Comments on: Is it Time to Break Up with Airbnb?

By: NomadicMatt

NomadicMatt — Mon, 20 Sep 2021 18:44:17 +0000

In reply to Morgan Williams. Sounds like you're a host with a bad experience?

By: Morgan Williams

Morgan Williams — Sat, 18 Sep 2021 09:27:20 +0000

This is an old article, and things have changed a lot since publication.

First, the IPO, which fundamentally changed Airbnb from a grassroots success to a big corporate booking platfor., like all the rest.

The impact has been a major swing towards focus on profitability, which has changed the focus from hosts to guests. Hosts are the bottom of the priority chain, and guests (the ones who pay) are now given impunity. Parties, wrecked homes, scams, meth labs… All given a free ride. Because they’re the ones who pay.

The upside for travellers is that you can now get away with almost anything, with Airbnb’s support. You can have a party, leave the place in a disaster, cause damage, then complain to Airbnb about how the host abused you in some way, and end up with a partial or full refund. Just say the host lied, scammed you, or used racially offensive language. It doesn’t have to have a speck of truth, and you can all but ruin the host’s business, and possibly even get your money back (minus Airbnb commissions).

It’s hosts that are now seeking alternatives. In droves.

By: Amelia

Amelia — Mon, 12 Apr 2021 08:12:04 +0000

very upset with airbnb .had our accommodation canceled with 7 days to go in Tenerife. Only a very few poor quality apartments left at this time of year where we want to be. We have had to go in a hotel and cut our trip short, which we have had to renew our return flights and loose the ones we had booked costing us about £1000 more for a 2 week shorter trip. We have been offered a refund and a 10% voucher but only if we book again with airbnb at a greater cost than we paid in the first place . we booked our accommodation more than 4 months ago and paid in full, the reason we were given was just an emergency that’s all. We feel very let down by this treatment by airbnb and tell their customers to be aware of this treatment .

By: Cristen Sullivan

Cristen Sullivan — Mon, 07 Sep 2020 07:53:46 +0000

We used AB 15-20 times so far. We never had any issues, but the fact is that we always explored multiple apartments, and we choose only those having a larger number of positive reviews. “Larger” means more than 20+, and as well I would spend a couple of minutes to make sure reviews are honest, and guests are from around the world, not only “locals” that are most likely friends and it’s faked.

Anyways, it’s a good post and a good reminder that you always have to take care of yourself, as no one else will.

By: Kate

Kate — Fri, 26 Jun 2020 10:23:01 +0000

In the UK I think the problem is not specifically Airbnb, but the muddle that is UK planning law. The written law is very unclear as to whether permission is needed to turn a dewlling house into a holiday rental – some local authorities interpret it one way, others another. In most, no permission is needed. The worst affected areas like London have tried to address the issue by placing 90 days a year limits, but really it all needs tidying up and for it to be mandatory to have consent, and for that consent to be revokable (perhaps a licensing system such as Wales has for landlords). That way there could be compliance checks on things like fire safety, neighbour nuisance issues addressed, and issues like the effect on the long term rental market addressed at a very local level.

The ease of listing on Airbnb may have caused an explosion in the number of people buying places to rent as short term accommodation, but now there are other platforms and many hosts are drifting towards those – you might feel CS is slanted towards guests but many hosts feel the opposite, with many stories of Airbnb granting refunds for the whole stay for complaints not made until the stay is almost complete (and sometimes clearly manufactured for that purpose). Basically, Airbnb CS do whatever is easiest for themselves and play guest off against host, pressuring hosts to give refunds of money they have not even received (yup, they will even ask hosts to ‘refund’ to the guest the service fees that Airbnb will be keeping themselves!).

By: Kim

Kim — Sun, 17 May 2020 14:55:17 +0000

A few years ago, we were a host and also used Airbnb to book most of our travel. Generally, we travel to a lot of places where hotels are few and far between. Those days are over, we sold our guest cottage two years ago and will never use airbnb again. The false advertising kills me. A cabin in the mountains for $110/night. Then add in the $65 cleaning fee, the $67 “service fee”. Taxes are the same whether you stay in a hotel or an airbnb, so we won’t mention that. All of the sudden, you are at the cost of a very, very nice hotel. Nope. Won’t pay it. What a scam. It was great originally, now, it’s nothing but a high priced rip off.

By: Channa

Channa — Sat, 09 May 2020 13:36:49 +0000

In reply to Garcande. The challenge with "superhost" status is that it only rewards hosts that rent out their unit, room or property a lot (there is a minimum number of reviews per year needed). If you are a part time host, you might not meet the minimum number of reviews. This doesn't reward the share economy, but rewards full time hosts that have turned existing rental properties into "hotel" units. Not great if you have rental inventory issues in big cities

By: Vic S

Vic S — Tue, 10 Mar 2020 07:29:25 +0000

In reply to Ann. Yep. Neighbours have had enough. We hate guests and hosts alike. Use a hotel.

By: Vic S

Vic S — Tue, 10 Mar 2020 07:18:54 +0000

Please be aware that an increasing number of AirBnb (and other short term rental platform) apartments are illegal. If they were removed from the platform (which AirBnb wilfully refuse to do) there would be no business to float on the stock market. Also know that if you use these apartments the neighbours have been through so much that they actually despise you and your host. Thinking that you’re ‘living like a local’ and having some kind of authentic experience is long gone. Our neighbourhoods have been hollowed our for your convenience and your greedy profit hungry hosts. If you’ve ever had the misfortune to neighbour an AirBnb you will never use this kind of service again as your eyes will be wide open to its destructive racketeering. #homesnothotels #neighboursnotstrangers

By: Kristin

Kristin — Sun, 23 Feb 2020 19:23:11 +0000

In reply to NomadicMatt. Not completely true. Airbnb has contracts with many cities where they collect occupancy (or room) taxes, but hosts in some places must collect this tax from their guests and remit it to their city. In these cases, it should be clearly explained in the listing, but it does mean paying taxes to the host separately. (Some platforms do not collect taxes from guests anywhere.)