I am not sure why, but reading this article just made me feel pretty ill. How does someone (multiple someones?) have the moral ability to do these kinds of things? I seriously can't believe the whole stack, from AirBNB to the scammer, just let these kinds of things go. At the end, where the author states she will continue to use AirBNB because it is cheaper kind of rubs me the wrong way. For a company to allow such slimy things to happen with minimal recourse would just turn me off from them forever. And the scammer? To just rip people off, knowingly ruin peoples vacations (and other things, but I imagine mostly vacations) because "money" is just ridiculous. These kinds of stories just hurt me. I wish people were better, but I know these types of people won't stop scamming.
I Accidentally Uncovered a Nationwide Scam on Airbnb
261–270 of 632 posts
Re: I Accidentally Uncovered a Nationwide Scam on Airbnb
#262I'm going on a 10-day vacation overseas at the end of this month. Given how infrequently I do big vacations (a personal issue I'm working to overcome), I have zero tolerance for surprises when it comes to my accommodations. I simply look for large and established four- or five-star hotels that have been around for a while and have numerous positive reviews across several web sites. Another hack I do is to use the "!m…
Can you explain the "!mill" directive?
It redirects to Million Short, a search engine that removes results for the top N websites.
Helpful for filtering out the Pinterest/Yelp/AngiesList/Home Advisor spam that fills the first several pages of results for most local searches.
Re: I Accidentally Uncovered a Nationwide Scam on Airbnb
#263There have been a few threads about AirBnb lately with a lot of people reporting negative experiences so I will add my own $0.02. I have stayed in many AirBnbs. The reason is, I find it is the only way to have a tolerable family vacation is when everyone has their own sleeping quarters. When we are all piled into one (often overpriced and not so clean) hotel room, it makes for less than ideal sleep and everyone ends…
I've stayed at 22 airbnb's 11 were fine. 11 had issues most with false advertising in some form or another. One listed the wrong location and if they had listed the correct location I would not have rented even though the room's interior matched. A few claimed to include onsite parking but didn't which of course is very inconvenient. The last one that did that claimed "Easy Street Parking" as AirBnb's blatant lie. I…
Compare that to 100% of My priceline bids being accepted by hotels that were much better than expected and at rates about half what you'd book directly.
I'm so glad now after years of never booking an airbnb I can say that with pride. I never gave this scummy company a single dollar. I knew who they were from the first experience.
Re: I Accidentally Uncovered a Nationwide Scam on Airbnb
#264I am not sure why, but reading this article just made me feel pretty ill. How does someone (multiple someones?) have the moral ability to do these kinds of things? I seriously can't believe the whole stack, from AirBNB to the scammer, just let these kinds of things go. At the end, where the author states she will continue to use AirBNB because it is cheaper kind of rubs me the wrong way. For a company to allow such s…
Shame is a very good immoral deterrent for the eager to deceive. Imagine knowing your future progeny are ashamed they come from grifters? (Quite astonishing people don’t make the connection that we are alive now on a world stage.)
Re: I Accidentally Uncovered a Nationwide Scam on Airbnb
#265Nice piece, albeit a little bit clickbaity (par for the course with vice). It's a single small-time operator, maybe 2 guys, with a few properties across a few cities. Yes, technically it's nationwide, but the scope is that of a small time con, not some extensive and deep operation.
To summarize, the photos and listings are fake, with fake host names and the requisite fake reviews. When you arrive, you get a call 10-30 minutes before check-in and told the plumbing is broken, I need to move you. Then you get put in a "flophouse". I suppose the move is so that the actual address where you will stay isn't listed on AirBNB and you won't be able to street view it, etc. Because otherwise I don't see the point of not putting you into the crap house at the listed address.
Through a process of sloppy ops work on the scammer, and tenacity of the author, she uncovered the name and other personal details of the perp and confronted him. He then removed any digital trails of himself which he had so stupidly had publicly available before, thinking they couldn't be traced back easily.
It's a great revenge story, the kind that gives you vicarious satisfaction.
My only question is, why didn't the author call the FBI afterwards?
Re: I Accidentally Uncovered a Nationwide Scam on Airbnb
#266There have been a few threads about AirBnb lately with a lot of people reporting negative experiences so I will add my own $0.02. I have stayed in many AirBnbs. The reason is, I find it is the only way to have a tolerable family vacation is when everyone has their own sleeping quarters. When we are all piled into one (often overpriced and not so clean) hotel room, it makes for less than ideal sleep and everyone ends…
I use a Chrome extension to show the true cost per night on Airbnb. I find the fees variable enough that I want to see the real price as part of my analysis of listings. https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/airbnb-price-per-n... There might be others, but this one has worked well for me. No affiliation, just a happy user.
You have to hack them to get the real price? That seems profoundly wrong to me.
