Comment by TekMol | Hacker News Reader

Comment by TekMol | Hacker News Reader

    In October, they put their home online
    https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/932495383465985171
    “We have absolutely zero bookings in August,”
    Robertson says. “This summer is extremely slow.”

The listing seems to have rendered images instead of photos. Why?

And the listing shows no reviews at all.

Is that possible? Why don't they at least have some friends book the apartment and write the first reviews?

Personally, I never rent apartments with less than 100 reviews. That might be extreme. But I would imagine most people won't rent one with no reviews at all.

They just need to discount the price enough to get a few people willing to take a risk and write the first reviews.

I live in Airbnbs for half of the year, so occasionally I'll take a gamble on an unreviewed place with good pictures and a well written listing. So far I've almost always had a good experience with a 40-60% discount relative to comparable listings.

It’s almost always a pricing issue. Drop the price low enough and someone will take a risk.

Hell, it can be listed as “cockroach infested shithole” and of the price and location is right someone will take it.

So the only way to succeed on AirBnB is to commit review fraud?

That's why I said "at least".

The better approach would be to provide excellent service and tell the first guests "You were our first customers. It would mean the world to us if you write a review".

But if that is not what they do, why don't they at least have some friends book the aprtment and write a review? After investing $295,000 - would you really go totally hands-off if you value your investment?

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