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> They have become completely predatory and incompetent towards hosts in the past few years. I'm discovering that, having just become an Airbnb host in the las

> They have become completely predatory and incompetent towards hosts in the past few years. I'm discovering that, having just become an Airbnb host in the last year for my beach pad. My new worst experience is Airbnb doing nothing and saying "too bad" when a guest with a new profile stayed for 3 days, then wrote a scathing review warning people off and demanding a refund. The guest posted in her review that the place is full of broken furniture, rock hard beds worse than in communist countries, black mould, animal smells, urine smells, and is a health hazard. She used a lot of capital letters and accused me of punishing her for "sins not yet committed." And yet she didn't contact me or Airbnb to complain until after the end of her stay of 3 nights. My property averaged 4.8 stars (out of max 5) prior to that with zero negative reviews. I thought Airbnb might consider she is trying to scam a refund. But they say she hasn't done anything against their policies so too bad. The review stays. When I tried to complain the support ambassador warned me that if I insist on an investigation it could result in penalties for me as a host. I asked Airbnb to send someone out to check my property so they can see the guest is being unreasonable, but of course, Airbnb doesn't have anyone who can come out because it isn't a real company. It's just a listed entity on the stock exchange that made a few people $100 billion renting properties owned by... people like me.

bambax 5y ago
Sorry for your experience. I do use Airbnb occasionally as a guest but would never consider hosting. It's just too dangerous, insurance or not, and not worth it IMHO. > Airbnb doesn't have anyone who can come out because it isn't a real company This part is especially infuriating. Google, Amazon, Airbnb, etc. they're all the same. They play a numbers game. At one point they may run out of people to trample though.
tinyhouse 5y ago
I think you're making too big of a deal out of this. You can reply to her comment telling your story. One bad review shouldn't impact you in the long term. I understand why Airbnb is not willing to help you here. They have millions of hosts and need to prioritize their time and efforts towards major issues.
- jaclaz 5y ago
  >They have millions of hosts and need to prioritize their time and efforts towards major issues. This is the same lame justification for any big corporation, they have millions hosts but also millions of money coming from them. Any business should be able to support properly their customers, particularly in the case of middle-men, such as AirBnb and similar, part of their business consists in having BOTH hosts and guests "at least moderately" happy.
- wombatmobile 5y ago
  > You can reply to her comment telling your story. It becomes a debate, or a he said she said. Pages worth. What better way to scare off a guest looking for a relaxing holiday? This is how Airbnb plays hosts off against each other. Any host that tries to stand up for themselves loses out to a more compliant host. > One bad review shouldn't impact you in the long term. The last review (1/5 stars) goes to the top of the list. It's the first thing new guests see. It dragged the average down half a star, which was enough to lose my super host status, which requires 4.8 average. I have to get 10 new guests to rate 5 stars just to restore the average to what it was. How do I get 1 new guest when the first review says HORRIFIC. HEALTH HAZARD. BLACK MOULD. STAY AWAY. It would be fairer if Airbnb, which is an accomodation company, had the resources to independently rate properties. They wouldn't even have to do it all the time - just to resolve disputes. But they don't have the resources to do it ever. Nor the will. That's because they make more money by not actually managing their core business, and simply playing hosts and guests off against each other.

bambax 5y ago

Sorry for your experience. I do use Airbnb occasionally as a guest but would never consider hosting. It's just too dangerous, insurance or not, and not worth it IMHO. > Airbnb doesn't have anyone who can come out because it isn't a real company This part is especially infuriating. Google, Amazon, Airbnb, etc. they're all the same. They play a numbers game. At one point they may run out of people to trample though.

tinyhouse 5y ago

I think you're making too big of a deal out of this. You can reply to her comment telling your story. One bad review shouldn't impact you in the long term. I understand why Airbnb is not willing to help you here. They have millions of hosts and need to prioritize their time and efforts towards major issues.

jaclaz 5y ago
>They have millions of hosts and need to prioritize their time and efforts towards major issues. This is the same lame justification for any big corporation, they have millions hosts but also millions of money coming from them. Any business should be able to support properly their customers, particularly in the case of middle-men, such as AirBnb and similar, part of their business consists in having BOTH hosts and guests "at least moderately" happy.
wombatmobile 5y ago
> You can reply to her comment telling your story. It becomes a debate, or a he said she said. Pages worth. What better way to scare off a guest looking for a relaxing holiday? This is how Airbnb plays hosts off against each other. Any host that tries to stand up for themselves loses out to a more compliant host. > One bad review shouldn't impact you in the long term. The last review (1/5 stars) goes to the top of the list. It's the first thing new guests see. It dragged the average down half a star, which was enough to lose my super host status, which requires 4.8 average. I have to get 10 new guests to rate 5 stars just to restore the average to what it was. How do I get 1 new guest when the first review says HORRIFIC. HEALTH HAZARD. BLACK MOULD. STAY AWAY. It would be fairer if Airbnb, which is an accomodation company, had the resources to independently rate properties. They wouldn't even have to do it all the time - just to resolve disputes. But they don't have the resources to do it ever. Nor the will. That's because they make more money by not actually managing their core business, and simply playing hosts and guests off against each other.