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Wall Street Journal
22-07-2025
- Business
- Wall Street Journal
You Can Add a Private Chef to Your Airbnb Rental but Your Host Might Not Like It - Tech News Briefing
Airbnb has opened another front in its ongoing competition with the hospitality industry with 'services,' a new product line that will offer everything from private chefs to personal trainers for guests—as long as their hosts approve. Plus, WSJ's Lauren Weber explains why you may just have to accept talking to people while they're wearing airpods. Patrick Coffee hosts. Full Transcript This transcript was prepared by a transcription service. This version may not be in its final form and may be updated. Patrick Coffee: Welcome to Tech News Briefing. It's Tuesday, July 22nd. I'm Patrick Coffee for the Wall Street Journal. Airbnb wants you to add some extra services to your vacation or business trip, like a private chef, a personal trainer, or a professional photographer. One problem, this might come as a surprise to your unwitting host. Plus, everybody knows that it's rude to speak to someone while wearing headphones, right? Apparently that's no longer the case if they're AirPods. But first, it's hard to have a real conversation with someone when they keep staring at their iPhone. But what if they're wearing AirPods? Julia Carpenter spoke to WSJ reporter, Lauren Weber, about why this common annoyance is inching closer to becoming an accepted behavior. Julia Carpenter: Lauren, the old rules say that people should remove ear buds when working a job or checking out at the grocery store or otherwise engaged in conversation. But you report that all of that is changing. Why is it that we used to think of this as rude behavior? Lauren Weber: There was always an assumption that when you were talking to someone or dealing with them in some manner, you had their full attention. All the conversations I had with people about this once I started reporting was around this question of distraction and attention. That's the piece that's changed. Julia Carpenter: And why is it that people now mind that less? They don't mind the perception that they have less than someone's full attention? Lauren Weber: It's one of those interesting examples about how conventions change and social norms. So at this point, it's not uncommon to see somebody wearing their AirPods all day. I'll just use AirPods as my shorthand for any kind of earbuds. This started to change, I really think, when they became wireless. So it was just really easy to park them in your ear and forget about them. And that way, you have them in your ears. You don't have to take them out of the case, put them back in the case constantly, which also raises the possibility of losing something. And again, because there's no wire there, they're more unobtrusive. So it's just easier now to have them in all the time. And what has become confusing for people is when they're in, you don't know if the person you're talking to actually has them on. Julia Carpenter: You spoke to one man who said he even found an AirPod in his fast food order, and personally, I would've freaked out. How did he react to that? Lauren Weber: He was somewhat disturbed. I wouldn't say he was freaking out based on what he told me, but he was disturbed, and he had gone through a drive-through. He said he had noticed that the person at the drive-through who was serving him had AirPods in. I don't think he ever saw it fall out of the ear and into his bag. But when he got home and opened up his bag of food, there it was at the bottom. He said, "I sat there thinking, well, what do I do? I don't want to just throw it away because this is an expensive piece of technology." But now of course, this created a little more work for him. So he called the restaurant. He let them know what had happened, and he did end up returning it to the person it had belonged to. And the person was like, "Will you just call my boss and tell her you're not mad about this?" The server was worried he was going to be fired for a health code violation. Julia Carpenter: Yeah. Even if we think we can do everything with AirPods still in, science shows we probably can't. What do researchers have to say about our ability to multitask like this? Lauren Weber: So I spoke to a psychologist who recently wrote a book about attention, and she said, the bad news... This was bad news for everyone even those of us who don't keep our AirPods in all the time. I don't even own AirPods, frankly. The bad news is there's no such thing really as multitasking. She said, what you're actually doing when you think you're multitasking is shifting your attention back and forth. So if you're listening to a podcast while you're reading a book or sitting on the subway catching up on the news, you're not actually doing either one of those things well, which she said also raises the chances that you make mistakes when you're doing something like a task. Patrick Coffee: That was WSJ reporter, Lauren Weber. Coming up. Wouldn't that Airbnb getaway be so much more relaxing with a massage? Sure. But maybe your host has already decided against it after having nightmares about all those oils spilling on their couch. That's after the break. Airbnb recently introduced services, which allows third-party vendors to complement guests' trips with their own, well, services as the company continues its competition with the hotel and hospitality industry. But Airbnb has encountered pushback from hosts, some of whom didn't realize that they'd have to actively choose not to let these vendors into their homes while they're away. WSJ reporter, Allison Poley, joins me to discuss the rocky rollout for this new expansion. So Allison, in a way, Airbnb's business runs on the hosts, and it seems like they were taken aback by this announcement, especially since they're automatically signed up for services. What is the sentiment among the host