Hacker News Reader

Comment by ashray | Hacker News Reader

Uhh no. AirBNB has a field on listings that clearly indicates "Bed Type". In this case "Bed Type" said Real Bed. Random example: https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/1229577?checkin=02%2F21%2F2014&...

One isn't likely to clarify that with the host prior to arrival given that it's on the listing. AirBNB needs to take responsibility for this kind of thing given that you pay about 15% as AirBNB fees and 3% is also paid by the host. Refunding just the fees isn't what you pay the fees for. It is to take care of situations such as this.

View on HN

No, that indicates that you're not renting just a couch in someone's apartment (a la couchsurfing). In the vacation rental world, that max accommodation figure almost always includes the couches (especially if it's a pullout couch).

Sure, but usually that would be mentioned in the property description. Also, it was not a pullout couch. In fact, it wasn't big enough for a person to comfortably sleep on.

Oof, too short to sleep on is cheating on that number :-/ I think ideally Airbnb should change the listing to provide a breakdown of the sleeping surfaces so people can plan.

Did you visit the link provided? There is clearly a "Room type" classification, which would be used to indicate that you're renting a room in a house, a whole house, a bed in a room, or a couch in a room, for example. And there is also a "Bed type" classification to specify the type of bed you will be sleeping in.

"Bed Type" doesn't mean it's uniformly that type, it's sort of the max of the class, so it's not terribly useful. It would be nice if it was broken down by number of beds (it is on some sites), but that's more of a nice to have than the norm.

That's beside the point - the point being that you asserted that the "Real Bed" qualifier was referring to not getting a couch in an apartment, like couch surfing. Judging from your post history, you will argue on any point possible, and won't cede a thing. Consider this my last reply.

Sorry if I wasn't clear with what I was saying.

That field is mostly useful for distinguishing between whether you're getting a couch or a bed in the case that you're just renting part of the apartment. It's not very useful in the event that you're renting a whole apartment. It means there's at least one real bed, it doesn't mean that everyone in the "Accommodates" number will get a real bed.

It's not perfect, it would be better if it were more explicit, but this is a pretty common on these sorts of listings.

Airbnb could probably do better than just "real bed" for bed type. Maybe they should make the host list the different bed sizes/counts. Yours would have been: 1 double, 1 single & 1 couch.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com