Why Airbnb is dead to me • Hacker News Board

Re: Why Airbnb is dead to me

#61

Post by jazzyk » Mon, Sep 28, 2015, 5:26 PM UTC

drzaiusapelord wrote: post #54

aianus wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're well-compensated for the risk you take on Airbnb, it's not like it costs the same as the Four Seasons.

Except prices gradually moved up from "hey look at this bargain" to being at hotel parity. I live in a trendy Chicago neighborhood and have people visit now and again. My spare room is in the basement, which is fairly unappealing, so people try airbnb. The rates they get are comparable to some hotels downtown if you do a little legwork on Expedia. In places that aren't the middle of nowhere, there aren't a lot of sav…

I can confirm.

Granted, Manhattan, where I tried to book an apartment, is a bit of a special location, but the pricing was not that much lower from the hotels.

Re: Why Airbnb is dead to me

#62

Post by drzaiusapelord » Mon, Sep 28, 2015, 5:26 PM UTC

brianwawok wrote: post #18

autobahn wrote: post #15

Seems like a common theme in "sharing economy" companies - start off with a great concept and great execution, but once they become popular, some part of them just falls apart. For uber, it's the way they treat their drivers. The churn is incredible. But as long as they continue to offer cheap rides and can lure new drivers in with empty promises, they'll continue to exist.

A sharing economy works when you have a lot of like minded people in the same social circle. Once you invite the masses and investors, you lose what made it work...

How can a driver be in the same social circle as a well off professional? At the end of the day, very few industries are peers between worker and client.

Re: Why Airbnb is dead to me

#63

Post by bachmeier » Mon, Sep 28, 2015, 5:26 PM UTC

aianus wrote: post #40

You have completely the wrong expectation of how Airbnb works. The hosts are randoms and Airbnb has no way to deliver a consistent quality experience like a hotel. Airbnb is like eBay, not Amazon. You need to realize that when you get the last apartment in a city at conference-time (almost certainly not a superhost with good reviews), you're obviously taking a big gamble that it doesn't work out in order to save a fe…

> So in this worst-case scenario you wound up in the same place as you would have if Airbnb didn't exist? Cry me a river.

Worst case scenario for this story is that the driver takes them out of town, shoots them, and dumps their bodies into a river.

Re: Why Airbnb is dead to me

#64

Post by deveac » Mon, Sep 28, 2015, 5:27 PM UTC

davidhariri wrote: post #43

I had a nightmare experience on vacation in Mexico that was word for word the same response from Airbnb. Because I took my wife and I out of the potentially dangerous rental, without first contacting Airbnb, they couldn't refund us anything. I followed up with evidence that the rental was unfit and unsafe with pictures, but nothing came of it. Needless to say, I'm never using Airbnb again. Worst customer experience I…

>Airbnb is essentially enabling any joe idiot to run a shit hotel anywhere in the world with zero accountability.

You did not leave a rating or review of your unfit rental on airbnb?

Re: Why Airbnb is dead to me

#65

Post by mahouse » Mon, Sep 28, 2015, 5:32 PM UTC

davidhariri wrote: post #43

I had a nightmare experience on vacation in Mexico that was word for word the same response from Airbnb. Because I took my wife and I out of the potentially dangerous rental, without first contacting Airbnb, they couldn't refund us anything. I followed up with evidence that the rental was unfit and unsafe with pictures, but nothing came of it. Needless to say, I'm never using Airbnb again. Worst customer experience I…

>Airbnb is essentially enabling any joe idiot to run a shit hotel anywhere in the world with zero accountability.

You don't say? I don't know what do airbnb users expect, honestly.

Re: Why Airbnb is dead to me

#66

Post by k3oni » Mon, Sep 28, 2015, 5:33 PM UTC

flippyhead wrote: post #10

I continue to use AirBnb but have been pretty disappointed in their customer service. I rent out a family cabin occasionally and someone who stayed there scratched the floor accidentally wearing winter boots with spikes on them. They admitted this, apologized and were generally totally awesome about it. It took me months to get Airbnb to figure out how to deduct money from their damage deposit. They first said I had…

A bit off-topic but curious if you usee AirBnB only or if you tried HomeAway/VRBO as well?

