com<p>B. is the 7th largest internet company in the world but because it’s in Amsterdam and not US based, hardly anyone think about them. They have incredible technology, often on-par with the big ones but I’m not anyone here could name one problem where they pionnered a solution.<p>Disclaimer: I used to work for one of their subsidiaries.
pretty interesting. My hypothesis is that there’s a large cohort of people (myself included) who hesitate to use airbnb because there is still a real issue of inconsistency with back and forth with host, key hand off, etc that people who are attracted to hoteltonight (extremely last minute bookings) would hate and that airbnb is trying to figure out how to appeal to that base.
> The HotelTonight app and website will continue to operate as they do today<p>I really hope that's the case, I love Hotel Tonight but will absolutely stop using it if I end up getting someone's condo. Regardless, I'm worried that hotel selection will go way down. They keep emphasizing boutique hotels, but that's not people go to Hotel Tonight for. I could definitely see large hotel chains not wanting to do business with Airbnb though...
This looks like a good opportunity to discuss something I'm concerned about regarding booking apps. We used Expedia I believe to book a hotel last year and I remember that it charged a $20 fee on top of an $80 hotel room. I believe they had an agreement where the online and in-person price was the same, so the hotel basically ate that $20.<p>So it's good for them to get the constant business (similarly to how Groupon works) but I can't help but feel that more of that $20 should have gone to the hotel staff, especially maids doing the actual work of cleaning up after everyone.<p>To me, running a bunch of web services to book rooms could be done on a properly configured computer taking 10,000 reservations a second for ~$10 per month. So the cost for booking apps has got to be mostly logistical (getting hotels onboarded with the organization, paying for liabilities, etc).<p>My question is, will competition in these spaces ever lower the fees and free up more money for labor? Or are we entering an endgame where labor gets relegated to the shadows?
This makes a lot of sense.<p>I travel a lot for work (100+ nights per year).<p>Sometimes I stay for 2+ nights, often it's just a 1-night stop over.<p>For 2+ nights, I almost always go with an AirBnB - more space to cook/work/think etc.<p>For 1 night though, AirBnBs are too much hassle. I don't want to have to <i>choose</i> a great location from a long list which includes some terrible options. I just want a clean bed, bathroom and decent wifi in a good location. HotelTonight gets me that in under 30s.<p>I'm not sure how AirBnB locations can/will be built into HotelTonight - after all HotelTonight is all about ease of use, low friction and flexibility. The very things AirBnBs are bad at (coordinating check in times etc).
Theres one other feature of HotelTonight thats super useful - I often want to book a room very late into the night. Think finding a room at 11pm or 1am. A lot of hotels dont want to deal with you or aren't sure how to handle the rate/days. HotelTonight made that unquestionable and easy.
I still to this day scratch my head over how we’ve normalized sleeping in another stranger’s bed, as as hosts have normalized complete strangers touching our stuff and having sex in our beds. It’s wild.
On business trips I prefer hotels for 1 night. 3 nights or more is always an apartment (Airbnb or Booking.com which is often easier to book with).
I hate eating outside alone and prefer cooking some food while enjoying JRE, Netflix or a call with friends and family.
2 nights is a mix.<p>Family trips are always in apartments. It's just nicer than Hotels.<p>Also, I find hotels pretty sad in general but that's maybe because I worked in some:)<p>Edit: typo
AirBnb used to be great, but in recent years their huge platform fees have put me off.<p>I've had great success finding good places to stay by using AirBnb as a catalogue, then Googling the property and booking through the owner's own website. Last year we stayed in a lovely house in Bruges for less than half the price it would have been if I'd booked through AirBnb.
There are two CEOs I admire and respect. Two people I have ever met who are both beyond wickedly smart, and, absolutely wonderful kind truly caring humans. Sam Shank and Jeff Lawson. Sam the CEO of hotel tonight is an incredibly brilliant intellectual, and also a genuinely wonderful person. I'm so happy they both did so well. Great job.
I hope they truly remain independent. It's a great platform. A few years ago I was in Paris. It was a last minute thing and I used a similar website to HotelTonight that was the "hot" product in the last minute industry for big EU cities. Basically I got to stay at a really exclusive hotel for an extremely interesting rate. Something like 60% of its original value. I guess hotels don't care anymore at a certain point as long as they get their minimum back. Especially this was when Airbnb was the new cool kid in town. It is kinda interesting how Airbnb is just now moving into this market slowly eating the hotel industry one piece at a time
This just looks like Twitter acquiring vine 2.0.<p>A big player acquiring an orthogonal product...most likely meaning they'll just kill it. I doubt hotels will partner with AirBnB on a booking service.
I have no problem getting AirBnb's at the last minute. I look for ones that say "self check-in" or "check-in anytime" and are bookable instantly. I think since AirBnb is already succeeding at that, this will just increase their success in that area. All they need to do is find those offering that service or have them come to them, whether they be people with extra rooms, or a full fledged hotel.
I have used HotelTonight several times and I loved it. In general I found cheaper deals. Now with AirBnB, it will be interesting to see if hotel chains that partner with HotelTonight continue working as there is no love lost between Airbnb and hoteling industry. I guess Airbnb will try to make HT as an hybrid app of hotels and Airbnb bookings.
It's funny how when you talk to some of their higher-ups they still claim they are a start-up (and so they should be allowed to act like it). But start-ups rarely acquire.
Some say Airbnb is diluting their brand.
What does it stand for today?
It used to be about the sharing economy, belong anywhere and so on.
What is it now?
Fantastic product, super concerned about AirBnB acquisition - not because of what they'll do to the product, but I guarantee their partnerships with hotels and hotel groups will evaporate when contracts expire.<p>A hotel working with Airbnb is like BlockBuster working with Netflix to share customer data. The hotels groups aren't as fucking stupid as Blockbuster was, though.
Fuck hotel tonight, they're not even a real business and they're just scamming people out of money. They hide their mandatory "resort fees" underneath the Pay button so that it's not visible on screen, and those fees aren't included in any of the prices that are either shown initially or are visible on payment screen (room rate, taxes & fees, or total).<p>You can see how this works in this video I made here: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdrFYb4otTs" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdrFYb4otTs</a><p>The entire app is designed to trick people about what the actual prices are. The founder is a total scumbag and belongs in prison.
AirBnB has massive amount of money and clout.<p>What should one do with money and clout?<p>Build a thing...<p>What type of thing?<p>AirBnBs are consumed by primarily individuals/couples<p>How provid?<p>Welp - where do they go?<p>They have the data.<p>So - how about buy up and build tiny-home communities in highest ABnB places?<p>Partner with Epic Tiny Home providers such as WindRiverTinyHomes<p>Why not throw that clout around on city planning depts whi dont know how to zone, divest parcels... Alameda is an example - whom I have spoken with about just this<p>Why not work with Warren Buffets Manufactured Homes groups (whom I have spoken with) to make an inventory....<p>Why not do many things...<p>Fuck AIRBnB - have a 20 year vision.<p>Build a freaking community based on a bolt-on tiny home over a shared common infrastructure in a very common design-build model. (Ive designed built gas stations, fast food, cell sites, data centers, and millions of square feet) - there are LOTs of people like me.<p>Go build something.