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Excited to learn more about the specifics. Really hoping people don't flood this thread with their anecdotal bad Airbnb experiences ("I paid below market rate t

Excited to learn more about the specifics. Really hoping people don't flood this thread with their anecdotal bad Airbnb experiences ("I paid below market rate this one time 6 years ago and got a crappy host, therefore this company is going to fail!"), which seems to happen every-time someone mentions their name.

iends 6y ago
The company will do great, I'm sure. airbnb sides too much with the host in my experience. When a host left me and my family in an unsafe environment due to a gas leak, airbnb was impossible to work with. It took months of escalation with airbnb to get things fixed, despite providing all the documentation required the same day that I didn't stay at the property and had to book a last minute hotel at increased cost. :)
- iratewizard 6y ago
  We run multiple vacation rentals through airbnb and others. AirBNB does not side with the host more often. It prefers to do nothing. We had drug dealers moving product from one. We told airbnb not to contact the guests. They contact them anyways trying to "resolve" the situation. Every time guests break rules like smoking that have clearly posted fees, airbnb says they can't help. Even when the guests admit to it. When we needed to call CPS on morons endangering their one year old, we were not able to get the guests information to give to the police. Their support will straight up lie to you to resolve cases faster.
johnfn 6y ago
Got punched in the face outside of an Airbnb once and left immediately. Host charged me for damages including blood on the towel because I got punched. Airbnb sided with the host.
- lotophage 6y ago
  Was it the host's fault that you got punched?
  - johnfn 6y ago
    Did I say it was? It is the host's fault for charging me damages outside of my control. It is also Airbnb's fault for refusing to take a side.
    - lotophage 6y ago
      You bled all over the host's towel, was that in their control? They have to replace that once it's been soiled with blood.
      - johnfn 6y ago
        This is one of those examples where someone's point of view is so foreign to me that I start wondering if they live on another planet. You seem to insinuate that because it wasn't within the host's control that I bled on their towel that it somehow falls on me instead. What? Did I choose to bleed, then? I mean, obviously it seems to me that it should fall on Airbnb itself to pay in cases like these. Perhaps the owner of the house should have demanded funds from Airbnb in exceptional cases like these. The outrage here is that the owner of the Airbnb - and you, apparently - seem to think that it's somehow a burden that I myself have to bear, as if I chose to get punched in the face. Oh and by the way I did pay a standard multi-hundred-dollar cleaning fee. Apparently that wasn't enough, though. If I got in a car crash in an Uber, because another car backed into me, do you think they would have fined me if my head hit the headrest in front of me and I got a bloody nose? To suggest as much would be outrageous. In fact, I have gotten into a car crash in Uber, and even Uber, one of the scummiest companies out there, knew to do the right thing. They immediately comped the ride and gave me another one for free. (OK, one could argue they could do even more...) If I went to a hotel that was located in a shady area and walked outside and got punched in the face and bled on the floor when I came back in, do you think their first reaction would have been to charge me to clean it up?
zucked 6y ago
The experiences that people report often indicate systemic issues within the platform/product, especially when they are as pervasive as some on the AirBnB platform are.* I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss them. * I've had two shit hosts that left me up a creek scrambling to find housing, as has my S/O. As a consumer, I am way less likely to use the platform now because my experience has shown me that AirBnB either doesn't care or doesn't have an effective lever to pull to improve this situation.
- whymauri 6y ago
  I... disagree? Hard numbers showing high rates of these interactions would be a systemic thread. The loudest voices on the Internet, not so much.
  - zucked 6y ago
    You can interpret anecdotal data however you see fit - I'm not going to run a survey to validate the hypothesis either way. That said, I think you'd be foolish as a potential investor to not consider that AirBnB appears to have some unresolved platform issues that could create opportunity for a competing product to make inroads. And while the voices we hear may well be the loudest ones, they can still be influential in driving change, positive or negative.
- nine_k 6y ago
  If there's one in a million chance for a problem to occur in a particular day with a particular host, given a million of hosts, you should expect the problem to occur approximately every day.
pembrook 6y ago
Ironically, every response to your comment seems to be this exact kind of anecdata.
equon_ 6y ago
The way they are currently treating guests in France (and probably in others European countries) due to the 2nd lockdown is a disaster.

