"But he said the process would involve asking users whether the information in certain listings turned out to be accurate"
So when he says AirBNB is going to verify every listing, he doesn't actually mean they are paying people to do it...
You list amenities. Then the platform asks guests "does this listing have a stove, does it have a carbon monoxyde detector", etc. Then the platform query the host "guests have mentioned you have a stove, is it correct?". I just got such a confirmation request on our listing today.
> does this listing have a stove
Guest: Well yes but it doesn't work. Or, well yes but the flame shut off after 2 minutes
AirBnB: Sucks to be you but it has a stove so not a lie
> does this listing have wifi
Well yes but they say it's only got 1meg data so it will run out in probably 2 days and we booked the place for a month.
AirBnb: Sucks to be you but it has wifi so not a lie
> does this listing have 3 bedrooms
Well, it's got 3 rooms, a bedroom, a living room with a bed in it and a kitchen with a bed in it.
AirBnB: Bed in room = bedroom so yes it's got 3 bedrooms. Sucks to be you but not a lie
etc... The second 2 are actual AirBnB experiences.
There may be a few rare localities that require it, but it's not normally required.
Rather the definition requires a certain size of the room.
In Europe though, where armoires are a thing, and I actually can’t remember living in any home that had a closet in any room with a bed, I don’t see closet being in the definition.
I keep seeing rumors that there are localities that require a closet, but no one ever actually names them.
It may be a persistent rumor in your locality as well.
> Fittingly, property assessors will follow the same bedroom definition when determining the number of bedrooms in a given home—that is, it must have a door, a closet, and an egress window. It is in the interest of homeowners, sellers, and buyers to know the subtle bedroom definition differences between the safety/builder perspective and the real estate/home value perspective, and to know one’s state and local guidelines for determining what can and cannot be considered a bedroom.
https://www.bobvila.com/articles/406-what-makes-a-room-a-bed...
> room can be considered a bedroom if it contains a closet, alcove, indentation or wing wall which creates an area greater than 12 inches in depth.
https://www.sanbruno.ca.gov/civicax/filebank/blobdload.aspx?...
> is capable of being used for sleeping quarters that contains a closet, or to which a closet could be added, may also be considered a bedroom.
In continental Europe, where armoires are a thing, I actually can’t remember living in any home that had a closet in any room with a bed, so I can’t see closet being in the definition of bedroom.
On the contrary, you were discussing Europe specifically, and, you didn’t italicize you think, you wrote certainly:
>> ”In many places (e.g. in Europe) there is no standard definition of bedroom at all.”
> “I would be very surprised if that was the case. It's certainly not in the US or UK.”
You’re defending your second sentence, but the assertion I’m replying to is your reaction on Europe in the first one.
Remember AirBnB is worldwide and most of the world’s homes are the continental armoire model not US/UK closet model.
Now courts are not stupid. In such cases 'bedroom' would take the meaning that is generally understood. A kitchen or living room with beds in them are not understood to be 'bedrooms' if you ask someone at random, and thus advertising "3 bedrooms" when in fact there is only one with beds in the kitchen and living room would most likely be deemed misleading and false advertising.
Here's some information on NY: https://www.hauseit.com/legal-bedroom-requirements-nyc/
> For a bedroom to be considered legal in NYC, it must satisfy the following requirements:
> Be a minimum of 80 square feet
> Have a minimum width of 8 feet in any dimension
> Have a minimum ceiling height of 8 feet
> At least one window measuring no less than twelve square feet
> There cannot be a need to pass through any other bedroom in order to access the bedroom
> Two means of egress, including a window and a door that can be opened from the inside
Though I did read in NY there is no storage requirements.
Likewise, stating that the property has a stove implies that it is in working order.
Now, I have no doubt that AirBnb might try to fob people off if they complain but that does not mean that they would be correct or even honest in doing so.
