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I Accidentally Uncovered a Nationwide Scam on Airbnb

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Re: I Accidentally Uncovered a Nationwide Scam on Airbnb

#491

Post by OnlineGladiator »

jzwinck wrote: post #474
kitd wrote: post #452

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In a similar vein, a good friend of mine (+ all his family, about 10 in all) was kicked out of an AirBnB at the last minute because it had been double-booked on Booking.com at a higher price, and had just been rented via that site. I've come across a few such stories.

A family member of mine had something similar happen when using booking.com. She showed up at the hotel and they had sold her booked room to someone else. It was late and a bit of a nightmare to find another place to stay. Overbooking airplanes means someone might be stuck sitting in the terminal for hours. Overbooking.com means someone might be made to drive around late at night, tired, with nowhere to sleep.

> Overbooking airplanes means someone might be stuck sitting in the terminal for hours.

It also might mean you miss getting somewhere in an emergency, like visiting a loved one before surgery. And it also might mean you miss things you couldn't miss, like a job interview.

One of the worst memories of my life started by missing a flight (and it wasn't my fault).

Re: I Accidentally Uncovered a Nationwide Scam on Airbnb

#492

Post by kickopotomus »

SiVal wrote: post #475
yason wrote: post #335

The late cancellation by host without no specific penalties seems to be one of the most prevalent yet disturbing elements in this. The one who's travelling has the weakest odds of all. The traveler will be in a foreign place with no place to stay. In contrast, the host has no losing cards except some income. The rules should, thus, have been written to protect the traveler at the expense of the host because the host…

The one who's travelling has the weakest odds of all. The traveler will be in a foreign place with no place to stay. In contrast, the host has no losing cards except some income. No, the one being scammed has the weakest odds. The "traveler" could in fact be a local scammer who sabotages a property and then has various ways (which I won't detail) for turning a profit on it if the rules favor the "poor traveler". I'm…

Do changes to reservations not have to go through AirBnB already? I feel like they should already be able to audit accounts that change reservation details often.

Disclaimer: I have never used AirBnb so I have no clue how it all works.

Re: I Accidentally Uncovered a Nationwide Scam on Airbnb

#493

Post by vlunkr »

julienchastang wrote: post #51

There have been a few threads about AirBnb lately with a lot of people reporting negative experiences so I will add my own $0.02. I have stayed in many AirBnbs. The reason is, I find it is the only way to have a tolerable family vacation is when everyone has their own sleeping quarters. When we are all piled into one (often overpriced and not so clean) hotel room, it makes for less than ideal sleep and everyone ends…

I'm sure most people have fine experiences, but this is more than just "reporting negative experiences". This is a probably super profitable scam, and I'm sure it's not the only one, since there really aren't performing any sort of checks on hosts or properties.

Re: I Accidentally Uncovered a Nationwide Scam on Airbnb

#494

Post by personlurking »

julienchastang wrote: post #51

There have been a few threads about AirBnb lately with a lot of people reporting negative experiences so I will add my own $0.02. I have stayed in many AirBnbs. The reason is, I find it is the only way to have a tolerable family vacation is when everyone has their own sleeping quarters. When we are all piled into one (often overpriced and not so clean) hotel room, it makes for less than ideal sleep and everyone ends…

>The main downside for me concerning AirBnb is it takes a long time to analyze the listings to find quality accommodations.

I just spent 7 days (20h total) trying to make one booking. Tons of reading between the lines and analyzing involved, as well as bad or non-responsive potential hosts. To top it off, AirBnb Support the whole time was very poor.

Re: I Accidentally Uncovered a Nationwide Scam on Airbnb

#495

Post by rahimnathwani »

herodotus wrote: post #327

There is a larger problem here: there seems to be no way to hold these big internet companies to account for misrepresenting their product offerings. For example, some time ago, someone on HN reported on a plagiarized Python book for sale on Amazon. ( https://www.amazon.com/Python-Programming-Beginner-Intermedi... ). I emailed the author of the original book,(October 4) because Amazon have a form that allows authors…

"Now if I reported that my local bricks-and-mortar second-hand store was selling my stolen TV set"

Yes, but an analogous situation here would be if your local bricks-and-mortar store were selling a TV that looked and worked just like yours, but was made by a different company.

What (if anything) do you expect your local police would do if you reported that?

