I Accidentally Uncovered a Nationwide Scam on Airbnb • Hacker News Board

Re: I Accidentally Uncovered a Nationwide Scam on Airbnb

#351

Post by stefs » Thu, Oct 31, 2019, 7:43 PM UTC

dboreham wrote: post #157

mattrp wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would second this experience. We travel with our five kids and its sometimes impossible to find a hotel that can accommodate us. That said, I did experience a switcheroo in Chicago similar to the article. However that’s where the similarities end. The place was in the same neighborhood, it was comparable to the listing but the only catch was we were told not say Airbnb to anyone in the building but to say guests of…

I haven't stayed at Airbnbs in the US but it has been a common experience in Europe to be instructed to say we're guests of the owner if asked. I assume this is about either HOA rules on subletting, or tax/insurance/regulatory issues.

that's tax evasion

Re: I Accidentally Uncovered a Nationwide Scam on Airbnb

#352

Post by chippy » Thu, Oct 31, 2019, 7:43 PM UTC

NelsonMinar wrote: post #206

I don't understand why AirBnB doesn't take this kind of fraud more seriously. All they have is their brand reputation. This kind of fraud will destroy that.

Why? As the last paragraph says, and many comments here echo, people will still use the service. There is literally no reason why they should take it more seriously unless they were a) socially minded or b) under legal investigation.

Re: I Accidentally Uncovered a Nationwide Scam on Airbnb

#353

Post by onlyrealcuzzo » Thu, Oct 31, 2019, 7:44 PM UTC

julienchastang wrote: post #51

There 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…

If you haven't tried recently, a lot of traditional booking sites (like Booking.com) now have a pretty extensive apartment rental catalogue. When I'm going somewhere for more than a couple of days, I'd much rather have an entire apartment. I used to use AirBNB to book a full-fledged apartment. But now I just use Booking.com for everything.

It also used to be the case that AirBNB had some really nice places for pretty cheap. I think now that the business is more mature, it's not as easy to find really great discounts. Any more, it seems like the better value is on Booking.com, too!

Re: I Accidentally Uncovered a Nationwide Scam on Airbnb

#354

Post by JamesBarney » Thu, Oct 31, 2019, 7:45 PM UTC

axaxs wrote: post #48

wholepointofcc wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Try calling your Credit Card company and flag it as fraud. That's what I would do. That failing I'd submit a police report.

That's essentially what I was thinking even when reading the article. Get a good credit card company that's on your side (Amex has been best for me, Discover too), and let them deal with it. They absolutely will not screw around with stuff like this.

If you do this be prepared to not use the service you do this to ever again.

Re: I Accidentally Uncovered a Nationwide Scam on Airbnb

#355

Post by puranjay » Thu, Oct 31, 2019, 7:45 PM UTC

wrboyce wrote: post #95

swozey wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah I've stayed at lot of airbnbs (20-30 a year) and only had good to great experiences. I've met a lot of hosts that I specifically look up when I visit their city again. I've had plenty where they weren't exactly what I expected, like thinking a cabin I was renting was in the woods from the pictures but it was on a gravel driveway with trees in the background, but my trip wasn't ruined or anything. I've unfortunat…

Nothing about what you describe sounds like it falls into the "good to great experience" category to me.

A "great" hotel experience I had recently was when I happened to casually mention to someone in the hotel restaurant that it was my wedding anniversary tomorrow. When I came back from touring through the city the next day, the reception staff gave my wife flowers and wished us a happy anniversary. Then when we entered our room, we found a small cake with anniversary wishes.

That kind of attention to detail is what I would classify as a truly "great" experience.

Re: I Accidentally Uncovered a Nationwide Scam on Airbnb

#356

Post by pessimizer » Thu, Oct 31, 2019, 7:47 PM UTC

giarc wrote: post #184

marcodave wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, if a scam is successful and unnoticeable, by definition we won't see any articles about those, right?

You are correct, I guess my point was more about the fact that they were so close to getting away with it. Cutting corners never pays.

