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I continue to use AirBnb but have been pretty disappointed in their customer service. I rent out a family cabin occasionally and someone who stayed there scratc

I continue to use AirBnb but have been pretty disappointed in their customer service. I rent out a family cabin occasionally and someone who stayed there scratched the floor accidentally wearing winter boots with spikes on them. They admitted this, apologized and were generally totally awesome about it. It took me months to get Airbnb to figure out how to deduct money from their damage deposit. They first said I had to call the police and get a police report, which I refused to do -- call the police on these nice tenants who already explained it was their mistake and were 100% willing to pay! Ridiculous. Every few times we'd exchange support emails it seemed like some new person would take over and never read the past emails so I had to repeat the same stuff multiple time. Ultimately I ended up emailing the CEO after I found some blog post where he said he wanted to personally hear from everyone and anyone. He never replied but the problem magically got fixed soon thereafter. I fear the day I end up with really terrible hosts like you did because I have no faith AirBnb will actually be there for me. Looking forward to trying housetrip, there really need to be a solid alternative to AirBnb.

ogezi 11y ago
That's the problem with the on-demand companies' business model, you often have to put complete trust in complete strangers. This is generally dangerously. But this won't get the coverage it deserves until an "important" host is seriously injured or even killed by a guest.
- ethbro 11y ago
  I think this is more the eBay/PayPal problem: if you are soliciting both sellers and buyers on your service, you are going to have various moments of ethical crisis when it makes absolute business sense to screw over one or the other (the two not always being in balance or not providing you the same amount of revenue). So what do you do? AirBnB without listings is like eBay without listings. (Though I've generally heard that eBay tends to come down on the pro-buyer side)
  - ghaff 11y ago
    Even without the ethical crisis, there are simply going to be situations where the true facts are simply unknowable to a customer service rep. So, do you screw over the person providing the property (who may in fact be a lying scumbag)? Or do you screw over the other person renting the property (who may be the lying scumbag)? (Or may simply have utterly unreasonable expectations.) And, yes, my understanding is that eBay evolved to simply default to the buyer being right.
- codyb 11y ago
  Generally dangerous seems disingenuous. I think it's generally practical to assume most people are decent human beings. It's worked very well for me over time (and clearly has worked for services like uber, lyft, ebay, craigslist, airbnb, etc), but it when bad actors appear (as they always do once you hit a certain number of persons involved), it's what happens then that counts the most. I think E-bay has tended to handle things very well, I haven't heard many horror stories about them (if ever), and they've been around for quite some time (as software companies go) and quite successful. Uber and AirBnB on the other hand I've heard plenty of horror stories from. It may (or may not be) the reason I've not used Uber in months and months and have only ever booked a room once on AirBnB (which I cancelled last minute and still paid for).
- knorby 11y ago
  That's true under so many circumstances. If you book a chain hotel, you are really just trusting that the chain has reasonably tight control over the quality of the branch. There are plenty of 'nightmare' hotels out there, and the main guard are reviews, which isn't too far off from airbnb (a hotel will have a higher volume of guests to leave reviews, and the social incentives are different, which is why I didn't call them the same).
k3oni 11y ago
A bit off-topic but curious if you usee AirBnB only or if you tried HomeAway/VRBO as well?
- flippyhead 11y ago
  It's a fair point. I've tried them, but the AirBnb product is just so superior. Easier to use with better options. Also I hate that I have to pre-pay on VRBO
- pavornyoh 11y ago
  Airbnb is much better than homeaway.
potatolicious 11y ago
This seems like a theme with pretty much all internet companies, big and small - undercut the competition by cutting corners on things that "don't matter", until they matter. Google for example has almost no way to reach customer service, even for their paid products. When it works it works great, when it doesn't God Help You. Ditto Uber/Lyft/other cab companies, where there seems to be no end of people who were put in seriously unsafe situations and were unable to get any attention to their issues until they blogged about it. Who knows how many cases we haven't heard of because they weren't able to get their concerns to the top of Reddit/HN/wherever. This sort of thing happens in any low-margin business. Not only is there not enough money to hire good customer service, but what little customer service exists is not empowered to make things right for the customer, because thin margins and $$$. It turns out that keeping spare rooms on standby, generous rescheduling/rebooking policies, and all the niceties we associate with hotels are powered by the fatter margins they enjoy. The big innovation we've made in the last few years is making low-margin low-rent business models seem boutique and high-end.
- pdappollonio 11y ago
  (Disclaimer: I'm in no way affiliated with Uber or Lyft) It's nice to say that for me and my family, Uber and Lyft has been so professional. We moved from Latin America to Miami a year and 2 months ago and the whole time we've been using Uber / Lyft for our needs. We faced about 4 or 5 crazy moment where Uber / Lyft has solve our problems putting themselves in our side rather than in the driver's side. One instance a driver accepted our ride, reached our apartment and then start driving away. We did not understood at first until he called us and say "I'm going to be delayed to get you guys, so please hang tight". I told him it could be fine if he didn't started the ride already like we were already with him on his car. He said "it is the standard procedure". Bullshit. We cancelled the ride and contacted Uber support. They removed the driver from the service (allegedly, it has happened before) and they refunded us close to 12 USD. Similar situation happened with Lyft.
- cptskippy 11y ago
  > Google for example has almost no way to reach customer service, even for their paid products. When it works it works great, when it doesn't God Help You. That's not entirely true, I think it depends on the product. I've had to contact them about two different Nexus devices and got someone on the phone in minutes. The support was unbelievable and the matters resolved in record time. Google Apps also has 24/7 phone support for paying customers.
josefresco 11y ago
"Ultimately I ended up emailing the CEO after I found some blog post where he said he wanted to personally hear from everyone and anyone. He never replied but the problem magically got fixed soon thereafter." This is more damning than the parent article.
fokinsean 11y ago
Have you tried HomeAway?
rsync 11y ago
"Looking forward to trying housetrip, there really need to be a solid alternative to AirBnb." I'm just passing though this thread and have almost zero experience with airbnb, but I have used VRBO several times per year since 2005 and it's been wonderful. I've used it in several countries, in many states of the US, for studio apartments up to 5BR houses. It's great. It's like the craigslist of this category - sort of ugly and old fashioned looking, but it works.
rangitatanz 11y ago
Never heard of housetrip. Just tried it now for a holiday I have coming up looks like it's got some serious issues - was finding me houses miles away from where I wanted to go and indicating that they were far closer.

