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Airbnb is banning indoor security cameras

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Re: Airbnb is banning indoor security cameras

#241

Post by Scoundreller »

pjerem wrote: post #213
_yb2s wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At this point the cleaning fees are just a scam to make the listing fee seem artificially lower. People did the same thing on eBay by making the items almost free but the shipping expensive, until they fixed the eBay interface, e.g. by letting you sort by price + shipping and showing shipping fees before you click.

eBay could have fixed this a long time ago. Most marketplaces (at least in my country) manage the shipping transparently (by taking the shipping fee and providing a pre paid label to the seller). Idk in the US but I know nobody who still use eBay for anything, I don’t know how they are still alive.

eBay can now show the shipping cost tailored to your zip/postal code, and shows it up-front.

eBay is an undertold story in failure (to innovate).

For sure, still a going concern, but odd of such a large company taking the Craigslist approach of “let’s stay small and just do enough to keep it working comfortably for all of us”

eBay practically invented online shopping at scale and had a huge head start but failed to maintain marketshare.

It’s still the catch-all for products that don’t fit in other marketplaces. For me, it’s a place to buy a lot of Amazon items but at a lower price (at some convenience cost). Or niche/used items. Amazon has overly regionalized (sometimes I can get items in Canada from Amazon.com cheaper than amazon.ca for example), while eBay is still a generally global interface.

Re: Airbnb is banning indoor security cameras

#242

Post by dsr_ »

tuwtuwtuwtuw wrote: post #206
kibwen wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> they took the time to implement the feature and actively decided to be shitty to their customers when they are given the choice Ah, but companies have a fiduciary duty to their shareholders to be as shitty to their customers as they can get away with.

No they don't.

Many companies act as though they believe that they have a fiduciary duty to not think further than the next quarter's results.

Are you happy now?

Re: Airbnb is banning indoor security cameras

#243

Post by EasyMark »

Scoundreller wrote: post #138
_yb2s wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At this point the cleaning fees are just a scam to make the listing fee seem artificially lower. People did the same thing on eBay by making the items almost free but the shipping expensive, until they fixed the eBay interface, e.g. by letting you sort by price + shipping and showing shipping fees before you click.

> People did the same thing on eBay by making the items almost free but the shipping expensive, until they fixed the eBay interface There’s a longer story to this: eBay used to exempt shipping fees from its commissions. So sellers would be screwing eBay and, being an efficient market, as it often is on eBay, the savings would be passed onto the buyer. I’d sell games for 1 cent with $10 shipping (cost to me: ~$2) and…

Thanks for the history. I was wondering why I was seeing less crazy rates on shipping. I had no idea it wasn't on the whole purchase price as that seemed obvious to me. I figured it was sellers hoping people wouldn't notice the s&h until the got to checkout

Re: Airbnb is banning indoor security cameras

#244

Post by EasyMark »

usaar333 wrote: post #101
_yb2s wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At this point the cleaning fees are just a scam to make the listing fee seem artificially lower. People did the same thing on eBay by making the items almost free but the shipping expensive, until they fixed the eBay interface, e.g. by letting you sort by price + shipping and showing shipping fees before you click.

Cleaning fees exist to charge a fixed fee for a reservation, regardless of the number of days. There's more overhead for a reservation beyond just "cleaning". The most consumer friendly thing would be for AirBnB to just explicitly have a fixed "stay" fee and a per-day fee. That said, AirBnB's site shows the total cost for a stay when browsing, so I don't really see this as particularly deceptive. I don't care how the…

So put it in the price rather than "fees". That always feels highly dishonest to me.

Re: Airbnb is banning indoor security cameras

#245

Post by EasyMark »

pjerem wrote: post #213
_yb2s wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At this point the cleaning fees are just a scam to make the listing fee seem artificially lower. People did the same thing on eBay by making the items almost free but the shipping expensive, until they fixed the eBay interface, e.g. by letting you sort by price + shipping and showing shipping fees before you click.

eBay could have fixed this a long time ago. Most marketplaces (at least in my country) manage the shipping transparently (by taking the shipping fee and providing a pre paid label to the seller). Idk in the US but I know nobody who still use eBay for anything, I don’t know how they are still alive.

I fix old electronics things like phonos, radios, and other sound related things as a hobby and resell(mostly 60s through 90s). Ebay is still great (well "good") for old parts and selling my warez. Although I do sell more locally as I've gotten some word of mouth, and it's more business than I can do with my day job. Anyway ebay still works for older products/parts for electronics and I reckon other fixable things.

