521–530 of 632 posts
Here is another scam that someone tried to pull on me. I booked a place in Reno a week in advance. On the night before check-in at about 2am I got a text from the host asking me to increase the price of stay by $20. That was small and I did not want the hassle of arguing but just decided to leave it till morning. In the morning I looked at it again on computer (as opposed to the phone) and saw something odd: the date…
I'd rather try couchsurfing or stay in a hotel...
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Yeah, Couchsurfing was incredible.....oh well
Couchsurfing was awesome and partially killed by Airbnb. It was an amazing concept that I used both as a an host and as a guest. Airbnb pushed for the commercialization of every single Square meter (Thanks to VC $$) and now this high trust community is gone forever.
Most sites, concepts, etc work great when the true devoted self sacrificial believers - the ones that really want things to work are the primary part of it. Once the people that only care enough to break the system to get what they want are part of it, the system is gone and no good.
The problem is that nobody is going to take a reasonable stand against those folks. There are people that are worth blackballing, that are better off not being part of society. I'm not saying that you should make those decisions quickly, but you must be willing to make them.
Any company that doesn't keep its culture dies. It might be a horrible long 20 year death, but it still dies.
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.
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> If the host really needs to cancel they should have to put the traveler in a real hotel as an upgrade to remove all doubt of the traveler getting into a place that could be worse. They have already received the money from the traveler so they only need to pay for the difference. New scam: post a listing for a very high-end place you don't own, cancel the booking once you've been paid and book the client a cheap hot…
Oh, and receive kickbacks from the hotel. Don't forget that part.
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The traveller is penalised the full price of the stay if they cancel late. Why is the host not penalised the same amount (which would then be credited to the traveller as compensation)?
Because they're playing the bagman for AirBnB.
The availability of affordable and decent listings in Paris is testament how badly they need the existing hosts. Who, by the way, are limited by regulations that limit the number of days a host can list per year, as well as tax registration requirements. None of which I'm complaining about; it's just another factor that makes me predict the situation with quality and honest listings will go down.
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?
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?
AirBnB has host and guest verification options. If Becky and Andrew don't have their identities verified via drivers license but manage over 90 properties that is your first red flag right there.
Second, if the host can't accommodate you you reach out to AirBnb and put the onus on them to find you an acceptable property that meets your standards. You don't let the host offer up some random place that happens to be available, that's suspicious.
I've had a number of hosts cancel on me at the last minute recently, I didn't immediately jump to the conclusion that it must be a scam. I simply assumed that their property is also listed on VRBO and other sites and someone either beat me to the punch or they got more money, or they didn't realize that they can't list the unit and forgot to take down the listing.
Mistakes happen. Sure, there are scammers out there on every platform, but in my 3 years and over 100 successful stays, I really find this article's title tough to swallow.