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Airbnb and security camera disclosure

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Re: Airbnb and security camera disclosure

#381

Post by enra »

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…

The solution is to carry the basic spices with you in small containers. I even pack pre-measured spiceblends for meals that require common ingredients which can be brought in every part of the world. I also bring my own coffee and Aeropress.

The oil or butter is annoying, so you might need to buy it if you're unlucky and the place has no olive oil.

Re: Airbnb and security camera disclosure

#383

Post by paulie_a »

morpheuskafka wrote: post #71
wil421 wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is an app called Fing on iPhones and maybe Android. It will scan the WiFi you are on and give you a bunch of information. There’s also a few more network functions you can do. It recognizes phones, my plex server, and a brother printer at my house to name a few. No router login required just the WiFi password.

And using Fing (works better on Android b/c on iOS it can't access raw MAC addresses) is perfectly legal. The fact that a default password is used or the password is posted on the router is not in any way legal permission to access it as a short-term guest. Look at Aaron Swartz's case if you don't know how readily prosecutors will (ab)use the CFAA.

Honestly who cares if it is illegal? What are they going to do? Literally nothing would ever happen. Using default creds on a home router really isn't going to get a prosecutors interest. They would probably laugh at you after you filed a complaint.

Re: Airbnb and security camera disclosure

#384

Post by CaptainZapp »

dsfyu404ed wrote: post #196
tezzer wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have any examples of such negative consequences, regulations for problems that went away (that became inconvenient after the fact), or dangerous and abusive regulations? Your objection sounds dogmatic, but if it's founded I'd love to hear on what.

I submit as evidence a) pretty much every case where a "may issue" permit is required to engage in business (these mostly happen on the state and local level and incentivize corruption). b) Regulatory capture (e.g. the current FCC). c) The war on drugs (I can come up with other examples of unnecessarily criminalizing things if needed). And on the other side, the movies/music/video games/tv rating system sure isn't pe…

c) The war on drugs (I can come up with other examples of unnecessarily criminalizing things if needed).

You're conflating actual criminal law with regulations in order to make your argument.

I think that's intelectually dishonest.

edit : spello

Re: Airbnb and security camera disclosure

#385

Post by CaptainZapp »

OldSchoolJohnny wrote: post #296
Klathmon wrote: post #284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a lead developer on some projects, I've explicitly asked to jump into the weeds and handle support. You can learn SO MUCH about your application just by handling a bit of support. You learn UX issues, you learn what tooling the support people are missing that would allow them to do their job (a simple "send a screenshot to support" button in our app saved our support reps HOURS spending time trying to get customer…

I can't imagine a company not mining the info from support for exactly these kind of improvements as a standard operating procedure; it's a gold mine of information, anyone ignoring it doesn't really care about the quality of their product.

One would think so. But here's the problem.

Support (even "in-house" support at global companies) is often outsourced to the lowest bidder. They are paid by support ticket and thus have zero interest in actually resolving the issue once and for all.

It's more profitable to open 20 tickets on the same issue than to actually resolve it.

Also, from the perspective of the call center you're a lousy support person if you actually want to help customers. Your most important metric is calls per time unit. It's in your interest as the support agent to get the customer off the call as quick as possible.

Re: Airbnb and security camera disclosure

#386

Post by CaptainZapp »

enra wrote: post #380
amerkhalid wrote: post #259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe it is different styles of different people. A lot of my friends who stay in AirBnB list same reasons for using it. Also they say that they like to live like locals when traveling. I can respect it but I really don't want to feel like at home on vacation. Hotels give me that feeling of adventure and travel. I have couch surfed and enjoyed it. But that was probably because I was visiting a friend in burbs without…

I think hotels are fine, if you just like to chill out. For me, hotels never gave much excitement, adventure or novelty. I hate the blandness of all the hotels, how all the decoration and furniture and even the people seem fake. There are good hotels here and there, but usually they are either old or small. Not chains filled with families of screaming kids. After fews days, I also want to eat some home cooked meals.…

I hate the blandness of all the hotels, how all the decoration and furniture and even the people seem fake

I often hear that argument and actually think it's the other way round.

Sure, some hotels offer very generic rooms. However, I stayed in memorable, extremely well designed hotel rooms. Awesome beds, which can compare to my own (rather good) bed at home. Let alone the extremely well and thought thru design of the lightning and the blinds. If you want just one example look at the Bangkok LeMeridien.

On the other hand I never experienced a rented appartment, be it via AirBnb or other purveyors, which wasn't completely generic. With the same cheap Ikea furniture of shoddy quality and decorated worse than the worst examples of "hotel art".

I think where you are coming from is the ideal where AirBnb started, but which is no more the case for years. Most offers, by a wide margin, are by professional landlords, hording dozens if not hundreds of appartments managed by some faceless management company.

