You bled all over the host's towel, was that in their control? They have to replace that once it's been soiled with blood.
This is one of those examples where someone's point of view is so foreign to me that I start wondering if they live on another planet. You seem to insinuate that because it wasn't within the host's control that I bled on their towel that it somehow falls on me instead. What? Did I choose to bleed, then? I mean, obviously it seems to me that it should fall on Airbnb itself to pay in cases like these. Perhaps the owner…
So…you’re saying it’s Airbnb’s fault that someone punched you in the face and that’s why they should pay?
The person who really ought to pay is the guy who punched you in the face. Unless you deserved it but I’m giving you the benefit of the doubt.
This is kind of off topic of AirBnB but can you share a little bit more about the registration system in China? By the way you describe it, it sounds like not only foreigners must register with the police when they visit other cities.
No, only foreign nationals must register when visiting places. Chinese citizens only must register at the police station when moving - though as if often the case, many people ignore such rules. I just meant that the state is tracking where people visit thanks to digital means - facial recognition and cell records. But foreigners can't really skirt those rules, both because they aren't as easily tracked and because t…
As Chinese you don't need to register when you move. There is Hukou system which determine which city/province you belong to (mostly used for welfare system), the system basically require you to have a permit to stay and work in a different province. It was quite strict 30 years ago because of the imbalance between provinces, many migrate workers. Residence address is not important as in western countries (where your bank account links to your residence address). That said, hotels (and netcafes) do need to register customers' ID.
This seems incredibly dangerous as visitors on a tourist visa are required to register themselves with the local police within 24 hours of arriving at their destination. Trying to stay under the radar seems like it courts risk of deportation, as I've known _lots_ of folks who got a visit from police at their place of stay who were not aware of this. Virtually all of them settled things fine but it was more headache t…
I can say that while staying with locals I never registered or being asked to. And it went like this for a couple of months. Not only with Chinese, but also expats. I mainly got my accomodation though CouchSurfing (I wasn't aware of BeWelcome nor TrustRoots back then) The hosts seemed to have guests very often and we were never asked to pretend to be friends from home or anything. This happened not only in the main c…
The problem will only arise when you happen to be a criminal and your friend will be in trouble. If nothing happens, no one is going to check the record.
Nevermind that around 90% of hotels in China do not allow foreigners. It was not a fond memory dragging my heavy baggage one place to the next for half a day being rejected all over Beijing (experienced it in Shanghai and Guangzhou too) Of course the wealthy here would never know, most places priced in the top 20% expensive accept foreigners. I was a poor student and also worked as a teacher($400/mo) looking for midr…
> dragging my heavy baggage one place to the next for half a day being rejected all over Beijing Yep, one would think that for a government that cares so much about their image they would avoid visitors having to go through this nonsense. For budget travellers to Beijing -- 如家 accepts foreigners last I checked. 7天 used to but they don't anymore as of a couple years ago.
There were two system in the past: hotels for foreigners, designed to take passports and hotels for citizens, taking only IDs. There has been recent national system upgrades, now Chinese can use passport as identification (although still not universally). Since last year, you can use passport to check in high speed rail stations (maybe still not all of them) without queueing up in exchange for a real ticket. The direction is clear. It is a big IT system with different departments, I can imagine the problem will be gone in the future.
I had that exact experience in the famously non-corrupt Netherlands (2017). It’s not a China thing.
Does the Netherlands have a rule that you register with the local public security bureau for wherever you are staying? I really don't see AirBnB working in China because of that.
In UK as a foreigner you have to register within 7 days every time you move.
The usage you're describing doesn't equate to success in China, you're still a customer outside of China even if they're working with businesses in China. I'm not saying the two services you referenced do or do not do well with the Chinese market, but it's a different proposition to actually capture a massive distinct market vs expansive options for the existing customer base.
I don't have the numbers but my impression is that in particular Agoda is very popular.
I see Agoda as a competitor to booking.com, I can see they always have a price advantage against booking.com. All these services are not pleasant to use. People normally spend quite a bit time in searching for places to stay. I wish there is more personalized service. I find it is painful to go through reviews and list of properties.
I don't have the numbers but my impression is that in particular Agoda is very popular.
I see Agoda as a competitor to booking.com, I can see they always have a price advantage against booking.com. All these services are not pleasant to use. People normally spend quite a bit time in searching for places to stay. I wish there is more personalized service. I find it is painful to go through reviews and list of properties.
Agoda is owned by booking.com.
Do you consider AirBnB to have more personalized service?
Yes I guess it's the cultural differences. But in reality, if the US government wants to find out where you live, they're going to find out :-) Also, as another child comment said, filling out religion and gender is optional, and no form ever asks for race (at least in Germany and Switzerland I know that for sure). On the other hand, having better data about citizens makes a lot of things more efficient and fair in g…
They’re asking for your religion because it makes a difference in your taxes and days free of work
Days of free work you need to take up with your employer. They're asking for the church tax.
I see Agoda as a competitor to booking.com, I can see they always have a price advantage against booking.com. All these services are not pleasant to use. People normally spend quite a bit time in searching for places to stay. I wish there is more personalized service. I find it is painful to go through reviews and list of properties.
Agoda is owned by booking.com. Do you consider AirBnB to have more personalized service?
No. But if you go to Airbnb, you probably have already narrowed down your search, it makes the booking process a little bit easier. I find more options is always annoying. Say some reviews are more important than others, I wish sites like booking.com can discard listings when certain keywords appears in negative reviews. All I want is to have a few options to choose from. I personally don't use Airbnb any more.
No, only foreign nationals must register when visiting places. Chinese citizens only must register at the police station when moving - though as if often the case, many people ignore such rules. I just meant that the state is tracking where people visit thanks to digital means - facial recognition and cell records. But foreigners can't really skirt those rules, both because they aren't as easily tracked and because t…
As Chinese you don't need to register when you move. There is Hukou system which determine which city/province you belong to (mostly used for welfare system), the system basically require you to have a permit to stay and work in a different province. It was quite strict 30 years ago because of the imbalance between provinces, many migrate workers. Residence address is not important as in western countries (where your…
Hukou is what I was referring to. It's not just welfare, but distribution of state money (like USAs census) and in some places required to purchase property in that area. Most ignore the requirement (like they do many rules), so I understand why you say they "don't need to register", but technically it is required.
This is where it gets fuzzy when you say something in China is "required" - technically it might be so but in practice it's not enforced, unless the government has a particular reason to enforce it, and even then it's usually temporary. It ends up being a weird situation where technically there's more restrictions in China but in practice there's a lot less red tape to deal with than living in the US.
What that means in practice is if Beijing doesn't like you, they will find a laundry list of requirements you violated. Bringing it back to AirBnB IPO that concerns me.