Page 18 - HOH

A12 BUSINESS
Friday 9 September 2022
Are Airbnbs more cost-effective than

hotels?

By SALLY FRENCH
of NerdWallet
Remember the days when
one of the best money-sav-
ing travel tips was booking
an Airbnb versus a hotel?
Not only were nightly rates
almost always far cheaper,
but the Airbnbs and hosts
themselves often shaped
up to be the most memo-
rable aspects of a trip.
These days, staying at an
Airbnb rarely involves big
savings or friendships with
the hosts. For better or for The Airbnb app icon is displayed on an iPad screen in
worse, features like self- Washington, D.C., on May 8, 2021.
check-in make it so hosts Associated Press
and guests never even In some cases, Airbnb rent- median nightly price (32%
meet. Meanwhile, many als are still a good deal cheaper per night versus
listings are not managed compared to hotels. Other staying one night).
by owners, but by corpo- times, they’re far from it. Why are longer stays
rate property manage- LENGTH OF TRIP cheaper? One reason is
ment behemoths without For short stays, Airbnbs are multiday discounts.
the convenience of on- rarely a good deal for two Hosts offer these incentives
site, full-time staff. reasons: discounts and because they’d prefer
And the cost? A June 2022 cleaning fees. having fewer bookings to
NerdWallet analysis looked Savings get bigger with manage and ensure occu-
at 1,000 U.S. Airbnb reser- trip length: The nightly rate pancy.
vations for 2022 or 2023. for the average seven- Another reason is clean-
Although there’s no way to night Airbnb stay was 32% ing fees. While not all list-
compare the costs directly cheaper than a one-night ings have them, the me-
since every Airbnb is differ- stay, according to Nerd- dian cleaning fee is $75,
ent, some key indicators Wallet’s analysis. according to NerdWallet’s
provide clues as to when One-night stay: $314 me- analysis. Since it’s a one-
Airbnbs are better or worse dian nightly price. time fee, the cost is re-
than a hotel. Seven-night stay: $213 duced by longer stays.q

United makes ‘conditional’ order for

electric air taxis

By DAVID KOENIG said Thursday that it invest- cally, like helicopters from
AP Airlines Writer ed $15 million in a startup Eve Air Mobility as soon as
DALLAS (AP) — United Air- manufacturer, and signed 2026.
lines thinks that in a few a “conditional” agreement It’s hard to judge United’s
years, plenty of big-city to buy 200 of the tiny air- commitment to the deal,
customers will pay $100 or craft with options for 200 since it wouldn’t provide
more for a one-way ride to more. terms for the order.
the airport in a four-seat, United said it expects to re- A spokesman said the con-
electric-powered air taxi. ceive the first taxis which ditions are standard when
The Chicago-based airline will take off and land verti- buying an aircraft that
hasn’t been certified by
regulators, and they cover
“a number of United’s busi-
ness objectives.”
The stake in Eve amounts
to less than 5% of United’s
second-quarter profit.
But the deal fits United’s
pattern of announcing in-
terest in startups that are
trying to build and win regu-
latory approval for air taxis,
like Archer, and supersonic
This image provided by United-Airlines shows an illustration of planes, like Boom.q
an electric powered air taxi.
Associated Press