5 ms·

Airbnb needs to do something about its fraud problem--my wife and I rented a place recently in a city ~3 hours away from our house to stay at while our master b

by a2tech 5y ago

Airbnb needs to do something about its fraud problem--my wife and I rented a place recently in a city ~3 hours away from our house to stay at while our master bathroom is renovated. We've used Airbnb many, many times over the year with no terrible stories (some odd things, but nothing terrible). The pre-arrival stuff with the host went well until about an hour before our arrival--suddenly, a phone call. There's a problem with the house, it'll be resolved tonight, so sorry for the inconvenience, please let us put you up in an apartment we just happen to have free instead. A classic Airbnb scam. We did everything right--we immediately said no and reported it to Airbnb. This is where everything fell apart. Airbnb messed up every single interaction and customer service interaction with us. It took 2 weeks to get our $5k back and Airbnb tried to dodge us with constant 'oh we'll call you back! only another department can do that!'. Several of the phone reps indicated that it was a common pattern. We had to threaten to sue before they finally acknowledged the obvious scam was a scam. During this time Airbnb was STILL letting the host (with 40 properties!) continue to rent. We were monitoring the reviews and it was clear that they were scamming people continuously. The reviews were constantly reporting being moved at the last minute to other houses/apartments than what the people payed for. In our case we were lucky because we were driving and could just turn around and drive home. Airbnb is riddled with scams and the company is complicit. Learn from our mistakes, skip Airbnb.