Re: Why Airbnb is dead to me

#67

Post by archagon » Mon, Sep 28, 2015, 5:33 PM UTC

chopete wrote: post #35

My ongoing first time experience forced me to create this basic question set. The realization is airbnb is no different from craigslist. There are no minimum standards/rules. There are awesome deals out there. Only people with a good question set end up choosing a better deal and the rest get stuck with bad deals. Room 1. Room size (width x length in ft) 2. What lighting do you have?. Or you have only one table lamp?…

I quickly learned while traveling over the winter that my #1 question was: do you have heating?! Apparently some people get by in 0 degree weather without it somehow!

Re: Why Airbnb is dead to me

#68

Post by archagon » Mon, Sep 28, 2015, 5:35 PM UTC

robbyking wrote: post #38

IanDrake wrote: post #25

I'm not trying to blame the victim here, but rule of thumb...never use AirBnB outside your own country and that goes double for Spain[1]. 1) - Go to google, type in "AirBnB Spain", then look at the auto complete.

I'm an American, and I used AirBNB a number of times in Italy this past spring. I only booked rooms with 4.5/5.0 ratings, and only from hosts who have hundreds -- or at least dozens -- of positive reviews. My experience could not have been better.

All my Italian hosts were lovely!

Re: Why Airbnb is dead to me

#69

Post by matwood » Mon, Sep 28, 2015, 5:36 PM UTC

Elessar wrote: post #22

deveac wrote: post #13

>Airbnb do not care about guests and their safety at all. I don't know. It seems like it would be a nightmare to sort through a he-said she-said after the fact when the offended party didn't even book a stay (instead the room was booked by some other person that is insisting "no, it's cool, I know them"), and furthermore didn't even report the apartment not being available when the issue occurred. It's nice that they…

Have you ever travelled to a foreign country where you don't speak the language? You really need to put yourself in the tourist's shoes. If I booked a tour and the host drove me to a different place to stay, that's all I can do. You rely on their ability to communicate, and if they're being kind and doing their best to make your stay comfortable, then that's fantastic. What you're suggesting is that you're going to s…

> Have you ever travelled to a foreign country where you don't speak the language?

Yep. I've dealt with all sorts in random countries where I didn't speak the language. A common tactic of someone trying to rip you off is to say they don't know English and then try to scam more money in the confusion.

> What you're suggesting is that you're going to start making international calls with some website's support staff while you have luggage on the street, no place to stay, in a foreign city and completely on your own.

Um, yeah. Either get a WIFI signal and email AirBnB or call them. At this point I would assume the host is shit and move on letting them know a horrible review is incoming and I will ask for my money back from AirBnB.

Does the situation suck? Absolutely, but don't let it completely derail you. Plans break down all the time, deal with it and move on.

For the record, I have used AirBnb/VRBOs throughout much of Europe without any issue. In places like Hungary and Croatia my trip was enhanced because the hosts were so awesome.

Re: Why Airbnb is dead to me

#70

Post by jellicle » Mon, Sep 28, 2015, 5:37 PM UTC

danmaz74 wrote: post #51

vinceguidry wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It seems like it would be a nightmare to sort through a he-said she-said after the fact when the offended party didn't even book a stay (instead the room was booked by some other person that is insisting "no, it's cool, I know them"), and furthermore didn't even report the apartment not being available when the issue occurred. It's AirBnB's job to do this, sort out these kinds of situations. It's not that hard to c…

AirBnB can't slap wrists of hosts without very clear proof of their wrongdoing - which wasn't the case here. In a p2p system like this, it's the bad ratings that need to make this kind of dealings unprofitable.

Oh, that's not true at all. Ebay showed - and the writer of this article realizes - that you can fuck sellers around all day long. AirBNB could implement a "if any customer complains, for any reason, the landlord doesn't get paid" 100% guarantee policy, and the landlords would have to take it.

They not only don't need "very clear proof", they don't need any proof at all.