ogezi 11y ago

That's the problem with the on-demand companies' business model, you often have to put complete trust in complete strangers. This is generally dangerously. But this won't get the coverage it deserves until an "important" host is seriously injured or even killed by a guest.

ethbro 11y ago
I think this is more the eBay/PayPal problem: if you are soliciting both sellers and buyers on your service, you are going to have various moments of ethical crisis when it makes absolute business sense to screw over one or the other (the two not always being in balance or not providing you the same amount of revenue). So what do you do? AirBnB without listings is like eBay without listings. (Though I've generally heard that eBay tends to come down on the pro-buyer side)
- ghaff 11y ago
  Even without the ethical crisis, there are simply going to be situations where the true facts are simply unknowable to a customer service rep. So, do you screw over the person providing the property (who may in fact be a lying scumbag)? Or do you screw over the other person renting the property (who may be the lying scumbag)? (Or may simply have utterly unreasonable expectations.) And, yes, my understanding is that eBay evolved to simply default to the buyer being right.
codyb 11y ago
Generally dangerous seems disingenuous. I think it's generally practical to assume most people are decent human beings. It's worked very well for me over time (and clearly has worked for services like uber, lyft, ebay, craigslist, airbnb, etc), but it when bad actors appear (as they always do once you hit a certain number of persons involved), it's what happens then that counts the most. I think E-bay has tended to handle things very well, I haven't heard many horror stories about them (if ever), and they've been around for quite some time (as software companies go) and quite successful. Uber and AirBnB on the other hand I've heard plenty of horror stories from. It may (or may not be) the reason I've not used Uber in months and months and have only ever booked a room once on AirBnB (which I cancelled last minute and still paid for).
knorby 11y ago
That's true under so many circumstances. If you book a chain hotel, you are really just trusting that the chain has reasonably tight control over the quality of the branch. There are plenty of 'nightmare' hotels out there, and the main guard are reviews, which isn't too far off from airbnb (a hotel will have a higher volume of guests to leave reviews, and the social incentives are different, which is why I didn't call them the same).