iends 6y ago

The company will do great, I'm sure. airbnb sides too much with the host in my experience. When a host left me and my family in an unsafe environment due to a gas leak, airbnb was impossible to work with. It took months of escalation with airbnb to get things fixed, despite providing all the documentation required the same day that I didn't stay at the property and had to book a last minute hotel at increased cost. :)

iratewizard 6y ago
We run multiple vacation rentals through airbnb and others. AirBNB does not side with the host more often. It prefers to do nothing. We had drug dealers moving product from one. We told airbnb not to contact the guests. They contact them anyways trying to "resolve" the situation. Every time guests break rules like smoking that have clearly posted fees, airbnb says they can't help. Even when the guests admit to it. When we needed to call CPS on morons endangering their one year old, we were not able to get the guests information to give to the police. Their support will straight up lie to you to resolve cases faster.

johnfn 6y ago

Got punched in the face outside of an Airbnb once and left immediately. Host charged me for damages including blood on the towel because I got punched. Airbnb sided with the host.

lotophage 6y ago
Was it the host's fault that you got punched?
- johnfn 6y ago
  Did I say it was? It is the host's fault for charging me damages outside of my control. It is also Airbnb's fault for refusing to take a side.
  - lotophage 6y ago
    You bled all over the host's towel, was that in their control? They have to replace that once it's been soiled with blood.
    - johnfn 6y ago
      This is one of those examples where someone's point of view is so foreign to me that I start wondering if they live on another planet. You seem to insinuate that because it wasn't within the host's control that I bled on their towel that it somehow falls on me instead. What? Did I choose to bleed, then? I mean, obviously it seems to me that it should fall on Airbnb itself to pay in cases like these. Perhaps the owner of the house should have demanded funds from Airbnb in exceptional cases like these. The outrage here is that the owner of the Airbnb - and you, apparently - seem to think that it's somehow a burden that I myself have to bear, as if I chose to get punched in the face. Oh and by the way I did pay a standard multi-hundred-dollar cleaning fee. Apparently that wasn't enough, though. If I got in a car crash in an Uber, because another car backed into me, do you think they would have fined me if my head hit the headrest in front of me and I got a bloody nose? To suggest as much would be outrageous. In fact, I have gotten into a car crash in Uber, and even Uber, one of the scummiest companies out there, knew to do the right thing. They immediately comped the ride and gave me another one for free. (OK, one could argue they could do even more...) If I went to a hotel that was located in a shady area and walked outside and got punched in the face and bled on the floor when I came back in, do you think their first reaction would have been to charge me to clean it up?

zucked 6y ago

The experiences that people report often indicate systemic issues within the platform/product, especially when they are as pervasive as some on the AirBnB platform are.* I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss them. * I've had two shit hosts that left me up a creek scrambling to find housing, as has my S/O. As a consumer, I am way less likely to use the platform now because my experience has shown me that AirBnB either doesn't care or doesn't have an effective lever to pull to improve this situation.

whymauri 6y ago
I... disagree? Hard numbers showing high rates of these interactions would be a systemic thread. The loudest voices on the Internet, not so much.
- zucked 6y ago
  You can interpret anecdotal data however you see fit - I'm not going to run a survey to validate the hypothesis either way. That said, I think you'd be foolish as a potential investor to not consider that AirBnB appears to have some unresolved platform issues that could create opportunity for a competing product to make inroads. And while the voices we hear may well be the loudest ones, they can still be influential in driving change, positive or negative.
nine_k 6y ago
If there's one in a million chance for a problem to occur in a particular day with a particular host, given a million of hosts, you should expect the problem to occur approximately every day.

pembrook 6y ago

Ironically, every response to your comment seems to be this exact kind of anecdata.

equon_ 6y ago

The way they are currently treating guests in France (and probably in others European countries) due to the 2nd lockdown is a disaster.