5 ms·

>Airbnb do not care about guests and their safety at all. I don't know. It seems like it would be a nightmare to sort through a he-said she-said after the fact

by deveac 11y ago

>Airbnb do not care about guests and their safety at all. I don't know. It seems like it would be a nightmare to sort through a he-said she-said after the fact when the offended party didn't even book a stay (instead the room was booked by some other person that is insisting "no, it's cool, I know them"), and furthermore didn't even report the apartment not being available when the issue occurred. It's nice that they were "all cool" with the host and decided to play musical buildings instead of contacting Airbnb right there, but when they did that, they went off the books and severely limited Airbnb's ability to quickly and effectively sort through the issue. A customer that didn't even book a room though the service had an issue and went with a "handshake" from the host to resolve it instead. Let's walk through the alternate scenario. Customer desiring a room actually books a room through AirBnB. Customer arrives and hosts tells them the apartment is no longer available. Customer contacts AirBnB and the issue is dealt with right then and there, and the host is sanctioned properly. No driving around in a strange city to a place you've never set eyes on, and if you want to book another apartment with the host, you do it on the books.

Elessar 11y ago
Have you ever travelled to a foreign country where you don't speak the language? You really need to put yourself in the tourist's shoes. If I booked a tour and the host drove me to a different place to stay, that's all I can do. You rely on their ability to communicate, and if they're being kind and doing their best to make your stay comfortable, then that's fantastic. What you're suggesting is that you're going to start making international calls with some website's support staff while you have luggage on the street, no place to stay, in a foreign city and completely on your own. You're also going to blow off the only person (the host) who cares at all about your situation. Are you kidding me?
- icebraining 11y ago
  If I booked a tour and the host drove me to a different place to stay, that's all I can do. Unless you're staying in some remote place, absolutely not! You can and should find some other place to stay unless the whole situation is very well explained. In any major city in the world, there are hotels and motels which speak English and other languages. There are also local guides if you need help making yourself understood. Just being helpless and allowing the host to take you wherever they want is not safe!
- deveac 11y ago
  >You're also going to blow off the only person (the host) who cares at all about your situation. Are we reading the same article? The host in this situation advertised a room for let, waited until his guests were on site in the city and contacting him to get the key, then yanked the listing. You're accusing the customer of blowing off the host in this hypothetical? Any given hotel on any given street cares more than that host. >What you're suggesting is that you're going to start making international calls with some website's support staff while you have luggage on the street, no place to stay, in a foreign city and completely on your own. Sorry. Imo you're completely dramatizing how hard it is to inform Airbnb of an issue. If you've got either a cell signal or a data connection, the computer in your pocket can take care of this in the time it takes for the host to get to you. You can actually do this with your luggage beside you, and I'd argue that it's a better use of time than driving to an off-the-books apartment that you've never laid eyes on in a completely foreign city. Also, Aribnb provides a local 24/7 phone number in the original confirmation email so you don't have to just rely on the web form. >Have you ever travelled to a foreign country where you don't speak the language? Yes I have.
- matwood 11y ago
  > Have you ever travelled to a foreign country where you don't speak the language? Yep. I've dealt with all sorts in random countries where I didn't speak the language. A common tactic of someone trying to rip you off is to say they don't know English and then try to scam more money in the confusion. > What you're suggesting is that you're going to start making international calls with some website's support staff while you have luggage on the street, no place to stay, in a foreign city and completely on your own. Um, yeah. Either get a WIFI signal and email AirBnB or call them. At this point I would assume the host is shit and move on letting them know a horrible review is incoming and I will ask for my money back from AirBnB. Does the situation suck? Absolutely, but don't let it completely derail you. Plans break down all the time, deal with it and move on. For the record, I have used AirBnb/VRBOs throughout much of Europe without any issue. In places like Hungary and Croatia my trip was enhanced because the hosts were so awesome.
- mikeash 11y ago
  I've traveled quite a bit, including to Barcelona. If you speak English (and this person clearly does) then "don't speak the language" is not an issue there, or indeed almost anywhere. If I book a place for a certain period, then I'm staying for that whole period. If the host suddenly changes their mind and tells me I have to move, no way. I'm contacting the booking agency and having them tell the host to get lost. If the booking agency doesn't help then I'm initiating a chargeback and finding a hotel. At no point is it reasonable to just pack up, hop into a complete stranger's car at their insistence, and be driven off to some place where they won't even tell you where you're going. Traveling used to be pretty interesting when things went wrong. I got stranded in the Beijing airport once with only a rudimentary command of Mandarin because the airline canceled my flight and never told me, and I had to hunt down an airline employee, borrow a phone so I could contact people, etc. But now? Bring a smartphone and you're a few taps away from communicating with anybody you need. Host is being obstinate? Call AirBnB. Still doesn't work? Book a new place. You make a mistake taking a car with a stranger and he takes you to a place where you don't even know where it is? Open up a maps app and find out where you are. Can't talk to people? Google Translate to the rescue. You better believe that if the host refuses to honor our agreement and starts trying to jerk me around, I'm going to blow them off and sit with my luggage in the street while I resolve the problem myself. Relying on strangers to fix your problems, when said strangers have already demonstrated that they don't really care about you, is setting yourself up to be a victim.