k3oni 11y ago

A bit off-topic but curious if you usee AirBnB only or if you tried HomeAway/VRBO as well?

flippyhead 11y ago
It's a fair point. I've tried them, but the AirBnb product is just so superior. Easier to use with better options. Also I hate that I have to pre-pay on VRBO
pavornyoh 11y ago
Airbnb is much better than homeaway.

potatolicious 11y ago

This seems like a theme with pretty much all internet companies, big and small - undercut the competition by cutting corners on things that "don't matter", until they matter. Google for example has almost no way to reach customer service, even for their paid products. When it works it works great, when it doesn't God Help You. Ditto Uber/Lyft/other cab companies, where there seems to be no end of people who were put in seriously unsafe situations and were unable to get any attention to their issues until they blogged about it. Who knows how many cases we haven't heard of because they weren't able to get their concerns to the top of Reddit/HN/wherever. This sort of thing happens in any low-margin business. Not only is there not enough money to hire good customer service, but what little customer service exists is not empowered to make things right for the customer, because thin margins and $$$. It turns out that keeping spare rooms on standby, generous rescheduling/rebooking policies, and all the niceties we associate with hotels are powered by the fatter margins they enjoy. The big innovation we've made in the last few years is making low-margin low-rent business models seem boutique and high-end.

pdappollonio 11y ago
(Disclaimer: I'm in no way affiliated with Uber or Lyft) It's nice to say that for me and my family, Uber and Lyft has been so professional. We moved from Latin America to Miami a year and 2 months ago and the whole time we've been using Uber / Lyft for our needs. We faced about 4 or 5 crazy moment where Uber / Lyft has solve our problems putting themselves in our side rather than in the driver's side. One instance a driver accepted our ride, reached our apartment and then start driving away. We did not understood at first until he called us and say "I'm going to be delayed to get you guys, so please hang tight". I told him it could be fine if he didn't started the ride already like we were already with him on his car. He said "it is the standard procedure". Bullshit. We cancelled the ride and contacted Uber support. They removed the driver from the service (allegedly, it has happened before) and they refunded us close to 12 USD. Similar situation happened with Lyft.
cptskippy 11y ago
> Google for example has almost no way to reach customer service, even for their paid products. When it works it works great, when it doesn't God Help You. That's not entirely true, I think it depends on the product. I've had to contact them about two different Nexus devices and got someone on the phone in minutes. The support was unbelievable and the matters resolved in record time. Google Apps also has 24/7 phone support for paying customers.

josefresco 11y ago

"Ultimately I ended up emailing the CEO after I found some blog post where he said he wanted to personally hear from everyone and anyone. He never replied but the problem magically got fixed soon thereafter." This is more damning than the parent article.

fokinsean 11y ago

Have you tried HomeAway?

rsync 11y ago

"Looking forward to trying housetrip, there really need to be a solid alternative to AirBnb." I'm just passing though this thread and have almost zero experience with airbnb, but I have used VRBO several times per year since 2005 and it's been wonderful. I've used it in several countries, in many states of the US, for studio apartments up to 5BR houses. It's great. It's like the craigslist of this category - sort of ugly and old fashioned looking, but it works.

rangitatanz 11y ago

Never heard of housetrip. Just tried it now for a holiday I have coming up looks like it's got some serious issues - was finding me houses miles away from where I wanted to go and indicating that they were far closer.