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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

#391

Post by marssaxman »

astura wrote: post #389
MichaelCollins wrote: post #318

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most hotel rooms don't have kitchens. It's not unreasonable to want a kitchen if you're staying somewhere for a week or two. But expecting those people to buy or lease a home is unreasonable. Short-term rental of homes is the solution to this.

They make hotels for extended stays with kitchens - Homewood Suites, Embassy Suites, and Candlewood Suites are the big chains. I lived in a Homewood Suites for three months. It was fine.

AirBnB homes are so much nicer than those sterile corporate chains. It is not the same experience.

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

#392

Post by weird-eye-issue »

tallanvor wrote: post #20
weird-eye-issue wrote: post #5

Funny, I saw the writer's picture first thing and thought hmm that looks pretty fake then later it turns out it is cropped from that same stock photo as "Peter"

The account was clearly created just to share this issue, so using the other face from the picture is meant to help emphasize the false pick in the AirBnB posting.

Yep I think we all got that

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

#393

Post by mancerayder »

datavirtue wrote: post #288
mancerayder wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

It's a scam. Plain and simple. VRBO is worse.

Why is VRBO worse?

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

#394

Post by scarface74 »

vertis wrote: post #157
scarface74 wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For reference: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33286238 > Standard rentals are too inflexible for long term (month long) travellers and the hotel industry is either too expensive or not designed for long term stays. Most of the major hotel brands have chains intended for long term stays. My wife, son and I stayed at one for five months a few years ago when we moved out of our apartment and decided to get a house…

Yeah, we've stayed in accommodation like this as well. Often very shitty experiences in business aparthotels. Always good to have a list though.

I work during the week. I like business “aparthotel”. I know I’ll usually have a comfortable desk in the room with an adjustable chair. Decent “premium Wifi” at Hiltons (Diamond member) and a level of consistency.

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

#395

Post by astura »

ghaff wrote: post #177
988747 wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I spent vacations in California this year, and noticed the same: housekeeping is every 5 days instead of everyday, hotel bars/restaurants are either closed or turned into fast foods (menu consists only of burgers, sandwiches and salads), amenities like gyms are closed. And all that for prices that are significantly higher than before the pandemic.

Hotels have definitely cut back on servicing rooms. Although honestly? I not infrequently stay in "serviced apartments" that are only cleaned once a week. And that's just fine. The housekeeper is more likely to interrupt me to clean the room than provide a service I actually care about.

Housekeeping is now largely "upon request" with sometimes a minimum and I absolutely love that. I don't really care for housekeeping everyday, I'll let them know if I need anything. I don't know of any hotel that will refuse to send housekeeping everyday if you request it. You just need to request it.

I've been staying at the same a hotel every few months for the last four years, even during 2020. The last time I checked in instead of saying "let us know when you want housekeeping" like they have for the last 3 years; they started saying "what's your preferred housekeeping interval?" I think that's a better system to ask than question.

The only slight downside for me is that if I'm in a room for a while the toilet paper can start to run low, but that's fixed with a text to the front desk.

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

#396

Post by joyeuse6701 »

slaw wrote: post #257
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.

4.67. We haven’t submitted our review yet, suffice to say Airbnb responded that the offer unit did not meet their standards.

Airbnb hides the review score, only giving an average.

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

#397

Post by joyeuse6701 »

dazc wrote: post #292
SwiftyBug wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Airbnbs can be nice and give you a real sense of being a resident of a place I really don't get this. If you're vacationing there's no way you'll feel anywhere near a "sense of being a resident". It's vacations, you're a tourist, there's nothing wrong with that. I don't get what about the "experience" of a regular Airbnb is better than staying at a decent hotel. Of course this does not apply to exotic Airbnbs.

> If you're vacationing there's no way you'll feel anywhere near a "sense of being a resident". Some other residents will have broken plumbing, bad smells and cockroaches. You are living as they are?

True, this very much may the common experience of the community I stayed in, but it was not advertised as such, nor was it priced that way either.

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

#398

Post by rsj_hn »

astura wrote: post #395
ghaff wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hotels have definitely cut back on servicing rooms. Although honestly? I not infrequently stay in "serviced apartments" that are only cleaned once a week. And that's just fine. The housekeeper is more likely to interrupt me to clean the room than provide a service I actually care about.

Housekeeping is now largely "upon request" with sometimes a minimum and I absolutely love that. I don't really care for housekeeping everyday, I'll let them know if I need anything. I don't know of any hotel that will refuse to send housekeeping everyday if you request it. You just need to request it. I've been staying at the same a hotel every few months for the last four years, even during 2020. The last time I che…

That's not my experience. The last two hotels I stayed at -- Doubletree Hilton in Dallas and Shelborne in Miami -- had daily housekeeping without any request. But perhaps that's just a fluke. Maybe it depends on which city you are visiting, too.

Interestingly when I was looking up the info on the Doubletree, they mentioned something about housekeeping every X days (not every day), but when I arrived, it was daily. I didn't make any request for it, it could be that the website is just out of date, as I suspect this is more about staffing than anything else.

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

#399

Post by archagon »

dorchadas wrote: post #359
archagon wrote: post #337

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If a local wants to open their home to me, even if it’s a second home, why should that make me feel “entitled” to enjoy a taste of local life? (Ignoring Airbnb slumlords, which should probably be fought with regulation and/or Airbnb policy changes.)

There's rules and regulations against it, for one. Should locals be allowed to do whatever they want on their property with no regards to how it will impact neighbours and local economy? There's a reason we have zoning laws, etc, in place. There's lots of things we stop locals from doing because it's for the better of the community as a whole, and renting out short-term to tourists should be one (and, again, it somet…

Locals should absolutely have the right and power to change their local laws to prohibit Airbnb. However, I'm not going to feel guilty for using Airbnb in places where it's legal, because it's simply a better product than hotels by a long shot (when it works).

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

#400

Post by dorchadas »

marssaxman wrote: post #391
astura wrote: post #389

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They make hotels for extended stays with kitchens - Homewood Suites, Embassy Suites, and Candlewood Suites are the big chains. I lived in a Homewood Suites for three months. It was fine.

AirBnB homes are so much nicer than those sterile corporate chains. It is not the same experience.

So, again, it comes down to the entitlement felt by travellers.
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