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> He emailed Airbnb's trust and safety team that night. Nothing. > Five more days passed, correspondence shows, without Airbnb assigning a dedicated person to

> He emailed Airbnb's trust and safety team that night. Nothing. > Five more days passed, correspondence shows, without Airbnb assigning a dedicated person to his case. Then on March 23, Airbnb wrote Grewal with what amounted to a shrug. 5 days and then a "shrug"? Wow. That's appalling as far as Customer Service goes. I haven't listed on, or rented from AirBnB. But is this kind of customer service normal or is the incident quoted above an outlier? Even if they intended to respond with a shrug, why did it take 5 DAYS for a response?? Has AirBnB become so big that, like Craiglist, they don't give a Sh*t anymore to the issues their users / customers face because they know that they've captured huge chunk of the market and know that their users ain't going anywhere else anytime soon?

mark212 9y ago
The problem is that Grewal, the owner of the house that was illegally sublet, isn't and never was Airbnb's customer in any sense of the word. There's no incentive to solve his problem and take down the listing. In fact, the incentives run the other way because the real Airbnb customer -- Grewal's tenants -- are generating revenue for the site. It would be very interesting if one of these municipalities changed their ordinance to make the booking agent (Airbnb, VRBO, etc) liable for any violation. And $20,000 per violation in Miami Beach does seem ridiculously excessive.
PeachPlum 9y ago
Imagine it was a newspaper classified ad in your newspaper that someone has paid for all week and someone else phoned up asking you not to reprint it tomorrow. Or the noticeboard in Publix
- danso 9y ago
  That said, there is precedent for third-parties successfully making takedown requests on content. I think most newspapers would agree to take down an ad if it was proven to sell illegal services or goods.
- jeffdavis 9y ago
  Imagine somebody placed a classified add saying: "Free wheels. Find them on the car in the driveway at 123 Main St. Also help yourself to the backyard furniture." And you live at 123 Main St.?
  - PeachPlum 9y ago
    or placed an ad for a stolen car https://duckduckgo.com/?q=unknowingly+bought+stolen+car https://duckduckgo.com/?q=unknowingly+bought+stolen+car

mark212 9y ago

The problem is that Grewal, the owner of the house that was illegally sublet, isn't and never was Airbnb's customer in any sense of the word. There's no incentive to solve his problem and take down the listing. In fact, the incentives run the other way because the real Airbnb customer -- Grewal's tenants -- are generating revenue for the site. It would be very interesting if one of these municipalities changed their ordinance to make the booking agent (Airbnb, VRBO, etc) liable for any violation. And $20,000 per violation in Miami Beach does seem ridiculously excessive.

PeachPlum 9y ago

Imagine it was a newspaper classified ad in your newspaper that someone has paid for all week and someone else phoned up asking you not to reprint it tomorrow. Or the noticeboard in Publix

danso 9y ago
That said, there is precedent for third-parties successfully making takedown requests on content. I think most newspapers would agree to take down an ad if it was proven to sell illegal services or goods.
jeffdavis 9y ago
Imagine somebody placed a classified add saying: "Free wheels. Find them on the car in the driveway at 123 Main St. Also help yourself to the backyard furniture." And you live at 123 Main St.?
- PeachPlum 9y ago
  or placed an ad for a stolen car https://duckduckgo.com/?q=unknowingly+bought+stolen+car https://duckduckgo.com/?q=unknowingly+bought+stolen+car