* I've had two shit hosts that left me up a creek scrambling to find housing, as has my S/O. As a consumer, I am way less likely to use the platform now because my experience has shown me that AirBnB either doesn't care or doesn't have an effective lever to pull to improve this situation.
That said, I think you'd be foolish as a potential investor to not consider that AirBnB appears to have some unresolved platform issues that could create opportunity for a competing product to make inroads. And while the voices we hear may well be the loudest ones, they can still be influential in driving change, positive or negative.
airbnb sides too much with the host in my experience.
When a host left me and my family in an unsafe environment due to a gas leak, airbnb was impossible to work with. It took months of escalation with airbnb to get things fixed, despite providing all the documentation required the same day that I didn't stay at the property and had to book a last minute hotel at increased cost.
:)
We had drug dealers moving product from one. We told airbnb not to contact the guests. They contact them anyways trying to "resolve" the situation.
Every time guests break rules like smoking that have clearly posted fees, airbnb says they can't help. Even when the guests admit to it.
When we needed to call CPS on morons endangering their one year old, we were not able to get the guests information to give to the police.
Their support will straight up lie to you to resolve cases faster.
It is the host's fault for charging me damages outside of my control. It is also Airbnb's fault for refusing to take a side.
You seem to insinuate that because it wasn't within the host's control that I bled on their towel that it somehow falls on me instead. What? Did I choose to bleed, then? I mean, obviously it seems to me that it should fall on Airbnb itself to pay in cases like these. Perhaps the owner of the house should have demanded funds from Airbnb in exceptional cases like these. The outrage here is that the owner of the Airbnb - and you, apparently - seem to think that it's somehow a burden that I myself have to bear, as if I chose to get punched in the face.
Oh and by the way I did pay a standard multi-hundred-dollar cleaning fee. Apparently that wasn't enough, though.
If I got in a car crash in an Uber, because another car backed into me, do you think they would have fined me if my head hit the headrest in front of me and I got a bloody nose? To suggest as much would be outrageous. In fact, I have gotten into a car crash in Uber, and even Uber, one of the scummiest companies out there, knew to do the right thing. They immediately comped the ride and gave me another one for free. (OK, one could argue they could do even more...)
If I went to a hotel that was located in a shady area and walked outside and got punched in the face and bled on the floor when I came back in, do you think their first reaction would have been to charge me to clean it up?
The person who really ought to pay is the guy who punched you in the face. Unless you deserved it but I’m giving you the benefit of the doubt.