It’s well understood that no one posting on this forum respects Chesky in any way. But he has been a host. He’s a lot closer to having walked in my shoes than I am to having walked in his. But hey, I’d exchange being a scapegoat for billions too.
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SuRE iT cAn. lol
I was being sarcastic. I find the Chesky bashing and Airbnb blaming to be tiresome, lazy and predictable. Most of the regulars here have, by their own recounting, no serious problems but they are all too happy to jump on the scapegoating bandwagon. They recount stories of problems read on forums as if it’s gospel. I know some hosts have gotten screwed over and I know Airbnb policies are too guest friendly. But this x1000:
Without him or some equivalent villan.
I expect someone will be along to accuse me of working for Airbnb so I’ll leave it there.
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I looked at the thread in Airbnb Community. Host comments are now pushing Airbnb to provide better refund protections for host and many of their comments are valid like the ridiculous complaints like I found a hair I want my week free, there’s a bug I want to stay but still get refunded. Also comments about airbnb should be aware of & monitoring the websites & YouTube videos of “How I stayed free at an Airbnb” and not automatically siding with guests when they use these ploys.
I hope Airbnb pays attention because these are just as real of scams as “I am a prince in Nigeria…”
We’ve commented on this forum about those & how the scammers quickly figure out where Airbnb CS seem to be weak and prey on those weaknesses to get refunds.
I don’t expect Airbnb to make changes overnight but by accepting comments about the policy changes at least they can easily see host feedback.
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Obviously when Chesky started out, the thrust was aimed at getting hosts to sign up so he could build a platform. Can’t do that without inventory.
So in the early years they needed hosts- guests would naturally follow. Now of course with over 5 and a half million listings, hosts are expendable and guests have become the users they are intent on keeping and attracting.
It doesn’t mean they need to rule in favor of guests so often, or treat hosts poorly, but that seems to be the path they have chosen.
I do think it’s just a matter of time until there are more serious contenders for the market, and Airbnb apparently took a dive recently on the stock market, while BDC and VRBO didn’t.
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Based upon Facebook postings & two of my new hosts, EVOLVE is leveraging host unhappiness with Airbnb’s policy changes as a marketing opportunity to move hosts to their platform that advertises on multiple platforms.
They are NOT saying they are pulling their listings from Airbnb.
That’s not accurate. VRBO isn’t even on the stock market. Expedia, VRBO’s owner, is a different company in many ways than Airbnb. But anyway, if you look at the 3 they all have similar performance YTD.
Regardless of what one thinks the company is going to do in the future, a “recent dive” in stock price is a meaningless metric in trying to make an argument one way or the other.
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Good luck with that- Evolve has a really bad reputation by both hosts and guests who have gotten totally screwed by them.
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This is BS - I was told that Airbnb will not enforce your house rules (even if the guest agrees to them in writing). I took my complaint to the highest level of CS at Airbnb and then started to tweet and FB message. I then spoke to the upper level CS supervisor who informed me of this.
I believe this revision and reversal has to do with Federal Regulations regarding determining who is an Independant Contractor vs an employee. I think these new regulations came too close to the border line. At some point, when a company controls the source of the income, the govt decides that person/source is deemed to be an employee and is no longer categorized as an independant contractor. This could threaten their entire business model. So they retreated.
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Good point. Backing off to just charging if you have to rehouse due to a double booking is far more defensible if they are just a booking agent - and consistent with B.com
I admire the entrepreneurship that created Airbnb. I think it provides a valued product to guests. I have enjoyed being a host, and I know that for some hosts, it pays the mortgage and enables them to stay in their homes.
I do not admire disruptive aspects of companies such as Airbnb that cause harm until regulations catch up (if they ever do). I believe that rental arbitragers eliminating housing stock for long term renters, and Airbnb’s well-documented resistance to disclosure and regulation, are serious negatives.
I don’t admire the corporate speak about family and partnership with hosts. This is similar to the exploitation of health care workers’ identity as caregivers to keep staff numbers and pay low to generate more profits for investors. I’ve never given the Airbnb happy talk any credence, but just from reading this forum it seems that some hosts do, as I see their disillusionment.
With apologies to Winston Churchill, capitalism is the worst form of economy. Except for all the others.
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