評(píng)論
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Airbnb versus hotels
租房網(wǎng)VS旅館
Room for all, for now
人人有房，就是現(xiàn)在
But there are signs that the sharing site is starting to threaten budget hotels
有信號(hào)顯示住房分享網(wǎng)站開始威脅快捷酒店
EVEN as they lobby regulators to crack down on residential sharing services, hoteliers play down the threat such companies pose to their industry. The top brass at the Marriott, Four Seasons and Hilton chains have all said that these firms do not compete for their core market of accommodating high-end and business travellers; a vice-president of The Ritz-Carlton group recently claimed she had not even heard of Airbnb. And Airbnb itself agrees, arguing that it does not displace existing lodging but is creating new demand. “I'm optimistic that there isn't going to be a war” with hotels, Brian Chesky, its boss, said in January.
盡管旅店老板正游說監(jiān)管者取締住房分享服務(wù)，但他們?nèi)缘@類公司給其行業(yè)帶來的威脅。萬豪、四季、希爾頓的高管們說這類公司并沒有在他們的核心市場(chǎng)展開競(jìng)爭(zhēng)；麗嘉副總裁最近表示從來沒聽過Airbnb。Airbnb自身也這么認(rèn)為，聲稱其業(yè)務(wù)并沒有取代現(xiàn)存旅館而是創(chuàng)造了新需求。一月，Airbnb老板布萊恩說：“我保持樂觀態(tài)度，將不會(huì)和旅館發(fā)生正面沖突。”
A recent study seems to confirm that, for now at least, Airbnb is only nibbling at the hotel industry's lunch rather than eating it whole. A team at Boston University examined hotel revenues in Texas, where Airbnb has grown much faster in some cities . They could not find a significant influence from Airbnb on business and luxury hotels. But in places where it has established a presence, it cut the revenues of budget hotels by 5% in the two years to December 2013.
最近一項(xiàng)研究似乎證實(shí)了這一觀點(diǎn)，至少就目前看來，Airbnb只是吃掉了這個(gè)產(chǎn)業(yè)的一小部分而不是一口全吃掉。波士頓大學(xué)的一個(gè)小組調(diào)查了德州酒店的收入情況，在這個(gè)州的某些城市，Airbnb的增長(zhǎng)快于該州其他城市。他們沒有發(fā)現(xiàn)Airbnb對(duì)商務(wù)酒店和豪華酒店的明顯影響。但在某些發(fā)展較好的地方，Airbnb在截止2013年12月的兩年內(nèi)蠶食了快捷酒店5%的收入。
If Airbnb were to keep growing at its current rate—its listings are doubling every year—the Texas study suggests that by 2016 the dent in budget hotels' takings will be 10%. With their high fixed costs, that could push many of them into the red. Of course, Airbnb may hit the limits of either supply or demand before then, but smaller hotels are already blaming it for their woes. “I see a direct correlation between our revenues going down and [Airbnb's] going up,” says Vijay Dandapani, the president of Apple Core Hotels in New York. “We had continued growth until Airbnb.” The financing round that Airbnb has just closed, valuing it at more than all but the four largest global hotel groups, suggests that investors agree.
德州的研究表明，如果Airbnb按目前每年翻倍的增長(zhǎng)速度發(fā)展，在2016年將會(huì)削減快捷酒店10%的份額。因快捷酒店較高的固定成本，這將直接導(dǎo)致很對(duì)酒店出現(xiàn)赤字。當(dāng)然，Airbnb也會(huì)遇到自身供給和需求的限制，但小旅館們?cè)缇蛯⒆约旱墓烹y歸咎于Airbnb。紐約蘋果核酒店管理公司總裁維賈伊說：“我看到了我們酒店收入下滑和Airbnb收入增長(zhǎng)的直接聯(lián)系，我們本該繼續(xù)增長(zhǎng)的，直到Airbnb開始搶奪市場(chǎng)份額。”Airbnb最新一輪融資剛剛結(jié)束，投資者相信其價(jià)值僅次于四大國際酒店管理集團(tuán)。
Moreover, Airbnb is beginning to make inroads into business travel. Ever more companies are letting staff book their own itineraries, and giving them incentives to be thrifty. Google sets a budget for each trip, and employees who underspend them get credits they can donate to charity or use for future perks like flight upgrades.
此外，Airbnb開始進(jìn)軍商務(wù)旅行市場(chǎng)。更多的公司開始讓員工自己定行程，給他們節(jié)約的激勵(lì)。谷歌給每一個(gè)行程都設(shè)預(yù)算，員工節(jié)約下來的錢可以捐給慈善機(jī)構(gòu)，也可以留下當(dāng)做例如飛機(jī)升艙一類的未來福利。
Concur, a travel- and expense-management firm, has seen its corporate clients' Airbnb bookings grow from a rounding error at the start of 2012 to more than 1m so far this year. Much of this comes from groups looking for flats with multiple bedrooms and shared workspace. If Airbnb can integrate with online travel agencies such as Expedia and increase the share of its hosts that provide instant booking confirmation, business hotels may find themselves with a surprisingly unignorable competitor.
一家旅行費(fèi)用管理公司Concur見證了Airbnb的增長(zhǎng)，2012年初其客戶在Airbnb的業(yè)務(wù)量微乎其微，但今年現(xiàn)階段其業(yè)務(wù)量已經(jīng)超過100萬美元。其中大部分業(yè)務(wù)來自尋找?guī)Ф嚅g臥室并共享工作區(qū)域這類公寓的顧客。如果Airbnb能整合像Expedia這樣的網(wǎng)上旅行社，并增加能提供即時(shí)預(yù)訂確認(rèn)的主機(jī)的共享程度，商務(wù)酒店或許會(huì)驚奇地發(fā)現(xiàn)一個(gè)不可動(dòng)搖的強(qiáng)大競(jìng)爭(zhēng)者。
