How to lose $950 quickly on Airbnb • Hacker News Board

Re: How to lose $950 quickly on Airbnb

#21

Post by madaxe_again » Sun, Mar 05, 2023, 9:56 PM UTC

4.47 rating. That is, believe it or not, a pretty appalling score, and not something I would book. Also, the host is an ass, I cannot count how many times I have had people book for family members, and I’ve had numerous occasions where someone has booked for someone else for work.

You also want to avoid 5.00 or 4.99 with hundreds of stays as they are inevitably buying or extorting reviews. 4.88-4.97 is the sweet spot.

I really wish Airbnb would just ban hosts like this, as it makes those of us who are honestly trying to provide good hospitality all get tarred with the same brush.

Re: How to lose $950 quickly on Airbnb

#22

Post by skilled » Sun, Mar 05, 2023, 9:56 PM UTC

znkynz wrote: post #16

Otoh, you did crash a confirmed booking for the host, at too late a date for them to find another guest. I can see both sides here.

1 hour is too late?

Re: How to lose $950 quickly on Airbnb

#23

Post by fruit2020 » Sun, Mar 05, 2023, 9:56 PM UTC

Matheus28 wrote: post #4

I don't see why someone would still use Airbnb for short stays. At $1.5k for 5 nights in Seattle you can surely stay at a decent hotel (which the OP ended up doing anyway, at $1.3k), and not have to deal with some weird hosts. Hit them with a chargeback, who cares about getting banned from Airbnb.

Homes are sometimes nicer than hotels, better suited for families with children.

Re: How to lose $950 quickly on Airbnb

#24

Post by Nextgrid » Sun, Mar 05, 2023, 9:57 PM UTC

avalys wrote: post #19

Nextgrid wrote: post #6

Charge it back via your bank and explain the situation. Worst case scenario, it gets denied, you don't lose anything either way. The initial misunderstanding was cleared up just one hour after the booking - it should be very reasonable for the host to offer a full refund, it's not like it was a last-minute cancellation where the host would struggle to get it rebooked in time and lose out. The host is clearly being ma…

I have heard of companies reacting to a chargeback in situations like this by banning your account.

I don't think this person will use Airbnb ever again anyway.

Re: How to lose $950 quickly on Airbnb

#25

Post by darknavi » Sun, Mar 05, 2023, 9:57 PM UTC

avalys wrote: post #19

Nextgrid wrote: post #6

Charge it back via your bank and explain the situation. Worst case scenario, it gets denied, you don't lose anything either way. The initial misunderstanding was cleared up just one hour after the booking - it should be very reasonable for the host to offer a full refund, it's not like it was a last-minute cancellation where the host would struggle to get it rebooked in time and lose out. The host is clearly being ma…

I have heard of companies reacting to a chargeback in situations like this by banning your account.

Not a huge issue probably because after loosing that much money I'd be surprised if they ever use AirBnb again.

Re: How to lose $950 quickly on Airbnb

#26

Post by grandpoobah » Sun, Mar 05, 2023, 9:57 PM UTC

Nextgrid wrote: post #6

Charge it back via your bank and explain the situation. Worst case scenario, it gets denied, you don't lose anything either way. The initial misunderstanding was cleared up just one hour after the booking - it should be very reasonable for the host to offer a full refund, it's not like it was a last-minute cancellation where the host would struggle to get it rebooked in time and lose out. The host is clearly being ma…

> Nicky (from the movie Casino): Where the f** do you get off talking to people about me behind my back going over my head?

I'm guessing if he does a chargeback he gets banned from AirBnB.

Re: How to lose $950 quickly on Airbnb

#27

Post by avalys » Sun, Mar 05, 2023, 9:57 PM UTC

znkynz wrote: post #16

Otoh, you did crash a confirmed booking for the host, at too late a date for them to find another guest. I can see both sides here.

The article says the initial interaction (including trying to cancel) happened within one hour of booking.

Re: How to lose $950 quickly on Airbnb

#28

Post by richiezc » Sun, Mar 05, 2023, 9:58 PM UTC

Hot take from somebody I follow on twitter:

"AirBnB is the new Facebook, everyone complains about how terrible it is and yet they keep growing usage & making even more money each year."

https://twitter.com/Carnage4Life/status/1625607351083597825?...

Re: How to lose $950 quickly on Airbnb

#29

Post by davidw » Sun, Mar 05, 2023, 9:58 PM UTC

My elderly parents were going to visit us last spring, but my daughter came home from school with a sore throat, so I went to cancel immediately, and they weren't willing to work with me at all, and also mentioned I shouldn't have booked for my parents. I did that because they're not very tech savvy.

In any case, I did a chargeback and got all of my money back, even though I would have been happy to forfeit some since this was the day before they were supposed to arrive.

Airbnb did make some noises about removing my account "if this happens again" or something like that, but they can take a hike. The whole thing was handled very badly.

Re: How to lose $950 quickly on Airbnb

#30

Post by rjh29 » Sun, Mar 05, 2023, 9:58 PM UTC

This is the reason I hope booking.com are successful (they increasingly have aparthotel listings). They usually offer free cancellation and I've never had a problem cancelling for free if I had a good reason (such as illness).

Other thing to watch out for is fees. The place I'm staying at charges 20000yen ($150) if you enter the apartment without taking off your shoes, 6000yen ($44) per hour overstayed after checkout, and inviting anyone into the house for any amount of time causes your entire booking to triple in price ($2000 in my case). I'm not sure if they can enforce those...