Airbnb and security camera disclosure • Hacker News Board

Re: Airbnb and security camera disclosure

#311

Post by baby » Wed, Jan 16, 2019, 11:32 PM UTC

alexhutcheson wrote: post #299

baby wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That makes no sense to me. Airbnb has changed travelling for these reasons: * It is cheaper for the location * It has a kitchen * It feels like a home I don't understand these kind of comments. Can you remember any of the hotel room you've been in the previous years? I can't. Can you remember any of the airbnb you've stayed at? I remember every one of them. There is a true home feeling to them.

The kitchen always ends up being less useful than I imagine it will be because it's so unpredictable what basic ingredients will be there. Many are pretty bare-bones, and by the time I buy cooking spray or oil, salt & pepper, basic condiments, etc. I have spent more than I would have by going out to eat. They're great for longer stays, but for a long weekend trip I almost never do anything more complicated than break…

Depending how much of a budget you're on. I used them a lot when I was a student, much less so now.

Re: Airbnb and security camera disclosure

#312

Post by chii » Wed, Jan 16, 2019, 11:33 PM UTC

bredren wrote: post #243

arthurofbabylon wrote: post #224

Many of the complaints of mistreatment illustrate a feature of this housing marketplace: big capital assets are in control, not the demand. This runs counter to many other marketplaces millennials (+- 10 years) are used to. Shoes? Chocolate? Restaurants? Types of alcohol? Transportation? Whatever the customer wants, the customer gets. It’s a simple reality that Airbnb will align with the host who brings in $10-30k/yr…

Reasonably, AirBnB has already served its purpose. It has bludgeoned the hospitality industry forcing it to be more competitive. [1] There is real opportunity for hotels to earn back customers and they should get this chance. Due to hotel architecture they do not have the same problems as one-off airbnb units in neighborhoods. So they should reasonably consider offering greater privacy and reliability. That said, the…

Hotels can't operate at the slim margin that would allow them to compete with airbnn, otherwise, they would already have.

Vast majority of customers choose on price, and hotels offering privacy just doesn't seem like it'd be a selling point, esp. if the feature is assumed default already.

Re: Airbnb and security camera disclosure

#313

Post by muse900 » Wed, Jan 16, 2019, 11:34 PM UTC

MatekCopatek wrote: post #247

munchbunny wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's almost as if AirBnB's hosts and guests are bearing the externalities that should be priced into the transaction on both sides... For hosts, property damage, etc. is a matter of when, not if, and for those things you get insurance. But as far as I know that's not a standard thing for hosts. Pricing in hidden hosting costs would make hosting look less profitable up front, then AirBnB's market would shrink. For gue…

I feel like what you described is the main reason for the profitability of most "sharing economy" services. Uber is also advertised as a little side gig you can do when your car is not being used while the real goal is to have a taxi service that isn't subject to the same legislation and unloads more cost on the driver.

Personally what I've come to realize over the years is that 'Use a startup while its young, get rid of it and get on the next startup once it grows beyond just being a simple pre-seed, 1st round startup'.

My reasoning comes from the amount of cash investors pour money into startups, and startups having insane amount of deals at the very start in order to attract costumers like uber had and airbnb to an extend. After the 1st or 2nd round is where a strong cfo either joins or the VC's involved want to capitalize on what they got so they are trying to squeeze things in and butcher the level of service something provided so they can either IPO or sell for big $.

What am saying is not always the rule but it does apply to a lot of things.

- New currency exchange card coming out amazing rates etc, 3 years down drops down to whatever your bank was going to give you - uber is a cheap taxi alternative you can use by abusing its own staff and investor money, cool 5 years down the line it becomes the same as any other taxi out there and still manages to abuse their staff - airbnb has some nice quality for money accomodation cause they are taking care of the product? fine again few years down the line when it gets streamlined and is getting squeezed for its maximum value they drop their customer support standards etc.

So yes thats it for me, am not going to remain a loyal customer anymore, am going to use your startup and its initial investing deal you are giving me, and am going to jump ship to the 1st startup that is coming out to beat you. Sounds very egoistic, its not though, am just tired of getting treated like a sheep.

P.S not a startup but a company that I very much liked Blizzard is changing face and its getting squeezed out for money from Activision, I feel betrayed so am a bit biased on my views but as my father once said: 'I bought a miele washing machine 25 years ago and it still works like a charm. I bought a brand new Samsung washing machine as a 2nd and broke within 3 years and good luck with warranty, if companies are going to treat me like this from now on, then am going to treat them like that'.

Re: Airbnb and security camera disclosure

#314

Post by chii » Wed, Jan 16, 2019, 11:38 PM UTC

kawsper wrote: post #153

This is becoming a bigger problem lately, it is now part of my routine to de-bug Airbnbs, first by unplugging all visible cameras, then by scanning the network for other equipment, but maybe we also need to shut off the lights and look for IR noise to find hidden non-network cameras.