  - massysett 11y ago
    If I'm staying in a stranger's house and they tell me to clear out, I would leave immediately. No way I would stay and hope Airbnb tells the host to get it straight. The host can make your life miserable, take your stuff, or worse.
  - yardie 11y ago
    You place far too much faith in AirBnB's customer service line. I've called it before. I've sat outside the apartment I rented waiting on hold listening to the same 3 damn songs forever (hey did you know the music they've selected is produced by their employees?). AirBnB wasn't reachable when I needed them the most. Sitting on the curb with my wife and 4yo at 10PM without a place to go. Trying desperately to find any hotel with a vacancy at the height of tourist season in a small tourist town. That incident has soured my wife on me ever booking a sharing economy rental again.
- pfortuny 11y ago
  Well, using AirBnb instead of a hotel or similar has this inherent risks... Now, these are the kind of problems those companies have already sorted out.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
jasonlotito 11y ago
> Customer contacts AirBnB According to the article this didn't work. They had to resort to Twitter. Frankly, if their resolution center doesn't provide a phone number that can be used 24/7, than any demand to contact AirBnB with issues is bullshit. I had similar issues with Uber and their inadequate customer service. If I can't reach someone directly for services like this, they clearly have issues with pleasing their customers.
- nikanj 11y ago
  It does, I spent almost three hours listening to their waiting tunes this summer. Average time in line was about an hour, and if they ask you to call back, you need to wait in queue again.
- aianus 11y ago
  They already had their money back. At this point, give a bad review and move on with your life. If this is standard operating procedure for this host, he won't last on Airbnb.
- deveac 11y ago
  > Frankly, if their resolution center doesn't provide a phone number that can be used 24/7, than any demand to contact AirBnB with issues is bullshit. They're available by phone 24/7, and they provide a local contact number for you in your reservation confirmation email.
  - mannykannot 11y ago
    Providing a phone number is the easy part. Providing effective service through that number is the expensive part.
vinceguidry 11y ago
> It seems like it would be a nightmare to sort through a he-said she-said after the fact when the offended party didn't even book a stay (instead the room was booked by some other person that is insisting "no, it's cool, I know them"), and furthermore didn't even report the apartment not being available when the issue occurred. It's AirBnB's job to do this, sort out these kinds of situations. It's not that hard to come up with a 'nuclear option' to exercise in these situations, where the customer can get a resolution and the host gets a sharp enough slap on the wrist to where it's unprofitable to build a business out of bilking people on AirBnB's platform. Seems to me that there might be a bit of a leadership vacuum at the company, running AirBnB in as many countries as they're running it in, I imagine not all of the outfits are going to be fully competent. If not even Twitter escalation is solving the problem though, maybe its the executives sleeping at the wheel.
- danmaz74 11y ago
  AirBnB can't slap wrists of hosts without very clear proof of their wrongdoing - which wasn't the case here. In a p2p system like this, it's the bad ratings that need to make this kind of dealings unprofitable.
  - jellicle 11y ago
    Oh, that's not true at all. Ebay showed - and the writer of this article realizes - that you can fuck sellers around all day long. AirBNB could implement a "if any customer complains, for any reason, the landlord doesn't get paid" 100% guarantee policy, and the landlords would have to take it. They not only don't need "very clear proof", they don't need any proof at all.
    - ghaff 11y ago
      That does require however, for better or worse, a deliberate decision to operate in that manner. Certainly many eBay sellers, many of whom were doubtless perfectly respectable, became very disillusioned with eBay once they tilted in that direction.
ghaff 11y ago
I don't really blame the renters here although, in retrospect, they'd obviously have been better doing things differently. At the same time, in the grand scheme of bad customer service from big Internet companies, Airbnb doesn't look like a huge offender here. Photos from balconies notwithstanding, there is apparently a lot of he-said, she-said to sort through here and it's really hard for an Airbnb (or an eBay etc.) to sort through that. What usually evolves over time (to the dissatisfaction of one side of transactions or another) is policies that strongly default to favor the buyer or the seller.
moomin 11y ago
Yeah, it's a difficult problem. It's also part of _their core business model_. Like it or not, this post is saying they're incompetent.
debacle 11y ago
> Customer contacts AirBnB and the issue is dealt with right then and there, and the host is sanctioned properly. And customer has nowhere to sleep. During a big conference. In a foreign country.

