The company everyone loves to complain about

Spoiler alert: It’s Airbnb. Even its CEO thinks it’s broken. Here’s how he’s promising to fix it. [View in browser]( [Bloomberg]( Hi, it’s Lisa Fleisher in Dubai, your Middle East luxury correspondent. I have a confession to make: I often get asked which are my favorite hotels by GMs, CEOs and financiers behind some of the [fanciest properties in the world](. And I have to sheepishly tell them, actually, I haven’t personally stayed in many; I’ve always been an Airbnb kind of girl. Originally, it was for budget reasons—and that was long before room prices shot up to [today’s rates](. (We just published a [list of the cities]( where prices will jump the most next year.) When I lived in London a decade ago, my then-boyfriend and I could hop over to somewhere in Europe for a weekend, stay in someone’s apartment and explore the city. Truthfully, it was always a bit of a gamble. How cheap was too cheap? We became ruthless customers, ruling out places with middling reviews and eventually only staying with [superhosts](. After my boyfriend became my husband, and we [had a kid](, the service made even more sense. We could visit Turkey with my dad and get an amazing, three-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment right by [Galata Tower]( for less than $200 a night. Our own kitchen, living room and dining room. (Although I probably would have loved to stay in one of [Istanbul’s stunning new waterfront hotels](.) Not an Airbnb. Source: The Peninsula Istanbul I think, however, I’ve been lucky. At least, judging from the negativity surrounding [Airbnb Inc.]( the past year or two. Requirements for guests, such as doing laundry and dishes on top of paying steep cleaning fees, seem to be [getting out of hand](. Maybe it’s because Covid produced many new hosts, some of whom found they [weren’t up for the job]( and discovered that it’s [not easy money](. Then there’s the question of [who has to take the financial hit]( during a natural disaster—hosts or guests, and [during what time period](. People’s experiences keep going viral in posts that hit a nerve—like [this Tweet]( about last-minute cancellations that felt incredibly unfair; [this Tiktok]( on the cleaning fees on top of cleaning requirements; [or this joke]( about how a stay at a Holiday Inn feels luxurious compared with Airbnb. At some point, it seems, the price isn’t worth it. ([Nerdwallet has a price/value comparison]( that was just updated last month.) And Airbnb knows it. In [this revealing interview](, CEO Brian Chesky tells Bloomberg’s travel editor [Nikki Ekstein]( that the company he co-founded in 2008 is fundamentally broken. I encourage you to read the entire interview for yourself, but here are a few things Chesky says that rang true to me: - hosts need to keep costs down. - fake listings and bad guests need to be purged faster. - the service needs to provide “reliable” stays—I read that as meaning guests aren’t shocked by the poor quality of what they booked, and they don’t get stuck with bad alternatives in the event of a last-minute cancellation. Brian Chesky says his company needs some work. Photographer: Philip Pacheco/Bloomberg “We need to get our house in order,” Chesky tells Nikki. “We need to make sure the listings are great, we’re providing great customer service and we’re affordable. And I’ve told our team that we can get back to creating new and exciting things once we’ve fixed that foundation.” If you’ve given up and just want to stick to hotels, there’s yet another new rating guide for them: the Michelin Guide this week announced it will rate hotels—[not with stars, but with keys](. Some of Bloomberg’s Best Airbnb Coverage [The Rise of Airbnb’s Full-Time Landlords]( [Airbnb Valuation Reaches $100 Billion in Trading Debut Surge]( [Airbnb Is Spending Millions of Dollars to Make Nightmares Go Away]( [Is the Airbnb Dream Dead?]( [‘Airbnb Queen’ Says She’s Caught Up in Platform’s New York Feud]( House of the Week OK, so we don’t actually do a “house of the week” over here (maybe we should!) but I wanted to share a story by [Sarah Rappaport]( that I edited this week. It features a [house up for sale in the Cotswolds for $17 million]( called Hawling Manor. (I kept accidentally calling it Hawley Manor, because I think Hawley rhymes with Crawley, and, you know, Downton.) It’s not just a nine-bedroom house. It’s an estate, with an indoor pool, stables, a tennis court and some beyond-manicured lawns and gardens. ([Full listing here](.) You’d probably want a riding mower, or one of those robot ones. Source: Sotheby's International Realty The owner is one of the original founders of British clothing company Superdry, James Holder. He says he’s selling because he wants to create a new home for himself that is completely different: ultramodern. To me, a real-estate nerd, one of the more interesting