TA is Dying... and They Haven't Noticed

[Jcam]

Well I do think that air has taken a lot of guests from the normal B+B market in our area. When I browse through the air listings near us and see that every visitor has left a glowing review for what I know is a less-than-stellar accommodation I figure that something is changing.
It will be interesting to see if the TA complex of OTAs tries to gobble up air too!.

Around here, Air is chasing the last dollar. Constantly, I see the prices going lower and lower and lower. Of course most of these people haven't had the taxes catch up to them and they don't realize that they are renting below costs.
I laughed a few weeks ago. One guy finally got his city commercial tax bill for all the apartments and he was up in arms that he shouldn't be charged commercial property tax.... hoping that others would chime in.. nope, silence... he's not residential! His property tax bill just went up by 4X. So, now that he's paying all the taxes, let's see him compete for that very last dollar.
Meanwhile, I'm full and I haven't lowered my rate. Now I'm hoping to work on getting the other B&B operators around here to help in the fight to make them pay their taxes... cause it drives them out of business. They were all tax cheats!
.

We're listed on air, most often their system of recommending prices is laughable. There's hardly a room to be had in the whole of the Highlands at the moment, yet air says I should be charging £75ish for July. Yeah, right, that's lower than my winter rate. Ever heard of supply and demand.
I can imaging though that people not used to B&B would be fooled by air into thinking that's the sort of prices they should be charging.
.

I can imaging though that people not used to B&B would be fooled by air into thinking that's the sort of prices they should be charging.

Can't speak for the UK, but we have people here in Vermont listing nights at $50.
The stupid, it burns.
.

Probably seems like big money for those not "in business" who rent a spare room and put the money direct in their pocket without having any rules to follow. I wonder, does the IRS require that air provide copies of a 1099 showing that funds changed hands?
.

In the US, yes, they send them the 1099. Most of these people are just idiots.
.

see in the UK you can earn up to £7000 on your spare room before you have to declare - it was supposed to be a tax break to encourage people with a big house to take in a lodger ie provide cheap housing but its become an air loophole

 

[Generic]

Well I do think that air has taken a lot of guests from the normal B+B market in our area. When I browse through the air listings near us and see that every visitor has left a glowing review for what I know is a less-than-stellar accommodation I figure that something is changing.
It will be interesting to see if the TA complex of OTAs tries to gobble up air too!.

Around here, Air is chasing the last dollar. Constantly, I see the prices going lower and lower and lower. Of course most of these people haven't had the taxes catch up to them and they don't realize that they are renting below costs.
I laughed a few weeks ago. One guy finally got his city commercial tax bill for all the apartments and he was up in arms that he shouldn't be charged commercial property tax.... hoping that others would chime in.. nope, silence... he's not residential! His property tax bill just went up by 4X. So, now that he's paying all the taxes, let's see him compete for that very last dollar.
Meanwhile, I'm full and I haven't lowered my rate. Now I'm hoping to work on getting the other B&B operators around here to help in the fight to make them pay their taxes... cause it drives them out of business. They were all tax cheats!
.

We're listed on air, most often their system of recommending prices is laughable. There's hardly a room to be had in the whole of the Highlands at the moment, yet air says I should be charging £75ish for July. Yeah, right, that's lower than my winter rate. Ever heard of supply and demand.
I can imaging though that people not used to B&B would be fooled by air into thinking that's the sort of prices they should be charging.
.

I can imaging though that people not used to B&B would be fooled by air into thinking that's the sort of prices they should be charging.

Can't speak for the UK, but we have people here in Vermont listing nights at $50.
The stupid, it burns.
.

Probably seems like big money for those not "in business" who rent a spare room and put the money direct in their pocket without having any rules to follow. I wonder, does the IRS require that air provide copies of a 1099 showing that funds changed hands?
.

In the US, yes, they send them the 1099. Most of these people are just idiots.
.

see in the UK you can earn up to £7000 on your spare room before you have to declare - it was supposed to be a tax break to encourage people with a big house to take in a lodger ie provide cheap housing but its become an air loophole
.

Here, you have to declare from $1, but there are no forms... YET. So it's a trust system. But when they audit, they go back 7 years and then the interest and fines and....

 

[happykeeper]

Back in the day I went on and on about how I thought TA could lose it's importance if they didn't clean up the fake review problems etc. I have since owned up to that little bit of hubris, but it does appear that TA figured out they needed to change before they became yesterday's news.
Do you think this new iteration will work?
It justs seems like a hotel booking site and it is too hard to get to the reviews. I just wanted to see who was #1 in an area without entering dates for availability. It took me forever to figure it out.

 

[Skamokawa]

Well I do think that air has taken a lot of guests from the normal B+B market in our area. When I browse through the air listings near us and see that every visitor has left a glowing review for what I know is a less-than-stellar accommodation I figure that something is changing.
It will be interesting to see if the TA complex of OTAs tries to gobble up air too!.

