Disturbing Air BnB Article

[kgtest]

Last month in Greece we stayed in a condo for five days. It came up on booking.com. We looked at the tripadvisor reviews then searched for the owner on line.

We did find it. The place was listed on booking.com and apparently on airbnb.

We did the deal directly with the owner. We paid cash, as agreed, when we arrived. It was close to the end of season. Our cash price was just under 30 percent less than the booking.com price. Big difference was we could see before we committed. Of course, everyone likes cash with no paper record...especially in Greece, Cyprus, and Italy.

When I travelled to NZ I learned this trick. Quaint little lakeside 2 level motel, lady says if I had just rang her we would have saved 30% off the booking.com rate.

So know I do that first.

 

[OldShooter]

I just feel like it would be petty. Inadequate silver and dinnerware, no available propane tank (I bought my own and later just returned it totally discenctivized to grill after seeing paultry silverware and missing bbq utensils).

The shower didn't have a fan, I feel in FL that is a must.

The AC was working OT but it somewhat kept up, poorly insulated older home which I should probably assume and look up beforehand next time.

Dirty Silverware trays and drying racks. There was some other tenant or guest or something who lived or was living in the smaller unit with a dog, which was fine but would have been nice to know it's multiple occupancy shared spaces.

But the price was right, I think it was like less than $70 a night and I sorta chalked this one up to "you get what you pay for".

The one really super big bonus, it was in an impressive location, right off the main drag, and I could literally and did jog to Mar-A-Lago. Close to a pharmacy, wal-mart, and some decent dining within walking distance and close to the A1A! I love S FL!

You get to decide, of course, but to me as a potential renter your exact words here would be valuable. If you lead with your last paragraph maybe you would feel that it sounds less petty.

In general, I read the negative reviews first. I'd like to know what made customers unhappy. Many times it is trivial stuff that I don't care about. Other times not so much. OTOH the glowing reviews usually don't give me much additional information and may even be fake. So again, I would love to see a review like you just drafted.

 

[ransil]

all these AirbnB everyone is staying at are these shared spaces or private houses,condos, guest houses or someone converted garage?


When looking in south Fl all i see is renting a bedroom from the home owner, or renting a bedroom in a house with other airbnb guests sharing common space that seem creepy to living with a stranger for a week.

 

[braumeister]

all these AirbnB everyone is staying at are these shared spaces or private houses,condos, guest houses or someone converted garage?


When looking in south Fl all i see is renting a bedroom from the home owner, or renting a bedroom in a house with other airbnb guests sharing common space that seem creepy to living with a stranger for a week.

No, I would never rent anything but an entire apartment or house. You can specify that on AirBnB.

 

[Teacher Terry]

We have rented either separate apartments attached to a house or a cottage in the backyard. I wouldn’t rent a bedroom in someone’s house.

 

[OldShooter]

all these AirbnB everyone is staying at are these shared spaces or private houses,condos, guest houses or someone converted garage? ...

Yes.

Like @braumeister, though, we look for private quarters with our own bath. We have stayed in basement apartments in our hosts' home, an extremely nice master bedroom/bath suite where our hosts had moved to the smaller bedroom, an apartment in Oslo where the host simply moved to his girlfriend's apartment when he had the place rented, and a beautiful but small mother-in-law house built stand-alone in a Vancouver host's back yard. We were just in Des Moines for a wedding and DW found a whole house that slept 11, pretty much perfect since our whole extended family was there. Couples, kids, etc.

We start by searching for the location, then setting the sort for most expensive first. After passing by the palaces, 8-room houses, etc. we generally get to the type of accommodations we and @braumeister like. If they save us money, fine, but that is not the objective of the exercise. It is the cheaper options on the list that start to be guest bedrooms/shared spaces. The name AirBnB is rooted in a paradigm where the guest sleeps on an air bed in the host's living room. Those days are pretty much gone, I think.

 

[Nemo2]

I wouldn’t rent a bedroom in someone’s house.

We almost always get our own self contained unit, but one time we briefly shared an Airbnb (separate bathrooms) apartment in Barcelona with a young multi-tattooed German couple, (he played bass in a punk rock band).

They came in late at night, and crept in so as not to wake us, and we crept out early in the mornings so as not to wake them.

Before they checked out they cleaned the entire place. Nice kids.

 

[Sunset]

We only have rented 2 times.

