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I've run into a scam recently on AirBNB and several situations that ended up screwing me over. The scam was after booking a nice place in Orlando, Florida for

I've run into a scam recently on AirBNB and several situations that ended up screwing me over. The scam was after booking a nice place in Orlando, Florida for a week through my wife's AirBNB account. The day after booking, the "owner" sent an email saying that they required a photograph of the front and back of her credit card, drivers license picture and full name. Not even a subtle scam, but that would probably fool most people. After contacting AirBNB support(which is a difficult task itself, good luck finding a form), they took 3 days to respond and responded with a "yeah, don't send them that. Sorry". Of course, the listing is still there now when I look. I've also booked trips to Tokyo and LA recently, and in each place the reservation was accepted, payment was made, and 2 weeks before I was set to stay there, the owner canceled the stay. Why? Doesn't matter, the owner can cancel without penalty for "unforeseen circumstances". Of course the renter gets charged a massive fee for canceling including, naturally, AirBNB's fees. My fraud alert is always on high now when using AirBNB and I think no one should put all their vacation eggs in the 1 basket with them. Too unreliable, too flaky on reservations, and too we-don't-care-about-you attitude towards the renters.

pavel_lishin 7y ago
The renter gets charged when the host cancels the reservation?
- nickip 7y ago
  In my experience no. But it puts the renter at a disadvantage. I have had them cancel 5 days before my flight to a small island. Least to say it was extremely expensive to rebook a new room that matched the "quality" of the airbnb I was expecting. Of course if I had cancelled 5 days before I would have been on the hook for half the amount of the stay and the service fees, due to the cancellation policy the host choose (Do the host choose these?).
- bluedevil2k 7y ago
  No, it's a huge inconvenience. I suspect that once their place gets booked via AirBNB, they jack up the price on HomeAway/VRBO and see if they can get a better price, then cancel the AirBNB if they do. It's risk free for them to cancel, so why not.
- floren 7y ago
  He meant that the owner can cancel for free, while if the renter wants to cancel they will most often end up paying a fee. The wording confused me too for a minute.
kingbirdy 7y ago
The asymmetry of the platform is really my biggest gripe. Hosts & AirBnB themselves have basically no way to lose money on the platform and are laughing all the way to the bank, while users can be left with nowhere to stay 5 minutes before check in, and be forced to pay 2-20x what they paid for the AirBnB to get a comparable place last minute. It's absolutely fucked, and it's the same deal for most major corporations.
- thebiglebrewski 7y ago
  Give me a break, Hosts have plenty of ways to lose money and take a huge risk renting their place out in the first place. People cancel last minute (if you have the nicer cancellation policies in place), leave beer bottles everywhere, and are sometimes just really unreasonable. Some guests are great though which makes it worth it! We also have to deal with Airbnb issues, like when a guest leaves a review that isn't true and they leave it up anyway, even if the guest had no evidence, as one example. Don't think that hosts always have it so easy or are all scammers like in this post.
  - bluedevil2k 7y ago
    Even when people cancel last minute, they still have to pay the Service Fee (money to AirBNB). As the OP pointed out, there's asymmetry...AirBNB always wins.
vpEfljFL 7y ago
What bugs me in this thread is that the whole idea of airbnb is cheaply stay in someone's property with "air bed and breakfast" (of course some properties are pricey but in genereal it just another category of bookings than general airbnb hosts). Air bad and breakfast type of hosts could not be reliable by definition. If you want a predictable experience you will get a better luck working with professionals (either hotel chains or high end local hotels). It is a solved problem.
- bluedevil2k 7y ago
  > the whole idea of airbnb is cheaply stay in someone's property with "air bed and breakfast" No, that was the whole idea in the beginning, now "AirBNB" is a high-value brand, built on the idea that you can stay anywhere at any price level like it's your own home.
nowandonly 7y ago
Hi! Could you send over that listing? We believe it's connected to the scam mentioned in the article. I would appreciate any information you have on hand.

pavel_lishin 7y ago

The renter gets charged when the host cancels the reservation?

nickip 7y ago
In my experience no. But it puts the renter at a disadvantage. I have had them cancel 5 days before my flight to a small island. Least to say it was extremely expensive to rebook a new room that matched the "quality" of the airbnb I was expecting. Of course if I had cancelled 5 days before I would have been on the hook for half the amount of the stay and the service fees, due to the cancellation policy the host choose (Do the host choose these?).
bluedevil2k 7y ago
No, it's a huge inconvenience. I suspect that once their place gets booked via AirBNB, they jack up the price on HomeAway/VRBO and see if they can get a better price, then cancel the AirBNB if they do. It's risk free for them to cancel, so why not.
floren 7y ago
He meant that the owner can cancel for free, while if the renter wants to cancel they will most often end up paying a fee. The wording confused me too for a minute.

kingbirdy 7y ago

The asymmetry of the platform is really my biggest gripe. Hosts & AirBnB themselves have basically no way to lose money on the platform and are laughing all the way to the bank, while users can be left with nowhere to stay 5 minutes before check in, and be forced to pay 2-20x what they paid for the AirBnB to get a comparable place last minute. It's absolutely fucked, and it's the same deal for most major corporations.

thebiglebrewski 7y ago
Give me a break, Hosts have plenty of ways to lose money and take a huge risk renting their place out in the first place. People cancel last minute (if you have the nicer cancellation policies in place), leave beer bottles everywhere, and are sometimes just really unreasonable. Some guests are great though which makes it worth it! We also have to deal with Airbnb issues, like when a guest leaves a review that isn't true and they leave it up anyway, even if the guest had no evidence, as one example. Don't think that hosts always have it so easy or are all scammers like in this post.
- bluedevil2k 7y ago
  Even when people cancel last minute, they still have to pay the Service Fee (money to AirBNB). As the OP pointed out, there's asymmetry...AirBNB always wins.

vpEfljFL 7y ago

What bugs me in this thread is that the whole idea of airbnb is cheaply stay in someone's property with "air bed and breakfast" (of course some properties are pricey but in genereal it just another category of bookings than general airbnb hosts). Air bad and breakfast type of hosts could not be reliable by definition. If you want a predictable experience you will get a better luck working with professionals (either hotel chains or high end local hotels). It is a solved problem.

bluedevil2k 7y ago
> the whole idea of airbnb is cheaply stay in someone's property with "air bed and breakfast" No, that was the whole idea in the beginning, now "AirBNB" is a high-value brand, built on the idea that you can stay anywhere at any price level like it's your own home.

nowandonly 7y ago

Hi! Could you send over that listing? We believe it's connected to the scam mentioned in the article. I would appreciate any information you have on hand.