Seems like the market economics is finally catching up with the silicon valley formula. Good for the rest of us.

Airbnb is pretty shady. Basically hosts can lie and Airbnb won't really help you out. Plus you have to give them a picture. I don't think I will be using them again.

Ditto. I cancelled a reservation because the "house rules" (which you can only see after reserving) were super shady and basically stopped short of admitting to being an illegal rental. I cancelled the reservation weeks before the stay, but because it was after the initial 48 hours of booking, I got screwed out of half the cost. Their support didn't give a damn either, despite me having used the site many times over the past half decade with no problems. They lost their way and I hope they crash and burn.

House rules, check in, check out, and cancellation policy are all available upfront on the listing.

Even if what you said is true, and it isn’t, you still had time to review and cancel inside the cancellation window. The fact that you chose not to is your own fault.

Maybe the section was called something else, but the publicly available info on the listing certainly didn't ask me to lie to neighbors, authorities, etc. Whatever section it was could only be seen after booking. It's true I should have inspected those details more closely after the initial booking, but it was something that AirBnB shouldn't have been facilitating in the first place. Shortly after I complained, the listing was deleted and recreated, and later deleted again (whether on the host's part or AirBnBs, I do not know)

Maybe this changed, but I'm pretty sure I've always been able to see house rules before booking (I was definitely able to see them as recently as 3 months ago)

I've had good experiences with AirBnB until the one I booked 3 months ago actually.

It was a one month booking, and short version was it wasn't as nice as pictured, and the owner was trying to rent it out long term, so they were bringing visitors inside while I wasn't there (which I hadn't agreed to, and was my main sticking point).

It took a few days for them to escalate (they want you to try and resolve the issue with the host), but once I made it clear I did not think that negotiating be fruitful, their team reimbursed a hotel, refunded me up to the night I left, and didn't require me to check out with the host (to avoid an awkward confrontation).

I don't really know how they could have handled it better.

Used them back in the day. Great places we could stay at and swore I’d never stay at a hotel again.

I then start reading about sketchy postings and think how lucky how I’ve never had one.

Stayed in New Orleans after that at an Airbnb, had issues with the place that wasn’t in the description. Decided to bail and had to deal with customer support that basically was no help. We wound up staying at a hotel for the rest of the NOLA trip.

Not a fan. There’s too much risk in me and my family banking on a listing that might be a gamble.

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

UK scam: https://www.wired.co.uk/article/airbnb-scam-london

It's the hidden camera that broadcasts over the Internet thing that kills Airbnb for most people.

I could never in good conscience book an Airbnb for any friend or family member.

Their inability to stop users from gaming their systems is a design problem they can solve by changing incentives and data policies. Their users' shadiness shouldn't reflect on the company's shadiness.

If you want to talk about the ethical black hole of AirBnb, look at how much money they spend on litigation agains the municipalities whose laws they flagrantly ignore to make some more money, rather than accepting responsibility for the negative externalities their business model has created. And rather than just play by the rules, they light their money on fire trying to "disrupt" cities where people can barely afford rents as it is.

Like I don't know how you AirBNB engineers can live with yourselves. I wouldn't be able to sleep at night, knowing that all the RVs on the side of the road where working people sleep because they can't afford rent would be partially my fault. It's not like you can't make good money elsewhere.

It can also be solved by going after the shady hosts for fraud. Those hosts know what they are doing and it is illegal.

We already see Airbnb using dark, anxiety-inducing UX patterns (e.g. 5 other people are looking...).

With them needing more revenue, this tactic will likely escalate.

>e.g. 5 other people are looking...

And "Only $199 a night!" (Plus 100% in fees you see at check out).

AirBnB had a great opportunity to be a small platform to provide people a way to rent their empty homes for a bit of extra cash every once in a while.

Instead, the VCs sniff it out and it turned into a multi-billion dollar platform for real estate speculators, harming neighbourhoods and circumventing laws, because "disruption".

Does anyone consider AirBnB a "good brand" anymore?

Are you two using a different Airbnb than I am? Fees are included in the search when you have dates, and I've never seen the "other people are looking" ever. Are you sure you're not thinking of Booking?

The domain name says airbnb.com and there's an Airbnb logo.

Can you share a screenshot of Airbnb saying "there are x other people looking"?

Eh just look it up on the web.

Thank you

This is doom porn against air bnb. It’s a massively profitable website with very low capital requirements.

Those facts also make it a risky bet because it is easier for competitors to enter the market. Airbnb is only massively profitable because they have a dominant position but what will happen if that position starts to slip and they have to compete for listings? The surcharge is inevitably going to fall.

>It’s a massively profitable website

Because they are externalizing the costs onto the hosts, many of whom are skirting liability obligations, heath and safety and zoning laws.

Agreed but the competition is also well established.

In my part of the world the same properties are available through Airbnb and booking.com. But booking also lists hotels so guess which one I use to book?