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Airbnb removed my negative review

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Re: Airbnb removed my negative review

#21

Post by cdbyr »

raincom wrote: post #2

Any platform that extracts money from X has the incentive to get rid of any negative reviews about X. Reviewers are not the revenue source. That's why AirBnB, Yelp, Glassdoor, etc will get rid of bad reviews for the right price. Read all bad stuff about AirBnB on reddit, you see where airbnb is heading. People should stop using that platform, whenever you find an alternative.

There was a line from Jeff Bezos, ""One of the early examples of this is customer reviews. Someone wrote to me and said, 'You don't understand your business. You make money when you sell things. Why do you allow these negative customer reviews?' "And when I read that letter, I thought, we don't make money when we sell things. We make money when we help customers make purchase decisions."

The incentives are different at different levels of the business. There could be someone with a shorter-term outlook making these decisions, or (more likely imo) it was a very quick misapplication of the policy based on skimming the review. Acting as a first reviewer actually seems like a great application of LLMs, where attention won't flag + they can hopefully be tuned to only focus on the policy-relevant pieces.

Re: Airbnb removed my negative review

#22

Post by irrational »

bjarneh wrote: post #16
raincom wrote: post #2

Any platform that extracts money from X has the incentive to get rid of any negative reviews about X. Reviewers are not the revenue source. That's why AirBnB, Yelp, Glassdoor, etc will get rid of bad reviews for the right price. Read all bad stuff about AirBnB on reddit, you see where airbnb is heading. People should stop using that platform, whenever you find an alternative.

Are there any real alternatives? In my opinion reviews on booking.com seem even stranger...

We used to stay at airbnb places all the time, but no more. The fees have reached a ridiculous level (hint: set your location as Australia, but your currency as USD to see the true cost). The alternative we have switched to is… hotels.

Re: Airbnb removed my negative review

#23

Post by jabbany »

chollida1 wrote: post #15

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…

To be fair, housing and rental markets in some places are kind of pre-ruined. There have been plenty of (and doubtless will be plenty more) scammy landlords for short-term rentals.

AirBnB really just provided a modern online interface with some customer service stuff that papered over the bad stuff for a while. But like with actual bad construction, you can't hide the stuff forever so sooner or later the magic disappears.

Re: Airbnb removed my negative review

#24

Post by [deleted] »

danuker wrote: post #20
elmerfud wrote: 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…

[flagged]

[deleted]

Re: Airbnb removed my negative review

#25

Post by itake »

raincom wrote: post #2

Any platform that extracts money from X has the incentive to get rid of any negative reviews about X. Reviewers are not the revenue source. That's why AirBnB, Yelp, Glassdoor, etc will get rid of bad reviews for the right price. Read all bad stuff about AirBnB on reddit, you see where airbnb is heading. People should stop using that platform, whenever you find an alternative.

AFAIK, Yelp has not and does not remove negative reviews for the sake of improving a business's score, but they will remove "spam" reviews (like if a celebrity dies at a hospital and their fans leave bad reviews). There certainly have been minor incidents where certain employees have behaved against policy.

Unlike Airbnb, if users lose trust in their reviews, Yelp loses their entire business.

source: I am ex-yelper.

Re: Airbnb removed my negative review

#26

Post by imtyler »

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.

Re: Airbnb removed my negative review

#27

Post by mynameisvlad »

danuker wrote: post #20
elmerfud wrote: 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…

[flagged]

You are skeptical that someone who has what appears to be otherwise great grammar and spelling is not from the US... because of one mistake? That everyone and their grandmothers has made at least once in their lives?

Have you seen the 45th president? Have you seen the average American?

Are you actually serious right now?

Re: Airbnb removed my negative review

#28

Post by dazc »

danuker wrote: post #20
elmerfud wrote: 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…

[flagged]

Lots of UK native people make the same mistake, never mind the US. Give him a break.

Re: Airbnb removed my negative review

#29

Post by joshgachnang »

danuker wrote: post #20
elmerfud wrote: 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…

[flagged]

There/their/they're is a very common mistake among people born and raised in the US, same as too/to/two.

Your third line is entirely unnecessary.

Re: Airbnb removed my negative review

#30

Post by throw_m239339 »

raincom wrote: post #2

Any platform that extracts money from X has the incentive to get rid of any negative reviews about X. Reviewers are not the revenue source. That's why AirBnB, Yelp, Glassdoor, etc will get rid of bad reviews for the right price. Read all bad stuff about AirBnB on reddit, you see where airbnb is heading. People should stop using that platform, whenever you find an alternative.

When AirBnB became public, it wasn't about growth anymore but purely profit. These services were only "good" for the time they had to build positive buzz, now the bill is coming due and they are making as much profit as possible, at the expense of the guest. After all, what is the alternative now they have a monopoly in their niche? "Disruption" my ass... since Airbnb owns no property, the host is their lifeblood and they will always favor the host's reputation in order to make money.
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