bluerival 5y ago
The reviews are public right? As in, you would have read them prior to paying $5,000?
- jbullock35 5y ago
  Reviews are public. But some scams are elaborate and involve the posting of fake reviews.
  - a2tech 5y ago
    Exactly. They had positive reviews. Again, we're not new to the Airbnb platform.
    - bluerival 5y ago
      So by your account the reviews were positive, but also detailed many people being scammed. Right.
- foldr 5y ago
  Airbnb customers shouldn't have to read reviews to detect scams. I mean, you can book some crappy hotels through, say, booking.com, but I think you'd have to try quite hard to book a hotel that didn't actually exist.
- meepmorp 5y ago
  Don't blame the victim because someone was running a scam.
  - bluerival 5y ago
    By that logic, no one can ever be blamed for anything.
    - meepmorp 5y ago
      I'm pretty sure we could still blame the scammers.
brailsafe 5y ago
Where in the world could you have spent $5k on a temporary rental!? That's all of my money.
- a2tech 5y ago
  It was Columbus Ohio for an entire house (that allowed dogs), for a couple of weeks.
  - brailsafe 5y ago
    I guess even that kind of surprises me, unless Columbus is particularly expensive, but I suppose that sort of justifies the author's point. Should there be full houses on AirBnB for multiple weeks at a rate very favourable compared to a typical mortage?
    - ericmay 5y ago
      Columbus is cheap compared to many places but not super cheap. It’s more so that’s just the going rate to rent a house that allows dogs for a few weeks. Go look at what a hotel costs each night. If they rented for 21 days and paid $5,000 total, that’s $250/night which will get you a decent hotel in Columbus but no dogs, no yard, living in a hotel versus a house… So I’d say the price is about spot on for what I’d expect.
      - a2tech 5y ago
        Exactly--during the pandemic we've gotten used to traveling with our dog and can't imagine leaving him behind anymore. Its crazy how expensive places are when you bring the dog. And we want a yard and clothes washer.
        brailsafe 5y ago
        Ya I don't have one, so that's a world I'm unaware of, but normally just sleep in a car or something anyway and skip renting a room entirely because it's too much.
swang 5y ago
Yeap. Dealt with Airbnb mishandling my issue over a one night $50 stay. Owner of room apparently leaves the door key in a mailbox. Previous renter apparently took it with him when he left leaving no way of getting in. Owner obviously did not live nearby. I eventually waited for someone to exit the complex so I could get in. The door to the apartment had a computerized lock but that basically meant I could not leave the room at all. Room of course was also not cleaned from the previous customer since all the towels didn't appear to be thoroughly washed if at all. After waking up at 4AM to bug bites I basically frantically made sure none of them got into my luggage for the last 3 hours or so I was there. What did airbnb do? They "refunded" my cleaning bill and ended it at that. For 2 weeks I had to go through their support on the website only to be stonewalled or ignored. I sent them pictures of my hand that had bug bites, I sent them the text messages the owner sent, even though it was on the Airbnb platform. No dice. Finally I ended up getting through to someone via their Twitter account and was eventually able to get a refund for the night. Of course I left a negative review on their page warning others about the possibility of being stranded if the previous guest forgets the key and also their lack of cleaning, but it got immediately buried by their algorithms. That was about 4-5 years ago, never used Airbnb again.
- gordon_freeman 5y ago
  This. Last summer, we rented a space due to wildfires going on and too much smoke in our area. We saw the pictures on the listing with more than 100 guests giving 4.5+ rating in total for cleanliness and that convinced us to stay there for a few days until the smoke clears up in our area. When we visited the apartment, we just put our stuff there and went out for dinner and spend evening out and when we came back slowly we realized how dirty, bug and mold infested that place was. After checking with Airbnb they kept telling us to deal with host and all they did at the end was...you guessed it right...refunded the cleaning fees ($20). terrible customer service! One simple fact Airbnb does not understand is: vacation rental biz is built on repeat customers coming back to the platform often. If folks like us get such a bad experience in staying first and then dealing constantly for weeks with AirBnb customer reps, that experience would make sure we would never rent again on Airbnb. This is the biggest problem with their business right now...their customer service is just terrible.
AtlasBarfed 5y ago
Fun question? What's the difference between the ABNB customer service and google's customer service, you know, a "real" corporation with massive and established revenue? Oh right, google has no customer service. No one to call. What does it mean that customer service is so terrible in the disruption/replacement companies? That it's hard? Or that customer service is soooo old economy? I fear for when all companies with semi-functioning terrible customer service are replaced with even more "disruptive" dystopian service models. Can it be? Is "Brazil" a documentary?
mstade 5y ago
Pro tip: pay using a credit card with a good record of handling disputes. I only ever use my American Express card when traveling, because every single time I've had an issue I just call AMEX support and they put a hold on all charges and then figure this stuff out for me. Not once have I had to pay for something (hotel, rental car, whatever) that didn't do what it says on the tin, and since I'm not risking my own money I'm not in a hole if shit hits the fan. I stayed at a supposedly four star hotel in Memphis once that not only gave me the wrong room where the faucets and most everything else was broken, and didn't care to change it, they also got in an accident with my rental car when the valet was going to park it. They didn't want to deduct any charges and didn't much care about any of it, so I called Amex and they put a hold on all charges. Four or five weeks later they told me I didn't have to pay for any of my stay, and since there was a hold on the charges I obviously didn't have to pay that part of the credit card bill either so I was never out of pocket in the meantime either. Most of the time traveling I've never really had any issues, but when I have it's been a god send not to have to deal with any of it myself.

by a2tech 5y ago

bluerival 5y ago

The reviews are public right? As in, you would have read them prior to paying $5,000?

jbullock35 5y ago
Reviews are public. But some scams are elaborate and involve the posting of fake reviews.
- a2tech 5y ago
  Exactly. They had positive reviews. Again, we're not new to the Airbnb platform.
  - bluerival 5y ago
    So by your account the reviews were positive, but also detailed many people being scammed. Right.
foldr 5y ago
Airbnb customers shouldn't have to read reviews to detect scams. I mean, you can book some crappy hotels through, say, booking.com, but I think you'd have to try quite hard to book a hotel that didn't actually exist.
meepmorp 5y ago
Don't blame the victim because someone was running a scam.
- bluerival 5y ago
  By that logic, no one can ever be blamed for anything.
  - meepmorp 5y ago
    I'm pretty sure we could still blame the scammers.

brailsafe 5y ago

Where in the world could you have spent $5k on a temporary rental!? That's all of my money.

