3 ms·

Here's a single data point: https://www.airbnb.ca/rooms/8618464?checkin=24-03-2017&checkout=25-03-2017&guests=1&adults=1&children=0&infants=0&s=j4d9g87T https:/

by chx 10y ago

Here's a single data point: https://www.airbnb.ca/rooms/8618464?checkin=24-03-2017&checkout=25-03-2017&guests=1&adults=1&children=0&infants=0&s=j4d9g87T https://www.airbnb.ca/rooms/8618464?checkin=24-03-2017&check... I reported this listing to Airbnb more than a year ago and it's still up. As the review says, it's a shitty motel and if you look at the map https://goo.gl/maps/agvWpTr7pEN2 https://goo.gl/maps/agvWpTr7pEN2 or go there personally (which I did) you will immediately see it can not be anything else but a motel because there are no private dwellings at the junction at all! (There's another room https://www.airbnb.ca/rooms/9093980?checkin=22-02-2017&checkout=23-02-2017&adults=1&children=0&infants=0&s=wDMxzxQG https://www.airbnb.ca/rooms/9093980?checkin=22-02-2017&check... listed, same thing) I did a crazy one week trip last January, every day sleeping somewhere else: Tel Hazor, Tel Megiddo, Beer-Sheva, Avdat - Mitzpe Ramon, Eilat, Petra, Amman, fly home. I do not drive. I do not read or speak any Semitic language. It was quite a trip.

kobayashi 10y ago
Yikes. Airbnb really needs to deal with abuses such as those. That's just not fair for customers. I'm interested about why you mention not speaking any Semitic languages. English is pretty-well universally understood there - did you have any problems with language barriers?
- chx 10y ago
  The inability to read is a major hurdle when trying to mass transit. Having a data connection and bus.co.il helps. Not speaking the language only caused problems in Jordan and even there not much.
- c06n 10y ago
  > English is pretty-well universally understood there No, this is absolutely not the case. I was there just over Christmas, and we did have problems to communicate with locals. Sure, the college educated all speak English. They don't work as bus drivers or at the gas station though. But these are the people I interact with the most as a tourist. That is not to say that people aren't multilingual there. I'm sure they all speak two or three languages. Such as Hebrew, Arabic or Russian. Israel isn't just Tel Aviv.
  - kobayashi 10y ago
    That's a good point. You can get around Tel Aviv while only speaking English, but perhaps not so much in the north.
chx 10y ago
I just looked it up, it's the Savyonei Hagalil Hotel (formally Etap Galilee), there's nothing else there.

by chx 10y ago

kobayashi 10y ago

Yikes. Airbnb really needs to deal with abuses such as those. That's just not fair for customers. I'm interested about why you mention not speaking any Semitic languages. English is pretty-well universally understood there - did you have any problems with language barriers?

chx 10y ago
The inability to read is a major hurdle when trying to mass transit. Having a data connection and bus.co.il helps. Not speaking the language only caused problems in Jordan and even there not much.
c06n 10y ago
> English is pretty-well universally understood there No, this is absolutely not the case. I was there just over Christmas, and we did have problems to communicate with locals. Sure, the college educated all speak English. They don't work as bus drivers or at the gas station though. But these are the people I interact with the most as a tourist. That is not to say that people aren't multilingual there. I'm sure they all speak two or three languages. Such as Hebrew, Arabic or Russian. Israel isn't just Tel Aviv.
- kobayashi 10y ago
  That's a good point. You can get around Tel Aviv while only speaking English, but perhaps not so much in the north.

chx 10y ago

I just looked it up, it's the Savyonei Hagalil Hotel (formally Etap Galilee), there's nothing else there.