Re: Airbnb is banning indoor security cameras

#246

Post by rdtsc »

pi-e-sigma wrote: post #235
rdtsc wrote: post #31

> Hosts can’t use outdoor cams to keep tabs on indoor spaces That might be easy to game either way. Hosts can claim they didn’t keep tabs, just had a hunch to come over and check; and guests can claim the camera in the yard could see some part of the interior through a window and ask for a refund. One interesting effect is that now hosts with hidden cameras can't offer the footage as proof during disputes.

Sure they can. They simply 'forget' that there was a camera there but when a dispute comes up then they suddenly realize that actually there was one and surprisingly there is relevant footage, too.

That might work once but then they'll have to be more creative. And, of course, it would depend on the consequences of breaking the "no camera" rule. If they can show the guest smashing an expensive TV or something, it might be worth the consequences.

Re: Airbnb is banning indoor security cameras

#247

Post by jimt1234 »

Havoc wrote: post #77

Amazing that this even needs to be stated

Exactly. I always thought there was a presumption of privacy when renting any residential space, long or short term, and that presumption was legally binding. And I just assumed that interior cameras violated that. For example, I've read about creepy landlords installing cameras in their rental units, mostly to spy on their female tenants. The creepy landlords always got arrested. Furthermore, if a large hotel chain like Hyatt or Hilton was found to install cameras inside hotel rooms, people would not tolerate it, because, just like an apartment, there's that presumption of privacy inside a hotel room. But for some reason, AirBNB was like ¯\_(ツ)_/¯, "Owners can do whatever they want. Not our problem."

Re: Airbnb is banning indoor security cameras

#248

Post by EasyMark »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #76
_yb2s wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At this point the cleaning fees are just a scam to make the listing fee seem artificially lower. People did the same thing on eBay by making the items almost free but the shipping expensive, until they fixed the eBay interface, e.g. by letting you sort by price + shipping and showing shipping fees before you click.

Cleaning fees aren't a "scam" - most property owners really do need to pay someone to clean the property at the end of a stay. But, as another commenter said, they can be used as a way to encourage longer stays, as with most places you only pay a single cleaning fee regardless of the length of your stay. But, again, it's just a fact that these rentals are usually just cleaned between guests (as opposed to a hotel whe…

I've rented out a couple rooms in my house in the past for airbnb during special events in Austin to make some hobby money, shared my kitchen, they have a private bathroom. It doesn't cost $200 to clean. I can clean up after them typically in less than an hour.

Re: Airbnb is banning indoor security cameras

#249

Post by Scoundreller »

EasyMark wrote: post #243
Scoundreller wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> People did the same thing on eBay by making the items almost free but the shipping expensive, until they fixed the eBay interface There’s a longer story to this: eBay used to exempt shipping fees from its commissions. So sellers would be screwing eBay and, being an efficient market, as it often is on eBay, the savings would be passed onto the buyer. I’d sell games for 1 cent with $10 shipping (cost to me: ~$2) and…

Thanks for the history. I was wondering why I was seeing less crazy rates on shipping. I had no idea it wasn't on the whole purchase price as that seemed obvious to me. I figured it was sellers hoping people wouldn't notice the s&h until the got to checkout

> I figured it was sellers hoping people wouldn't notice the s&h until the got to checkout

There was a lot of that too. I’m sure it’s sometimes emotional: sellers wouldn’t want to “subsidize” shipping, so they’d fix the shipping fee to what the max could be for anywhere in the country.

What grinds me as an international buyer is when sellers offer “free” shipping domestically, but don’t subsidize int’l shipping by the same dollar amount. Though there can be other time costs for int’l shipping. It depends.

Re: Airbnb is banning indoor security cameras

#250

Post by Perepiska »

_yb2s wrote: post #48
mholt wrote: post #22

I'm worried this ban will only affect honest hosts. Anyway, what Airbnb should really ban is hosts charging a mandatory cleaning fee when also requiring their guests to do the cleaning. We just stayed at one this weekend, and like almost all our previous bookings, the host asked us to: - Take off all bedding and towels and start a load of laundry - Do all the dishes and start the dishwasher (but required to hand-wash…

At this point the cleaning fees are just a scam to make the listing fee seem artificially lower. People did the same thing on eBay by making the items almost free but the shipping expensive, until they fixed the eBay interface, e.g. by letting you sort by price + shipping and showing shipping fees before you click.

I remember a wave of $1 iPhone charging cables on Amazon! (with expensive delivery cost :)
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