Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

How to lose $950 quickly on Airbnb

chriskiehl.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

231–240 of 377 posts

Re: How to lose $950 quickly on Airbnb

#231

Post by DangitBobby »

olliej wrote: post #218
DangitBobby wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is fraud.

Where? Because recall that if it is fraud they can file a criminal complaint, but my reading of this article is that they agreed to a cheaper booking for a stricter cancellation policy, they agreed that they were booking for themselves (afaik a standard condition for airbnbs, if not airbnb the company), and when told that they were required to adhere to the terms of the contract they chose to cancel, under terms they…

They lied about not getting cancellation messages from AirBnB for a while, hoping the person would go away and trying to refund $0, then when the person made it very clear they weren't going away, the host denied the cancellation request saying they "couldn't" give a full refund (lie). I'm sure they then turned around a rebooked the room, since it had only been delisted for that date for a couple of hours. To recap, they lied, cheated, stole, and double dipped. It was fraud.

Hoping to see some regulation going into that space pretty soon.

Re: How to lose $950 quickly on Airbnb

#232

Post by carabiner »

dkjaudyeqooe wrote: post #85

This is a scam. We were almost a victim of something similar, but through Expedia. The scam is to induce you to cancel so they can extract a fee. Basically the listing was nonsense, but we didn't notice it immediately. In our case the flat in Paris was both in the 2nd and 14th androssiment, somehow. It was listed in the 2nd but elsewhere it says 14th. Of course we went to cancel but there was a 30% fee. We explained…

It's not a scam. Most Airbnb listings have a "no refunds" policy in the case of cancellation, regardless of circumstance.

Re: How to lose $950 quickly on Airbnb

#234

Post by Tarball10 »

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!

Not an issue since COVID. Most hotels don't do any cleaning during your stay anymore unless you specifically request it or your stay is over a week.

Re: How to lose $950 quickly on Airbnb

#235

Post by pydry »

yakireev wrote: post #181
toomanyrichies wrote: post #151

I recently stayed in Panama City, Panama for a week, and booked an Airbnb for my stay. When I checked in, I was so tired from the flight that I just wanted to take a hot shower and crash. I turned on the shower and waited for the hot water. And waited. And waited. Finally I messaged the host to ask if I was doing something wrong with the shower controls. The host’s response: “We don’t offer hot water at this rental.”…

Never been in Panama, but my experience in Colombia was similar: in warmer areas hot water just was not a thing - homes, hostels, hotels just did not have it, without special notice. "Yeah, the temperature outside is above 30C all year round, why would you need more heat?". To be fair, the "cold" water was not really cold either, 25-30C or so, so showering with that was not unpleasant. Not sure whether things are sim…

I had a similar experience in Colombia too. Hot water was definitely an amenity.

I remember walking along the street asking 10-12 hotels in a row if they had hot water. None did and the last one suggested (sarcastically) staying at a 5* hotel if I wanted it that much.

Re: How to lose $950 quickly on Airbnb

#236

Post by kccqzy »

nixpulvis wrote: post #40
avalys wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have heard of companies reacting to a chargeback in situations like this by banning your account.

Imagine being banned from Best Western, for example, because you disputed a charge! Having a dispute, especially one which is so reasonable like this, being grounds for banning is insane to me. Companies as large as Airbnb cannot be just banning whoever they want. This whole notion of, we don't agree with you, so we'll just ban you thing has got to stop.

Generally, companies of any size can choose not to do business with you. What's wrong with that?

If you disagree, you need to change the definition of "utility" then; a utility such as an electricity company can't just cut you off for no reason.

Re: How to lose $950 quickly on Airbnb

#237

Post by Tarball10 »

sdenton4 wrote: post #38
Matheus28 wrote: post #4

I 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.

Hotel suites with full kitchens are not uncommon.

Re: How to lose $950 quickly on Airbnb

#238

Post by LegitShady »

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.

never doing business with AirBNB is worth every penny.

Re: How to lose $950 quickly on Airbnb

#239

Post by geraldwhen »

dkjaudyeqooe wrote: post #85

This is a scam. We were almost a victim of something similar, but through Expedia. The scam is to induce you to cancel so they can extract a fee. Basically the listing was nonsense, but we didn't notice it immediately. In our case the flat in Paris was both in the 2nd and 14th androssiment, somehow. It was listed in the 2nd but elsewhere it says 14th. Of course we went to cancel but there was a 30% fee. We explained…

Never use an intermediary. Instead of dealing with , you have to deal with Indian call center agents. Hotels.com and booking.com and similar are the absolute worst.

I lost maybe 4 hours repeating myself to various people in India just so I could tell the credit card company I tried to resolve the issue for the chargeback.

Indian call centers are the worst because it seems like none of them are empowered to actually do anything other than rigorously stick to a script which cannot help you.

Re: How to lose $950 quickly on Airbnb

#240

Post by carabiner »

madaxe_again wrote: post #21

4.47 rating. That is, believe it or not, a pretty appalling score, and not something I would book. Also, the host is an ass, I cannot count how many times I have had people book for family members, and I’ve had numerous occasions where someone has booked for someone else for work. You also want to avoid 5.00 or 4.99 with hundreds of stays as they are inevitably buying or extorting reviews. 4.88-4.97 is the sweet spot…

I know a fulltime host in my city. He goes to extreme lengths to ensure only 5-star reviews. He is basically on call 24/7 to address guest concerns, however the total amount of work he does in a week is probably 10-15 hours for a livable income. The sleep he loses and amount of psychoanalysis he attempts on guests sometimes doesn't seem worth it though.
Post reply on HN