But your choices are either:
1 - pick a fight at 10pm, probably fuck around with AirBnB's shit customer support, maybe if lucky get to sleep at an alternate place by 1 or 2 am, then feel like utter garbage for the next 3 days;
2 - deal (with the implied: no more airbnb on business trips...)
> Even some of the positive reviews of Becky and Andrew’s Chicago rentals seemed odd, especially those left by other pairs of hosts. Kelsey and Jean, for example, said Becky and Andrew were “awesome and communicative guests.” But they themselves were based in Chicago, where it seemed they had at least two properties of their own. Why would they need to rent from someone else there?
A location getting good ratings from other people in the same city that rent 2 other apartments is so odd it should be denied by default and require manual approval. The odds of collusion are quite high. Of course sellers would help each-other with good ratings! Even at the actual cost of paying for a night (in AirBnB fees) it might still be worth it if you want good ratings.
So, no, this is pretty strange.
Don't know where they went, but a cheaper AirBNB place nearby would be an obvious candidate.
I can't tell if this is a thing people do or if they are somehow fake 5 star reviews.
During that time, I always just wrote expletives in the review box and gave everyone 1-star. I'm not going to be the unpaid QA person for AirBnB!
They'll probably have algorithms to determine who are legit travelers and ask them to do the most verification and of the most risky stuff.
When did this become the mantra of every tech company? Any time a job is created it's viewed as an unfortunate mistake or side effect? Who are we even building all this for?
Isn't it the other way around?
When listings cost hundreds to thousands of dollars and they skim a significant fee off every rental they need to take some significant steps to eliminate fraud on their platform.
Craigslist is a horrible example because they don’t profit from most sales, and they don’t process the money between buyer/ seller. If AirBnb worked like CL, you’d be pay your host cash when you show up and if your host tried to pull shit like this you could just walk.
Craigslist, Booking etc don't make any claim that all places are verified so they don't need employees to do that work. If Airbnb are going to make that claim then they will need people to do the verifying.
Yes.
Unless they don't actually plan to verify listings, in which case they should just state they don't verify listings. Then they don't have to hire anyone extra.
As a side note, when I travel and I actually want to interact with my host, I will rent a room in an occupied house and I always pick a newly listed space. since the host is not sick of hosting yet, they are much more friendly. If you go to a place that has been operating for years, they will not want to show you around or hang out. New hosts are much more likely to be social.
The big problem here is the vast difference between "We are going to verify..." and what they are actually planning. It's just dishonest.
From https://www.vice.com/en_ca/article/43k7z3/nationwide-fake-ho...:
"After all, Airbnb uses a rating system in which both the host and tenant can publicly provide feedback to one another, which both parties then use to prove their credibility in the future.
Because of that, there is a built-in incentive to avoid confrontation, which helps explain why Airbnb hosts consistently receive higher ratings than hotels reviewed on TripAdvisor, according to research out of Boston University and the University of Southern California. If a customer has a negative experience on Airbnb, they might be better off just moving on instead of leaving a negative review."
Perhaps it's not retributive reviews so much as complaining during the stay. shrug
I am delighted to be free of that business.
guest => support: "the place was filthy, I want a refund"
support => host: "guest says it was filthy is that true"
host => support: "lol no"
host reviews guest: "terrible, all they did was complain, beware"
It would make sense for AirBNB to wait until the owner had left their initial review (or the review window timed out) before alerting them to the fact that they were going to get a bad one.
Remains to be seen if this improves things in practice
AirBnB offered you money to change the text of your AirBnB listing? Why would they do that?
There are 6M listings. How much would it cost them to do the right thing and have them even cursorily inspected? Inspectors would of course have to pose as customers. Damn these sharing startups are tight fisted
Tech companies always expect us to swallow the "oh there's too much to possibly check manually!" (even when they are the richest companies in the world) but surely they could hire an inspector to do random spot checks? I used to have a friend who worked for Guinness who did that, dropped in on random bars to sample the quality of their stock. Quite the job.