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Though I didn't get banned, I had a similar experience with Airbnb recently. Booked a hotel. When we got there, it was abandoned! Host unresponsive. Clearly a

Though I didn't get banned, I had a similar experience with Airbnb recently. Booked a hotel. When we got there, it was abandoned! Host unresponsive. Clearly a scam. Reported it to Airbnb, and after some back and forth we got our money back (pretty quickly tbf). We naturally left a bad review, warning others. But then the host left us a bad review, despite never even meeting us or interacting with us in any way! We complained to Airbnb and of course, they "saw nothing that violates their review policy"... Diabolical. I am sure that that listing is probably still up.

FlorianRappl 4y ago
If all the other warning signs here in the comments are not enough - this one should be. I only booked via AirBnB once, but I am quite convinced now that this will be the only time. I don't want to rely on a system that can just do what they want without transparency. Reality is that a platform like AirBnB should care about both sides - sellers and buyers. Sure, sellers generate the revenue, but without buyers nothing is sold and the platform is not interesting.
- woutr_be 4y ago
  Similar experience with VRBO, booked an apartment in Munich, on arrival, turns out it was completely different than advertised (even the photos were different). We only stayed a single night, because the room situation just wasn't suitable for two adults. VRBO and the owner refused to refund us. After pointing out the discrepancies, and providing proof that the owners were using the same listing for different properties, VRBO only refunded their fee to us, claiming the transaction was really between us and the owner... Yet there's plenty of stories of buyers getting banned for trivial TOS infractions. But when a host is essentially scamming people, nothing happens.
  - data_maan 4y ago
    If you can, threaten to sue them (or actually sue them) and post your review on every rating site out there. Unfortunately, many companies only understand the language of threats and lawsuits.
- lotsofpulp 4y ago
  Reality is these middlemen tech companies want to do away with quality control, and pocket the savings as profit. As a customer and hotel guest, it never made sense for me to not pay for quality control. So I will continue to pay Hilton/IHG/Hyatt/Marriott/Choice/etc. Not that all those brands have amazing quality control at all times, but at least there is some effort to use human labor to do something.
origin_path 4y ago
Eh, this thread is for people who are banned not who just had bad experiences ;) My story: used AirBnb perhaps three or four times. Always got good reviews from hosts. Months pass without me using it at all. They're emailing me from their marketing lists, no signs of any issues, so I know I was active in their system despite not using it. A few months later I go to log in, discover I'm banned. So I write to their support. Why am I banned? It can't be for bad behavior because I'm literally not interacting with their service at all. "We can't tell you that for policy reasons". That's the end of it. Cause of ban: literally nothing. Presumably it was something like an IP address I used was also used by someone who got banned, or some script that ran amok. My GF got banned because she rather foolishly let a friend use her account and then that friend hosted a party in an apartment, but that's her, not me. Can't think of anything else that could have caused it beyond being clustered. The weird thing is, whilst that kind of screwup is understandable for something like a free webmail account where the users are all anonymous, AirBnb requires identity documents!

FlorianRappl 4y ago

If all the other warning signs here in the comments are not enough - this one should be. I only booked via AirBnB once, but I am quite convinced now that this will be the only time. I don't want to rely on a system that can just do what they want without transparency. Reality is that a platform like AirBnB should care about both sides - sellers and buyers. Sure, sellers generate the revenue, but without buyers nothing is sold and the platform is not interesting.

woutr_be 4y ago
Similar experience with VRBO, booked an apartment in Munich, on arrival, turns out it was completely different than advertised (even the photos were different). We only stayed a single night, because the room situation just wasn't suitable for two adults. VRBO and the owner refused to refund us. After pointing out the discrepancies, and providing proof that the owners were using the same listing for different properties, VRBO only refunded their fee to us, claiming the transaction was really between us and the owner... Yet there's plenty of stories of buyers getting banned for trivial TOS infractions. But when a host is essentially scamming people, nothing happens.
- data_maan 4y ago
  If you can, threaten to sue them (or actually sue them) and post your review on every rating site out there. Unfortunately, many companies only understand the language of threats and lawsuits.
lotsofpulp 4y ago
Reality is these middlemen tech companies want to do away with quality control, and pocket the savings as profit. As a customer and hotel guest, it never made sense for me to not pay for quality control. So I will continue to pay Hilton/IHG/Hyatt/Marriott/Choice/etc. Not that all those brands have amazing quality control at all times, but at least there is some effort to use human labor to do something.

origin_path 4y ago

Eh, this thread is for people who are banned not who just had bad experiences ;) My story: used AirBnb perhaps three or four times. Always got good reviews from hosts. Months pass without me using it at all. They're emailing me from their marketing lists, no signs of any issues, so I know I was active in their system despite not using it. A few months later I go to log in, discover I'm banned. So I write to their support. Why am I banned? It can't be for bad behavior because I'm literally not interacting with their service at all. "We can't tell you that for policy reasons". That's the end of it. Cause of ban: literally nothing. Presumably it was something like an IP address I used was also used by someone who got banned, or some script that ran amok. My GF got banned because she rather foolishly let a friend use her account and then that friend hosted a party in an apartment, but that's her, not me. Can't think of anything else that could have caused it beyond being clustered. The weird thing is, whilst that kind of screwup is understandable for something like a free webmail account where the users are all anonymous, AirBnb requires identity documents!