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I Accidentally Uncovered a Nationwide Scam on Airbnb

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Re: I Accidentally Uncovered a Nationwide Scam on Airbnb

#461

Post by kmonsen »

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…

Yeah, if it is me and my wife we go hotel 90% of the time at least now. If it is more family members coming, like my parents or her parents, we will book an airbnb so everyone can get their own room and we can eat together etc.

Re: I Accidentally Uncovered a Nationwide Scam on Airbnb

#462

Post by paulgb »

longerthoughts wrote: post #369
OnlineGladiator wrote: post #349

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with a lot of what you say, but > And if the host's place did burn down for real then a few hundred extra to pay for the guest's hotel for a few nights will surely be a negligent cost. is a very narrow view of someone who just lost their house to a fire. Even assuming nothing irreplaceable was lost, I feel my upcoming AirBnB guest might not be my top priority.

Any idea what hotels typically do in this situation? It's not exactly apples to apples but if you're going to make money by the same methods it seems within reason to play by similar rules.

My suggestion is in these rare cases, it should be on AirBnB to relocate you. You already paid them plenty in the booking fee, some basic assurance that you will have a room to sleep in when you arrive should be part of that. Scammers will scam, but they will at least scam a victim (AirBnB) with the resources and incentives to root out the scam. In the current system, renters are stuck with such information asymmetry that they don't even know if they're being scammed or a pipe really did burst.

Re: I Accidentally Uncovered a Nationwide Scam on Airbnb

#463

Post by amiga_500 »

elchupanebre wrote: post #342

Here is another scam that someone tried to pull on me. I booked a place in Reno a week in advance. On the night before check-in at about 2am I got a text from the host asking me to increase the price of stay by $20. That was small and I did not want the hassle of arguing but just decided to leave it till morning. In the morning I looked at it again on computer (as opposed to the phone) and saw something odd: the date…

A company that is based on a tax loophole doesn’t behave ethically?

Re: I Accidentally Uncovered a Nationwide Scam on Airbnb

#464

Post by llukas »

CamperBob2 wrote: post #390
saghm wrote: post #381

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If the host really needs to cancel they should have to put the traveler in a real hotel as an upgrade to remove all doubt of the traveler getting into a place that could be worse. They have already received the money from the traveler so they only need to pay for the difference. New scam: post a listing for a very high-end place you don't own, cancel the booking once you've been paid and book the client a cheap hot…

Oh, and receive kickbacks from the hotel. Don't forget that part.

Or better make your business model to rely on all of the above.

Re: I Accidentally Uncovered a Nationwide Scam on Airbnb

#465

Post by kmonsen »

yesenadam wrote: post #441
lonelappde wrote: post #357

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

>...Though the most successful founders are usually good people, they tend to have a piratical gleam in their eye. ...They delight in breaking rules, but not rules that matter. This quality may be redundant though; it may be implied by imagination. >...we asked [Sam] what question we could put on the Y Combinator application that would help us discover more people like him. He said to ask about a time when they'd hac…

I think the parents is somewhat justified, there is a very fine line between "hacking" as described here and scammy. It is almost inevitable it gets to AirBnB level if that is your thought process. Would be interesting to hear their take on issues like airbnb are facing, and if they thinking this "room owners" in these cases are also "hacking".

Re: I Accidentally Uncovered a Nationwide Scam on Airbnb

#466

Post by qazpot »

ghostbrainalpha wrote: post #401
jancsika wrote: post #366

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is such an elegant scam. It's like a magic trick complete with misdirection. Is there market where HN-type people come up with these and sell them to people to implement?

You can't make a business of an honest marketplace based on selling services only to dishonest people. Eventually your own customers will ruin the business. This is the fundamental reason "Organized Crime" always fails in the end.

I don't think it is true that Organized Crime fails in the end. OC organizations like Cosa Nostra , Yakuza, Triads and many others are not disappearing any time soon.

Re: I Accidentally Uncovered a Nationwide Scam on Airbnb

#467

Post by erichocean »

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…

> So Amazon have, for more than a month, been told that they are selling a stolen book. And yet the listing is still there.

If Amazon acted quickly, you could easily take down the listings of your competitors simply by making false claims—which has happened in the past.

Re: I Accidentally Uncovered a Nationwide Scam on Airbnb

#468

Post by erichocean »

koyote wrote: post #457
elchupanebre wrote: post #342

Here is another scam that someone tried to pull on me. I booked a place in Reno a week in advance. On the night before check-in at about 2am I got a text from the host asking me to increase the price of stay by $20. That was small and I did not want the hassle of arguing but just decided to leave it till morning. In the morning I looked at it again on computer (as opposed to the phone) and saw something odd: the date…

I am not sure I completely understand: Is the host able to unilaterally change the dates of your booking on AirBnb? Did your agreement to the text (asking for $20 extra) allow him to make the changes?

> Did your agreement to the text (asking for $20 extra) allow him to make the changes?

It's this, because technically you are making the changes (by agreeing).

Re: I Accidentally Uncovered a Nationwide Scam on Airbnb

#469

Post by erichocean »

elchupanebre wrote: post #342

Here is another scam that someone tried to pull on me. I booked a place in Reno a week in advance. On the night before check-in at about 2am I got a text from the host asking me to increase the price of stay by $20. That was small and I did not want the hassle of arguing but just decided to leave it till morning. In the morning I looked at it again on computer (as opposed to the phone) and saw something odd: the date…

People don't understand the value of a high trust culture until it's gone.
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