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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

#541

Post by useful »

jzwinck wrote: post #474
kitd wrote: post #452

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In a similar vein, a good friend of mine (+ all his family, about 10 in all) was kicked out of an AirBnB at the last minute because it had been double-booked on Booking.com at a higher price, and had just been rented via that site. I've come across a few such stories.

A family member of mine had something similar happen when using booking.com. She showed up at the hotel and they had sold her booked room to someone else. It was late and a bit of a nightmare to find another place to stay. Overbooking airplanes means someone might be stuck sitting in the terminal for hours. Overbooking.com means someone might be made to drive around late at night, tired, with nowhere to sleep.

Hotels have horrible inventory management. They don't have the revenue management tools that airlines have. I believe there are whole call centers of 1000s of people at expedia who call hotels to verify room availability and rebook customers.

Another example is Marriot will commonly let the local management control inventory. They commonly use the cheapest room to book to max capacity and upgrade people until they are fully booked. It almost never makes sense to book a more expensive room unless you are booking within 30 days.

Re: I Accidentally Uncovered a Nationwide Scam on Airbnb

#542

Post by cnst »

I don't understand the whole value proposition of Airbnb; and would never use it willingly myself. The prices are often more than what you'd pay for a hotel, the security and reliability is often less, and then if these sorts of things happen, you then have to haggle with case managers for a he-said-she-said type of situation.

Same thing with Uber — at least there, you get the convenience compared to having to call a taxi. What exactly do you get from Airbnb?

I travel for business lots, and the last thing I need to worry about is having to deal with these sorts of issues. Having a hotel and a car rental is so much easier and reliable.

Re: I Accidentally Uncovered a Nationwide Scam on Airbnb

#543

Post by sjg007 »

cnst wrote: post #542

I don't understand the whole value proposition of Airbnb; and would never use it willingly myself. The prices are often more than what you'd pay for a hotel, the security and reliability is often less, and then if these sorts of things happen, you then have to haggle with case managers for a he-said-she-said type of situation. Same thing with Uber — at least there, you get the convenience compared to having to call a…

Business travelers are not the target demographic...

Re: I Accidentally Uncovered a Nationwide Scam on Airbnb

#544

Post by adjkant »

cnst wrote: post #542

I don't understand the whole value proposition of Airbnb; and would never use it willingly myself. The prices are often more than what you'd pay for a hotel, the security and reliability is often less, and then if these sorts of things happen, you then have to haggle with case managers for a he-said-she-said type of situation. Same thing with Uber — at least there, you get the convenience compared to having to call a…

I think for business your stance makes perfect sense. For me, I regularly use airbnb for personal travel to stay in a neighborhood and really explore a city. Often hotels aren't an option. You also often get a fullish kitchen to cook in which is nice for anything more than a few days.

As mentioned elsewhere, being vigilant when booking can often avoid these. I've booked around a dozen places with no issues. Very much disappointed that Airbnb doesn't do better though, as generally the time searching of course is valuable. For me it's just not as valuable as the way I explore a city coming from an Airbnb instead of a hotel, so it's still a worthwhile service.

Re: I Accidentally Uncovered a Nationwide Scam on Airbnb

#545

Post by cnst »

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…

There are hotels with laundry rooms; and many chains have suites that give you an extra room, including doors, or connecting rooms. Very often the price difference isn't that significant. (Given how expensive some Airbnb's are, booking with points or through various deal sites is often much cheaper for a proper hotel rooms, too.)

Re: I Accidentally Uncovered a Nationwide Scam on Airbnb

#546

Post by briandear »

jzwinck wrote: post #477
paulgb wrote: post #462

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

One of the reasons Airbnb is cheaper than hotels is that fraud and safety costs are passed on to guests and hosts. This is part of the business model. Once you build all the protections people want, you may find yourself at the same prices hotels were charging, and that's not very unicorn.

But a lot of people are ok with slightly increased risk for lower prices overall. When you need a sure thing, book a hotel.

Re: I Accidentally Uncovered a Nationwide Scam on Airbnb

#547

Post by briandear »

koyote wrote: post #459
yason wrote: post #335

The late cancellation by host without no specific penalties seems to be one of the most prevalent yet disturbing elements in this. The one who's travelling has the weakest odds of all. The traveler will be in a foreign place with no place to stay. In contrast, the host has no losing cards except some income. The rules should, thus, have been written to protect the traveler at the expense of the host because the host…

The traveller is penalised the full price of the stay if they cancel late. Why is the host not penalised the same amount (which would then be credited to the traveller as compensation)?

Hosts are punished. I have had it happen to me when I had an unintentional overbooking on a property I owned.

Re: I Accidentally Uncovered a Nationwide Scam on Airbnb

#548

Post by briandear »

gesman wrote: post #74
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…

>> 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…

> Lots of property owners goes to great extends to make property look way better, bigger, nicer than it really is

As does every single hotel ever in existence.

Re: I Accidentally Uncovered a Nationwide Scam on Airbnb

#549

Post by lightedman »

edouard-harris wrote: post #497
greggman2 wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> It bugs me that YC appears to have absolutely no policy of conduct for the companies they fund. They do: https://www.ycombinator.com/ethics/ YC founders are told to review these guidelines before we accept the investment. From the ethics page: > To maintain our community, if a founder behaves unethically during or after YC, we will revoke their YC founder status.

So, what about making the company return that venture funding money to boot?

I can think of several YC-funded companies pretty much raping our privacy and YC does nothing to fix that.

Re: I Accidentally Uncovered a Nationwide Scam on Airbnb

#550

Post by aptwebapps »

52-6F-62 wrote: post #502
pingec wrote: post #489

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When we accidentally took a double booking for the same place, booking.com demanded that we arrange and pay for equivalent accommodation for the booking.com guests. That is what we did, I do not know what would have happened had we refused to do so.

Wow that’s messy. I have trip this coming month through Expedia and the last leg of our bargain basement flight got cancelled. The rep told me there were no flights for days surrounding our original flight date. I had to sit on hold for a long time but I have to say they were great. United swept our transportation out from under our feet but the rep was able to wrangle a flight with fewer stops that arrives earlier w…

Expedia did that? That's great. I've always avoided them and their competitors and bought directly from the airlines because I was afraid if something went wrong I would get better service that way.
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