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I don¨t understand the obsession with WiFi and its speed. I rent in Spain mid to high value.
My guest all have the latest mobiles and flat rate. Usually two, one business one private - per person! Their mobiles are more powerful than the router I have in one of the properties and easily power al teast 5 - 10 additional devices.
All they need is a tower in line of sight - which I happen to have and that is important (maybe).
I dont need 168Mb/s for a video call… or streaming netflix…
This last year one international guest asked as he forgot to activate his international flat rate.
OK I dont host videoediting digital nomads but being in a more remote area fiber is non existant and there are now masts within sightline. Congestion is minimal as nearly noone lives here.
For me it shows Air is still US centric - the demo video is a classic - long way to become international or GEO … I´m afraid just having a webpresence is no longer enough.
My POS are simple - unique setting - tranquility - nature Need anything else ask.
M
PS From a pure technical standpoint one does these “public” test at 3 or 4am local time - the time of least net congestion
Always the first question asked if I haven’t ensured they have the password. Also what quality it is… I pay for business quality. Often have doctors booked and one actually said he needed to review x-rays.
@LifeinGalicia Yes, they love to brag about being an international platform, but very much apply American standards to things. Like their service dog/ESA policy.
I have a countryside listing in Mexico and infrastructure is nothing like the US. I do have Wifi, but it isn’t high speed or unlimited. That is how I advertise it, and no guest has ever had a complaint, as I market towards guests who aren’t addicted to being online nor need it for work.
I am just in the process of upgrading my Wifi to something that has only become recently available here, but I still wouldn’t promise speeds or 24 hr connectivity, because we can suddenly lose the electric, or the cell signal, which is normally good at my place, just goes out completely for an entire day.
Just hope that doc had a high performance laptop x-ray pacs are highly compressed but need a powerful graphic professor and a hi res screen no milage in loading a hi res pic and showing it on standard screen. One can temp download a hi res in .1 sec but if your gu (graph unit) needs 15 sec to show it … this is often blamed on ñet speed,…
I was just reading the notes on the wi fi speed test. I know we’ve discussed this before but the test is arbitrary and will depend on many factors including the device customer is using.
What concerns me is that it sounds like if you don’t do the speed test, they will remove wi fi from your amenities but if I guest doesn’t get the promised speed, will they be seeking refunds?
Who’s going to test their devices?
I purchased a new MacBook Pro this spring and had trouble with wifi. My WIFi provided had me upgrade the router. Still an issue. Eventually it was discovered that my brand new Mac had to have it’s logic board replaced due to the problem.
How is Airbnb going to prove that?
I am seriously considering writing a letter to corporate about this. (Note - I am a webmaster and have very hi speed wifi not dependent on what other users in my home or neighborhood are using but understand how these speeds fluctuate.
You may be right, but I didn’t read it as that they would remove Wifi from your amenities list, but would remove a host’s mention of speed unless you use their speed test.
You don’t get it. Unless a host is totally convinced that there will never be a time when guests can’t get the Wifi speed advertised (which can vary depending on how many devices are using it), if the stated Wifi speed, no matter what it is, is not what a guest experiences, the guest would have grounds to complain that they weren’t provided with what was promised, and demand a refund.
As for your “It’s an American company, get over it”, Airbnb promotes itself as an international booking platform- “a world where everyone belongs”. Diversity, non-discrimination, blah blah.
It fills its coffers with service fees charged to guests and hosts all over the world.
For them to create rules and policies and standards that are not compatible with the situation and cultures outside the US is inapproppriate and tone deaf.
One might even say…discriminatory. I especially dislike things clearly motivated by profit disguised as goodwill or “good for me”. At least call it what it is. As if we all can’t see it.
Yes Air is Us centric but then we are all in the same boat and outside US we should simply ignore certain aspects of the listings. Here (Spain) no one will filter for type of fridge…
BUT
it is a sign of things to come
NEXT
IOT of apliances - if my home fridge cant talk to the fridge at my destination how is my house robot goiung to know what to pack?
You read it here first !
If I had to guess I’d say that Airbnb gets more revenue from non-US bookings combined than from US bookings. Given the population growth in other parts of the world, the economic development in other parts of the world, etc it would be extremely short sighted of Airbnb economically to make all their policies US centric. They certainly do have policies that cater to the needs in other regions, we Americans just tend to be ignorant of what those are.
I think we all just need to settle down. Airbnb is an infant company. Infants crap their pants and throw up on their handlers. Infants do stupid things and are self destructive at times.
Is Airbnb a multi-generational tech company like Microsoft, Oracle, Apple, or Google? I’m not sure yet. Are they the next bust like RIM or MySpace? Maybe! But my money is on the fact that they’re the former.
I love Airbnb because the platform has become the enabler of my young family’s livelihood. They were first to market, they work their butts off to be better every day (while still crapping their pants), and when you compare to the other platforms attempting to copy what Airbnb is/was in the market today, nobody comes even close.
50 years ago, a then we’ll call them “teenaged” company called General Motors produced and exported a million vehicles to markets in Spain and Latin America called the Chevy Nova. “No-va” of course translates colloquially into most Spanish dialects as “not going,” or “it doesn’t go.” Airbnb still has it’s “Chevy Nova” gaffe in front of it. So sit back and get your popcorn ready if you want to watch our little infant Airbnb make more big (and small) mistakes.
That doesn’t change the fact that Airbnb a disruptive technology. They are the best at what they do. They are getting better every day. With the brightest of the brightest leading and developing said company. And they have changed the world - already.
It’s so easy to be an armchair QB, negative, and to be a hater. I dunno. Let’s all just settle down is what I’m saying. . .
It’s also easy to come in here and tell people to settle down, “get over it,” say that Canadians mention Canada in every post and complain about someone going a bit off topic on the issue of how much housekeepers are paid in the US vs Canada. Then you said “I truly mean no offense or patronization.” (on the tipping a housekeeper thread)
So maybe take a look at your reflection in your glass house as you’re throwing those stones. Maybe you’ve been lurking awhile but you only joined two weeks ago and have been here a few hours to read a few threads. If you really don’t want to come across as patronizing don’t lecture people you don’t know yet.
Looks like Airbnb won’t remove Wifi from your amenities if you don’t do the test. They state if you do the test and have hi-speed results, it will be high lighted for your listing.
Btw. It’s interesting to me the panic that sets in when wifi isn’t working.
Young traveler calls to tell me wi-if isn’t working & hasn’t worked in past 15 minutes. It suddenly went off. While talking to her I get a text from power company of area outage to be restored in next couple hours. Guest is sitting in a dark condo which now has no Air-conditioning and she’s complaining about no internet! (No-there is not a battery backup)
A different guest calls highly upset that Wifi disconnected. Turns out a construction company cut the buried cable & it was repaired fairly quickly. He used his phone data to get by.
These are examples of short term outages that can happen anytime, anywhere, to anyone.
There can be no guarantee of peak internet performance all the time. So in other words if the internet isn’t working for an extended period of time, of course the guest may request a refund since the amenity isn’t available. If they aren’t getting the advertised speed, there are too many variables for that to be a provable claim.
I’m in USA. I might not filter on type of refrig but I might for type of range.
My world is middle class. I’ve had the privilege of cooking on a Viking gas 6 burner range 3x. Oh my, what a wonderful experience.
In my area there is a local chef who will do in “your home/rental” small group cooking classes. If it is a friends trip with a cooking class or maybe we choose to only go out a few times & have a cook-fest that Viking range would be appealing. Yes I’ve prepared food for many, many years on a basic stove but a taste of luxury is appealing.