Around here, Air is chasing the last dollar. Constantly, I see the prices going lower and lower and lower. Of course most of these people haven't had the taxes catch up to them and they don't realize that they are renting below costs.
I laughed a few weeks ago. One guy finally got his city commercial tax bill for all the apartments and he was up in arms that he shouldn't be charged commercial property tax.... hoping that others would chime in.. nope, silence... he's not residential! His property tax bill just went up by 4X. So, now that he's paying all the taxes, let's see him compete for that very last dollar.
Meanwhile, I'm full and I haven't lowered my rate. Now I'm hoping to work on getting the other B&B operators around here to help in the fight to make them pay their taxes... cause it drives them out of business. They were all tax cheats!
.

We're listed on air, most often their system of recommending prices is laughable. There's hardly a room to be had in the whole of the Highlands at the moment, yet air says I should be charging £75ish for July. Yeah, right, that's lower than my winter rate. Ever heard of supply and demand.
I can imaging though that people not used to B&B would be fooled by air into thinking that's the sort of prices they should be charging.
.

I can imaging though that people not used to B&B would be fooled by air into thinking that's the sort of prices they should be charging.

Can't speak for the UK, but we have people here in Vermont listing nights at $50.
The stupid, it burns.
.

Probably seems like big money for those not "in business" who rent a spare room and put the money direct in their pocket without having any rules to follow. I wonder, does the IRS require that air provide copies of a 1099 showing that funds changed hands?
.

Its only provided by Air if you make 20,000 or over from the platform. Very annoying.

 

[TheBeachHouse]

Back in the day I went on and on about how I thought TA could lose it's importance if they didn't clean up the fake review problems etc. I have since owned up to that little bit of hubris, but it does appear that TA figured out they needed to change before they became yesterday's news.
Do you think this new iteration will work?
It justs seems like a hotel booking site and it is too hard to get to the reviews. I just wanted to see who was #1 in an area without entering dates for availability. It took me forever to figure it out..

Back in the day I went on and on about how I thought TA could lose it's importance if they didn't clean up the fake review problems etc. I have since owned up to that little bit of hubris, but it does appear that TA figured out they needed to change before they became yesterday's news.
Do you think this new iteration will work?
It justs seems like a hotel booking site and it is too hard to get to the reviews. I just wanted to see who was #1 in an area without entering dates for availability. It took me forever to figure it out.

I don't like it at all. They don't even give a link to reviews on the first page. Just booking ads. A complete change of purpose.

 

[Jcam]

Back in the day I went on and on about how I thought TA could lose it's importance if they didn't clean up the fake review problems etc. I have since owned up to that little bit of hubris, but it does appear that TA figured out they needed to change before they became yesterday's news.
Do you think this new iteration will work?
It justs seems like a hotel booking site and it is too hard to get to the reviews. I just wanted to see who was #1 in an area without entering dates for availability. It took me forever to figure it out..

Also they have made it super hard ie say a friend recommends somewhere and you just want to put in the name and look at the reviews before you make a booking its a ruddy nightmare!

 

[happykeeper]

Back in the day I went on and on about how I thought TA could lose it's importance if they didn't clean up the fake review problems etc. I have since owned up to that little bit of hubris, but it does appear that TA figured out they needed to change before they became yesterday's news.
Do you think this new iteration will work?
It justs seems like a hotel booking site and it is too hard to get to the reviews. I just wanted to see who was #1 in an area without entering dates for availability. It took me forever to figure it out..

Also they have made it super hard ie say a friend recommends somewhere and you just want to put in the name and look at the reviews before you make a booking its a ruddy nightmare!
.

It did take me a couple of tries to figure out where to type the search, but it did take me to the specific hotel page with reviews once I figured that out.

 

[happykeeper]

Back in the day I went on and on about how I thought TA could lose it's importance if they didn't clean up the fake review problems etc. I have since owned up to that little bit of hubris, but it does appear that TA figured out they needed to change before they became yesterday's news.
Do you think this new iteration will work?
It justs seems like a hotel booking site and it is too hard to get to the reviews. I just wanted to see who was #1 in an area without entering dates for availability. It took me forever to figure it out..

Back in the day I went on and on about how I thought TA could lose it's importance if they didn't clean up the fake review problems etc. I have since owned up to that little bit of hubris, but it does appear that TA figured out they needed to change before they became yesterday's news.
Do you think this new iteration will work?
It justs seems like a hotel booking site and it is too hard to get to the reviews. I just wanted to see who was #1 in an area without entering dates for availability. It took me forever to figure it out.

I don't like it at all. They don't even give a link to reviews on the first page. Just booking ads. A complete change of purpose.
.

does this open the door for the next TA?

 

[Arks]

Back in the day I went on and on about how I thought TA could lose it's importance if they didn't clean up the fake review problems etc. I have since owned up to that little bit of hubris, but it does appear that TA figured out they needed to change before they became yesterday's news.
Do you think this new iteration will work?
It justs seems like a hotel booking site and it is too hard to get to the reviews. I just wanted to see who was #1 in an area without entering dates for availability. It took me forever to figure it out..

Also they have made it super hard ie say a friend recommends somewhere and you just want to put in the name and look at the reviews before you make a booking its a ruddy nightmare!
.

It did take me a couple of tries to figure out where to type the search, but it did take me to the specific hotel page with reviews once I figured that out.
.

It did take me a couple of tries to figure out where to type the search, but it did take me to the specific hotel page with reviews once I figured that out.

Some people wanting to look up a specific hotel may give up and just go to the hotel's website, which is great!