Airbnb is for when you want to have an adventure. It's not going to be easy, it may not be clean, but if you are the type of person who likes meeting new people and having interesting new experiences then go for it. If you expect a traditional hotel that's probably just not going to happen.
My shitty AirBnB experience
21–30 of 36 posts
Re: My shitty AirBnB experience
#22The first bait-and-switch apartment listed "Entire home/apt" with 4.5 stars rating is here: https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/14489610 1 or 2 of my very nice people will be in the office upstairs to help with any questions during daytime. (the bathroom is shared on Mo, Wed, Fri during daytime) How is this even legal?
In NYC its actually illegal to do a short term sublet of an entire apartment. So this is a common workaround so they can give you a short term sublet. They can claim that they just rented you some space from their office so they don't get fined for short term subletting. They can also tell you that the space is private (because by NYC standards it basically is private, you get desensitized to stuff like this when you live in close quarters with lots of people).
Re: My shitty AirBnB experience
#23Earlier quoted context omitted.
So let me say this to others who may be reading: If you book something like this, and your expectations are not met and you call the company and they do not provide adequate compensation, do not bullshit with calling them back or tweeting their customer service or whatever. Tell them you are going to call your credit card company and dispute the charge. Period. Normally this is a magic keyword to immediately remedy t…
I think your advice is reasonable, but I believe it's not sufficient. Yes, vendors are somewhat pained by chargebacks, but many CC will ask you to resolve with them first. Ultimately when AirBnB has this failure in quality, they should provide you a free room of equal or greater value AND not charge you. AirBnB seems unwilling to invest in quality, which makes me believe they are not delivering a quality product.
I mean, then you change CC providers to someone more reasonable.
Re: My shitty AirBnB experience
#24Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't think the reviews are rigged per se. Here's what I think causes this. I was a superhost for about a year renting out a spare room. Superhost status seems to increase your position in search results, and acts as an indication of high-performance/great accommodations leading to more renters being interested and you charging higher prices charged. Most hosts want to achieve this rating. Part of superhost status…
Are you saying that I, as someone who needs a place to stay, am more likely to give a 5-star rating to a slum so that if I ever apply to stay with a superhost, they'll look at my rating history and be more likely to approve me?
"my wife and I would review accounts and lease to renters who had given more positive reviews"
That is exactly what he/she is saying. I'm not actually surprised by this.
5-star ratings are a poor means of actually ranking things as they are generally currently implemented - especially when there is no guidance as to what each star means.
Big issues include:
As per this post, if PartyA needs high ratings and can see all the ratings PartyB provides to other PartyA types, they will certainly favor those PartyB types who rate higher.
The "average" on most of these 1 to 5 star scales is not a 3. E.g. the average Uber driver rating is 4.7 (or something) stars. So what does that mean to the user? I need to remember 4.7 is ok but 4.8 is good? Shouldn't the app provide guidance to users? Say to the user, "if you had a good overall drive - rate this 3 stars".
Why doesn't the AirBnB app "curve" ratings as well? Meaning apply my ratings to a bell curve with the average being a 3 - i.e. if my average rating is 4.8 with a high of 5 and a low of 4.6 - why doesn't the app just translate my 4.6 a "1", my 5 a "5" and curve the rest of my ratings so my average fits on the scale? Then users would know that a "3" is average - which for AirBNB might mean "good"? And a 4.8 is truly exceptional?
And of course none of this addresses the problem where my "exceptional" does not match yours. Maybe I like I like eco-tourism and camping, and you like Ritz Carltons and gold martinis. Or maybe I like slow and safe drivers and you like fast drives who run yellow lights?
Regardless, I'm tired of all these meaningless inflations.
Re: My shitty AirBnB experience
#25> Since I don’t have a credit card, I asked my beloved mother to use hers.
You should never ever let other people use your credit card or ask to use other people's credit card. Credit card is called personal card for a reason. There is so much fraud, credit card theft going on that it is surprising that your transaction succeeded at all.
Re: My shitty AirBnB experience
#26Airbnb is for when you want to have an adventure. It's not going to be easy, it may not be clean, but if you are the type of person who likes meeting new people and having interesting new experiences then go for it. If you expect a traditional hotel that's probably just not going to happen.
Incorrect, Airbnb is for when you want to have an apartment to stay in.
Re: My shitty AirBnB experience
#27The first bait-and-switch apartment listed "Entire home/apt" with 4.5 stars rating is here: https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/14489610 1 or 2 of my very nice people will be in the office upstairs to help with any questions during daytime. (the bathroom is shared on Mo, Wed, Fri during daytime) How is this even legal?
> (the bathroom is shared on Mo, Wed, Fri during daytime) What I'm more curious about is where the nice people that work upstairs go to the bathroom on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
They use AirPnP, of course.
Re: My shitty AirBnB experience
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
So let me say this to others who may be reading: If you book something like this, and your expectations are not met and you call the company and they do not provide adequate compensation, do not bullshit with calling them back or tweeting their customer service or whatever. Tell them you are going to call your credit card company and dispute the charge. Period. Normally this is a magic keyword to immediately remedy t…
I think your advice is reasonable, but I believe it's not sufficient. Yes, vendors are somewhat pained by chargebacks, but many CC will ask you to resolve with them first. Ultimately when AirBnB has this failure in quality, they should provide you a free room of equal or greater value AND not charge you. AirBnB seems unwilling to invest in quality, which makes me believe they are not delivering a quality product.
As of yet I have not run into an issue with my credit card company has asked me to resolve an issue so long as I had previously attempted to resolve it. I don't disagree with what AirBnB should probably provide as compensation, I'm just trying to save you from wasting time or dealing with stuff that you just don't need to be dealing with.
Re: My shitty AirBnB experience
#29What I am always curious about are all these rentals on AirBnB owned by the people renting it out? As I am renting myself and my rental agreement clearly states I can't underlet it: "Not assign, underlet or part with or share possession of the whole or any part of the Property."
Ain't this a normal item in an agreement? How does this work? Are they just breaking their agreement?
Re: My shitty AirBnB experience
#30What I am always curious about are all these rentals on AirBnB owned by the people renting it out? As I am renting myself and my rental agreement clearly states I can't underlet it: "Not assign, underlet or part with or share possession of the whole or any part of the Property." Ain't this a normal item in an agreement? How does this work? Are they just breaking their agreement?
A fair amount of them are breaking their lease agreement, or doing it in violation of local laws. Walking down the Mission in SF, you'll find a fair number of orange sheets taped to apartments from the San Francisco Office of Short Term Rentals, informing the tenant that they are in violation of the SF Administrative Code Chapter 41A.