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Why Airbnb is dead to me

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Re: Why Airbnb is dead to me

#101

Post by pfortuny »

Elessar wrote: post #22
deveac wrote: post #13

>Airbnb do not care about guests and their safety at all. I don't know. It seems like it would be a nightmare to sort through a he-said she-said after the fact when the offended party didn't even book a stay (instead the room was booked by some other person that is insisting "no, it's cool, I know them"), and furthermore didn't even report the apartment not being available when the issue occurred. It's nice that they…

Have you ever travelled to a foreign country where you don't speak the language? You really need to put yourself in the tourist's shoes. If I booked a tour and the host drove me to a different place to stay, that's all I can do. You rely on their ability to communicate, and if they're being kind and doing their best to make your stay comfortable, then that's fantastic. What you're suggesting is that you're going to s…

Well, using AirBnb instead of a hotel or similar has this inherent risks... Now, these are the kind of problems those companies have already sorted out.

Re: Why Airbnb is dead to me

#102

Post by potatolicious »

flippyhead wrote: post #10

I continue to use AirBnb but have been pretty disappointed in their customer service. I rent out a family cabin occasionally and someone who stayed there scratched the floor accidentally wearing winter boots with spikes on them. They admitted this, apologized and were generally totally awesome about it. It took me months to get Airbnb to figure out how to deduct money from their damage deposit. They first said I had…

This seems like a theme with pretty much all internet companies, big and small - undercut the competition by cutting corners on things that "don't matter", until they matter.

Google for example has almost no way to reach customer service, even for their paid products. When it works it works great, when it doesn't God Help You.

Ditto Uber/Lyft/other cab companies, where there seems to be no end of people who were put in seriously unsafe situations and were unable to get any attention to their issues until they blogged about it. Who knows how many cases we haven't heard of because they weren't able to get their concerns to the top of Reddit/HN/wherever.

This sort of thing happens in any low-margin business. Not only is there not enough money to hire good customer service, but what little customer service exists is not empowered to make things right for the customer, because thin margins and $$$.

It turns out that keeping spare rooms on standby, generous rescheduling/rebooking policies, and all the niceties we associate with hotels are powered by the fatter margins they enjoy. The big innovation we've made in the last few years is making low-margin low-rent business models seem boutique and high-end.

Re: Why Airbnb is dead to me

#103

Post by moomin »

deveac wrote: post #13

>Airbnb do not care about guests and their safety at all. I don't know. It seems like it would be a nightmare to sort through a he-said she-said after the fact when the offended party didn't even book a stay (instead the room was booked by some other person that is insisting "no, it's cool, I know them"), and furthermore didn't even report the apartment not being available when the issue occurred. It's nice that they…

Yeah, it's a difficult problem. It's also part of _their core business model_. Like it or not, this post is saying they're incompetent.

Re: Why Airbnb is dead to me

#104

Post by ghaff »

vinceguidry wrote: post #85
ghaff wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That does require however, for better or worse, a deliberate decision to operate in that manner. Certainly many eBay sellers, many of whom were doubtless perfectly respectable, became very disillusioned with eBay once they tilted in that direction.

Being that AirBnB is in the customer service field, not really a true marketplace, a customer-centric dispute policy makes total sense. Hosts that can't grasp the concept of "make your customers happy" are only going to hurt the overall AirBnB brand and should be sussed out and expelled quickly.

Oh, I have no disagreement that the default should be to err on the side of keeping customers (renters) happy or at least mitigating unhappiness. At the same time, that doesn't mean that the customer, however unreasonable, is always right. Even hotel chains with great reputations for customer service aren't going to give out refunds like popcorn to every guest who asks for their money back for random trivial reasons. So there's always going to be some judgment involved at the margins especially when the facts are unclear.

Re: Why Airbnb is dead to me

#105

Post by yardie »

mikeash wrote: post #78
Elessar wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you ever travelled to a foreign country where you don't speak the language? You really need to put yourself in the tourist's shoes. If I booked a tour and the host drove me to a different place to stay, that's all I can do. You rely on their ability to communicate, and if they're being kind and doing their best to make your stay comfortable, then that's fantastic. What you're suggesting is that you're going to s…

I've traveled quite a bit, including to Barcelona. If you speak English (and this person clearly does) then "don't speak the language" is not an issue there, or indeed almost anywhere. If I book a place for a certain period, then I'm staying for that whole period. If the host suddenly changes their mind and tells me I have to move, no way. I'm contacting the booking agency and having them tell the host to get lost. I…

You place far too much faith in AirBnB's customer service line. I've called it before. I've sat outside the apartment I rented waiting on hold listening to the same 3 damn songs forever (hey did you know the music they've selected is produced by their employees?).

AirBnB wasn't reachable when I needed them the most. Sitting on the curb with my wife and 4yo at 10PM without a place to go. Trying desperately to find any hotel with a vacancy at the height of tourist season in a small tourist town.

That incident has soured my wife on me ever booking a sharing economy rental again.

