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Airbnb removed my negative review

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121–130 of 473 posts

Re: Airbnb removed my negative review

#121
post #10

I think they might have a policy that you can’t review a place that you didn’t stay at. That policy falls short in instances like this where a guest cannot or will not check in due to issues with the host. You might also try calling AirBnB again and see if you can convince them to put the review back up. BTW, $300 cash deposit is absurd. AirBnB already has a security deposit mechanism that the host could use.

They actually requested a review after cancelling this stay due to cash deposit issue. Whole thing is bizarre.

Re: Airbnb removed my negative review

#122

I left a bad review once also. The host had it removed. But, in their review of me, they asked why I left a bad review. In the emails received from Airbnb asking for a review, they tell me as a guest that neither party can see the other review until both are submitted. Evidently, this is a lie. Otherwise, how would the host know whether my review was good or bad? Another issue I have found is that many of the listing…

> Evidently, this is a lie. Otherwise, how would the host know whether my review was good or bad?

I'm fully open to this possibility, we shouldn't take them at their word, but it may also have been a half truth (they couldn't see your review but they could see their average go down).

Re: Airbnb removed my negative review

#123

My partner was in the same boat with a near slumlord experience in toronto. The pictures on the listing showed a basic but clean place. In person, there was a hole in one of the doors, a floor that was literally disintegrating, a kitchen sink that pulled out of the countertop when you tried to use it, etc. Her negative review was removed after a complaint by the host, and then the host proceeded to libel her in the r…

I've had good luck with AirBnB, but did have one similar experience, and there's no chance the place genuinely had reviews as good as were on the site (it was damn near a perfect rating). It was gross, plainly violating fire code (basement-of-a-house "apartment" without a single smoke detector anywhere in it), cluttered with the owner's (?) extra junk, tons of half-finished DIY work everywhere (exposed wires sticking out of open switch boxes and empty ceiling light boxes!), actual no-bullshit graffiti on the ceiling(!?). It looked like a friggin' trap house.

But it had damn near a five-star rating and the reviews were like "great place for my family!" et c. Something shady was going on, both with the host and with AirBnB, to make that happen, I'd say. It was shockingly bad.

Re: Airbnb removed my negative review

#124

There is an old joke, how do you know that someone is a vegan or does crossfit? You'll know because they'll make sure you know minutes after meeting them. In 2008-2011 on HN if someone worked at facebook you knew because they mentioned it so often. Now you never hear anyone saying they work for Facebook because of all the negative externalities that Facebook and Instagram have had on the world that no one wants to be…

Is there a big tech company that people brag about working at anymore?

Apple, knock on wood.

Re: Airbnb removed my negative review

#125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because we can't trust the systems we need to live our lives.

You can always book a hotel. AirBNB will not and cannot provide you a 100% care free experience because some guests are indeed liars and there are all sorts of scams both on the guest and host side. It's a kind of ebay. It's always a hit or miss.

If that’s the case, all the more reason to be mad at Airbnb for removing legitimate reviews.

Re: Airbnb removed my negative review

#126

It feels like in the last few years all the beloved, life changing formerly-unicorn-startup offerings came crashing down. They are a mashup of dark patterns, unattractive price hikes, user hostile behavior, lies and trash content. Additionally, the early "mutual trust"/"assume good faith"/"organic"/"non professional"/"human" sentiments disappeared, everything is hyperoptimized by greedy capitalists and uncaring AI. T…

There's something uniquely American about taking a brutal cold blooded business, putting a fake friendly facade on it, and holding that facade up for so long

Perfectly put

Re: Airbnb removed my negative review

#127
post #57
post #9

Airbnb most recently has continued to ignore requests to remove houses that violate the building’s HOA where i live. People have been turned away when they show up by security as it’s not allowed but the people just try to sneak them in. When reporting this to airbnb they refuse to do anything. I’m getting fairly sick of the laissez faire stances these companies are taking. It’s not just that we don’t want airbnb its…

AirBnB's entire business is predicated on skirting regulation. The problem isn't that they don't care, it's that caring would cost them money and invalidate their business model.

I wanted a term to define companies/apps that solely exist to skirt laws and regulations and then I realized it's the entire whole of "gig economy" companies.

Re: Airbnb removed my negative review

#128
> i couldn't check in and went elsewhere.

> But i didn't want to cave in and called AirBnB. Thankfully, airbnb fully refunded the payment and i was able to find another accomodation in the last minute. I don't recommend this host unless you want a stressful start for your vacation.

I'm pretty sure your review got removed because you didn't actually check in. I'm actually surprised the system even let you write a review given the circumstances you've outlined.

Re: Airbnb removed my negative review

#129
post #97

There is an old joke, how do you know that someone is a vegan or does crossfit? You'll know because they'll make sure you know minutes after meeting them. In 2008-2011 on HN if someone worked at facebook you knew because they mentioned it so often. Now you never hear anyone saying they work for Facebook because of all the negative externalities that Facebook and Instagram have had on the world that no one wants to be…

> people are getting squeezed for living space and rising rents partially due to AirBnb taking those rentals off the market From what I've seen, short term rentals have negligible effects on the housing market. And restrictions on short term rentals have little to no effect on housing prices. It's just another scapegoat (like foreign owned housing) that people like to use because they can't accept the fact that the s…

This analysis about the impact Airbnb was having on Amsterdam disagrees: https://www.ing.nl/zakelijk/kennis-over-de-economie/onze-eco...

The city has passed laws to keep down the amount of temporary rentals so the balance has undoubtably shifted by now. A later analysis by the same bank (https://bnb-beheer.nl/blog/2019/03/06/prijseffect-airbnb-op-...) says as much.

Re: Airbnb removed my negative review

#130

Now you know for sure you can't trust AirBNB to make ethical decisions on reviews, so you know for sure you can't use AirBNB without opening yourself to these problems. That something was against their rules but the operator is still a "super host" is further evidence any AirBNB designated statuss is worthless. So take your money elsewhere.

I wish more people would. Without sharing more public stories like this, there's nothing more some of us can do. My wife used abnb twice: once OK/meh experience, one horrible/abusive. Never again. But that was... 8 years ago. How can I 'take my money elsewhere' when... I'm not giving it to them anyway? I already did "take my money elsewhere" 8 years ago. And I know others who have too, but we're small individual voic…

What more do you want to do? You don't like it so you don't use it. Sounds like problem solved.
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