The first was cheap, and safe, but parking & bathroom was not as described. Plus it turned out the person kicked the kids out of the bedroom so we could have it. Making the kids sleep in the livingroom while she rented out 2 of the 3 bedrooms.
Basically in my view forcing us to contribute to endangering her children (bit extreme but certainly unpleasant for kids to sleep on the couch).

I would have written an honest review pointing out these type of things, but found out you have to review within 2 weeks. So couldn't review.

That listing disappeared 6 months later.

 

[RunningBum]

I have used Airbnb in Europe more than 20 times, and never had something as egregious and outright fraudulent as the article describes. Could it be worse in the US than elsewhere?

When shopping, I tried to look for a place with more reviews. It may not be fair to a newer listing though, and a new host has to set a low price to lure people and to build a reputation.

I don't think your takeaway should be that you're bound to get screwed in the US, or that you're safe in Europe. I've probably used it a dozen times in the US and never had something like this either. Most or all of the stories in the article were due to a single set of scammers, wasn't it? Your tip of trying to use places with lots of reviews is good but I've also stayed at one that had just one review and it was fine.

 

[JoeWras]

AirBnB, Uber, Lyft, VRBO. It is like a weird back to the future. Innkeepers and taxi drivers had all the regulations to follow to protect the consumer. (And for the state/municipality to collect taxes.)

Not with this new gig economy.

 

[ncbill]

No problems with weekend stays, but last AirBnB experience was for a week, booked a year in advance for an event where location was critical...needed to be able to walk to the event from the home.

Good reviews, but what I missed was there were not recent reviews when I booked.

Only after our party of 6 arrived after 8 hours on the road we learned the landlord had fallen for some sob story and had been letting a tenant live there essentially for free for the previous year.

Said tenant was a major hoarder, and so despite some last minute cleanup by the landlord (still taking place as we arrived) we also had to haul a lot of trash/recycling to the curb, but even then the place was left ridiculously cluttered.

Gave them a "3".

 

[kcowan]

We have had good luck with airbnb. We had a place in Lucca where the handheld shower head had the mount on the wall pulled off and they would not respond to fix it.

In other places, some kitchen utensils were lacking buy they were easily replaced (we stay of a minimum one week). I always make my improvement suggestions directly to the owner and not in the ratings. Once was for BBQ utensils and cleaning procedures.

Superhosts have always been "super". We have discovered fraudulent listings but airbnb has been helpful getting them removed.

 

[SunBlueSky]

I wouldn’t rent a bedroom in someone’s house.

The bedroom suite I rented in outskirts of London was in the upstairs (3rd floor) of a very nice home with a family. Being single, I felt comfortable based on the photo of the hostess and her description of her family (1 high school age girl at home). Reviews included homey and nice family feel, so I took a chance and was very happy.

It was my first and only AirBnB, and it wasn't my first choice: my first choice lodgings (friend of friend) had a last minute emergency and could not accommodate me (I found out as I turned on my phone in UK...)

 

[dirtbiker]

I’m a big fan of AirBnB, but found this article rather unsettling. It seems that some well oiled scams have been set up to take advantage of AirBnB’s lax vetting and complaint follow up. Ironically, the fact that hosts rate guests keeps people from leaving a bad review even when they have been duped. https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/43k7z3/nationwide-fake-host-scam-on-airbnb

Update today on this article:

"Update 11/1/19: The morning after this article was published, the FBI contacted VICE about the claims made above."

I started using airbnb solely as a cheaper alternative to hotels, but have found that I much prefer renting an actual apartment with kitchen, bedrooms, etc. to a boring hotel room. Though having a front desk, pool, etc. in a hotel is nice, granted. Since using airbnb for the first time a couple of years ago, I've stopped using hotels entirely. I prefer renting an apartment. I also like 'living like the locals do' when in a foreign country.

I always try to book with a superhost first, if I can find a reasonable price in a good part of a city. If not, I'll only book with someone with several good reviews. I ALWAYS read through the reviews, good, and, especially, bad, before booking. I'm willing to pay a bit more for a place from a superhost, as we've only had overwhelmingly positive experiences with them.

I also only pay with my credit card, so I have an extra avenue to seek reimbursement if things go south.

The only 'bad' experience I've had was one I booked last week. This weekend I'm going to Gdansk, Poland. I booked the place for tomorrow night, and this morning I got an email that my reservation was canceled, with no explanation as to why, and then I had to scramble to find a new one. However, airbnb issued me a credit equal to 10% of the cost of the initial booking for my trouble. I easily found another airbnb apartment in a similar location that was actually a bit cheaper, plus I had the credit to put towards it. So, not a big deal, fortunately. I'll just have to make sure to keep a close eye on my credit card statement this month to make sure that I don't get double charged.

