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Airbnb is in midlife crisis mode

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Re: Airbnb is in midlife crisis mode

#221

Post by bambax »

makeavish wrote: post #181
jen729w wrote: post #159

> Chesky figured that Airbnb’s experience in attractively displaying homes, vetting hosts, and responding to crises could make it more trustworthy than competitors and therefore the go-to option for virtually anything. Online reviews are totally broken. I recently spent a week at an Airbnb in the Gold Coast, Australia. The property was rated 5* but was tired and worn. The photos must have been 5 years old before a so…

I too had similar experience. I booked a 4.9 rated property with 30 reviews. But experience was really poor and I rated 1 stars post checkout. The propery owner reachout to me asking for explanation but I wasn’t in any mood to discuss. Hours later they filed fake complaint to Airbnb that I rated poorly as I wanted late checkout and asked money to remove review. Airbnb removed my review post that. I had a flight to ca…

Yes, I had a similar experience. Reviews on Airbnb can't be trusted because most hosts are experts at having bad reviews removed. But if reviews can't be trusted then the whole thing is worthless.

Re: Airbnb is in midlife crisis mode

#222

Post by benjaminwootton »

seydor wrote: post #214

They should have launched services for hosts instead. Airbnbers interface with cleaning / repairpeople, not masseuses. They could even expand to construction and interior design as so many people are building and converting airbnbs. They could take advantage of their synergies there. They are bringing more "amateur professionals" along with the hosts by adding all those services. this is a big, unruly crowd of half-a…

That’s a good idea. I’m just setting up an AirBNB and need all of the above.

Re: Airbnb is in midlife crisis mode

#223

Post by azalemeth »

jen729w wrote: post #159

> Chesky figured that Airbnb’s experience in attractively displaying homes, vetting hosts, and responding to crises could make it more trustworthy than competitors and therefore the go-to option for virtually anything. Online reviews are totally broken. I recently spent a week at an Airbnb in the Gold Coast, Australia. The property was rated 5* but was tired and worn. The photos must have been 5 years old before a so…

At least he was apologetic about the shitty toilet.

The last time I ever directly gave Airbnb money the host accused my female work colleague of blocking the toilet with menstrual products and charged us 400CAD for a plumber to "fix" it. My colleague was incensed -- she angrily stated that the chronology was wrong, demonstrated that no aforesaid items were in her possession, but the host didn't believe it. We ended up with my card being billed before claiming successfully on travel insurance. I can't believe that happened in Toronto -- Canada is one of the nicest places on the planet -- but (US) Airbnb support took the hosts side instantly and wouldn't budge. We had a shitty toilet for a week!

The last time I stayed in one was in a urine soaked crash pad with cardboard covering the broken windows in Montréal. We spent five hours there around the unsafe electrical unit before they did actually sort something else out. The host didn't reply to emails and it later turned out had been arrested, explaining both his silence and the less than salubrious people we'd previously been sharing with.

I deleted my account and refuse to go in airbnbs now. Booking.com is far from brilliant but at least it's scatologically free so far...

Re: Airbnb is in midlife crisis mode

#224

Post by megablast »

RHSeeger wrote: post #144
BrenBarn wrote: post #120

In addition to stuff people are saying about AirBnB reviews in other comments, as far as I can tell there is no way to leave a review or otherwise provide public feedback in cases where the host cancels the booking before you get there. This seems to grossly incentivize scamming. I reserved an AirBnB months ahead of time to see the eclipse in Dallas last year, and the host canceled it the day before I was to arrive,…

Its worth noting that hotels do this kind of thing, too; just rarer, for bigger events. Its specifically been known to happen for things like Taylor Swift concerts, etc.

That is not true. You can rate them on booking.com or on google or tripadvisor.

