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Airbnb removed my negative review

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Re: Airbnb removed my negative review

#161
post #8

Airbnb removed my positive review and accused me of being in cahoots with the host to leave positive feedback. They said they have found an existing relationship between me and the host. Mind you have no social media accounts, this was my first stay at an Airbnb, I'm from USA and this was in Medellin Colombia, I usually stay at Marriott hotels and I only went with Airbnb because the girl I traveled with suggested usi…

> have no social media accounts, this was my first stay at an Airbnb See what happens if you ask a bank for a loan with no credit history. Of course these are only tangentially alike, but public history is an important way to distinguish organic reviews from AstroTurf.

That doesn't explain the "We have detected a relationship" thing.

Re: Airbnb removed my negative review

#162
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…

Why doesn’t the hoa identify the condo owner amd fine then to oblivion?

This is a good point and what I am working on right now

Re: Airbnb removed my negative review

#163
post #26

My nextdoor neighbor sold their house last year and now it's an Airbnb. Despite the fact that I live in a house in a normal residential neighborhood, I'm now forced to live next to a hotel. And I have no say in the matter. Super frustrating. I've read people talking about how Airbnb screwed the host or the guest. But few people talk about how it screws the neighbors.

Why would or should you have a say in what the property owner next door does? What does having a say look like?

I generally agree with you. But unless you're allowed to knock down your house and build a 10 story apartment in it's place then the argument kind of falls flat.

Re: Airbnb removed my negative review

#164
post #26

My nextdoor neighbor sold their house last year and now it's an Airbnb. Despite the fact that I live in a house in a normal residential neighborhood, I'm now forced to live next to a hotel. And I have no say in the matter. Super frustrating. I've read people talking about how Airbnb screwed the host or the guest. But few people talk about how it screws the neighbors.

I’m genuinely interested to hear what are the specific harms you have suffered due to this.

Is it difficult to imagine? Living next to a regular long-term rental has some of the same issues, AirBNB short term rentals just magnify that. Personally, one of the best things I ever did to improve my quality of life was move to a newly constructed mid/upper neighborhood where all houses are owner-occupied. It's amazing how much better people act and treat their property when it's actually their own.

Re: Airbnb removed my negative review

#165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gee, how about having a parade of random people showing up at all hours of the day/night just to start? The erosion of community. Further commodification of housing so that only the rich and upper middle class can buy a house in any city?

I think the ownership is not encouraged anymore. Instead we have social mobility so that we can move anytime when better opportunities arise. That may be a good or a bad thing depending on which side you are.

Moving every time a better opportunity comes up is a privilege enjoyed by a small section of the population. The vast majority of people move rarely, and when they do move it's usually within the same locality.

Re: Airbnb removed my negative review

#166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My next door neighbor also rents out her house. She has 5 others she does the same in. These are long term rentals, which means when the tenant is bad it's bad for me long term. We got new neighbors last year, and while they struggle socially they're respectful and it's a huge quality of life improvement. Our neighbors on the other side, unfortunately, own their home. This means I'm forced to live next to (depending…

Every time someone online complains loudly about an HOA, here is why people still choose to live in neighborhoods with HOAs.

I'm gonna disagree with this one. People chose to put uo with HOAs because 1) most new developments have them 2) SFH w/ HOA are more expensive

Re: Airbnb removed my negative review

#167
post #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 revi…

i wrote the review after receiving an email from airbnb: "You can leave a review for your host even though the trip was cancelled"

I know - I'm saying that you received that request in error.

Re: Airbnb removed my negative review

#168
post #8

Airbnb removed my positive review and accused me of being in cahoots with the host to leave positive feedback. They said they have found an existing relationship between me and the host. Mind you have no social media accounts, this was my first stay at an Airbnb, I'm from USA and this was in Medellin Colombia, I usually stay at Marriott hotels and I only went with Airbnb because the girl I traveled with suggested usi…

> have no social media accounts, this was my first stay at an Airbnb See what happens if you ask a bank for a loan with no credit history. Of course these are only tangentially alike, but public history is an important way to distinguish organic reviews from AstroTurf.

They mentioned not having social media accounts to show that AirBnB couldn't have any information about them or them being related to the host. (OTOH, their namesake may have a social media account and that may be linked to the host. In theory.)

Re: Airbnb removed my negative review

#169
post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> AirBnB's entire business is predicated on skirting regulation. From time to time you spot underappreciated comments here. This is one of them AirBnB, Lyft, Uber, etc - their entire business model is predicated on skirting regulations. Then people are surprised they don't keep honest negative reviews? Why would a company which is knowingly violating rules care about your negative review? They make money from hosts p…

It's not inherently bad. Some regulations are dumb and should be challenged by the market, like Uber and Lyft did to taxi companies and the protectionist regulations that kept them from evolving and improving.

It's less about removing the review or listing and more about looking at the belief system in the business. If a local government says "this space is for permanent residents only" AirBnB would say, "why?" and would rather ignore or fight the regulation than comply (or more likely "take it up with the host, not us").

There are legitimate questions to what terms a government/HOA can force on property owners renting out their residences. From taxation to civil rights and racial equity there's a lot on the table to challenge. That said, companies can be reckless when choosing not deal with the question because it doesn't have an easy answer and grow/scale at ethics' expense.

AirBnB has actually had to deal with this, like removing the ability of hosts to see guest photos before booking because of racial discrimination, and charging the appropriate hospitality taxes on listings to comply with the vast number of of municipalities they operate in.

Re: Airbnb removed my negative review

#170
post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve used Airbnb a few times a year for many years. My anecdotal and speculative belief is that their tools and site hugely favor hosts, but if you have a good history they will make anything right for a guest, and probably just eat the cost themselves to keep both host and guest happy. For instance, I had a week long stay booked in a “waterfront, two bedroom” in London. I needed the two bedrooms to set up an office…

the hosts entire enterprise was based on fraud and airbnb facilitated it for money

Yep. And a brand new Airbnb customer would probably not have gotten the make good that I did.
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