It'd be interesting to see if you can purchase a wide angle, high-powered IR beam and just shutdown all cameras by overloading them.

Re: Airbnb and security camera disclosure

#315

Post by chii » Wed, Jan 16, 2019, 11:40 PM UTC

alkonaut wrote: post #66

camtarn wrote: post #4

"What was I trying to hide on New Year’s Eve..." Something like this, presumably: https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2016/jan/07/airbnb-new-ye... It's not an excuse for the owner being an ass, or the inappropriate camera placement and lack of proper disclosure, though.

What is appropriate camera placement in an AirBnB property? I wouldn't accept it anywhere in a hotel suite, so nowhere in an AirBnB property either. Step 1 to adapt my own apartment to be possible to AirBnB would be to remove any cameras.

Don't most hotels have cameras in the hallway? How is that different from having camera out in the property?

Re: Airbnb and security camera disclosure

#316

Post by projectileboy » Wed, Jan 16, 2019, 11:43 PM UTC

I still love Airbnb, but I have the same feeling that I’ve always had about it and Uber and Lyft and every other sharing economy disruptor - the existing industries had evolved the way they had for reasons, and the associated regulatory structures around them also evolved for reasons. After you have enough thefts and rapes and murders and property destructions over enough years, Airbnb will necessarily look a lot like a hotel chain, and Uber will look a lot like a traditional taxi company, and so on and so on.

Re: Airbnb and security camera disclosure

#317

Post by mschuster91 » Wed, Jan 16, 2019, 11:50 PM UTC

munchbunny wrote: post #164

philip1209 wrote: post #120

I'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…

It's almost as if AirBnB's hosts and guests are bearing the externalities that should be priced into the transaction on both sides... For hosts, property damage, etc. is a matter of when, not if, and for those things you get insurance. But as far as I know that's not a standard thing for hosts. Pricing in hidden hosting costs would make hosting look less profitable up front, then AirBnB's market would shrink. For gue…

> It's almost as if AirBnB's hosts and guests are bearing the externalities that should be priced into the transaction on both sides...

Often enough, the neighbors also bear externalities: noise from guests dragging their heavy roller coffers up and down the stairs and smashing all doorbell buttons in the hope someone opens the door as they locked themselves out, rents rising because it's far more profitable to rent 100€/night/AirBnB than 1000€/month on the open market, ...

Re: Airbnb and security camera disclosure

#318

Post by dannyr » Wed, Jan 16, 2019, 11:53 PM UTC

Cameras is Airbnb seem to be more and more common.

I know people who would suddenly get messages from their hosts like "why did you let somebody not registered in".

It's creepy since the hosts did not disclose that there are cameras.

Re: Airbnb and security camera disclosure

#319

Post by toomuchtodo » Wed, Jan 16, 2019, 11:53 PM UTC

elif wrote: post #216

koverda wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could you link to this Miami AirBnB? Sounds interesting.

Thankfully it appears to have subsequently been shut down. http://www.airbnb.com/rooms/5165144 I don't want to dox whoever lives there now, but it was just north of the convention center on Pine Tree Drive

Something doggy people have been doing is signing year long leases for properties, listing it on AirBnB, and milking it for as much as possible until the owner and/or HOA get wind and evict them (sometimes the HOA will find out and fine the owner continually while the eviction is in process, which is always unfortunate). I always recommend to owners and property managers when this happens to stick to the eviction and follow through to prevent future landlords from encountering the same issue (most landlords will not rent to someone with an eviction on their record).

Re: Airbnb and security camera disclosure

#320

Post by dbg31415 » Wed, Jan 16, 2019, 11:54 PM UTC

My biggest gripe is that the cleanliness has gone way down.

It used to be, a few years back, AirBnB would make sure everything was immaculate. I remember a host letting me in to her house and being embarrassed that there were garbage bins out front since it was garbage day. Everything was laundered, sheets were bleached and crisp, everything was on-par with a 5-star hotel.

For whatever reason, now when I stay in AirBnBs it's next to impossible to find a place that has that level of detail. Supply and demand, I guess. More people doing it, pressure to lower price, less money for cleaning, less money for quality linens. Sure... I get it. But it's turned me off AirBnB.

The last place I stayed in had dirty towels. Like they didn't even bother to put clean towels up, they were damp when we showed up and had someone's makeup on them. Was gross. I wrote in to complain, and used the dirty towel to wipe the floor and counter to show that those weren't clean either. The towels were sort of grey, and came off the floor just black.

And you know what I got? Billed for damaging a towel, they said that because I used their towel to wipe off their floor that it stained the towel. Likely wasn't good for the towel, but come on... the place was filthy. AirBnB needs a "white glove" service -- and I'd be willing to pay extra for this -- to ensure that everything is on-par with a nice hotel.