Airbnb Apologizes For Passive Aggressive Ads

H

HardOCP News

[H] News
Joined
Dec 31, 1969
Messages
0
I don't see what the big deal is about these ads. Sure, they are dumb and a huge waste of money but I don't know why Airbnb would have to apologize. I'd complain too if I was paying $12M a year in taxes. ;)

“The intent was to show the hotel tax contribution from our hosts and guests, which is roughly $1 million per month. It was the wrong tone and we apologize to anyone who was offended. These ads are being taken down immediately.”
 
Someone was offended by truthful opinions? If the government was getting such a large portion of my revenues I would also be very opinionated about where that money went.
 
Steal money by way of government proxy, have the balls to hear the complaints.

Nothing wrong with the tone, people need to be reminded every once in a while that this shit isn't free.
 
For anyone that doesn't know, Hotel taxes ARE insane.

In places like Chicago if you stay in a hotel, in addition to the costs from the hotel itself... You will be paying ~22% for all of the different taxes (Hotel Tax + Sales Tax).

That means, if you stay in a hotel for.. .say... $150 a night for 4 nights you will pay:
$600 for the hotel ($150 x 4)
+$132 in TAXES ALONE.

Fucking nuts.
 
If you're staying in Chicago that is punishment enough already.
 
Offended.. What the heck. Everyone is in a constant state of offended these days. World is going to sh*t in a hand basket.
 
I'm reminded of a quote I heard a long time ago:

“He who takes offense when no offense is intended is a fool, and he who takes offense when offense is intended is a greater fool.”
 
Mohonri said:
I'm reminded of a quote I heard a long time ago:

“He who takes offense when no offense is intended is a fool, and he who takes offense when offense is intended is a greater fool.”
Click to expand...

Some of the responses weren't of offense, just simple math:
Dear Airbnb,

I'm happy to hear that you paid your taxes this year. I did too! Isn't it awesome? However, I've crunched some numbers and I have some bad news for you. Out of your $12 mil of hotel tax, only 1.4% percent goes to the SF Public Libraries. So that's $168,000. Divided by the 868 library staff, we have $193 per person. Assuming each employee works 5 days per week minus holidays, this is $0.78 per employee per day. Since that's significantly under San Francisco minimum wage ($12.25/hr), I doubt that your hotel tax can keep the libraries open more than a minute or two later.

However, had you donated that $8 million you spent fighting Proposition F directly to the public libraries you love so much, that could have made a bigger difference.

Oh well. Hindsight is 20/20!

Love,

Martha Kenney (San Francisco resident)
Click to expand...
 
Silly company.
Everyone knows that these high taxes are meant to fund higher government worker paychecks and excessive pensions.
Expecting it to be spent to keep libraries open or for art classes just isn't realistic.
 
Considering most of their leasees do not collect hotel taxes, this is a really dumb campaign. If I were them I would shut my mouth and hope the government doesn't decide to focus some money on collecting said taxes. I use AirBnB and VRBO 7-10 times a year over the last 5 years and have only paid hotel taxes maybe twice. Since the vast majority of my leasees are real estate groups that own many rental properties, they have no excuse for not knowing or being unable to properly collect taxes. Hell, tomorrow I am flying out to a cabin (does 8 bedrooms still count as a cabin?) in Tahoe I rented for my family via VRBO. It is owned and operated by a real estate group that has over 20+ "cabins" in Tahoe and they didn't collect hotel fees.
 
I really wish people/companies would stop apologizing.

Good on Airbnb for calling out the city; shame on Airbnb for caving.
 
Betaboy1983 said:
Offended.. What the heck. Everyone is in a constant state of offended these days. World is going to sh*t in a hand basket.
Click to expand...

How dare you type an asterisk in place of a letter! I find that highly offensive sir! I demand satisfaction!
 
If you've got the balls to put up ads like that to begin with, have the balls to keep them up when idiots start whining.

...In other words, "Nut up, or shut up."
 
DocSavage said:
Some of the responses weren't of offense, just simple math:
Click to expand...

Yeah except her reasoning is a bit flawed.
I'm happy to hear that you paid your taxes this year. I did too! Isn't it awesome?
Click to expand...
Very little of her taxes she's paid (and I question how much she has paid as an associate professor (probably part -time) at SFSU) actually goes to the city of San Francisco directly. Where as AirBnB are actual taxes that the city levies on them ON TOP OF the taxes they pay as an income tax.
 
Buncha special snowflake whiners. How much money do you have to earn to be assessed 12 million in taxes again?
 
Magnus said:
Buncha special snowflake whiners. How much money do you have to earn to be assessed 12 million in taxes again?
Click to expand...
Taxes which, by the way, are nearly always passed directly to the consumer. It would be like Verizon [passive-aggressively] bitching about paying the taxes that appear as line items on each customer's bill.
 
Magnus said:
Buncha special snowflake whiners. How much money do you have to earn to be assessed 12 million in taxes again?
Click to expand...

This isn't 12 million in income taxes, this is 12 million in special taxes like the "bed tax" that just about every city that has an iota of tourism assesses on every hotel, motel in town (and apparently AirBnB) in town.

The first salvo against the AirBnB was "waaaa they don't pay a hotel tax" (which is like 14% in SF), as soon as they started paying taxes then the hotels still bitch and moan, this time getting renters in on it by saying AirBnB is the reason there is no affordable housing! (even though that statement existed long before AirBnB became a thing why? Because San Francisco is a peninsula, there's no fucking room to expand housing except up).

That said, them pulling down the ads means that SF loses more money because guess where most of those ads are located? Yup on municipal transit ad space!
 
Oh and to add further fuel to the fire, there are no such things as vacation rentals in San Francisco, it is illegal to own property for the sole purpose of renting it out to vacationers (i.e. short term people), if you own property and don't live in it you need to keep it empty or rent it to someone. They city (and hotels of the city) do not want anyone fucking with their income source.
 
Here is an idea. Maybe California, specifically liberal strongholds should stop taxing the shit out of the companies there and they'll stop leaving.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top