My shitty AirBnB experience • Hacker News Board

Re: My shitty AirBnB experience

#31

Post by otterley » Fri, May 05, 2017, 2:07 AM UTC

mattpavelle wrote: post #24

pavel_lishin wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 a…

What's the rationale for allowing Airbnb hosts to see the reviews that a renter has given other rentals?

Re: My shitty AirBnB experience

#32

Post by valuearb » Fri, May 05, 2017, 2:18 AM UTC

NathanKP wrote: post #22

zaatar wrote: post #8

The 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…

I'm thinking AirBNB should be enforcing the accepted definition of private, not NYC's.

Re: My shitty AirBnB experience

#33

Post by stcredzero » Fri, May 05, 2017, 2:46 AM UTC

adamiscool8 wrote: post #13

This sounds like a case of someone not reading the fine print, not doing their due diligence, and then complaining about their outcome. Which is fine, that's how most people go through life. But it's not particularly illustrative of a fundamental issue with AirBNB.

This sounds like a case of someone not reading the fine print, not doing their due diligence, and then complaining about their outcome.

What if you bought some food at a restaurant listed under "Vegan" with large letters, then a second later you read the smaller print saying that it contains animal byproducts? I wouldn't think very highly of that restaurant. Then, if I were running a food ordering website and found that one of the restaurants was doing this, I might want to have a word with that restaurant.

Re: My shitty AirBnB experience

#34

Post by kylehotchkiss » Fri, May 05, 2017, 3:53 AM UTC

Other benefits of hotels: * All the cleaning makes bedbugs less of a worry * the doors actually lock properly * less barking dogs

Re: My shitty AirBnB experience

#35

Post by nilsonsfj » Sat, May 06, 2017, 10:55 AM UTC

I'm amazed at the amount of victim blaming in the comments.

You book a private place you expect a private place. Anywhere else in the world except for the US thesr fine print tactics are considered void.

You can book over $1000 accommodations using Brazilian credit cards on other websites, it's clearly an Airbnb problem.

Finally, I'm disgusted to learn that hosts select guests based on how positive they are.

Re: My shitty AirBnB experience

#36

Post by nilsonsfj » Sat, May 06, 2017, 10:57 AM UTC

jressey wrote: post #10

erentz wrote: post #7

My experience out of four AirBnB stays was that two were as advertised and two were complete dirty slums, nothing like the photos or reviews suggested. We had to leave and get a hotel. The reviews were all 5 star raving about how beautiful, amazing, etc they were with 40-50 reviews each. Has anyone else had this experience? It made us unable to trust the review system because in this case it was so clearly rigged som…

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…

This is disgusting and probably illegal in parts of the world. This is like healthcare companies refusing service for the ones more likely to need more health assistance.