Re: Airbnb and security camera disclosure

#387

Post by mrunkel »

muse900 wrote: post #346
blattimwind wrote: post #338

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't think that your behaviour (i.e. consciously not just enabling but promoting new & continued "abuse[s of] their staff" etc.) is in any way decent, right? Of course I bought jewelry from the Nazis - it was cheap while it lasted!

No. Lets be clear about that, using uber is not the same as buying jewelry from war criminals. (hit a vein cause my grandpa was executed by them). Everyone used uber and keeps using uber no matter what comes into light. Certainty not many of us knew beforehand what uber was doing, and once it was out I think uber tried to cover it quickly by increasing benefits and whatnot for the drivers. So no its not the same and…

I've never ridden in an Uber, and I will never.

So no, everyone doesn't.

Uber is built on squeezing safety and security from the drivers of cars for hire and somewhat from the customers. By using Uber you are complicit in this.

Re: Airbnb and security camera disclosure

#388

Post by botverse »

botverse wrote: post #267
teachrdan wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've had nearly identical experiences, the worst being an apartment infested with bedbugs. Despite having video proof [0] of our mattress literally crawling with bedbugs, Airbnb support took the landlord's side and bounced us between case managers until it was finally resolved almost 24 hours later. At least at a hotel they have to acknowledge and fix the issue on the spot. 0. https://youtu.be/RJHScbdp15s

Same, bedbugs in India, had to go to a proper hotel costing me more than $1000 between room and cleaning all my belongings, I take bedbugs seriously and didn’t want to bring any bug back home. I had pictures of the bugs and the hotel and cleaning invoices. They asked for a medical (!!!) report. Airbnb refunded me 1 of the 2 nights out of 7 I didn’t spend there. So Airbnb costed me more money than going directly to a…

correction: did the conversion wrongly, total was around $717, more than the half of it was laundry, they were expecting me in the lobby already. I was arriving with a new set of clothes and a new backpack with my laptop and chargers and gave them everything else including my actual backpack and the suitcase, they had to steam clean or wash more than 57 pieces in my luggage, charged me half price.

Also good to clarify that I paid premium money for a serviced apartment offered in Airbnb, was sold as luxury etc etc. And having no previous experience with Airbnb could not see any potential problem in the add, once there the place was filthy, weird red stains on the walls... Disgusting

Re: Airbnb and security camera disclosure

#389

Post by botverse »

nanoseltzer wrote: post #366
botverse wrote: post #267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same, bedbugs in India, had to go to a proper hotel costing me more than $1000 between room and cleaning all my belongings, I take bedbugs seriously and didn’t want to bring any bug back home. I had pictures of the bugs and the hotel and cleaning invoices. They asked for a medical (!!!) report. Airbnb refunded me 1 of the 2 nights out of 7 I didn’t spend there. So Airbnb costed me more money than going directly to a…

You tried to airbnb in India ? It’s probably barely passable in LA. Hotels in India would be quite cheap with the American dollar. Hmmmmmmm :thinking face:

> You tried to airbnb in India ? It’s probably barely passable in LA

yeah, rookie mistake, my first Airbnb, but probably the last too :)

> Hotels in India would be quite cheap with the American dollar

A good hotel (or BnB) in India is not particularly cheaper than in any other country, they tend to have more staff than needed and the service is crazily good when it's good. I've had to bounce back from supposedly good quality hotels, and expensive in relation to the average, to a hotel that would be considered expensive in London a couple of times before this incident. Obviously all depends on your hygiene and quality standards. But if you think that flashing some dollar will make a red carpet appear in front of you... probably is a good idea that you try for yourself to have the exposure that you might be lacking

It is true that you can find very cheap hotels, but let me assure you that you don't want to sleep in those.

Re: Airbnb and security camera disclosure

#390

Post by enoch_r »

DyslexicAtheist wrote: post #272
gamma-male wrote: post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They change the way people travel in a good way. I wouldn't be so hateful towards them.

AirBNB and anything the sharing economy produces is never good for humans. These companies are just proprietary algorithms extracting money on the back of the poor. They should be burned with fire.

Our family of four (2 small kids) needs to travel across the US three times a year. I'm fairly sure we're all humans, although the jury is still out on our youngest. :)

For these trips we stay exclusively in AirBnBs. They are much cheaper, much more comfortable, they have room for our kids to play, and we get access to a kitchen so we can have relatively cheap home cooked meals rather than eating out 3x a day.

That's not to say we haven't had bad experiences. Once we had a combination of thin walls/floors, a downstairs neighbor who was very sensitive to noise, and a one year old who didn't yet know how to tiptoe (we did our best and didn't get any more complaints after the first, but it was a fairly uncomfortable thing to have to worry about). We've stayed in not-great neighborhoods. One kitchen looked fine in pictures but didn't have knives or cutting boards or a single unbroken pot, which made the "cooking at home" options less appealing. The variance of quality in AirBNBs is much higher than that of hotels.

But even with these negative experiences, we're still staying in AirBNBs because it's still much, much better than the alternatives. Declaring that no value is produced by AirBNB or similar companies might be emotionally satisfying, but it's not true.

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