In the end, I know that there are certain risks to using airbnb, but I'm willing to accept these risks. I've also had bad experiences with hotels before; nothing is risk-free.

 

[SunBlueSky]

Meant to include that this was a Super Host.

 

[harllee]

I have used Air BnB and VRBO quite a lot. Overall good experiences. But lately I have had the owner cancel--usually a while before the rental but too late to find a substitute rental in a popular location. What do you do when the labored cancels last minute and you can't find a replacement rental?

 

[CoolRich59]

In general, I read the negative reviews first. I'd like to know what made customers unhappy. Many times it is trivial stuff that I don't care about. Other times not so much. OTOH the glowing reviews usually don't give me much additional information and may even be fake. So again, I would love to see a review like you just drafted.

Same here. IMO, detailed negative reviews are much more revealing than the generic glowing reviews. Moreover, how the owner responds to the negative review says a lot as well.

I rented one place because of the negative review and how the owner handled it.

 

[jollystomper]

I still have not worked up the courage to deal with AirBnB. Just one of this type of hassle would outweigh several good experiences for me.

For now I'm sticking with blowing my dough at hotels, or suite hotels for longer stays. But I never say never...

 

[Chuckanut]

When I travelled to NZ I learned this trick. Quaint little lakeside 2 level motel, lady says if I had just rang her we would have saved 30% off the booking.com rate.



So know I do that first.

That trick for me several times, though I never had a discount that large. What I often get are a nicer room than the booking.com com folks do. Sometimes they toss in a free breakfast. After all those online booking sites suck up a lot of the profit.

I always try to book directly with small hotels owned by locals. They get the extra money and I often get a few extras also.

 

[dirtbiker]

That trick for me several times, though I never had a discount that large. What I often get are a nicer room than the booking.com com folks do. Sometimes they toss in a free breakfast. After all those online booking sites suck up a lot of the profit.

I always try to book directly with small hotels owned by locals. They get the extra money and I often get a few extras also.

You know, I've had the opposite occur. I'll check on Expedia first, then call the hotel and ask, and they've told me higher prices both times I've done this, then agreed to match Expedia prices. I declined both times out of principle. Since then (before using airbnb), I just went ahead and booked online. Maybe I just got unlucky with a couple of one-offs though...

 

[Nemo2]

One of the attractions, (for us), with Airbnb, (and we do read the reviews and look for superhosts), is that many of the places we book are on side streets, (OK, alleyways), away (the further away the better), from the 'hotel circuit'.

We like to stay where 'the people' live, and nowhere near the the 'hotel strips'.

 

[OldShooter]

Maybe the takeaway here is to know what you want. If you want near-perfect predictability in food, go to a chain like McDonalds or Texas Roadhouse. If you want near-perfect predictability in lodging, go with one of the cookie cutter hotel chains.

We like the variety and surprise of travel. I am happiest in a restaurant where I don't recognize a single dish on the menu. Conversely one of our recent unhappy experiences was in the Radisson Blu in Addis Abbaba, booked by a tour organizer. We might as well have been in the US; the experience was the same. A sealed, predictable, bubble protecting us from the real world.

AirBnB, for us, trades boring predictability for a very acceptable bit of risk. But YMMV.

 

[travelover]

OP here. For those of you that read the linked article, how do you think the scammer host profited - did they simply not own any nice properties and used this diversion to dumps that they really did own?

 

[NW-Bound]

The article is about an outright scam bait-and-switch.

Some of the Airbnb places I have stayed in were a bit different than my expectation, but when I looked again at the photos, I had to say that I could not claim misrepresentation, and it was just my envision when booking it.

I also do not expect perfection, when I consider the price I pay vs. what it costs for a luxury suite of a hotel. Most Airbnb's I have stayed in are far preferable to me than a hotel room of the same price.

 

[PoorOldCountryBoy]

I’m a big fan of AirBnB, but found this article rather unsettling. It seems that some well oiled scams have been set up to take advantage of AirBnB’s lax vetting and complaint follow up. Ironically, the fact that hosts rate guests keeps people from leaving a bad review even when they have been duped. https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/43k7z3/nationwide-fake-host-scam-on-airbnb

Please everyone keep using airbnbs. The hotel deals I'm getting have been tremendous!