Ditto. I respect Techcrunch enough that I actually can't believe they published such a ridiculous article. My family (me plus wife and 3 kids) have used vrbo.com for our last two vacations (granted, not many data points). In each case, we saved money over staying in a hotel, enjoyed superior lodging over a hotel at almost any price range, and in both cases enjoyed far greater customer service over any hotel experience I've ever had.

Any time someone trots out the tired old argument of "well, with big huge companies, you have recourse if something goes bad", I always want to know which big company X they're talking about. Whether it's dealing with the DMV, trying to get JDBC driver bug fixes from Oracle, trying to get billing questions answered from Comcast, or trying to get the shower in you room fixed at a <major hotel chain here>, big organizations simply aren't organized around their customers. There may be legitimate reasons to pick a major hotel chain over AirBnB or the like, but customer satisfaction hardly seems like the best avenue of attack.

But of course none of this is rocket science... Whenever an industry resorts to competing through legislation, they aren't fighting the good fight to provide you with a better quality of life.

Well, for one, because it's an opinion... He's overly dramatic in his post and he doesn't present a lot of facts, but I think he's entitled to his opinion, especially as long as he's honest about his bias...

"Opinions are like assholes, everybody's got one"; and this one really stinks. EDIT- "this one" refers to the original article, not the parent comment; sorry for any confusion.