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How to lose $950 quickly on Airbnb
191–200 of 377 posts
Re: How to lose $950 quickly on Airbnb
#192Charge 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…
One danger of chargebacks: companies may ban your account or otherwise treat your activity as fraud. It can be extremely difficult to get through to a person to correct the situation. I know a couple folks who still can't use Lyft, for instance, because they charged back an NYC Citibike subscription. You can allegedly cancel a Citibike subscription by contacting customer support — but after no response, they issued a…
It is cute to think that a person who was scammed on Airbnb for $950 where Airbnb refused to help resolve a blatant scam would even touch Airbnb again.
Re: How to lose $950 quickly on Airbnb
#193I also recently lost $3050 to Airbnb and a terrible host in London. The listing was wrong (including the address), but both Airbnb and the host didn't want to refund my long term stay and dragged it to force me to stay. I am still fighting it through my bank to no avail :(
Re: How to lose $950 quickly on Airbnb
#194I don't see why someone would still use Airbnb for short stays. At $1.5k for 5 nights in Seattle you can surely stay at a decent hotel (which the OP ended up doing anyway, at $1.3k), and not have to deal with some weird hosts. Hit them with a chargeback, who cares about getting banned from Airbnb.
I often want to stay in a city for a couple weeks or a month to maximize time with collaborators. An Airbnb with a functional kitchen beats the pants off a hotel.
Some cities have aparthotels which can be a reasonable compromise. They can have similarly poorly kitted out kitchens to many Airbnbs, but you don’t have to do your own housekeeping and you are dealing with an experienced business.
Re: How to lose $950 quickly on Airbnb
#195I'm picturing "Claire" swinging a knife every time "she" says "Chris".
"Hello Chris [stab] might I ask Chris [stab] if you wish Chris [stab] to be scammed today Chris [stab]? That's wonderful Chris [stab] but I'm afraid Chris [stab] that I am required to scam you Chris [stab] by my boss Chris [stab] nothing personal Chris [stab] it's fine Chris [stab]."
Re: How to lose $950 quickly on Airbnb
#196Earlier quoted context omitted.
Companies want you to file the dispute through their support system using their existing process. Once you file a dispute through the credit card company, the dispute process is moved to the credit card company and now the company has a LOT less power on what might be happening. They also get severely impacted from having a high amount of charge back and hurts them the next time they want to negotiate their credit ca…
How can they avoid future trouble by not refunding a 1 hour cancel? The next person who makes a similar mistake will chargeback too, unless they aren’t aware of it. For a company, the only way out of it is to stay within common sense, because that’s what all their clients have in common.
Silicon Valley scum relies on a lot of people not knowing their rights to open a dispute/chargeback. Seems to be a winning strategy considering even on here most people don’t seem to be aware of this option.
Re: How to lose $950 quickly on Airbnb
#197Charge 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…
An important thing to remember is that the chargeback doesn't necessarily absolve you of the legal need to pay. Just because the credit card company claws the money back doesn't mean that a merchant can't come after you in court/debt collection. It's not common, but for a big enough transaction, there's nothing stopping a business from coming after you.
Suing someone across state lines for a small amount like 1k is not really worth it in most scenarios if the host is the one that tries to sue you. If its air bnb i don't think a jury would find they deserve the money if it was cancelled within 1 hour of booking due to a misunderstanding.
Re: How to lose $950 quickly on Airbnb
#198I would absolutely go stay in the Airbnb myself regardless where it is.
Re: How to lose $950 quickly on Airbnb
#199I had the same thing happen to me. Not only do I not stay at AirBNBs anymore, I cancelled my Discover Card when they refused to fix it... after ~15 years as a customer. Once you hit a certain tax bracket and your purchases tend to be of a certain value, you start getting a more skilled person trying to fuck you, and they often win. At this income bracket, it's time to get an AmEx (or another card with really good pay…
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.
idk, i'd feel morally duplicitous engaging in plausibly-deniable damages to someone else's property. i'd rather just steal all their lightbulbs or burn the place to the ground. but that's just me.
the nice thing about this strategy is that _you_ don't have to do any of it. because eventually, they'll try to fuck me.
Re: How to lose $950 quickly on Airbnb
#200Uhh - I came ready to blame Airbnb as I no longer use them. However - you obviously can’t do third party bookings and if a host has had third party booking issues (Airbnb will not cover these at all) I think hosts will have a very negative reaction to a third party booking.
Maybe blame Airbnb for not being clearer, but the profile photo / ID verification stuff is designed for the guest.
Do people do third party dating or car reservations etc?