Re: I Accidentally Uncovered a Nationwide Scam on Airbnb

#496

Post by onemoresoop »

kkarpkkarp wrote: post #44

wow, I have seen the same when I have been looking for a house at Airbnb on Corfu. Because I have been checking many places on this island, in different areas, I found some houses with the same bathrooms (just photographed from different angles). I found it must be scam and I have chosen different place. That one if I remember clear I have reported to AirBNB

Did it have any reviews? I haven’t been scammed at all (yet) but I was always cautious knowing it’s not as consistent an experience as in hotels and relied heavily on good reviews. So far so good. I wonder if and how those could be scammed similar to whats been plaguing amazon..

Re: I Accidentally Uncovered a Nationwide Scam on Airbnb

#497

Post by edouard-harris »

greggman2 wrote: post #158
julienchastang wrote: post #51

There have been a few threads about AirBnb lately with a lot of people reporting negative experiences so I will add my own $0.02. I have stayed in many AirBnbs. The reason is, I find it is the only way to have a tolerable family vacation is when everyone has their own sleeping quarters. When we are all piled into one (often overpriced and not so clean) hotel room, it makes for less than ideal sleep and everyone ends…

I've stayed at 22 airbnb's 11 were fine. 11 had issues most with false advertising in some form or another. One listed the wrong location and if they had listed the correct location I would not have rented even though the room's interior matched. A few claimed to include onsite parking but didn't which of course is very inconvenient. The last one that did that claimed "Easy Street Parking" as AirBnb's blatant lie. I…

> It bugs me that YC appears to have absolutely no policy of conduct for the companies they fund.

They do: https://www.ycombinator.com/ethics/

YC founders are told to review these guidelines before we accept the investment.

From the ethics page:

> To maintain our community, if a founder behaves unethically during or after YC, we will revoke their YC founder status.

Re: I Accidentally Uncovered a Nationwide Scam on Airbnb

#498

Post by brianbreslin »

tasssko wrote: post #363
yason wrote: post #335

The late cancellation by host without no specific penalties seems to be one of the most prevalent yet disturbing elements in this. The one who's travelling has the weakest odds of all. The traveler will be in a foreign place with no place to stay. In contrast, the host has no losing cards except some income. The rules should, thus, have been written to protect the traveler at the expense of the host because the host…

I wouldn’t want anyone picking a hotel for me. I might appreciate if the host calls a few hotels to see which ones have space but I want the final say. My perspective has been that “when I use Airbnb I always have a plan b”. I do. I don’t negotiate, if the listing has issues or was miss-sold I walk out and activate my plan b. Airbnb will always refund if you do it like that.

I got burned on miss-sold/labeled AirBnBs a few years ago and they did nothing to make it up to me so I RARELY book with them anymore. Honestly with rewards points and such with hotel booking sites, and airbnb prices not being that much cheaper than a hotel, it often is just less hassle to go traditional hotel.

Re: I Accidentally Uncovered a Nationwide Scam on Airbnb

#499

Post by singron »

edouard-harris wrote: post #497
greggman2 wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've stayed at 22 airbnb's 11 were fine. 11 had issues most with false advertising in some form or another. One listed the wrong location and if they had listed the correct location I would not have rented even though the room's interior matched. A few claimed to include onsite parking but didn't which of course is very inconvenient. The last one that did that claimed "Easy Street Parking" as AirBnb's blatant lie. I…

> It bugs me that YC appears to have absolutely no policy of conduct for the companies they fund. They do: https://www.ycombinator.com/ethics/ YC founders are told to review these guidelines before we accept the investment. From the ethics page: > To maintain our community, if a founder behaves unethically during or after YC, we will revoke their YC founder status.

Has this ever affected anything before? Just about every organization has "we are ethical" in some document somewhere. "We always comply with local regulations" is often spouted by companies immediately after being busted for breaking regulations.

Re: I Accidentally Uncovered a Nationwide Scam on Airbnb

#500

Post by arcticbull »

jzwinck wrote: post #474
kitd wrote: post #452

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In a similar vein, a good friend of mine (+ all his family, about 10 in all) was kicked out of an AirBnB at the last minute because it had been double-booked on Booking.com at a higher price, and had just been rented via that site. I've come across a few such stories.

A family member of mine had something similar happen when using booking.com. She showed up at the hotel and they had sold her booked room to someone else. It was late and a bit of a nightmare to find another place to stay. Overbooking airplanes means someone might be stuck sitting in the terminal for hours. Overbooking.com means someone might be made to drive around late at night, tired, with nowhere to sleep.

That's a surprise. Hotels definitely do overbook however they'll usually not leave you stranded, they "walk" you to a competitor property that they then pay for. Here's a whole write-up on it [1] from the New York Times. It's been going on forever but you may only have noticed it more recently as occupancy rates are up. I've yet to be "walked" but it does happen. Nothing particularly sketchy going on.

[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/18/business/hotels-overbooke...

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