Re: I Accidentally Uncovered a Nationwide Scam on Airbnb
#267There have been a few threads about AirBnb lately with a lot of people reporting negative experiences so I will add my own $0.02. I have stayed in many AirBnbs. The reason is, I find it is the only way to have a tolerable family vacation is when everyone has their own sleeping quarters. When we are all piled into one (often overpriced and not so clean) hotel room, it makes for less than ideal sleep and everyone ends…
>> The main downside for me concerning AirBnb is it takes a long time to analyze the listings to find quality accommodations. In my view this is major. To describe it better - need to read "between the lines" of misleading representations of properties. Lots of property owners goes to great extends to make property look way better, bigger, nicer than it really is and to conceal obvious negative points that become app…
Yes. I'm in charge of booking a ski trip for ~15 friends each year, and the amount of reading between the lines I have to do to make sure everyone has a comfortable place to sleep is crazy.
Tons of places count sofas/pullouts/day beds in the "Sleeps # of People", and they often count the temporary beds as space for 2. So you'll see places that say, Sleeps 16, but there are only 3 or 4 real beds.
Hotels have it right up front: 2 Queens. Period.
Re: I Accidentally Uncovered a Nationwide Scam on Airbnb
#268Earlier quoted context omitted.
Isn’t this currently the case? As far as I can tell you don’t get to see the other review until you’ve written and submitted your own.
I've only used Airbnb once, so I'm unsure. But given the "retaliatory reviews" mentioned in the article, it seems not; How could I retaliate if I don't know what your review will be?
They are right; it works that way now. Maybe the "relatiation" is in anticipation of a bad review?
Re: I Accidentally Uncovered a Nationwide Scam on Airbnb
#269I am not sure why, but reading this article just made me feel pretty ill. How does someone (multiple someones?) have the moral ability to do these kinds of things? I seriously can't believe the whole stack, from AirBNB to the scammer, just let these kinds of things go. At the end, where the author states she will continue to use AirBNB because it is cheaper kind of rubs me the wrong way. For a company to allow such s…
There's a weird fundamental flaw in social groups which is this:
1. Trusting trustworthy people increases efficiency. The less checking and verification you have to do, the less redundant work there is and the more easily things go.
2. As the number of trustworthy people in a group increases, the value of choosing to trust a random person increases. The odds get greater that they will be trustworthy, letting you reap the greater efficiency of trusting them.
3. As the number of trusting people in a group increases, the relative value of malice increases. The more likely a con artist is to be trusted, the more likely they are to be successful at their goal.
So there's this weird trust graph where as you approach 100% trustworthiness, you also approach 100% exploitability. The group gradually turns itself into a honeypot. So the stable equilibrium point is somewhere less of 100%.
Re: I Accidentally Uncovered a Nationwide Scam on Airbnb
#270Earlier quoted context omitted.
>> The main downside for me concerning AirBnb is it takes a long time to analyze the listings to find quality accommodations. In my view this is major. To describe it better - need to read "between the lines" of misleading representations of properties. Lots of property owners goes to great extends to make property look way better, bigger, nicer than it really is and to conceal obvious negative points that become app…
> Try to get refund from AirBnb for misprepresentation or deliberate omissions of negative points. -I don’t know whether their policy differs from country to country, but after using AirBnb 30+ times traveling with wife and three kids in Northern/Central Europe, I’ve only had two issues - once the place we were to stay was double-booked (and we arrived last!); the other it turned out what was described as a ‘bedroom’…
When my fiance and I stayed at a place in Paia on Maui, the place looked immaculate from the pictures. But when we got there it was full of cockroaches. We had literally just gotten in at like 4 pm, put groceries down on the counter, and the little buggers were on them almost immediately.
We were exhausted and didn't have the energy to really do anything after our 6 hour plane flight. The hosts came in and tried to resolve things first by removing all the appliances and then by offering us a bribe. I had documented all of this on the AirBnB website via private messages, taken pictures of the cockroaches, and found a can of bug spray(the hosts knew they had an ongoing problem and still rented to us!) to spray the roaches with. They were falling out of every crevice that I sprayed in the kitchen.
We ended up spending a very restless night there, and in the morning I found a single roach in the bathroom. We were going to move out the next day, but ended up scrambling to find a hotel room in Maui that afternoon after driving the road to Hana.
When I called AirBnB to report the cockroaches the representative basically said he couldn't guarantee me any kind of refund, and moreover that I should be used to staying in "less than clean conditions" as a bachelor who has traveled for business. I was flabbergasted.
They eventually got us a refund but I have never had such a terrible customer service experience from any company, period. I will never stay in AirBnB again. Evidently they don't enforce any standards of cleanliness and they take all hosts at their words as to the fitness of the property. The CSR that initially handled my case was a huge asshole and made me feel like he didn't care about me at all. The later CSRs were better. Staying in an AirBnB was the most stressful vacation experience I have ever had and I will never trust them again.
As an aside, you should make it a point to call their support line during the hours of business in the EST or CST timezones. Their day shift CSRs actually seemed to care about the problem. But their night shift appears to be an overseas call center, and they treated me like shit.