They did get away with it, over and over again. And when the scam was discovered, they went dark. They could have even switched to alternate accounts, alternate platforms, or even a different scam that utilizes those empty properties.

Not getting away with something in perpetuity is not the same as not getting away with it. Had they been more timid with their margins, maybe they would have been busted before making the money they did make.

Re: I Accidentally Uncovered a Nationwide Scam on Airbnb

#357

Post by lonelappde » Thu, Oct 31, 2019, 7:48 PM UTC

greggman2 wrote: post #158

julienchastang wrote: post #51

There 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…

PG wrote an essay about how he and and Sam Altman prefer to invest in companies that run scams, as long as they aren't too evil.

Remember that AirBnB's first marketing campaign was hiring women (or men using female names online) to violate Craiglist ToS to spam people posting housing listings.

http://www.paulgraham.com/founders.html

Re: I Accidentally Uncovered a Nationwide Scam on Airbnb

#358

Post by irrational » Thu, Oct 31, 2019, 7:51 PM UTC

Mediterraneo10 wrote: post #301

tempsy wrote: post #228

I find it pretty crazy that AirBnB's tech never really evolved on the host or guest side at all. The experience is still basically like a pretty Craigslist with payment processing. I sometimes wonder what an engineer there even does other than maintain a CRUD app. For example, why isn't there an Alexa-like concierge device in every AirBnB that answers guest questions by now? Why aren't there smart locks on every home…

> Why aren't there smart locks on every home that unlocks with the app? AirBnB is reportedly pressuring hosts to install smart locks, but they are getting pushback from hosts who like socializing with the people who come to stay at their property. Yes, a huge amount of AirBnB listings are faceless property developers now, but there is still a good slice of individual families renting out a spare flat. Sometimes the h…

My wife and I recently stayed near the beach in an apartment under an elderly couple's home. All the reviews mentioned how friendly Bill and Betty (I can't actually remember their names) were and how much they enjoyed visiting. That was the last thing we were interested in. So in our comments to the hosts we said we were coming to get away from the kids and were just looking for time to ourselves with no interaction from other people. Fortunately that worked! Other than briefly talking to them when we checked in, we didn't interact with them at all the remainder of the time we were there. It was great!

Re: I Accidentally Uncovered a Nationwide Scam on Airbnb

#359

Post by SilasX » Thu, Oct 31, 2019, 7:51 PM UTC

CPLX wrote: post #230

swozey wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah I've stayed at lot of airbnbs (20-30 a year) and only had good to great experiences. I've met a lot of hosts that I specifically look up when I visit their city again. I've had plenty where they weren't exactly what I expected, like thinking a cabin I was renting was in the woods from the pictures but it was on a gravel driveway with trees in the background, but my trip wasn't ruined or anything. I've unfortunat…

I used to be an active Airbnb host for a vacation house I own. For reference it was a 4 bedroom Victorian. I had to pay $150 to clean the house each time I had a booking, that's what it cost me. I passed it along to guests at exactly that cost. Not sure if it was "worth it" for some guests, or people staying only one night. But that's what I had to pay, it wasn't part of any nefarious strategy. In developed countries…

Fair enough; not everyone is abusing that feature, and I can understand how a large home like that would legitimately cost $150.

But many are, and Airbnb isn't doing anything for the UI that lets you adapt for that and sort by total cost. There's almost an arms race for how much of the cost you can obfuscate that way.

Re: I Accidentally Uncovered a Nationwide Scam on Airbnb

#360

Post by puranjay » Thu, Oct 31, 2019, 7:52 PM UTC

herodotus wrote: post #327

There is a larger problem here: there seems to be no way to hold these big internet companies to account for misrepresenting their product offerings. For example, some time ago, someone on HN reported on a plagiarized Python book for sale on Amazon. ( https://www.amazon.com/Python-Programming-Beginner-Intermedi... ). I emailed the author of the original book,(October 4) because Amazon have a form that allows authors…

At this point, ordering certain products from Amazon is basically playing Counterfeit Roulette. You never know if that bag is a real Michael Kors or a Chinese knock off