61–70 of 188 posts
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I'm curious how they enforce this. I've never used airbnb but what's to stop a host from reading the reviews from a guest account instead of their host one? I'm assuming they're still published publicly but maybe I'm wrong?
The review isn't visible to anyone until the period expires. It's not just hidden from the specific host account.
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If they detached this or made it separate from reviews it would perhaps reduce the fear of retributive reviews from bad hosts. The big problem here is the vast difference between "We are going to verify..." and what they are actually planning. It's just dishonest.
AirBNB reviews are unpublished until both sides either finish their review or time out. It is simply not possible to read a bad review and then write a bad review in retaliation.
While we're here, Congrats to Jersey City for regulating short term rentals like AirBnB. I'd hate to have to live next to a AirBnB unit.
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Which is deeply disappointing, and makes me worried that fraudulent hosts will work around the issue by having a co-conspirator book their room to "verify" the listing.
Especially since the Vice piece that sparked all this strongly implies that this is already happening: > Even some of the positive reviews of Becky and Andrew’s Chicago rentals seemed odd, especially those left by other pairs of hosts. Kelsey and Jean, for example, said Becky and Andrew were “awesome and communicative guests.” But they themselves were based in Chicago, where it seemed they had at least two properties…
From the comment in the article it sounds like they are trying to offload the cost/ effort of verifying listings to their customers as well: " But he said the process would involve asking users whether the information in certain listings turned out to be accurate " So when he says AirBNB is going to verify every listing, he doesn't actually mean they are paying people to do it...
Wait, I use Airbnb both as a guest and a host and it already works like this? You list amenities. Then the platform asks guests "does this listing have a stove, does it have a carbon monoxyde detector", etc. Then the platform query the host "guests have mentioned you have a stove, is it correct?". I just got such a confirmation request on our listing today.
> does this listing have a stove
Guest: Well yes but it doesn't work. Or, well yes but the flame shut off after 2 minutes
AirBnB: Sucks to be you but it has a stove so not a lie
> does this listing have wifi
Well yes but they say it's only got 1meg data so it will run out in probably 2 days and we booked the place for a month.
AirBnb: Sucks to be you but it has wifi so not a lie
> does this listing have 3 bedrooms
Well, it's got 3 rooms, a bedroom, a living room with a bed in it and a kitchen with a bed in it.
AirBnB: Bed in room = bedroom so yes it's got 3 bedrooms. Sucks to be you but not a lie
etc... The second 2 are actual AirBnB experiences.
Anecdotally, I once checked into an Airbnb with a leaky roof. After spending a good 20 minutes trying to get to a human (a small eternity when you’re in an unfortunate situation), Airbnb asked that I spend hours negotiating with my non-responsive host on a solution, which is obviously nonsensical given the situation.
Being able to instantly talk to someone and feel like I am being taken care of would have made all the difference in the world. Instead, I churned from their platform.
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Wait, I use Airbnb both as a guest and a host and it already works like this? You list amenities. Then the platform asks guests "does this listing have a stove, does it have a carbon monoxyde detector", etc. Then the platform query the host "guests have mentioned you have a stove, is it correct?". I just got such a confirmation request on our listing today.
It's not that simple > does this listing have a stove Guest: Well yes but it doesn't work. Or, well yes but the flame shut off after 2 minutes AirBnB: Sucks to be you but it has a stove so not a lie > does this listing have wifi Well yes but they say it's only got 1meg data so it will run out in probably 2 days and we booked the place for a month. AirBnb: Sucks to be you but it has wifi so not a lie > does this listi…
My worst AirBnb was let via a proxy agent. The flat wasn't actually rentable even though it was online, and so I showed up to a locked flat, no key, with all of my bags in a new city. AirBnB refunded it and gave me 50 AirBnb Bucks (TM). I only do hotels now, unless someone else is handling the reservation.
When on a vacation, and we found our AirBnB had fewer beds than advertised, we complained, and then were told that the owner wanted us "out immediately." So now we're stranded in a new city. Great.
AirBnB offered to put us up anywhere cheaper than the original price we had booked. Of course, booking 2 months in advance is much cheaper than the same day, so everywhere they offered was >60 miles away. And this was an urban location, so no, we didn't have a car either.
So we gave up and stayed in a hotel. Two months later, after many rounds of negotiating over the phone, AirBnB finally reimbursed us the full amount. Being stranded in a new city sucked, and it's obvious that AirBnB's policies for fixing issues are purposefully bad, so AirBnB is now a last resort for us.
So I can recommend AirBnB as a great option if you're ok with a 10% chance of having nowhere to sleep that night!
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Particularly since Airbnb is a two way system. I once stayed in a place where I was basically being told to give them 5 stars or else they'd give me 1 star for being a difficult guest.
How were they planning on doing this? They don't get to see the rating you gave until after their review of you is finalized, and vice-versa.
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Which is deeply disappointing, and makes me worried that fraudulent hosts will work around the issue by having a co-conspirator book their room to "verify" the listing.
It's almost like we are intentionally bending over backwards to avoid hiring some human beings to do some real fucking work. When did this become the mantra of every tech company? Any time a job is created it's viewed as an unfortunate mistake or side effect? Who are we even building all this for?