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Comment by pclowes

12 hours ago

Sadly I have encountered this on multiple different kinds of European tech platforms. There is some deep cultural disconnect on understanding how/why American tech companies are successful.

Most often they seem to ape most of major US tech platforms functionality but critically somehow miss the "make something people want" and instead make something that:

- Sort of works? Has all the major screens but the whole experience just feels off and not well thought out.

- Is basically a way for locals to prey on tourists. Or is easily abused to scam etc.

Bluntly that is not a viable business model. Additionally tourism as a whole will not build a durable and innovative economy.

There is this distinct disinterest in serving the customer. Making the experience delightful, frictionless, feeling good is oddly foreign. I basically gave up trying to use local things unless I have to because when things go poorly customer support is basically non-existent.

I know Uber, AirBnb etc for better or worse. I don't want to deal with whatever surprising edge case or unexpectedly subpar experience is normed on the local platforms.

14 comments

pclowes

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twiss  12 hours ago

It's interesting to claim that tourism in Europe won't be "durable" at a moment when tourism in the US is sharply declining..

Anyway, Booking.com is a European company and has many more customers than AirBnB.

  • pclowes  12 hours ago

    I don't understand what you are trying to claim. 1. Booking.com is owned by Booking Holdings which is an American parent company. 2. US GDP growth has been massively outperforming the EU since 2008.

    I am saying tourism is not something governments should want to heavily optimize an economy for. No amount of taking money from people on vacation will translate into building a more competitive or innovative economy.

    • twiss  12 hours ago

      Apparently Priceline.com Inc. took over Booking.com (founded in the Netherlands) for € 110 million, and then changed its name to Booking Holdings to reflect the fact that Booking.com was much bigger than Priceline.com. Indeed a great example of "American innovation" :)

  • legitster  12 hours ago

    Apples and Oranges. Booking.com is an aggregator.

    Also, Booking.com is unbelievably exploitative and rife with dark patterns.

    • twiss  12 hours ago

      How so? At least Booking.com shows me the total price for an accommodation up front, without any additional fees or surprises coming up later in the booking process.

      The same cannot be said for AirBnB: if I go to the home page right now it lists a bunch of bookings for e.g. "€ 80 for 2 nights", while when I click through the total price is €160. So apparently what they meant is "€80 per night". I'd call that much more of a dark pattern than anything I've seen Booking do.

      2 replies →

    • TremendousJudge  12 hours ago

      > Also, Booking.com is unbelievably exploitative and rife with dark patterns.

      So it seems that Europeans have no issue doing the same thing as American tech companies?

socalgal2  12 hours ago

I know this is an anecdote but I was curious if Europeans can tell me if this is a one-off experience or if there is something more to do this.

I was booked to catch a DBS train from Brussels to Berlin at 9:45 am. I get to the station at 9:25 looking for the train, can't find it. I go to the counter and get told the train came early at 9:15 then "Not my fault" (the first words out of the DBS attendant's mouth").

I got this same thing from a Swiss Air attendant when something happened. Nearly the first words were "Not My Fault"

I'm not sure I've ever heard that from a customer service rep in the USA and it was shocking to hear those words as the first like conditioned/scripted words from these reps.

I only brought it up because of it seemed to fit the previous comment of poor customer service.

  • twiss  12 hours ago

    I think there is some cultural difference between the US and Europe where in the US it's seen as somewhat OK to hold the customer service agents as personally responsible for the failings of the company, and treat them accordingly. Customer service agents in Europe dealing with Americans may feel the need to point out that they're not personally responsible for fear of said treatment. That (hopefully) doesn't mean that they won't try to help you, just that they hope you won't be angry at them personally.

    It may sometimes be useful to verbalize this explicitly by saying "I know you're not responsible for this, but can you please do XYZ to solve the issue", and if it's a reasonable request I assume they'd be happy to comply. Depending on the country and culture, you may also need to be slightly more direct in asking (nicely!) for what you want, rather than hoping that the customer service rep will "make it right" by guessing what you want. You may perceive that as bad service but I think it's mainly about differing communication styles.

  • comrade1234  12 hours ago

    No I've never heard that. I'm an American living in Europe for 20 years. For Swissair you're more likely to hear "it's your fault" because Americans don't understand some concepts that are normal here, like reserving your seat , or, nor swissair related, wire transferring your chalet fee bank-to-bank rather than going through a third-party like Airbnb.