Authorities suspended international flights at one airport and closed four bridges between the U.S. and Canada in the Niagara Falls area following an incident where a vehicle crashed and exploded on impact on the Rainbow Bridge.
04.11.2023 - 10:11 / insider.com / Brian Chesky
Earlier this fall, a group of friends and I set out on a girls' trip to Pennsylvania. It was time to escape New York City, so we booked an Airbnb in the Poconos.
The home was great: clean, big enough for five people, and somewhat affordable when split five ways — all you can ask of a short-term rental, really. We spent the weekend giggling over wine and gushing over books. Ultimately, we encountered what many Airbnb users have experienced at least once: a long list of checkout chores.
On the list were the kinds of things that Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky has specifically spoken out against, like stripping the beds, and yet, here we were doing them.
It left our group divided. Half of us didn't mind the checkout chores. The other half, myself included, found it annoying. Not enough to ruin the vacation, but annoying nonetheless.
Meanwhile, back home in New York City, the short-term rental landscape was on the tail end of an overhaul. On September 5, the city enacted new regulations that resulted in what Airbnb has called a "de facto ban" on the platform. The new rules ban entire-home rentals, cap reservations at two guests, and require the host to be in the home with renters.
Within days, thousands of listings disappeared from the platform. As Insider previously reported, there were just 4,600 New York City Airbnb listings on the platform, down from 20,000 active listings in June.
Airbnb has since voiced its stance on the new regulations.
"In just the first two months since the rules have gone into effect, the negative consequences are clear — visitors to New York City now have fewer accommodation options in fewer neighborhoods, hotels have increased their nightly rates, and, predictably, activity has gone underground with a myriad of unregistered listings popping up on unregulated third-party websites," an Airbnb spokesperson said in an email to Insider Tuesday.
"As we enter the holiday season, these trends are expected to continue, making New York City less affordable for families visiting for the holidays," the statement continued.
But after years of annoying fines and rules, I admittedly wasn't entirely sympathetic to Airbnb's plight.
Maybe, I thought, we'd be better off without it.
Frankly, I'd grown somewhat tired of Airbnb. The fees, hosts' rules — and now, regulations that put a cap on guests and require an on-site host — dampened the platform's allure.
It's not an uncommon sentiment. I was one of many consumers caught in a wave of discontentment that started when travelers began pointing out exorbitant fees that only appeared when finalizing a booking.
The company pretty quickly addressed the issue, rolling out a new tool in December 2022 that shows the total price upfront. The company told
Authorities suspended international flights at one airport and closed four bridges between the U.S. and Canada in the Niagara Falls area following an incident where a vehicle crashed and exploded on impact on the Rainbow Bridge.
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