AirBNB forced hotels to MASSIVELY upgrade.

There used to be very few hotels with kitchenettes, any space really beside just a bed.

There's way more suite and kitchenette options.

Lots of people travel for longer than just a night or two, or to travel beyond just business, where you might want to be able to actually enjoy being in your private space.

Hotels weren't really designed for this.

They wanted you to never be in your room, and instead upselling you at the bar.

Now, you can pretty easily find relatively affordable hotels that have many different types of rooms layouts for all different purposes.

Now, that defeats a lot of the point in having an AirBNB.

As you said, AirBNB is really only good if you're traveling somewhere with lousy hotel options, you're going to be staying somewhere for a long time, or traveling in a huge group, or you want to host a rager party or something...

I will always love AirBnB for driving down prices by breaking the hotel cartels in major cities.

Over 10 years ago I rented a folding couch right off of Pearl ST. Boulder, CO.

I stayed in the living room of someones 1 bedroom apartment for $300 a night instead of 1k+ a night for the equivalent at what amounted to a travel lodge motel. The prices there were out of control, no inventory, just awful.

There are "plausible deniability" cartels everywhere, it's and it's always nice to see their grip on a region drop.

I don't get airbnbs because they're cheaper, I get them because I want to rent something other than a hotel room. If best western had in-laws or 1br quadplexes I'd be happy to stay there, but most hotels I've stayed at are bad rooms in bad locations that almost always include at least one negative surprise every trip, and as you move up to more expensive ones they somehow get fancier but worse.

> Local regulations are finally catching up to them

Dodging regulation and taxes was Airbnb's biggest competitive advantage.

Regulatory entrepreneurship only works long-term if you can continue to dodge, or change, the law (either statutes or case law.)

We will see what happens with all of the AI companies who claim fair use.

For travel it’s just an option and always will be. Thats okay because the travel use case only hits most people once or twice a year. The future of Airbnb was and always will be using that option as entry point into your life at home. The app update and launch into these lifestyle categories are the starting point of this.

They chose to stick experiences and services as a root choice in the mobile app, not something that is attached to a booking or stay you already have. While I expect the major use case to be using these new services during a stay, the app design shows they are paving a future where you take some of what you loved about your airbnb stay back home with you.

You can get the same experience with VRBO. People list in both usually. AirBNB hasn’t cornered the market. Plus, VRBO or sites like VacationRentals pre dated AirBNB