Airbnb removed my negative review • Hacker News Board

Re: Airbnb removed my negative review

#471

Post by zbrozek » Sat, Jan 07, 2023, 2:56 PM UTC

miguelazo wrote: post #469

zbrozek wrote: post #468

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not a zero-sum game. You can have both, but you need to build enough to have it. Regulating the use of a thing is a mark of market failure. How would you feel if the government told you that you could only use a pencil for writing because that has more social value than its use in making a model log cabin? You're also failing to process my point: that banning short-term rentals is an ineffective lever, not that…

No, we have been ignoring your point because it’s one of those Econ 101 world views based on assumptions that have no basis in the real world and actual human behavior. You can’t look at the number of Airbnb rentals and conclude it’s not having a significant impact on the market simply based on the raw number of units. What we know from all systems theory is that a small portion of things has the majority of the effe…

Actual research suggests the effect is tiny.

"At the median owner-occupancy rate zip code, we find that a 1% increase in Airbnb listings leads to a 0.018% increase in rents and a 0.026% increase in house prices."

https://pubsonline.informs.org/doi/10.1287/mksc.2020.1227

Re: Airbnb removed my negative review

#472

Post by miguelazo » Mon, Jan 09, 2023, 6:48 PM UTC

zbrozek wrote: post #471

miguelazo wrote: post #469

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, we have been ignoring your point because it’s one of those Econ 101 world views based on assumptions that have no basis in the real world and actual human behavior. You can’t look at the number of Airbnb rentals and conclude it’s not having a significant impact on the market simply based on the raw number of units. What we know from all systems theory is that a small portion of things has the majority of the effe…

Actual research suggests the effect is tiny. "At the median owner-occupancy rate zip code, we find that a 1% increase in Airbnb listings leads to a 0.018% increase in rents and a 0.026% increase in house prices." https://pubsonline.informs.org/doi/10.1287/mksc.2020.1227

Clicks on "actual research," finds the usual econometric voodoo. Even better, the use of instrumental variables to supposedly "isolate" effects. Totally representative, I am sure.

PS: the author's own words contradict your claim that the effect is tiny, although again I think this is a serious undercount resulting from a poor model and ever worse availability of data nationwide: "This means that, in aggregate, the growth in home-sharing through Airbnb contributes to about one-fifth of the average annual increase in U.S. rents and about one-seventh of the average annual increase in U.S. housing prices." https://hbr.org/2019/04/research-when-airbnb-listings-in-a-c...

Re: Airbnb removed my negative review

#473

Post by leviathant » Tue, Jan 10, 2023, 4:07 PM UTC

lbwtaylor wrote: post #426

leviathant wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That seems like the most reasonable explanation. Yes, asking for cash upon arrival is super sketchy, the review was probably fair, but in my experience, getting a negative review removed from a completed Airbnb transaction requires both parties to consent. My experience, for reference: A couple stayed on our second floor, and left dozens of snotty tissues all around the apartment, put recylables in the trash, and jus…

> but in my experience, getting a negative review removed from a completed Airbnb transaction requires both parties to consent. This is not accurate. AirBnB has a requirement that reviews be relevant, and they liberally apply this to remove reviews upon one party's request, often complaints about how the host acts are deemed not relevant to the room/house, which is of course absurd.

>> in my experience...

> This is not accurate.

I assure you, I have relayed my experience accurately. Airbnb would not remove my review on behalf of the guest. I had to call them and ask them to remove the review I wrote. I will add, however, that this was over two years ago, and pre-IPO. It would not surprise me if policies have changed to be less consumer-friendly now that they're publicly traded.