by deveac 11y ago

Elessar 11y ago

Have you ever travelled to a foreign country where you don't speak the language? You really need to put yourself in the tourist's shoes. If I booked a tour and the host drove me to a different place to stay, that's all I can do. You rely on their ability to communicate, and if they're being kind and doing their best to make your stay comfortable, then that's fantastic. What you're suggesting is that you're going to start making international calls with some website's support staff while you have luggage on the street, no place to stay, in a foreign city and completely on your own. You're also going to blow off the only person (the host) who cares at all about your situation. Are you kidding me?

icebraining 11y ago
If I booked a tour and the host drove me to a different place to stay, that's all I can do. Unless you're staying in some remote place, absolutely not! You can and should find some other place to stay unless the whole situation is very well explained. In any major city in the world, there are hotels and motels which speak English and other languages. There are also local guides if you need help making yourself understood. Just being helpless and allowing the host to take you wherever they want is not safe!
deveac 11y ago
>You're also going to blow off the only person (the host) who cares at all about your situation. Are we reading the same article? The host in this situation advertised a room for let, waited until his guests were on site in the city and contacting him to get the key, then yanked the listing. You're accusing the customer of blowing off the host in this hypothetical? Any given hotel on any given street cares more than that host. >What you're suggesting is that you're going to start making international calls with some website's support staff while you have luggage on the street, no place to stay, in a foreign city and completely on your own. Sorry. Imo you're completely dramatizing how hard it is to inform Airbnb of an issue. If you've got either a cell signal or a data connection, the computer in your pocket can take care of this in the time it takes for the host to get to you. You can actually do this with your luggage beside you, and I'd argue that it's a better use of time than driving to an off-the-books apartment that you've never laid eyes on in a completely foreign city. Also, Aribnb provides a local 24/7 phone number in the original confirmation email so you don't have to just rely on the web form. >Have you ever travelled to a foreign country where you don't speak the language? Yes I have.
matwood 11y ago
> Have you ever travelled to a foreign country where you don't speak the language? Yep. I've dealt with all sorts in random countries where I didn't speak the language. A common tactic of someone trying to rip you off is to say they don't know English and then try to scam more money in the confusion. > What you're suggesting is that you're going to start making international calls with some website's support staff while you have luggage on the street, no place to stay, in a foreign city and completely on your own. Um, yeah. Either get a WIFI signal and email AirBnB or call them. At this point I would assume the host is shit and move on letting them know a horrible review is incoming and I will ask for my money back from AirBnB. Does the situation suck? Absolutely, but don't let it completely derail you. Plans break down all the time, deal with it and move on. For the record, I have used AirBnb/VRBOs throughout much of Europe without any issue. In places like Hungary and Croatia my trip was enhanced because the hosts were so awesome.
mikeash 11y ago
I've traveled quite a bit, including to Barcelona. If you speak English (and this person clearly does) then "don't speak the language" is not an issue there, or indeed almost anywhere. If I book a place for a certain period, then I'm staying for that whole period. If the host suddenly changes their mind and tells me I have to move, no way. I'm contacting the booking agency and having them tell the host to get lost. If the booking agency doesn't help then I'm initiating a chargeback and finding a hotel. At no point is it reasonable to just pack up, hop into a complete stranger's car at their insistence, and be driven off to some place where they won't even tell you where you're going. Traveling used to be pretty interesting when things went wrong. I got stranded in the Beijing airport once with only a rudimentary command of Mandarin because the airline canceled my flight and never told me, and I had to hunt down an airline employee, borrow a phone so I could contact people, etc. But now? Bring a smartphone and you're a few taps away from communicating with anybody you need. Host is being obstinate? Call AirBnB. Still doesn't work? Book a new place. You make a mistake taking a car with a stranger and he takes you to a place where you don't even know where it is? Open up a maps app and find out where you are. Can't talk to people? Google Translate to the rescue. You better believe that if the host refuses to honor our agreement and starts trying to jerk me around, I'm going to blow them off and sit with my luggage in the street while I resolve the problem myself. Relying on strangers to fix your problems, when said strangers have already demonstrated that they don't really care about you, is setting yourself up to be a victim.
- massysett 11y ago
  If I'm staying in a stranger's house and they tell me to clear out, I would leave immediately. No way I would stay and hope Airbnb tells the host to get it straight. The host can make your life miserable, take your stuff, or worse.
- yardie 11y ago
  You place far too much faith in AirBnB's customer service line. I've called it before. I've sat outside the apartment I rented waiting on hold listening to the same 3 damn songs forever (hey did you know the music they've selected is produced by their employees?). AirBnB wasn't reachable when I needed them the most. Sitting on the curb with my wife and 4yo at 10PM without a place to go. Trying desperately to find any hotel with a vacancy at the height of tourist season in a small tourist town. That incident has soured my wife on me ever booking a sharing economy rental again.
pfortuny 11y ago
Well, using AirBnb instead of a hotel or similar has this inherent risks... Now, these are the kind of problems those companies have already sorted out.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]

