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Comment by Judgmentality | Hacker News Reader

Didn't AirBnB just take out a huge loan on less-than-stellar terms?

https://techcrunch.com/2020/04/15/airbnb-ups-its-debt-by-1bn...

Not to mention how the company is getting hammered by the coronavirus, in addition to having to face the reality of having used shady tactics to prop up positive reviews over the years.

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/43k7z3/nationwide-fake-ho...

This sounds like they're trying to cash out while they still can with the expectation of it going further south over time.

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Is it getting hammered though? Genuine question.

Anecdata: Reason I ask is that we did a trip a few weeks ago and for us, hotels were out of the question. Never used Airbnb before but did this time to get smaller places to ourselves.

As I was looking it was tough to get everything lined up as many places were booked up. Some really great looking places were practically booked up for the next several months. Wasn't sure if this was the norm or if many others are doing the same.

I recently checked Airdna stats for my (capital) city and it said Airbnb occupancy was down 80% since March, with an uptick since mid-May, leading it to be down 60% currently (meaning it improved by 20% from its -80% level).

From my observations bookings are healthy in recreational areas like Colorado, but still non-existent in urban city centers... not sure how that breaks down in terms of revenue for them.

I work for a company in this space - and I would say this sector made a pretty strong recovery, so I would not say they are getting "hammered".

personally i really like AirBnB as a product but if they're planning to just cash out i suppose now is a good time to get the ball rolling. Once the pandemic ends there will be huge surge in demand and the stock price will go up at least temporarily. Maybe the surge will last long enough for everyone who's planning to cash out to do so.

well they need capital regardless of whether they dump stock - but the lockup period could be painful if Covid persists 6+ months down the line post IPO. Or negative regulatory action.

I'm an employee and Airbnb is actually doing very well right now. People have been taking a lot of trips to less dense areas as nearby getaways. https://www.financial-world.org/news/news/business/6074/cali...

Same for VRBO, which is also doing very well.

That must be the reason why they fired 25% of their workforce.

Layoffs happened when bookings tanked when the pandemic began (February and March). The recovery happened in the later stage of the pandemic, in May and later. Nobody expected this internally or externally and it's alright if you are skeptical. The official numbers will be made public pretty soon anyway.

What do you mean by "shady tactics to prop up positive reviews over the years"? I'm an employee and we have very strict policies around review fairness. If anything, most review-related complaints come from hosts who want to have negative reviews removed due to perceived unfairness. By policy, negative reviews are rarely if ever removed this way much to the chagrin of hosts.

Reviews are usually ranked chronologically, but in some cases there may be sorted by predicted relevancy ranking based on review length and language.

You could read the link I attached to my comment.

I've personally experienced problems with reviews before where negative reviews never showed up, and have stopped using AirBnB as a result. I also know this is an extremely well-known problem, and if you aren't aware of it it's because you haven't looked for it (a few minutes on Google is all it takes).

One of my friends found a hidden camera in the bedroom, in an Airbnb "superhost" overseas (around 2018).

Despite providing a police report to Airbnb and getting a full refund, the listing was never taken down, the Superhost status was still there, and somehow the review she left was deleted.

I think it's pretty shameful and wish she went to the media about it.

I stayed in an AirBnB in Houston in the summer with broken AC. I left before the first night and was not refunded a cent.

My review is buried on the page. It wasn't on top when I wrote it, and the stars weren't displayed, just the text.

I deleted my AirBnB account.

> I deleted my AirBnB account.

How? I'm trying to delete my Airbnb account since months (as part of my regular declouding routine).

First, to my surprise, it was only 'deactivated', despite a wording that suggested otherwise, as far as I remember. Then I followed a tutorial on the Internet that said that I need to contact support through a somewhat hidden web form to actually delete my account. .. but to access this form I need to be logged in, which was impossible for me after my account deactivation.

To reactivate my account I need to talk to support, but, surprise, that's not accessible without being logged in.

In the beginning of July I wrote to the email they link in their site imprint. Two weeks later someone told my that my request was forwarded to someone else who will contact me soon. ... and that's the last thing I got.

I did only deactivate my account. I followed up on Twitter, and on a support thread and requested my account be fully deleted, and they didn't get back to me on either request.

I stayed in a place that had cockroaches and no hot water in the shower. Airbnb eventually let us move to another unit, but we were unable to review the unit that we had originally booked, and which we stayed in for over a week.

Any guest whom Airbnb agrees to re-home based on the conditions of their original unit should be allowed to leave a review for that unit.

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