a2tech 5y ago
It was Columbus Ohio for an entire house (that allowed dogs), for a couple of weeks.
- brailsafe 5y ago
  I guess even that kind of surprises me, unless Columbus is particularly expensive, but I suppose that sort of justifies the author's point. Should there be full houses on AirBnB for multiple weeks at a rate very favourable compared to a typical mortage?
  - ericmay 5y ago
    Columbus is cheap compared to many places but not super cheap. It’s more so that’s just the going rate to rent a house that allows dogs for a few weeks. Go look at what a hotel costs each night. If they rented for 21 days and paid $5,000 total, that’s $250/night which will get you a decent hotel in Columbus but no dogs, no yard, living in a hotel versus a house… So I’d say the price is about spot on for what I’d expect.
    - a2tech 5y ago
      Exactly--during the pandemic we've gotten used to traveling with our dog and can't imagine leaving him behind anymore. Its crazy how expensive places are when you bring the dog. And we want a yard and clothes washer.
      - brailsafe 5y ago
        Ya I don't have one, so that's a world I'm unaware of, but normally just sleep in a car or something anyway and skip renting a room entirely because it's too much.

swang 5y ago

Yeap. Dealt with Airbnb mishandling my issue over a one night $50 stay. Owner of room apparently leaves the door key in a mailbox. Previous renter apparently took it with him when he left leaving no way of getting in. Owner obviously did not live nearby. I eventually waited for someone to exit the complex so I could get in. The door to the apartment had a computerized lock but that basically meant I could not leave the room at all. Room of course was also not cleaned from the previous customer since all the towels didn't appear to be thoroughly washed if at all. After waking up at 4AM to bug bites I basically frantically made sure none of them got into my luggage for the last 3 hours or so I was there. What did airbnb do? They "refunded" my cleaning bill and ended it at that. For 2 weeks I had to go through their support on the website only to be stonewalled or ignored. I sent them pictures of my hand that had bug bites, I sent them the text messages the owner sent, even though it was on the Airbnb platform. No dice. Finally I ended up getting through to someone via their Twitter account and was eventually able to get a refund for the night. Of course I left a negative review on their page warning others about the possibility of being stranded if the previous guest forgets the key and also their lack of cleaning, but it got immediately buried by their algorithms. That was about 4-5 years ago, never used Airbnb again.

gordon_freeman 5y ago
This. Last summer, we rented a space due to wildfires going on and too much smoke in our area. We saw the pictures on the listing with more than 100 guests giving 4.5+ rating in total for cleanliness and that convinced us to stay there for a few days until the smoke clears up in our area. When we visited the apartment, we just put our stuff there and went out for dinner and spend evening out and when we came back slowly we realized how dirty, bug and mold infested that place was. After checking with Airbnb they kept telling us to deal with host and all they did at the end was...you guessed it right...refunded the cleaning fees ($20). terrible customer service! One simple fact Airbnb does not understand is: vacation rental biz is built on repeat customers coming back to the platform often. If folks like us get such a bad experience in staying first and then dealing constantly for weeks with AirBnb customer reps, that experience would make sure we would never rent again on Airbnb. This is the biggest problem with their business right now...their customer service is just terrible.

AtlasBarfed 5y ago

Fun question? What's the difference between the ABNB customer service and google's customer service, you know, a "real" corporation with massive and established revenue? Oh right, google has no customer service. No one to call. What does it mean that customer service is so terrible in the disruption/replacement companies? That it's hard? Or that customer service is soooo old economy? I fear for when all companies with semi-functioning terrible customer service are replaced with even more "disruptive" dystopian service models. Can it be? Is "Brazil" a documentary?

mstade 5y ago

Pro tip: pay using a credit card with a good record of handling disputes. I only ever use my American Express card when traveling, because every single time I've had an issue I just call AMEX support and they put a hold on all charges and then figure this stuff out for me. Not once have I had to pay for something (hotel, rental car, whatever) that didn't do what it says on the tin, and since I'm not risking my own money I'm not in a hole if shit hits the fan. I stayed at a supposedly four star hotel in Memphis once that not only gave me the wrong room where the faucets and most everything else was broken, and didn't care to change it, they also got in an accident with my rental car when the valet was going to park it. They didn't want to deduct any charges and didn't much care about any of it, so I called Amex and they put a hold on all charges. Four or five weeks later they told me I didn't have to pay for any of my stay, and since there was a hold on the charges I obviously didn't have to pay that part of the credit card bill either so I was never out of pocket in the meantime either. Most of the time traveling I've never really had any issues, but when I have it's been a god send not to have to deal with any of it myself.