aspects of this story is that luxury home prices in the Cotswolds have fallen 3.4% over the past year, according to data from Savills’s latest prime regional index. The context is that prices rose 17.4% from the start of Covid-19 lockdowns to September 2022, so we’re coming down after a quick increase. But how much lower will they go? It’s not just the Cotswolds. UK home prices have been falling at the [fastest pace since 2009](. It helps that ultra-high-net-worth buyers don’t always need to take out a mortgage; five-year mortgage rates in the UK [dipped below 6%]( in September. The buyer, Holder thinks, could be an American—an [increasingly important segment]( of property buyers in the UK. Miami, London and Monaco Feel More Like Dubai If you’ll be in London soon, you might be able to snag a reservation at one of a few new restaurants opening soon there: [Gaia]( for Greek food, [Shanghai Me]( for Chinese cuisine or the French spot [La Maison Ani](. Do any of those names sound familiar? If you’ve been hanging out in Dubai, especially its financial center, you surely know them by now. They’re three of the homegrown-Dubai brands from Fundamental Hospitality, run by Russian restaurateur [Evgeny Kuzin]( and developed by Nigerian-British chef [Izu Ani](. And they’re just a handful of spots that Fundamental will open outside of the UAE in the next 18 months. [This week I wrote]( about how Dubai used to be a place without a culinary soul, where outside brands like Cipriani, Coya and Nobu (no shade, they’re great!) were the places to go. That started changing a few years ago. Now, the restaurants that started here are signing deals abroad and opening up all over the globe. The Maine Ibiza, an outpost of a Dubai restaurant, opened in 2023. Photographer: Conrad White Over the summer, I visited the Maine Mayfair—the London outpost of a popular Dubai restaurant brand—and something about it did feel extremely Dubai. People dressed to impress, tables packed, impeccable service. The crowd felt like it could have been in Dubai in part because some of them probably were from Dubai. The same is true for the Maine’s [newest location in Ibiza](, Maine founder Joey Ghazal says. “The amount of people that I’m seeing—clients that I know from Dubai and London that are just in Ibiza—it’s crazy,” he says. The expansion is fueled by Dubai’s burgeoning reputation as a global dining destination, its evolution into a less-transient society and a strong local economy that has kept restaurants busy. I’m sure you’ll be seeing more Dubai names popping up, whether you realize it or not. One of the most beloved homegrown brands, Kinoya, [just opened this weekend at Harrods](. A Great Season to Travel for Culture My culture-oriented colleagues in New York and London have pulled together lists of the most exciting shows to see in both cities this fall. And it’s an important time to hit theaters in both cities, for different reasons. First, New York has yet another big stage to fill at [the PAC-NYC, opened last month at the World Trade Center](—where exciting new programming will include performances by Laurence Fishburne, and Jada Pinkett Smith, and there will soon be a performance of CATS set in the world of ballroom culture. The PAC-NYC’s marble walls glow amber. Photographer: Iwan Baan Here in Dubai, [we’re still getting used to our high culture](. Meanwhile, in the UK, [cultural institutions are facing a funding crisis](, and need audience support. Here are some of the [best West End shows]( to see this season—including Stranger Things. — Chris Rovzar Oh, and One Last Property for Your Shopping List How’s this for a house on the water? Source: Sotheby’s International Realty This property in the Dominican Republic has 10 guest bedrooms and 13.5 bathrooms, and comes with 11 trained staff and six kitchens. (There are also three staff bedrooms and three staff bathrooms.) The 25,000 square-foot property has a cinema and soon will have an indoor disco. [It listed this week for $45 million.]( But imagine what you’ll make when you Airbnb it! — Chris New for subscribers: Free article gifting. Bloomberg.com subscribers can now gift up to five free articles a month to anyone you want. Just look for the "Gift this article" button on stories. (Not a subscriber? Unlock limited access and [sign up here](.) Follow Us Like getting this newsletter? [Subscribe to Bloomberg.com]( for unlimited access to trusted, data-driven journalism and subscriber-only insights. Want to sponsor this newsletter? [Get in touch here](. You received this message because you are subscribed to Bloomberg's Bloomberg Pursuits newsletter. If a friend forwarded you this message, [sign up here]( to get it in your inbox. [Unsubscribe]( [Bloomberg.com]( [Contact Us]( Bloomberg L.P. 731 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY 10022 [Ads Powered By Liveintent]( [Ad Choices](