Airbnb Was Supposed to Save Capitalism. Instead, It Just Devolved Into Garbage.
In the early days of Airbnb, many predicted that the company and other sharing economy platforms would “disrupt” capitalism as usual, finally making it work for all stakeholders. But that’s not what happened. Instead, it got us all hooked and then got worse.
An Airbnb logo displayed on a smartphone. (Photo by Lorenzo Di Cola / NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Trend forecast for 2024: Airbnb is out. The Holiday Inn is in.
The switch got underway in earnest last year, when Airbnb hosts reported that bookings were tanking — sometimes even yielding a 50 percent decrease over the previous year. The chief reason seemed to be value for money. “Airbnb got too much dip on they chip,” one X user complained. “No one is gonna continue to pay $500 to stay in an apartment for two days when they can pay $300 for a hotel stay that has a pool, room service, free breakfast & cleaning everyday. Like get real lol.”
How Airbnb is being supplanted by the twentieth-century relic known as the hotel is a good lesson in capitalism. In particular, it’s a reminder to ignore perennial promises that new market innovations will reform capitalism so that it works equally for corporations and everyone else.
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