The list goes on and on. I'm willing to bet Kutcher would rather stay at a beautiful private mansion than a tourist-filled resort or hotel. Who else is going to spend $5000/night to stay at places like this other than the super rich?
I think its just a matter of time. Airbnb is working on establishing itself as a major player in the travel industry, and they're not quite at the luxury villa stage yet. I imagine it takes a lot to win over the demographic who can afford these places, but you gotta start somewhere, right?
Even if there were reviews, it's impossible to discern astroturfing from legit information. National and international hotel chains do not have this problem.
As a wealthy individual, my rights would seem more protected with a luxury hotel than a short-term house rental.
Does airbnb indemnify property owners from lawsuits by renters of their homes? If Ashton, slips in a beautiful private mansion's wet marble floor and shatters his hip, who is liable? The mansion owner? Airbnb?
In the hotel situation, the hotel is a business and has insurance to protect from such catastrophes.
I didn't see the contents of the comment you replied to before it was deleted. But anyway, I just wanted to note that there are plenty of hotel chains that rent out luxury villas in that quality and price range, although maybe not quite that size. As a random example I just checked out Banyan Tree's Koh Samui villas: http://www.banyantree.com/en/samui/villas/. The higher-end villas listed there would run over $3500 per night a few weeks from now, in June, which is nowhere near the Thai tourist season.
This has been downvoted several times after the original comment was deleted, for no apparent reason. For those of you who are downvoting for the sake of downvoting, the comment I responded to went something like this:
"it's funny that Kutcher would invest in a service he would probably never, ever use"
It was clear that the commenter was not aware of the quality and luxury Airbnb has to offer, which is probably why the comment was deleted after I responded.
Hey -- I was the original commenter -- sorry you were downvoted. Your response made it clear that I was unaware of the posh side of Airbnb -- and on second thought I didn't want to be seen as putting negative energy out there, so I deleted my comment. Next time I'll just do an "edit: I stand corrected!" so the thread still has context. Sorry!
http://www.airbnb.com/rooms/20478
http://www.airbnb.com/rooms/62627
http://www.airbnb.com/rooms/21031
http://www.airbnb.com/rooms/55179
The list goes on and on. I'm willing to bet Kutcher would rather stay at a beautiful private mansion than a tourist-filled resort or hotel. Who else is going to spend $5000/night to stay at places like this other than the super rich?