Re: Why Airbnb is dead to me

#106

Post by mikeash »

scottmcdot wrote: post #28

Just tonight, my mother checked into an Airbnb in Vienna, Austria. She sent me photos of the bed which did not have new sheets, the towels which were not fresh, a band aid on the floor and some rubbish bins full of cigarettes and ash. The apartment was overall pretty dirty. The host's contact phone number goes straight to message bank (I also tried many times) and the host is not answering emails. In this situation,…

Not defending the host's actions or AirBnB in any way here, but if you're not capable of getting a hotel on your own, then you probably shouldn't be traveling to foreign countries alone.

Edit: well, that was unpopular. Am I wrong, or just saying it inartfully?

Re: Why Airbnb is dead to me

#107

Post by mikefivedeuce »

icebraining wrote: post #48
aianus wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're well-compensated for the risk you take on Airbnb, it's not like it costs the same as the Four Seasons.

And the risk is overrated - if the host seems dishonest or the place isn't as described/shown, you can still check-in to an hotel. I find it depressing how this will probably go away, and people like me who can't afford to pay for a stay at an hotel will just lose the option of taking the risk. Hurray for the infantilization of society! /s

This isn't always the case. I was heading to Milwaukee for a wedding a few months back and booked an AirBnB a while in advance. My host bailed three days before we arrived and the PGA Championships were in town. There wasn't a single vacancy and AirBnB customer services was completely unresponsive. I had to send multiple emails before they bothered to respond and then they offered a $40 credit toward another booking. That policy is probably fine in NY or another city with adequate inventory but Milwaukee had no downtown options left at any price. I can understand that AirBnB has no control of a host but their complete lack of customer service response was pathetic. I have no plans to ever use them again.

Re: Why Airbnb is dead to me

#108

Post by mikeash »

yardie wrote: post #105
mikeash wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've traveled quite a bit, including to Barcelona. If you speak English (and this person clearly does) then "don't speak the language" is not an issue there, or indeed almost anywhere. If I book a place for a certain period, then I'm staying for that whole period. If the host suddenly changes their mind and tells me I have to move, no way. I'm contacting the booking agency and having them tell the host to get lost. I…

You place far too much faith in AirBnB's customer service line. I've called it before. I've sat outside the apartment I rented waiting on hold listening to the same 3 damn songs forever (hey did you know the music they've selected is produced by their employees?). AirBnB wasn't reachable when I needed them the most. Sitting on the curb with my wife and 4yo at 10PM without a place to go. Trying desperately to find any…

I'm not placing any faith in AirBnB. I laid out a chain of actions, one of which is contacting AirBnB, and the next link in the chain is what to do if that doesn't work.

No doubt you can get stuck in a crappy situation here. But you certainly have choices that don't involve doing nothing while your host carts you off to some undisclosed location.

Re: Why Airbnb is dead to me

#109

Post by ethbro »

ogezi wrote: post #21
flippyhead wrote: post #10

I continue to use AirBnb but have been pretty disappointed in their customer service. I rent out a family cabin occasionally and someone who stayed there scratched the floor accidentally wearing winter boots with spikes on them. They admitted this, apologized and were generally totally awesome about it. It took me months to get Airbnb to figure out how to deduct money from their damage deposit. They first said I had…

That's the problem with the on-demand companies' business model, you often have to put complete trust in complete strangers. This is generally dangerously. But this won't get the coverage it deserves until an "important" host is seriously injured or even killed by a guest.

I think this is more the eBay/PayPal problem: if you are soliciting both sellers and buyers on your service, you are going to have various moments of ethical crisis when it makes absolute business sense to screw over one or the other (the two not always being in balance or not providing you the same amount of revenue).

So what do you do?

AirBnB without listings is like eBay without listings. (Though I've generally heard that eBay tends to come down on the pro-buyer side)

Re: Why Airbnb is dead to me

#110

Post by pdappollonio »

potatolicious wrote: post #102
flippyhead wrote: post #10

I continue to use AirBnb but have been pretty disappointed in their customer service. I rent out a family cabin occasionally and someone who stayed there scratched the floor accidentally wearing winter boots with spikes on them. They admitted this, apologized and were generally totally awesome about it. It took me months to get Airbnb to figure out how to deduct money from their damage deposit. They first said I had…

This seems like a theme with pretty much all internet companies, big and small - undercut the competition by cutting corners on things that "don't matter", until they matter. Google for example has almost no way to reach customer service, even for their paid products. When it works it works great, when it doesn't God Help You. Ditto Uber/Lyft/other cab companies, where there seems to be no end of people who were put…

(Disclaimer: I'm in no way affiliated with Uber or Lyft)

It's nice to say that for me and my family, Uber and Lyft has been so professional. We moved from Latin America to Miami a year and 2 months ago and the whole time we've been using Uber / Lyft for our needs. We faced about 4 or 5 crazy moment where Uber / Lyft has solve our problems putting themselves in our side rather than in the driver's side. One instance a driver accepted our ride, reached our apartment and then start driving away. We did not understood at first until he called us and say "I'm going to be delayed to get you guys, so please hang tight". I told him it could be fine if he didn't started the ride already like we were already with him on his car. He said "it is the standard procedure". Bullshit. We cancelled the ride and contacted Uber support. They removed the driver from the service (allegedly, it has happened before) and they refunded us close to 12 USD. Similar situation happened with Lyft.

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