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Illegal host, electric shocks, slugs, leaks and no support – How Airbnb failed

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Re: Illegal host, electric shocks, slugs, leaks and no support – How Airbnb failed

#251

Post by barnabee »

I have had and have many friends who have had similar horror stories from holiday apartments and even B&Bs and hotels, as well as Airbnbs rentals.

There’s a pretty simple correlation most of the time: the cheaper the accommodation compared to the local market, the higher the chance of disappointment.

On the other hand, when I take Airbnbs that are only a small discount compared to a reasonable but completely average hotel room from a reputable chain, they are often fantastic.

Bad and scammy holiday and short term accommodation is surely a problem, but Airbnb and their rating system doesn’t look any worse than many other alternatives from my experience.

Many of the comments here show more about the author’s attitude toward a once popular start-up than much else.

Re: Illegal host, electric shocks, slugs, leaks and no support – How Airbnb failed

#252

Post by shwoopdiwoop »

spapas82 wrote: post #241

The OP seems to have spend like $3000 for a month. What's very puzzling to me is why not go to a decent hotel? I'm positive that you can easily find 3 and even 4 star hotels for less than $100 per night in Portugal. This question is not specifically about the OP but in general about people that pay so much money for an Airbnb when they can have a room in a nice hotel for the same (or even less) money. I'm not talking…

When staying at a place for longer than a few nights, hotel rooms are not as attractive as apartments. Having a full kitchen, separate dining/living/bedroom spaces available makes a huge difference. Whilst you probably can get a small hotel room for the same price, I can certainly see the appeal.

Re: Illegal host, electric shocks, slugs, leaks and no support – How Airbnb failed

#253

Post by brosinante »

spapas82 wrote: post #241

The OP seems to have spend like $3000 for a month. What's very puzzling to me is why not go to a decent hotel? I'm positive that you can easily find 3 and even 4 star hotels for less than $100 per night in Portugal. This question is not specifically about the OP but in general about people that pay so much money for an Airbnb when they can have a room in a nice hotel for the same (or even less) money. I'm not talking…

An airbnb (often) has a washing machine, a kitchen you can cook on and a fridge you can store food in.

Re: Illegal host, electric shocks, slugs, leaks and no support – How Airbnb failed

#254

Post by stickfigure »

steveBK123 wrote: post #68

This stuff is incredibly common in short term rental market. You are scraping the bottom of the barrel on landlord scruples. There was a recent fire in a summer vacation town popular with NYers. The town requires summer short term rental landlords to get a permit & inspection. The landlord did not get one. The landlord also had sketchy kitchen wiring that was probably some sort of DIY and not up to code. The landlord…

> our condo expressly forbid short term rentals, and had language around minimum length of stay and lease approval requirements. It only stopped when we started fining them $1000 per incident.

At least this part sounds like the system working correctly?

Re: Illegal host, electric shocks, slugs, leaks and no support – How Airbnb failed

#255

Post by Lonestar1440 »

Airbnb and hotels both have their place. Airbnb is at it's best in spots like coastal California where a place with outdoor space, cute decor, and a kitchen is really nice AND you can always go to a Holiday Inn off the 101 if things go sideways.

Avoid in places you haven't been to before or when you'd be really screwed if it ended up being unsuitable.

Re: Illegal host, electric shocks, slugs, leaks and no support – How Airbnb failed

#256

Post by nrmitchi »

stickfigure wrote: post #254
steveBK123 wrote: post #68

This stuff is incredibly common in short term rental market. You are scraping the bottom of the barrel on landlord scruples. There was a recent fire in a summer vacation town popular with NYers. The town requires summer short term rental landlords to get a permit & inspection. The landlord did not get one. The landlord also had sketchy kitchen wiring that was probably some sort of DIY and not up to code. The landlord…

> our condo expressly forbid short term rentals, and had language around minimum length of stay and lease approval requirements. It only stopped when we started fining them $1000 per incident. At least this part sounds like the system working correctly?

A system, but not AirBNBs system.

