Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Airbnb and security camera disclosure

jeffreybigham.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

391–400 of 406 posts

Re: Airbnb and security camera disclosure

#391

Post by jrnichols »

egonschiele wrote: post #271
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…

Same here. I've had bad experiences, and AirBnB has not responded to complaints in any way. In one case, the host was so hostile that we left after staying one night. I've yet to hear back from AirBnB about it, and my review was not published either.

I wonder how many reviews go unpublished. I had a host try to shake me down for nearly $200 saying that "you spilled something on the bed, I had to have a professional cleaner come out." I had spilled nothing at all! His "evidence" was some unclear photos of a mattress, and that's it. I refused, noting exactly that - it felt like a shakedown, and he had even admitted that another guest had already stayed. I don't know how or if it'll affect my reputation, but I was pretty turned off on Airbnb after that and i'm not too sure i'll use it again.

Re: Airbnb and security camera disclosure

#392

Post by jrnichols »

conanbatt wrote: post #111
jartelt wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I made the switch as well and now only get an AirBnB when traveling with a large group of friends to remote destinations. For my own travel, I got so sick of the problems with key access. It's just too hard to coordinate with most hosts when you are in a foreign country and don't have cell service or wi-fi. It's also super annoying when any number of other issues show up: spotty wi-fi, no cable TV, no soap or shampoo…

Honestly dont get why Airbnb doesnt make /buy a lock mechanism and gives it to hosts. A simple key padlock suffices for 90% of the cases.

Something does exist for that.

https://www.remotelock.com/smart-locks-airbnb-hosts

Re: Airbnb and security camera disclosure

#393

Post by chauzer »

Just to add another +1 on the poor AirBnb customer support...

I rented out my place on AirBnb for 3 weeks and it took nearly a month before I received my payment from AirBnb. I filed a support ticket with AirBnb and the support person was extremely slow in responding, sometimes taking 2-3 days for a response. I had to tweet at AirBnb publicly and post on their public FB page to get responses. I looked up the AirBnb customer support rep on LinkedIn and looked like AirBnb has a good amount of their customer support staff abroad in Asia. Their support team told me it was an issue on their end but wouldn't go into details. It was obviously an issue when i went to the billing section on AirBnb and saw 500 errors when using Chrome's debugger to see the traffic. I was close to just tweeting at AirBnb Engineering to offer some help to fix their bug when I hadn't been paid thousands of dollars for putting my home on AirBnb for a month. It finally got resolved and I got a couple hundred dollars in AirBnb credit for my troubles.

Re: Airbnb and security camera disclosure

#394

Post by fouc »

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…

Problem is that hotel is often cheaper than an AirBnB's final price.

Re: Airbnb and security camera disclosure

#395

Post by baby »

CaptainZapp wrote: post #386
enra wrote: post #380

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Wow. You must not airbnb a lot. I've stayed in such cute places along the years.

The only hotel I remember is the Marina Bay in Singapore. All others were just generic experience to me.

You should try to airbnb more :)

Re: Airbnb and security camera disclosure

#396

Post by HashHishBang »

CaptainZapp wrote: post #371
woolvalley wrote: post #326

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Drivers get removed from the service after their rating drops bellow a threshold, so yes, it matters a lot. Drivers also tend to prefer high starred riders and might reject low star riders.

So essentially you can fuck with the lifehood of a driver with one lousy * feedback; nice! Frankly, and probably to the detriment of a few ultra libertarians in here; I prefer a government regulator with established processes, a mandate and enforcement for drivers to observe rest times and drive sober and a requirement by law to be properly insured and health - (let alone background-) checked if you drive people arou…

You can fuck with the livelihood of any service industry employee with feedback. "Let me speak to your manager."

That's not to defend Uber's predatory practices, but it's disingenuous to pretend that the service industry hasn't been at the mercy of those they serve. Also there are regulations, including background checks, for drivers? At least for Lyft.

I leave your comment 2 stars, would prefer not to read again.

Re: Airbnb and security camera disclosure

#397

Post by somada141 »

paulie_a wrote: post #379
somada141 wrote: post #297

I'm about to embark on a nomadic trip so I will be depending on AirBnBs and hotels a lot. Can I just ask: If the host has not disclosed security/surveillance but such equipment is present am I allowed to run de-auth attacks against the cameras so I can 'disable' them temporarily?

No you just throw them in the kitchen sink and run water over them.

That might be misconstrued as property damage :D

Re: Airbnb and security camera disclosure

#398

Post by cortesoft »

paulie_a wrote: post #377
cortesoft wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't get it either. I get even LESS the idea of renting out your home. I hesitate to let close friends stay at my place when I am out of town. I can't IMAGINE letting strangers stay.

You hesitate at close friends staying at your place? They probably are not that close of friends. I'd toss the keys to plenty of relatively close friends with a "hey make sure the cat doesn't sneak out, he's a bastard like that. Have a good weekend, feel free to raid the fridge"

We probably just have different views of personal space. I don't like people in my private spaces; it is hard enough when I am there, and even worse when I am not.

It isn't about closeness to the person; I wouldn't be super comfortable with my best friend, my family, doesn't matter.

Re: Airbnb and security camera disclosure

#399

Post by catcow »

CaptainZapp wrote: post #371
woolvalley wrote: post #326

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Drivers get removed from the service after their rating drops bellow a threshold, so yes, it matters a lot. Drivers also tend to prefer high starred riders and might reject low star riders.

So essentially you can fuck with the lifehood of a driver with one lousy * feedback; nice! Frankly, and probably to the detriment of a few ultra libertarians in here; I prefer a government regulator with established processes, a mandate and enforcement for drivers to observe rest times and drive sober and a requirement by law to be properly insured and health - (let alone background-) checked if you drive people arou…

I drove for Uber 20-30 hours/week for 3 years. It was super super rare for someone to try and fuck with me by threatening a low rating. At first, when they did, I told them to go ahead and just give me the 1 star. It really didn't matter. A few 1 star ratings barely puts a dent into thousands of 5 star ratings. Eventually I developed the customer service skills to prevent this from happening while still saying no. If you're a good driver you have nothing to worry about.

In my city, I remember when the news came out that drivers also rate passengers. The quality of passenger behavior skyrocketed.

I think most of the bad views of Uber come from disgruntled drivers and passengers with poor people skills. I know many many drivers and passengers who are happy with the product.

Also, ever since Travis Kalanick left the quality of driver support has tanked badly. It's very difficult to get issues fixed. The level of crippling bureaucracy within Uber is clearly growing. Not sure if that's a coincidence or indicative of his leadership.

Re: Airbnb and security camera disclosure

#400

Post by notananthem »

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…

Considering it was born out of the couch surfing movement you hit the nail on the head. All the worst potential things shared by hosts and guests with a cool risk free cut going to airbnb
Post reply on HN