Re: Airbnb is in midlife crisis mode

#225

Post by darkwater »

freddie_mercury wrote: post #210
chii wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For the same price, airbnb usually provides more than hotels (but with higher variation in quality). Hotels tend to be pretty consistently good when it is over a certain price point, and at any higher price point, all you get is better views/location (and may be some amenities such as gym or pool) - aka, quality caps out and just becomes expensive. Airbnb prices are quite correlated to quality. High priced airbnb (fo…

Hotels also provide tons of variation in quality. Just look up hotels in, say, Bangkok or Ho Chi Minh City where the options are much more than just the typical Western chains. Or compare the many non-chain "motels" in North America. I think what you mean is "chains" tend to be pretty consistent. Which, yeah, that's always been the main value prop of a chain. You go to McDonald's in Tunisia and you have a pretty good…

Chains consistency kills half the fun of travelling the world.

Re: Airbnb is in midlife crisis mode

#226

Post by bambax »

enjo wrote: post #115
nailer wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I’ve found is that “hosts” usually wait to file a review of me as a guest until I file my review. Oh, I thought they did a double unlock. I.e. waiting for both reviews to be finished before publishing either.

As an occasional host we always wait until the guest writes a review. Our goal is to basically never have a guest write a review so we don't write them hoping they just forget. If we write one they get an email telling them that we did and really pushing them to review. Our place is all five star reviews and there is very little benefit for further five star reviews. So it's kind of all risk for us at this point when…

Yeah well, the main talent required for being a host on Airbnb isn't to host well, it's to manage reviews well.

Reviews should have an expiration date, because places age and wear out; I'm not interested in learning about the experience of someone from five years ago, I'd like to know how it was last week.

Re: Airbnb is in midlife crisis mode

#227

Post by thinkingemote »

futurecat wrote: post #48

Reading this article felt like reading an ad.

It was triggered by press release from them possibly embargoed so they could prepare the article on time. So it's not really an ad but driven by promotion. Without the PR there would be no article.

The PR pack contain actual ad for the company announcing API platform etc. this was submitted to HN at the same time by a few different people.

Most press just replicate whatever is in a press release from a company but some, better, publishers use it to write an article.

Re: Airbnb is in midlife crisis mode

#228

Post by fuomag9 »

bsimpson wrote: post #117
cobertos wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had this experience too. Booked on AirBnb with someone who was about the same price as the hotels. Turns out the hosts were just employees of some letting company. They wanted photo ID, a deposit, and sign a second contract in a _separate website_, which I declined. Contacting AirBnb support they said this was fully allowed and I should have read the description harder. I did get a full refund but was told it was o…

There are too many shady middlemen in the vacation rentals space. I refuse to rent any place that has a separate lease, but they're no longer unheard of. To some degree, I understand the businessification of rentals - it's uncomfortable for both parties if you're trying to get a grandma to meet you to exchange keys after a late flight. But also, that person-to-person charm is a big part of why people chose Airbnbs in…

Here in Italy the law say that it’s mandatory to meet in person to give you the keys and to do identification, so the grandma should meet you anyway

Of course there are people that still ignore this, but the government has started to crackdown on this a bit, for example some months ago they started removing key boxes on the walls in the street

Re: Airbnb is in midlife crisis mode

#229

Post by benjaminwootton »

Quarrelsome wrote: post #160

Sorry, but what in gods name is this passage: > Despite never meeting Jobs, “I feel like I know him deeply, professionally, in a way that few people ever did As opposed to all the people that did actually met him, or worked for him? This is such a painfully gushing puff piece and this sentence is peak cringe that just makes the man sound mentally ill.

Reminds me of his “diary of a CEO” interview where he spends half of it reading out his own inspirational emails to the team.

Re: Airbnb is in midlife crisis mode

#230

Post by benjaminwootton »

OptionOfT wrote: post #82
satvikpendem wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It has a kitchen, which comes in very handy when you want to save money and cook.

This is my number 1 reason. Eating out is expensive, and it is very hard to do so healthy.

I also don’t feel great after eating out for 3 meals per day. That’s the mean reason we use AirBNB.
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