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

Re: How to lose $950 quickly on Airbnb

#141

Post by yakireev » Sun, Mar 05, 2023, 10:33 PM UTC

londons_explore wrote: post #51

fruit2020 wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

An airbnb feels like 'mine'. Whereas a hotel I have no confidence that some overzealous room service won't barge in and try to change the towels while I'm using them!

Put a "do not disturb" sign on your door, every hotel room has one.

I too don't like it when room service touches my stuff (it is a mess, but it is my mess!) - putting a DND sign on the doorknob and not removing it for the whole stay fixed that problem for me.

Re: How to lose $950 quickly on Airbnb

#142

Post by burnte » Sun, Mar 05, 2023, 10:33 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.

Yeah, but if I have to file a chargeback, I probably don't want to do business with them again anyway.

Re: How to lose $950 quickly on Airbnb

#143

Post by dghlsakjg » Sun, Mar 05, 2023, 10:33 PM UTC

baremetal wrote: post #127

the__alchemist wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it was an Amex card, very likely to win, from my experiences with them.

paying colossal annual fees on a credit card does come with a few perks edit: they do have cards that have no annual fee. disregard my comment.

I don't know if it counts as a true AmEx, but I have a free one through Wells Fargo

Re: How to lose $950 quickly on Airbnb

#144

Post by jemmyw » Sun, Mar 05, 2023, 10:34 PM UTC

Everything about this is silly. You can contact hosts beforehand on AirBnB and I almost always do that, and certainly would if I was going to be booking an even slightly unusual situation (for someone else). I've booked for third parties before too and did exactly that, during a COVID lockdown when we needed to find a place for an old couple.

I'm not sure I believe the host either. Perhaps AirBnB have changed things, but as far as I knew from talking to hosts before, the host could always refund up to the booking date, they had tools to do more than guests in exceptional circumstances. And it's in their interest as this dude is now going to give the host a 1-star rating.

Re: How to lose $950 quickly on Airbnb

#145

Post by Turing_Machine » Sun, Mar 05, 2023, 10:34 PM UTC

shitlord wrote: post #107

Nextgrid wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Outright trashing the place is obvious and will backfire, but there are plenty of subtle ways to generate significant inconvenience and expenses in a plausibly-deniable manner that will only take effect weeks or even months after the fact. Hint: perishable goods and unaccessible (maintenance?) areas in the property. Pests would also work.

Maybe you could also leave the water running and keep all the appliances turned on for the duration of the stay. edit: I did a ballpark estimate and it won't even come close. If a bathtub wastes 10000 gallons/day at 0.25 cents/gal, then that's only about $25/day.

I used to do something like that whenever I was in a hotel that charged outrageous fees for WiFi (this doesn't seem to be as common nowadays, though oddly it's more likely to happen in a "luxury" hotel than a "business" hotel).

Nothing damaging or malicious per se, but "Oh, hey, I think I need a fresh copy of every Linux distro"... stuff like that.

Re: How to lose $950 quickly on Airbnb

#146

Post by ilikehurdles » Sun, Mar 05, 2023, 10:34 PM UTC

che_shirecat wrote: post #45

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…

Getting yourself banned off of Airbnb for $950 doesn't sound optimal unless you are swearing off short term lodging around the world (outside of hotels) for the foreseeable future. That's one of the negative externalities of capture-the-market VC investing - getting banned on one of these platforms cuts you off from almost the entirety of supply because of how marketplace dynamics work.

Maybe your market is different, but Airbnb is hardly a monopoly on either short term housing or vacation rentals these days. The entire travel booking industry has caught up.

Similarly to the OP, both my wife and I had to pull teeth for weeks to get the full refunds we were entitled to after booking airbnb units. We both had dozens of stays and 5 star reviews under our belts prior to those experiences, dating back through 2013. In my case, it was a unit that the host admitted was infested with rats prior to arrival. In my wife’s, it was a unit that didn’t remotely match the photos of the listing.

At this point it’s my very last resort for booking any kind of stay, which is to say I’ve effectively sworn off the service. Since then, I’ve had no trouble finding vacation rentals elsewhere. For $900, yeah, I’d chargeback in a snap.

Re: How to lose $950 quickly on Airbnb

#147

Post by casenmgreen » Sun, Mar 05, 2023, 10:34 PM UTC

IME, the larger a company, and the longer it exists, the more it asymptotically approaches evil, and the less awareness and responsiveness there is to actual end-user experience, and these two factors in the end are the demise of large companies.

Google, Facebook, AirBnB and I would say now Amazon too, are all on this path.

No one like them or trusts them, they are broadly considered evil and their services are used where there are no reasonable alternatives or their monopoly hold of whatever form acts to prevent users from leaving, but the moment there are reasonable alternatives, those companies will be deserted.

Speaking for myself, I have used AirBnB a great deal over the years - back in the early days I thought it was an amazing company. Now I avoid it as much I possibly can; hell, whenever I come to log in again I have no idea if log in will even work, with whatever latest false positive alarm that might have been introduced. It is my last choice, not my first, and I would be very happy never to use it again. When people are writing that about your company, the writing is on the wall.

Re: How to lose $950 quickly on Airbnb

#148

Post by rocket_surgeron » Sun, Mar 05, 2023, 10:34 PM UTC

londons_explore wrote: post #51

fruit2020 wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

An airbnb feels like 'mine'. Whereas a hotel I have no confidence that some overzealous room service won't barge in and try to change the towels while I'm using them!

I travel for work approximately 120 nights per year, and have done so since 2011.

The number of times room service has barged into my room without my knowledge and/or permission can be counted on 0 fingers.

If this has happened to you you may want to reexamine what hotels you stay in because the only thing you have to do to not experience this, even if you forget to hang up the "Do Not Disturb" sign, is lock the deadbolt on your hotel room door.

Re: How to lose $950 quickly on Airbnb

#149

Post by zarzavat » Sun, Mar 05, 2023, 10:35 PM UTC

lotsofpulp wrote: post #75

bboygravity wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm confused by the banning comments. Can't you just create a new account with a new payment method and different email address? Maybe I still have too much of that 90's internet mentality, dunno.

It should be trivial to ban a certain billing address, plus a lot of companies require SMS 2FA now, and most people do not have multiple phone numbers to burn. Besides that, I think AirBnb might require you to upload government issued photo identification too, but I am not sure.

Myths that programmers believe about reality:

- Only one person can live at an address

- Two people with the same name can't live at the same address (Jr/Sr)

Re: How to lose $950 quickly on Airbnb

#150

Post by miohtama » Sun, Mar 05, 2023, 10:35 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.

Uber, others, ban you on a chargeback immediately.