This definitely sounds like some agency was using/used the home as a safe house.
AirBNB why did you terminate my account? – An Open Letter to AirBNB
31–40 of 72 posts
Re: AirBNB why did you terminate my account? – An Open Letter to AirBNB
#32AirBnB's ability to handle failure modes is beyond bad.
If a host fails to accommodate you, you better have a hotel in mind for a plan B.
Their UK customer service phone line drops calls after 300 seconds in the waiting queue. Go and try it: +448435047257
Form replies to e-mails, never enough detail, multiple days' response times.
What's the procedure for documenting a host has checked in, or hasn't? That's right, there isn't one. They do everything by hand, and is't a he said/she said, I will take a week to deliberate, and then cut the baby in half kind of deal.
Re: AirBNB why did you terminate my account? – An Open Letter to AirBNB
#33I recently went through the exact same experience. Absolute shit.
Re: AirBNB why did you terminate my account? – An Open Letter to AirBNB
#34"Sharing economy" = shareCROPPING economy. (look up "sharecropping" to understand ) But basically, sharecroppers were exposed to all the risk, and the landowner got the initial first dibs on the crops. The landowner often times had complete ability to be completely arbitrary ( like AirBNB is in this case ) You are not running a business if you don't have direct access to your clientele. You are a shareCROPPER. Look i…
I looked it up.
"a tenant farmer especially in the southern United States who is provided with credit for seed, tools, living quarters, and food, who works the land, and who receives an agreed share of the value of the crop minus charges"
There are no crops involved in the posted story. Further, AirBNB doesn't own the land so I'm not sure the term even makes sense as a metaphor.
Re: AirBNB why did you terminate my account? – An Open Letter to AirBNB
#35Quick read the AirBnB terms (termination). Seems like they can basically terminate you however/whenever they want.
IANAL but that seems rather flimsy. Aren't they essentially an infrastructure provider (website, app, booking etc.) that should have service contracts?
That pretty much means you should not and cannot depend on AirBnB as a major source of income. Risk management wise that's just insane. It puts a decent amount of theoretical "extortion power" in their hands. "Oh yeah we see you make X which likely means you heavily depend on this income. Would you kindly agree to these new terms/new rates or be screwed?"
Independent of all of this it is horrible style to terminate someone without further notice or reason. Writing this into ToS is a pretty bad sign. It generally seems better to have a policy that defaults to explaining the reason for termination except in special cases (funny money laundering laws etc.).
Makes me wonder, is there is any "ToS" ranking site out there? X,Y,Z in ToS are a bad sign, here's why? Kind of like the sites calling out bad UX practices that are meant to trick people into buying extra stuff.
Re: AirBNB why did you terminate my account? – An Open Letter to AirBNB
#36Perhaps the Thai government asked them to close the account.
It's always possible, but doesn't seem like the sort of thing they'd do. If it's a domestic problem they'd sort it out themselves.
Re: AirBNB why did you terminate my account? – An Open Letter to AirBNB
#37"Sharing economy" = shareCROPPING economy. (look up "sharecropping" to understand ) But basically, sharecroppers were exposed to all the risk, and the landowner got the initial first dibs on the crops. The landowner often times had complete ability to be completely arbitrary ( like AirBNB is in this case ) You are not running a business if you don't have direct access to your clientele. You are a shareCROPPER. Look i…
I looked it up. "a tenant farmer especially in the southern United States who is provided with credit for seed, tools, living quarters, and food, who works the land, and who receives an agreed share of the value of the crop minus charges" There are no crops involved in the posted story. Further, AirBNB doesn't own the land so I'm not sure the term even makes sense as a metaphor.
Re: AirBNB why did you terminate my account? – An Open Letter to AirBNB
#38This is a tough read, because someone's livelihood and in some part happiness combine with their AirBnB business, and losing it is painful. The hell of it is that there are many circumstances in which the customer would not be allowed to know why the cancellation. I'm most familiar with Bank Secrecy Act rules; some of which definitely apply to AirBnB. So, for instance, an algorithm flags the house as a likely money l…
It's the way they deliver that message that is really messed up. If you need to fire somebody, do it swiftly, and cleanly.
Re: AirBNB why did you terminate my account? – An Open Letter to AirBNB
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes they are communities. No, AirBNB is not a community. They can't be a community when participation is subject to veto by a single entity/person. Communities are determined by a collective decision, not a unilateral decision. Anyone one talking about the "AirBNB community" is lying to themselves or to the person they are talking to. If AirBNB wanted a community, they would have visible, due process procedures in pl…
"They can't be a community when participation is subject to veto by a single entity/person." Says who? This is not any requirement of any commonly accepted definition of community. You certainly can just make crap up and define words however you like, but you can't expect others to go along with you :)
In the olden days they used to be called User Groups - most big tech corps had them, run mostly by the customers. But that's an unfashionable term these days, just like my beige cords and jumpers with elbow patches.
Re: AirBNB why did you terminate my account? – An Open Letter to AirBNB
#40It's good to be the king.
Google is king of search and can cut you off without reason or explanation. AirBNB is king of home sharing and can cut you off without reason or explanation.
Companies that have a virtual monopoly can treat their ecosystem this way because there's no reason not to.
If this is the way they treat their very best hosts, can you imagine how rock bottom badly you'll be treated if you're anything less than a stellar superstar.