How airbnb lost me as a customer • Hacker News Board

Re: How airbnb lost me as a customer

#11

Post by socmoth » Fri, Oct 05, 2012, 6:51 PM UTC

It sounds like their customer support failed you. Whatever tool they were using to track your email thread failed or someone acted too hastily and responded to the thread inappropriately by asking for the same information. You are right they made a mistake in sending you two emails and it is annoying they are holding your money.

I have no inside information about Airbnb, but I'd guess they are slowing moving the money to try and prevent fraud on their system. Basically, A stolen card being used for a high value amount. Obviously that is annoying to anyone who is waiting for money, but I've seen it happen in many situations where money is transfered.

Are you a frequent hoster? If you have a lot of money coming in for your apartment, it is much more likely that it would be transfered quickly.

If you are a frequent hoster, is this a unusually large amount at once? Or is it from someone who is using Airbnb for the first time?

In the end, it sounds like your experience wasn't so great. But I'd hope you remember that it is just people on the other end answering your email and trying to prevent fraud. Many of those people answer hundreds of emails a day and probably make mistakes as often as anyone else. I hope everything works out for you.

Re: How airbnb lost me as a customer

#12

Post by 4qbomb » Fri, Oct 05, 2012, 6:52 PM UTC

envex wrote: post #2

Are you really worried that they'll have your height and eye color? You've already let a "stranger" into your house, but these details to too sacred? Just take photos off all and black out any info you don't think is appropriate.

Envex, if you are not worried about this sort of thing. How about you go follow @ewconsultors on twitter. Dare ya...

Re: How airbnb lost me as a customer

#13

Post by tptacek » Fri, Oct 05, 2012, 6:52 PM UTC

(1) You refer to your "apartment", which by convention refers to a domicile that you are leasing. While other HN readers will contest this point, I'd be willing to put money on the fact that you violated your lease by renting out your apartment on Airbnb at all.

(2) HN is not a forum for complaints about YC companies, and while I didn't flag this post, you shouldn't overreact if it is killed. Nobody is trying to censor you; if it happens, just move your post to Tumblr.

Re: How airbnb lost me as a customer

#14

Post by ARobotics » Fri, Oct 05, 2012, 6:58 PM UTC

mindstab wrote: post #4

You're essentially acting as a hotel business. I'm not sure you can do that with the level of anonymity you require to a legal corp like airbnb to remain legit. You may have unreasonable expectations. Try something even more underground next time I guess. There probably isn't anything they can do. But yeah, I suppose listing it more clearly would have been nice :) (and better communication, something most tech startu…

It's not about anonymity - they have a verified phone number and email address, they have my address and name. My payment is in the form of a check sent to the address being rented, paid to the name on the account. When I created the account, if they had said "We need a credit card number to confirm your identity" or "Use this secure form to submit a copy of utility bill" I would have gladly complied.

Asking me to send them over email after a reservation is much more frustrating. Not responding for two weeks when I do email them a photo of utility bill is more frustrating still.

Re: How airbnb lost me as a customer

#15

Post by jpdoctor » Fri, Oct 05, 2012, 7:06 PM UTC

> and a copy of a utility bill

What a dumbass requirement. As if somebody with access to a printer would not be able to produce one.

Re: How airbnb lost me as a customer

#16

Post by njs12345 » Fri, Oct 05, 2012, 7:07 PM UTC

tptacek wrote: post #13

(1) You refer to your "apartment", which by convention refers to a domicile that you are leasing. While other HN readers will contest this point, I'd be willing to put money on the fact that you violated your lease by renting out your apartment on Airbnb at all. (2) HN is not a forum for complaints about YC companies, and while I didn't flag this post, you shouldn't overreact if it is killed. Nobody is trying to cens…

Please explain how (1) is relevant to the complaint at hand.

Re: How airbnb lost me as a customer

#17

Post by mootothemax » Fri, Oct 05, 2012, 7:09 PM UTC

Look at it from the other side of things: how would you react if AirBnB weren't doing these checks?

If I'm staying somewhere, I'm leaving my luggage, and there's plenty of opportunities for stuff to go missing, whether in the middle night or otherwise.

That's just the petty crime aspect, leaving aside other opportunities for much more serious badness.

It's bad that their customer service failed you, but I'd much rather there was a tiny bit of hassle for people renting out apartments for the safety of those staying there.

Re: How airbnb lost me as a customer

#18

Post by tptacek » Fri, Oct 05, 2012, 7:09 PM UTC

njs12345 wrote: post #16

tptacek wrote: post #13

(1) You refer to your "apartment", which by convention refers to a domicile that you are leasing. While other HN readers will contest this point, I'd be willing to put money on the fact that you violated your lease by renting out your apartment on Airbnb at all. (2) HN is not a forum for complaints about YC companies, and while I didn't flag this post, you shouldn't overreact if it is killed. Nobody is trying to cens…

Please explain how (1) is relevant to the complaint at hand.

It's not, except to the extent that it might be hard to feel sorry for someone who is taking unfair advantage of his landlord and cotenants and then complaining about the poor customer service that he was provided when doing so.

Again though: it's not. It's a mostly orthogonal point.

Re: How airbnb lost me as a customer

#19

Post by potatolicious » Fri, Oct 05, 2012, 7:11 PM UTC

tptacek wrote: post #13

(1) You refer to your "apartment", which by convention refers to a domicile that you are leasing. While other HN readers will contest this point, I'd be willing to put money on the fact that you violated your lease by renting out your apartment on Airbnb at all. (2) HN is not a forum for complaints about YC companies, and while I didn't flag this post, you shouldn't overreact if it is killed. Nobody is trying to cens…

(1) is immaterial to the topic at hand, which is AirBnb's customer service and unresponsiveness. That is between OP and his/her landlord.

edit: nevermind, beaten to the punch.

Re: How airbnb lost me as a customer

#20

Post by ARobotics » Fri, Oct 05, 2012, 7:11 PM UTC

tptacek wrote: post #13

(1) You refer to your "apartment", which by convention refers to a domicile that you are leasing. While other HN readers will contest this point, I'd be willing to put money on the fact that you violated your lease by renting out your apartment on Airbnb at all. (2) HN is not a forum for complaints about YC companies, and while I didn't flag this post, you shouldn't overreact if it is killed. Nobody is trying to cens…

Your comments always make me smile Thomas, you seem like the real life embodiment of the "Lawful Neutral" alignment, always following the letter of each rule. My lease allows subletting, but there may be a provision which I'm not following, I can double check.

If this post gets killed, that's fine. I was hesitant to write it, but I thought it might be valuable to share. There's a fine line between useful critique or sharing an experience and ranting/complaining, perhaps my post leaned too far to the latter.