jasonlotito 11y ago

> Customer contacts AirBnB According to the article this didn't work. They had to resort to Twitter. Frankly, if their resolution center doesn't provide a phone number that can be used 24/7, than any demand to contact AirBnB with issues is bullshit. I had similar issues with Uber and their inadequate customer service. If I can't reach someone directly for services like this, they clearly have issues with pleasing their customers.

nikanj 11y ago
It does, I spent almost three hours listening to their waiting tunes this summer. Average time in line was about an hour, and if they ask you to call back, you need to wait in queue again.
aianus 11y ago
They already had their money back. At this point, give a bad review and move on with your life. If this is standard operating procedure for this host, he won't last on Airbnb.
deveac 11y ago
> Frankly, if their resolution center doesn't provide a phone number that can be used 24/7, than any demand to contact AirBnB with issues is bullshit. They're available by phone 24/7, and they provide a local contact number for you in your reservation confirmation email.
- mannykannot 11y ago
  Providing a phone number is the easy part. Providing effective service through that number is the expensive part.

vinceguidry 11y ago

> It seems like it would be a nightmare to sort through a he-said she-said after the fact when the offended party didn't even book a stay (instead the room was booked by some other person that is insisting "no, it's cool, I know them"), and furthermore didn't even report the apartment not being available when the issue occurred. It's AirBnB's job to do this, sort out these kinds of situations. It's not that hard to come up with a 'nuclear option' to exercise in these situations, where the customer can get a resolution and the host gets a sharp enough slap on the wrist to where it's unprofitable to build a business out of bilking people on AirBnB's platform. Seems to me that there might be a bit of a leadership vacuum at the company, running AirBnB in as many countries as they're running it in, I imagine not all of the outfits are going to be fully competent. If not even Twitter escalation is solving the problem though, maybe its the executives sleeping at the wheel.

danmaz74 11y ago
AirBnB can't slap wrists of hosts without very clear proof of their wrongdoing - which wasn't the case here. In a p2p system like this, it's the bad ratings that need to make this kind of dealings unprofitable.
- jellicle 11y ago
  Oh, that's not true at all. Ebay showed - and the writer of this article realizes - that you can fuck sellers around all day long. AirBNB could implement a "if any customer complains, for any reason, the landlord doesn't get paid" 100% guarantee policy, and the landlords would have to take it. They not only don't need "very clear proof", they don't need any proof at all.
  - ghaff 11y ago
    That does require however, for better or worse, a deliberate decision to operate in that manner. Certainly many eBay sellers, many of whom were doubtless perfectly respectable, became very disillusioned with eBay once they tilted in that direction.

ghaff 11y ago

I don't really blame the renters here although, in retrospect, they'd obviously have been better doing things differently. At the same time, in the grand scheme of bad customer service from big Internet companies, Airbnb doesn't look like a huge offender here. Photos from balconies notwithstanding, there is apparently a lot of he-said, she-said to sort through here and it's really hard for an Airbnb (or an eBay etc.) to sort through that. What usually evolves over time (to the dissatisfaction of one side of transactions or another) is policies that strongly default to favor the buyer or the seller.

moomin 11y ago

Yeah, it's a difficult problem. It's also part of _their core business model_. Like it or not, this post is saying they're incompetent.

debacle 11y ago

> Customer contacts AirBnB and the issue is dealt with right then and there, and the host is sanctioned properly. And customer has nowhere to sleep. During a big conference. In a foreign country.