Damn. I know a lot of changes have been coming to VRBO, but do you guys think Airbnb is also being affected? Just saw this article, & definitely wanted to hear your feedback:
My opinion? Just another article about Airbnb by someone who doesn’t know how to use apostrophes properly and wants to sell us his $27 ebook.
As for this:
Most owners have other jobs and let’s face it are unlikely to be very young to be able to have one or more second homes, so the demographics are against most owners to compete technically.
What? That says it all to me.
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I couldn’t get through the article. Poorly written gibberish.
Amateur writing is easy to spot. 
I don’t agree with the article in almost nothing and at least it doesn’t seems to be the case of Airbnb. If you scroll through the recent news of the company they have remove accounts with several listings in San Francisco and New York. You can’t say Airbnb is Manager-Friendly.
Oh dear. I think the above comments say it all.
Life is too short to read someone’s inarticulate ramblings.
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Poorly written article, vile and condescending tone, I’ll agree.
But some of the points are valid and worth considering. This is very similar to what happened in affiliate marketing between 2006 and ~2013. Lots of “moms and pops” were making money in affiliate marketing when I started my previous business. Eventually larger companies took notice, just like property managers have done, and started gaming the systems. Commissions went down, competition became fierce.
Moms and pops feel emotionally connected to their products. This stands in the way of making choices that are competitive with larger businesses that think in terms of economy of scale. An example is that when I get a low rating for “value” or a rude comment about my location or the cleanliness of my place, I can’t help but feel hurt. Even though I know better, I just can’t help it. I’m upset at the reviewer, I worry about what I can do better. Maybe I’m bugged at the system. When a property manager gets the same ding, they look at it in the context of overall performance across all properties if they notice it at all. That prevents them from obsessing about the small stuff and helps them worry more about SEO and customer acquisition. That philosophy is a winner when competition becomes strong. And competition is growing fast.
Moms and pops are also really, really, really hard to please and expensive for companies like Airbnb to manage. The very fact that we get the kind of service from Airbnb is still shocking to me because that costs them a lot of money and, even though it’s far from perfect, it’s so much better than the competition. Orders of magnitude better. But the article is right, in the end we are not their customers. The guests are their customers. Whoever has the credit card has the power. There will always be a vendor willing to pay to acquire them.
There’s not really any way around the fact that fast growth is happening in this industry. The only things we can really do are to try and remain competitive as long as we can, enjoy the money while it lasts, and recognize when it’s time to move on to the next opportunity. Those of us who find a niche will make it for the long haul but many of us will not - especially those competing on price. IMHO.
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