Airbnb gets into the property management business
I love Airbnb. It's one of my favourite startups, from both a user's and entrepreneur's point of view.I really loved the way Brian described it as - this is how it used to be, go to a place and stay with a local. I don't like the formality, isolation, or artificiality of hotels so Airbnb has been a wonderful opportunity.Recently, though, I've found more and more properties managed by one person. It's hard to be sure I'm staying with a local making some cash off their spare room, rather than someone "farming" a bunch of cheap properties. I wondered if Airbnb were permitting or encouraging this; the article suggests it is the latter.For me, this ruins the whole point of Airbnb. Long-term it will devalue the experience by turning it into a substandard, impersonal distributed hotel. I really hope they change direction. If not, I expect a new startup to come along providing "what Airbnb was supposed to be."What I find most puzzling is how such great founders could lose sight of the wonderful vision they had.