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Airbnb removed my negative review

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Re: Airbnb removed my negative review

#241

Post by nabakin »

rcpt wrote: post #146
jabbany wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 disapp…

Well, they're ruined because of zoning (and tax law but that's a whole other story) In theory zoning is supposed be in residents interest to stop things like fracking from happening next to playgrounds (it doesn't but again that's another story). Cities follow zoning law to the letter when it comes to new apartments. Airbnb repurposes residential zoned property as commerical hotels. If we're going to take zoning seri…

Population density too

Re: Airbnb removed my negative review

#242

Post by rr808 »

diogenescynic wrote: post #200
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…

I don't think AirBNB is blameless, but so much of this could be avoided by simply building more homes to allow supply to meet demand. US cities have not been building enough homes for decades--this is the main driver of home values going up because scarcity drives prices up. The fact that the President, Congress, and most governors never really address this means it's not going to be solved any time soon. Even in Cal…

Its not just the shortage, its the change in usage. I live in fear that one of my neighbors will become an Air BnB house. Instead of friendly people next door you can grow with, there will be a continual turnover of short term people, parties and clueless behavior.

Re: Airbnb removed my negative review

#243

Post by irjustin »

grugagag wrote: post #234
irjustin wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair, gamifcation of reviews is a very real problem. There's no good answer to this. Anyone that allows/relies on direct consumer feedback is at risk for one of the hardest problems that exist. Personally, I want to know people's great and real experiences, or terrible ones, who wouldn't!? But, once you tie it to money, it's over.

It seems like Airbnb is doing the gamification and manipulating it as well. I’d rather all reviews stay, good and bad and let the consumer decide for themselves. As soon as some reviews get promoted and others hidden I stop paying attention to them

> I’d rather all reviews stay, good and bad and let the consumer decide for themselves

That's not a realistic solution.

If all the reviews were fake 5 stars but it's just the property's friends always leaving reviews then when you got there, you feel there's no way it's 5 stars. But less obvious is property manager says, hey i'll give you a 5% discount for 5 stars, when really the place was a 3-star at best.

Those shifts in star ratings are material in your personal decision making process.

Re: Airbnb removed my negative review

#244

Post by zippergz »

bushbaba wrote: post #78
_gabe_ wrote: post #42

I had something similar happen on Amazon. I bought a pair of winter gloves then got a letter a week later in the mail offering me $30 (twice what I paid) if I left a 5 star reviews. The letter even left a message at the bottom saying not to post a review with a picture of the letter! That annoyed me, so of course I posted a review with a picture of the letter, then Amazon rejected the review since it didn't review th…

believe Amazon is in the right though. Amazon has multiple sellers for the same listing. You can see the different sellers by the purchase box and switch to a different seller.

Sometimes they have multiple sellers for the same listing, and in that case, feedback for any particular seller doesn't belong in a product review. But in some cases, there's only one seller (usually based in China) and the product has very high ratings because they are gaming the system like this, and burying the feedback in the seller reviews does not really give a proper warning to other prospective buyers. I think this is a grey area between "feedback for the seller" and "feedback about the product" but a blanket policy against mentioning seller misbehavior in product reviews is one of the things that allows shady sellers to continue to get away with their games for a long time.

Re: Airbnb removed my negative review

#245

Post by Retric »

diogenescynic wrote: post #200
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…

I don't think AirBNB is blameless, but so much of this could be avoided by simply building more homes to allow supply to meet demand. US cities have not been building enough homes for decades--this is the main driver of home values going up because scarcity drives prices up. The fact that the President, Congress, and most governors never really address this means it's not going to be solved any time soon. Even in Cal…

Building more homes requires infrastructure to support those homes.

The real solution is to tax each additional dwelling ~30,000$ (depending on area) to pay for the infrastructure to support it and then actually build that infrastructure.

Re: Airbnb removed my negative review

#246

Post by seattle_spring »

spacemadness wrote: post #222
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…

This is why I went back to hotels. Airbnb is a scummy company and can’t seem to survive without out of control “gotcha” fees added by either itself or its hosts which now make many hotels cheaper. I also am not obligated to do work for the host with a hotel. Some of the hosts have become super entitled over the years due to Airbnbs policies. It’s a shame as using Airbnb was an excellent experience when it first began…

I’ve stayed in 100+ Airbnbs and literally never have paid or been asked to pay an extra fee. I have, however, been surprised several times by hotels charging an extra “resort fee” upon arrival.

Re: Airbnb removed my negative review

#247

Post by dmix »

blairbeckwith wrote: post #193
dmix wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm confused, you think AirBnB should pay random people as employees to let them host short-term stays in their house? And this will help make AirBnB's moderation of reviews more honest?

I think based on context it's clear they mean "regulated like hotels".

How exactly do you regulate it like hotels without changing the legal structure? Hotels either directly run their various locations (aka run by their employees) or franchise it. That's a totally different business model.

So just saying "regulate it like hotels" doesn't mean much.

Re: Airbnb removed my negative review

#248

Post by jnet »

bradly wrote: post #18

As someone whose main income source is from short term rentals, Vrbo provides a much better experience for both hosts and guests. Being able to easily call and talk to a helpful human at Vrbo and have them actually solve a problem is really refreshing.

Vrbo did not provide me with a better experience. I rented a place last Christmas which looked nice going by the pictures in the listing. But when we got there it turned out to be a complete dump. It was so bad we didn’t stay and went straight to a hotel. Of course I contacted both the host and VRBO. The host never responded and the Vrbo representatives just shrugged their shoulders and said it was up to me to work it out with the host. Needless to say that will be the last time I use vrbo, Airbnb or any service like it.

Re: Airbnb removed my negative review

#249

Post by kennend3 »

pnt12 wrote: post #224
kennend3 wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

keep in mind why some of those taxi regulations were created in the first place. In the not so distance past there was a FLOOD of drivers, few rules and regulations and eventually a "race to the bottom" (too many drivers chasing too few fares). Then the pendulum of regulation swings TOO FAR in the other direction, creating the "medallion" system where these are worth a small fortune. A happy medium is where the marke…

Seems like thesis, antithesis, synthesis. Thesis: too many taxis result in badservice Antithesis: too many restrictions also result in bad service Synthesis: breaking some of the laws results in better service Now we talk about regulating the gig economy, a horrible thing mostly brought by Uber and airbnb: let's see where it leads us.

The pendulum of regulation will swing too far in the other direction, it ALWAYS does.

Mostly because the government sits around and does nothing until things get really bad, then they institute very strict rules to prevent a repeat.

Had they gotten involved earlier they would have had more flexibility with the regulations.

Re: Airbnb removed my negative review

#250

Post by rr808 »

jeremyjh wrote: post #72
imtyler wrote: 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.

Aside from the annoyance of the lifestyle of tourists vs residents, you miss out on having a normal neighbor who you can build a relationship over time with. Our neighbors keep a key, water plants while we're away, babysit our kids, generally look out for each other.
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