If you only stay in Airbnb "bed and breakfasts" you'll likely have none of the issues described in these comments. Plus, I like to meet my host and have them make me breakfast.
Airbnb and security camera disclosure
131–140 of 406 posts
Re: Airbnb and security camera disclosure
#132Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's Germany, and I have dark hair. When I went to file a police report the tall blonde police officer, he and his colleagues were mocking me in the back. I ended up telling them off and will report it to the tax office. Which, while nasty seems to be only thing that will get that guy into trouble, Police at least doesn't care even though he violates a dozen laws including standard German privacy practice.
I am calling bullshit. There is very little chance that German police in Hamburg would not consider those alligations serious. Lots of Germans have black hair. Few Germans are tall and blonde. German police will file your case in any case.
I've lived in Germany and there are still clear race issues left in certain areas but I can't speak for police personally. It's all very hush hush as well which is one of the reason I dislike Germany and would not live there again. I live in the U.S. now and for comparison, there are some tensions here too but it's on the surface and in general much better.
Re: Airbnb and security camera disclosure
#133I've lived in Airbnbs full-time for about 18 months while traveling, and Airbnb has lost my trust repeatedly in terms of reliability, safety, and user-friendliness. - Host listing quality has gone consistently downhill. Now, it's many slumlords just trying to make a quick buck rather than support the original community idea or provide a great stay. - Airbnb support response times are horribly slow. They hide their ph…
> Now, it's many slumlords just trying to make a quick buck rather than support the original community idea or provide a great stay.
This is basically the Etsy playbook. Have a good model that doesn't scale. Back yourself into a corner by taking VC money and end up having to do the opposite of what made your service good in the first place to keep growing your platform.
Just like there are only so many people making actual handmade goods, there are only so many homeowners looking to host guests.
Fortunately, there is a never ending stream of Chinese-made trinkets and garbage just as there is a never ending stream of slumlords (oops, property investors) looking to make a quick buck.
Re: Airbnb and security camera disclosure
#134Why would anyone believe that an Airbnb offers the same security, privacy protections, safety, and comfort of a hotel? I have only stayed in an Airbnb a few times ever because I can never justify staying in one over a hotel for these reasons. The product is so unpredictable in the sense that you really never know what you're going to get until you get there.
From the host perspective, I am still amazed that Airbnb has normalized letting complete strangers into your home.
Re: Airbnb and security camera disclosure
#135Earlier quoted context omitted.
> There is an app called Fing on iPhones and maybe Android. This seemed like a really useful tool; I looked it up on the app store and - uh oh - it's free. Screenshots don't seem to show any ads and there's no IAP, so how do they make their money? Taking a look at their privacy policy[1], they collect: > Information on MAC addresses and Wi-Fi networks you collect through the App or the Box. Please note that this Priv…
So, download it while in the AirBnB. If it shares data permanently about the AirBnB location, fine. Delete the app immediately after using it. At your next AirBnB stay, do it all over again.
I don't actually use AirBnB very often. But I do end up doing network maintenance for friends, family and at the startup I work at. Fing seems like it would be useful for that purpose - but not with this kind of privacy policy.
Also, just like it's not ok for hosts to put cameras in the properties they're renting out, I don't think it would be ok for me, as a guest, to knowingly upload data that I would consider sensitive to a third party. Treat others how you would want to be treated, right?
Re: Airbnb and security camera disclosure
#136I used to use AirBnB all the time. Lately I've switched back to using hotels almost exclusively. The camera/privacy thing is a big part of it. I empathize with the hosts to a degree - you don't want people doing outrageous things in your home. But the hosts want their cake and to eat it too. Don't rent out your home if you don't want the risk of people damaging it! (As a minor aside, I've also noticed the quality of…
Hotels are cheaper and more convnient for shorter stays anyway. Also the checkin process and key pickup is abominal sometimes
I think this one is pretty key. For the first couple years when AirBnB started, they were almost always cheaper than hotels, even for whole places. Of course, a lot of that was their fees were lower and they weren't paying taxes. I can almost find better deals at hotels now.
Re: Airbnb and security camera disclosure
#137Earlier quoted context omitted.
> It's funny to me, because AirBnB runs in to all the same problems we had with hotels a hundred years ago. We have dozens of taxes, rules, regulations, building codes etc now for hotels. I imagine at some point it will be the same for AirBnBs. What's old is new. An industry can only be disruptive for so long. Eventually, it will either fail, or be successful and become the new status quo.
> Eventually, it will either fail, or be successful and become the new status quo. The book "Animal Farm" is so prescient, it's scary. I know it was written about governments but it applies to a lot of different organizations and industries: "The creatures outside looked from to , and from to , and from to again; but already it was impossible to say which was which." Just swap out and with: Uber/taxis online streamin…
I disagree with the streaming video example. Netflix, Disney etc aren't facing any regulatory issues that's causing them to circle their wagons and create their own content pipelines and streaming services. They're doing it to maximize profit and be less dependent on third parties.
Re: Airbnb and security camera disclosure
#138I've lived in Airbnbs full-time for about 18 months while traveling, and Airbnb has lost my trust repeatedly in terms of reliability, safety, and user-friendliness. - Host listing quality has gone consistently downhill. Now, it's many slumlords just trying to make a quick buck rather than support the original community idea or provide a great stay. - Airbnb support response times are horribly slow. They hide their ph…
I had a similar experience to your last one. I was in a small house fire in a shared Airbnb. I left immediately. Airbnb wouldn’t compensate me because I didn’t take photos and the host claimed nothing had happened. (I was honestly too shaken to even think I would need evidence.) They gave me a $200 voucher which didn’t cover the time left in my stay.
It is partially my fault for not getting evidence, but you’d think they would do more for somebody who, like you, has spent an awful lot of money on Airbnb.
Unfortunately they often have the best apartments available in a city. I do still use them, but I’ll search alternate sites first.
Re: Airbnb and security camera disclosure
#139I've lived in Airbnbs full-time for about 18 months while traveling, and Airbnb has lost my trust repeatedly in terms of reliability, safety, and user-friendliness. - Host listing quality has gone consistently downhill. Now, it's many slumlords just trying to make a quick buck rather than support the original community idea or provide a great stay. - Airbnb support response times are horribly slow. They hide their ph…
> The problem was that it was peak Summer in Barcelona, we were there for a long period of time, and the only available units were minimum 5x the price. I've never got this at all. Why should you pay 5x price for AirBnb's risk?
>Why should you pay 5x price for AirBnb's risk?
Why should AirBnb have to not only waive their free but pay several times what they would have earned off the transaction to another party? It is wholly unreasonable for them to put you up in a place that costs 5x(+) as much.
They aren't a hotel chain, they are a booking agent. They don't own the properties, the connect a party that has a space and a party that wants a space. It's not like when you're at a hotel and a pipe bursts and they just put you in another unit that they already own. If the rental was 500 unitofcurrency and the only thing available in their system is 2500 unitofcurrency, they're now hemorrhaging money where a hotel would have virtually no extra expense moving you to another room.
If they made a practice of putting people in considerably more expensive places than they have agreed to pay for it would be absurdly easy to abuse the system from both ends. You could relatively easy manufacture a situation in which what you were renting was unusable getting you a free upgrade or property owners could potentially game the system during high peak times by listing a cheap space, having someone in on it get it, manufacture unusable conditions and then dump one or more properties into the system just under the price of the next cheapest unit and now they have 2 empty locations and are getting paid for the expensive one and can then dump both on vrbo/booking.com/flipkey etc.
At best they should refund your entire stay (unless you've already been there a considerable amount of time then prorate accordingly) and help you find a hotel.