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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

#511

Post by glangdale »

arcticbull wrote: post #500
jzwinck wrote: post #474

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I got walked from my hotel near RSA Conference one year (Westin San Francisco Market Street) to the Parc 55. As compensation I got a free day, but since my employer was paying, it wasn't much of a compensation.

It sounds petty but having paid for a room, being exhausted from a Pacific flight and being moved to a hotel twice the walk from the conference (important if you're going to be back and forth all day) was mildly annoying.

I'm not 100% sure - but the one time I was walked I had picked the cheapest available room. You know those bullshitty-looking price differences where you can book on floors 9-11 for X and floors 12-14 for X+5? I suspected I had signalled my place on the hierarchy by picking the cheapest room available. Subsequently, especially while on an expense account (sorry, Intel! :-) ) I always picked the ever-so-slightly more expensive room and have never been walked again, even in the middle of conference season. This may be bogus reasoning, of course.

Re: I Accidentally Uncovered a Nationwide Scam on Airbnb

#512

Post by tomaskafka »

jonlucc wrote: post #344
nathancahill wrote: post #267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. I'm in charge of booking a ski trip for ~15 friends each year, and the amount of reading between the lines I have to do to make sure everyone has a comfortable place to sleep is crazy. Tons of places count sofas/pullouts/day beds in the "Sleeps # of People", and they often count the temporary beds as space for 2. So you'll see places that say, Sleeps 16, but there are only 3 or 4 real beds. Hotels have it right…

This isn't foolproof either, though. I booked a hotel for 2 people in Chicago for an anniversary trip. We arrived to find the hotel had 4 very narrow and short bunkbeds. I checked the booking and it makes no mention of this. The only reason we think of a hotel booking as being up front is that there is a standard observed across the industry: either 1 king or 2 queens. There's no similar standard for AirBnBs.

KingsNQueens. Like AirBnB, but for people who want to know what they're getting :).

Re: I Accidentally Uncovered a Nationwide Scam on Airbnb

#513

Post by koyote »

erichocean wrote: post #468
koyote wrote: post #457

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am not sure I completely understand: Is the host able to unilaterally change the dates of your booking on AirBnb? Did your agreement to the text (asking for $20 extra) allow him to make the changes?

> Did your agreement to the text (asking for $20 extra) allow him to make the changes? It's this, because technically you are making the changes (by agreeing).

If I understood correctly, then that sounds a bit like a UI issue.

The host should never be able to change the dates. I mean, why should they be able to? It's up to the traveller to decide when the stay should take place and the host can either accept or decline.

Re: I Accidentally Uncovered a Nationwide Scam on Airbnb

#514

Post by amiga_500 »

trentnix wrote: post #510
amiga_500 wrote: post #463

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A company that is based on a tax loophole doesn’t behave ethically?

There may be other reasons Airbnb is unethical, but minimizing one's taxes legally is not unethical.

I found a loophole that lets me sell kids organs.

The best part? I can use the new American ethics system to absolve myself of any guilt by saying "it's not illegal"!

What wouldn't you do if it became legal?

Re: I Accidentally Uncovered a Nationwide Scam on Airbnb

#515

Post by hpcjoe »

Airbnb has had issue for a while. This[1] is a post I wrote about them in 2014. Basically, it is not in Airbnb's interests to provide quality control, or stop these scams, as either action will negatively impact their revenue.

[1] https://scalability.org/2014/03/ot-airbnb-and-their-issues/

Re: I Accidentally Uncovered a Nationwide Scam on Airbnb

#516

Post by BubRoss »

amiga_500 wrote: post #514
trentnix wrote: post #510

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There may be other reasons Airbnb is unethical, but minimizing one's taxes legally is not unethical.

I found a loophole that lets me sell kids organs. The best part? I can use the new American ethics system to absolve myself of any guilt by saying "it's not illegal"! What wouldn't you do if it became legal?

Are you comparing minimizing tax liabilities to murdering children to harvest their organs?

Re: I Accidentally Uncovered a Nationwide Scam on Airbnb

#518

Post by bonestamp2 »

oarsinsync wrote: post #182
bonestamp2 wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also avoid tiny rental car companies for this same reason. You'll find them listed on the major travel booking websites and they'll have names that you've never heard of. They often appear to be cheaper than the large rental companies, but they frequently have a chipped windshield or a tiny dent in a body panel. Even if you point it out during the pre-rental walkaround, they won't mark it on the contract. That's the…

Take a slow motion video inspecting the car at the start of the rental. I've supplied screenshots from the video, along with the full video itself, to my credit card company when disputing charges from the rental company. Took about an hour of my time, and a few weeks later the charge was reversed. > you're on the hook for the charge for that time I'm not really sure I consider having some of my credit blocked out wh…

> The credit is essentially in escrow until a decision gets made, but it definitely hasn't impacted my bank balance in any way.

That's perfect, but I guess our mileage may vary. I was charged the amount and VISA later credited it when everything was resolved (about 3 months start to finish). I didn't miss the $1300, but I'm sure it would be a concern to some.

I carry a small bright flashlight in my work bag now, just for dark airport garages where rental cars are often parked. I've never had a problem with a major agency but I don't need a first.

Re: I Accidentally Uncovered a Nationwide Scam on Airbnb

#519

Post by exikyut »

athenot wrote: post #383
dawnerd wrote: post #374

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What ridiculous is when you try searching for 'whole homes' and you end up getting 'apartments' which are nothing more than someones basement. Airbnb seems to encourage this too by letting people put whatever tags they want. It's kind of a joke. In addition, hiding the address makes it hard to double check on google street view. Edit: My workaround is selecting super hosts only, 3-4 bedrooms, 1+ bathroom. Seems to fi…

I get that they want to hide the address to total strangers, but I'm sure it would be easy for Airbnb themselves to pull up the google streetview and have it as a static image on the listing.

Now you'd need to add some AI in to blur house numbers and $identifying_features - Street View's own AI knows to blur signs but leave house numbers intact (I only just realized this) so you can positively ID somewhere you're looking for.

Re: I Accidentally Uncovered a Nationwide Scam on Airbnb

#520

Post by neotek »

BubRoss wrote: post #516
amiga_500 wrote: post #514

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I found a loophole that lets me sell kids organs. The best part? I can use the new American ethics system to absolve myself of any guilt by saying "it's not illegal"! What wouldn't you do if it became legal?

Are you comparing minimizing tax liabilities to murdering children to harvest their organs?

Are you unaware of how analogies work?
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