community now? Allison Poley: A lot of hosts were surprised about services. And what I heard from many of them who spoke to me is that they weren't totally aware that this was coming, and they learned about it at the same time that the general public did. And they also learned that they had been opted in automatically. So that meant any short-term rental that was listing on Airbnb was automatically allowed to have services provided there. So as you might imagine, hosts were a little bit taken aback by this. The things that they brought up most when I spoke to them is that, one, they don't get a cut of the commission from services booked for their rentals. They also don't get alerted when that service is booked there. So they don't know if somebody is doing that. So there are varying reactions to this in various points of view. Patrick Coffee: So they don't get paid for it, they don't seem to know when it's happening. Are there any clear benefits to the hosts? Allison Poley: If you think about it, Airbnb's positioning is that this is going to drive more guests to the property because this will make the stay more valuable for guests and also more special. And if you can do these things at an Airbnb, it makes the lodging more competitive with hotels, for example. An analyst who I spoke to also mentioned the same thing. So if you're thinking about it and a traveler is deciding where they should stay, they might choose a short-term rental where they can have a private chef come as opposed to staying in a hotel that has a nice restaurant because they have this experience that they wouldn't be able to get somewhere else. And so some people do see that as a benefit for the guest. Even as a host they think, "Oh, well, if somebody wants that service while they're staying at my short-term rental, that's fine. I want them to have a nice stay." And there are hosts who are recommending these types of things to their guests in general, but a lot of times, they happen off property, not inside the actual short-term rental. Patrick Coffee: I guess I could see too how if these are local vendors, then maybe the hosts could have relationships with them. Allison Poley: Exactly. And so there was a host I talked to who said, I go out of my way to leave recommendations for people. She has a property that's near the ocean and she arranges for surfboard deliveries and all these various things for her guests, but she in particular did not want service providers coming inside of her rentals. And her concern is that even though the platform does check for credentials and requires the service providers to have insurance, she's not able to individually verify that and she wants to check it herself and just make sure it's up-to-date. And also, her homeowners' insurance policy only allows registered guests, and so she's not aware that somebody's coming, they wouldn't be registered. So if there was an incident, it would be in violation of her own homeowners' insurance policy. And on social media, it's not hard to find tons of hosts commenting on threads and various forms saying, "Hey, how did you opt out of this?" There's a ChatGPT generated response going around that a bunch of people have sent to Airbnb saying, "Please do not allow services to be performed at my property." Patrick Coffee: There have been some liability and insurance issues with Airbnb in the past. It seems like this could be an ongoing thing depending on how popular the services become. Allison Poley: Yeah, so people are concerned about added liability. It's like introducing another variable. There's already a variable when people are staying in your home, and that's an accepted cost of doing business. And here's another one with services, which some people worry, oh no, if there's a private chef, what happens if they start a kitchen fire or if they are doing a personal training session and they drop weights and there's damage done? Patrick Coffee: What has Airbnb said in response to that? Allison Poley: Airbnb's response to that is that you can pick and choose which services are allowed. Airbnb did introduce a services liability policy. If they do damage to the property or something happens to guests, that policy exists and could potentially kick in. There's just a lot of things that go into various liability policies and insurance claims in general. Patrick Coffee: That was WSJ reporter, Allison Poley. And that's it for Tech News Briefing. Today's show was produced by Charlotte Gartenberg, with supervising producer Melanie Roy. I'm Patrick Coffee for the Wall Street Journal. We'll be back later this morning with your TNB Tech Minute. Thanks for listening.
Wall Street Journal
15-07-2025
- Business
- Wall Street Journal
Fake Vocals and New Styles: AI's Potential Influence on the Music Industry - Tech News Briefing
The rise of artificial intelligence could reshape the music business just as it has sparked headlines and fear around the corporate world. Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. joins host Patrick Coffee to discuss how the new technology will likely swamp listeners with millions of AI-generated songs, but could also help composers overcome writers' block and craft better hooks. Sign up for the WSJ's free Technology newsletter.
Wall Street Journal
18-04-2025
- Business
- Wall Street Journal
Could Google Be Forced to Break Up After District Judge's Ruling? - Tech News Briefing
A U.S. district judge ruled Google is too dominant in some parts of the online ad industry. WSJ business and legal affairs correspondent Jan Wolfe explains how that could result in Google being forced to sell off parts of its business. Then, at some big companies, artificial intelligence is designing ad campaigns with help from human beings, not the other way around. WSJ CMO Today reporter Patrick Coffee explains how marketers are leaning into AI-led strategies. Victoria Craig hosts. Sign up for the WSJ's free Technology newsletter.