Re: Illegal host, electric shocks, slugs, leaks and no support – How Airbnb failed

#257

Post by slaw »

joyeuse6701 wrote: post #70

Yep. Had an Airbnb setup this week in Atlanta, looked good, responsive host. We arrived, looked clean and decorated well enough, but had 4 glade plugins for a 500sqft place… seemed excessive like their might be a bad smell hidden. Sat down on a chaise which collapsed because of a leg attached by gum. Found a cockroach under said chaise. Reported it and the owner said it was treated the other day, so it should be fine…

How many stars had that apartment? How many stars you gave in your review? What makes Airbnb not reliable is not cockroaches, but no negative reviews. I prefer Booking, because my reviews even negative are not removed like on Airbnb.

Re: Illegal host, electric shocks, slugs, leaks and no support – How Airbnb failed

#258

Post by jgilias »

soco wrote: post #55
jgilias wrote: post #44

If you still want/need to use AirBnB for cheaper travel, renting a room instead of a whole apartment is actually better. Then the host is an actual host and the reviews are more meaningful. I’ve gotten to know some pretty cool people that way. It’s a trade-off of course, as the set of potential issues is different.

But won't you get a room in an apartment shared with other guests then?

I’ve never had this happen, it was always at host’s place. Granted, that was some years ago, maybe things have changed!

Re: Illegal host, electric shocks, slugs, leaks and no support – How Airbnb failed

#259

Post by wcarron »

scarby2 wrote: post #243
dorchadas wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, but it'll force them to go to places that are actually planned to accommodate them. Tourists are included in city planning, believe it or not, but they're not expected to be taking up the actual residential places of the city. That's why areas are zoned for hotels and there's regulation around them.

> Tourists are included in city planning The reason AirBnB exists is that tourists are not properly accounted for in city planning and not properly serviced by hotels. There's a huge demand for what AirBnB provides (Serviced and short term accommodation). Hotels are inadequate for longer stays or where you just want the comforts of home, a good middle ground is the "serviced apartment" concept found in some places (e…

> a good middle ground is the "serviced apartment" concept found in some places (entire apartment blocks reserved for short term rentals)

You mean a hotel? Hotels are not inadequate for longer stays. If someone desires the comforts of a home, they can move there and actually rent/buy a home.

> The reason AirBnB exists is that tourists are not properly accounted for in city planning and not properly serviced by hotels.

This is a werid entitlement. Tourists aren't entitled to overrun and impose a serious negative impact upon a town/city's housing supply because they feel like they 'deserve' to vacation there.

Re: Illegal host, electric shocks, slugs, leaks and no support – How Airbnb failed

#260

Post by PaulDavisThe1st »

mancerayder wrote: post #149
mudrockbestgirl wrote: post #16

It's not surprising at all. All of these review-driven P2P marketplace businesses end up with the same problem. After the initial phase of early adopters that offer generally high quality products, a flood of fake or low-quality listing tries to squeeze money out of the platform. These people are not listing their homes on Airbnb, they are trying to make a living by extracting as much money from the platform as they…

But it's also Airbnb themselves. It's well known that negative reviews are scrubbed and even edited, this is something many people including myself have experienced. Any doubts, spend some time on the Airbnb subreddit, which is run by hosts, and check out both their attitudes and their advice about how to remove bad reviews. Airbnb needs hosts for its revenue. Clients are the product. I used to love Airbnb and used i…

While I broadly agree with what you've written here, I think that:

> Airbnb needs hosts for its revenue. Clients are the product.

is not a useful way to think about this. AirBnb lives in a sort of weird parasitic-symbiotic relationship with both its hosts and the "guests". They are not trying to sell "guests" to anyone (they may do data collection and sale, but I think this not the cornerstone of their business model): what they rely on is an abundant supply of matching properties (not hosts!) and "guests". The hosts as people are irrelevant. If they lose "guests", less revenue. If they lose properties/listings, less revenue.

> Is the business model unsustainable?

The original AirBnb model (people renting spare rooms in their own homes, or maybe a casita on their property) was sustainable, but growth-limited. I don't know about the current one.

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