Thank you Airbnb, for nothing

An announcement popped up on our dashboard yesterday:

lysol

So, being Scottish, even a whiff of a bargain is enough to get me clicking.

Takes me to a Lysol page offering discount on a whole host of cleaning products.

The first one that caught my eye was a five pack Finish dishwasher tablets, discounted down to €44.99 from €69.99. A bargain one might think…

Sadly no. Even at the discounted price they are twice as expensive as the same packs from the supermarket.

I had a look at some of the “package” deals, same thing. Small hygiene pack at €22.98 down from €26.84, total in Carrefour around €12.

Conclusion is that if you see it, and you click it, prepare to be mugged.

JF

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I checked their US prices against Amazon’s price for the “Small Turnover Kit.” I picked it because it wasn’t on “sale” and thought it would have the smallest savings since it was the lowest priced option. It was 29.12 on Amazon, $24 with this service. I suspect I could get better prices at Costco and that’s where I buy my cleaning supplies. But if someone is trying to avoid Amazon for political reasons and doesn’t have a good local supplier this seems like a reasonable alternative.

Nothing beats making your own cleaners with vinegar, bleach, dish soap, rubbing alcohol, etc. I have started keeping a canister of lysol wipes in the Airbnb as part of my “hygiene theater” routine.

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As we do, because not much over the counter can deal with the Jerez water soap scum!

Never crossed my mind to check Amazon, mainly because this stuff is all readily available in even small supermarkets, like ours locally, here in Spain.

JF

I’m not going to stores if I can avoid it. I go to Costco about once every 3-6 weeks. I haven’t been in a grocery store since late October. Of course since I’m currently closed, it doesn’t matter. Also, I can imagine that there are plenty of Airbnbs that aren’t particularly close to a store. Even if the products are more expensive having them delivered is a value added.

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Don’t you have online ordering and delivery from supermarkets?

Other than the budget ones, they all do it here.

JF

I got this ad too and just started lmaooo because now Air is in the affiliate marketing business???

:rofl: :joy:

I think they’re hoping people who click can’t do math or comparison shopping.

They are going to find that all the rampant use of bleach and other toxic “cleaning” chemicals lead to human poisoning on a grand scale from 2020 pandemic.

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Yes but it’s not free. My favored supermarket is close by and I can order online and go pick up. However, it’s one of those “natural” stores that don’t have good prices on cleaning products.

None of this changes the fact that Airbnb offering these cleaning supplies might be a beneficial service to many hosts. If you just want to bend over backwards to avoid ever giving Airbnb credit for anything, go ahead. I’m simply disagreeing.

I don’t do that, and you know it.

While I can be one of Airbnb’s biggest critics, I do give them credit when it’s due, much to the annoyance of one or two members here.

If you’re in Spain, for the vast majority of hosts it’s a bad deal, simple.

JF

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Do remember that they say that a Yorkshire person is a Scots person with the generosity squeezed out. :rofl:

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You are of course entitled to your very generous opinion, but if you see that they’re taking the time to send a cute, special invitation to just us hosts, to present the “gift” of free shipping, but just upping the price, (or at least not efforting to lower it,) doesn’t it seems more like (us) bending over frontwards?

I don’t think you have to be hard-bitten to be galled by this. When someone says “Ta-da, we’ve formed a PARTNERSHIP with the most trusted brand in the UNIVERSE, especially for YOU!” wouldn’t you more or less assume they were using all that muscle to pass along the benefits of bulk pricing…to the people that represent the “bulk” in bulk pricing?

You may not agree, and may have been lucky, but a good amount of hosts got to see the just plain devious side of Airbnb, up close and personal last year. There seems to be nothing they’re unwilling to do to concoct a way to save their their skin.

On that note, I LOVE making my own concoction to clean the shower! If it’s all natural ingredients, and can’t harm your skin, and if you have a scrub brush handy (I have one that looks pretty, appropriately labelled of course) it’s the ideal way to kill time if you want to leave your conditioner in a few extra minutes!

Perhaps I didn’t make it clear but I don’t care about the presentation or what they call “free shipping.” If I normally buy cleaning products online and this deal via Amazon gives me a better price, I’m interested.

I don’t fall for all the pretty talk. I completely understand that a lot of people are unhappy with Airbnb. I also understand that those same people are free to stop using it. Or not buy any products Airbnb offers their hosts. I don’t have the kind of listing that was effected by Airbnb policies due to the pandemic. It has nothing to do with luck.

But no sorry, I don’t get it. Some people seem to have an emotional relationship with Airbnb that I don’t have.

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It amazes me that this emotional relationship exists. Reading posts here, it seems to me that many hosts expect Airbnb to be their ‘partners’ and run their businesses for them.

Twenty years ago it would be unthinkable that people would expect so much from an advertising platform.

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That’s the line that Airbnb is selling. It’s just some people are more inclined to get sucked into it. And people are so black and white. I can appreciate Airbnb for what they’ve helped me do (it’s considerable) without thinking they will never do me wrong. Some people treat Airbnb like they met them on a dating app.

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I think I will check out the Airbnb offer. Lysol & Microban surface sprays have gotten scarce in my area—again. It’s nice to have an option.

Airbnb provides a service to me now. When I feel they are not providing the service or ABC can do it better or I feel they are devious, I will change.

“Some people seem to have an emotional relationship with Airbnb that I don’t have.”

In these parts they call that “good mental health.” :smile: :rofl: Which I admire and should not argue the point as if I’m trying to tinker with your healthy emotional detachment.

You are right, people do get emotional, and yes they should go somewhere else rather than complain.

For some bizarre reason, no competitor has been able to touch Air, so, if you want the equivalent, there is LITERALLY no place else to go.

Tune into other blogs (or fb groups like Airbnb Automated, mostly offering good advice) and you’ll see people doing everything in their power to leave and ultimately resigning back to being over a barrel, having put their faith in Airbnb for something more critical than pin money. (Airbnb is “bending over backwards” to make guests happy still, so they still own the audience.)

But I disagree-luck has EVERYTHING to do with Airbnb’s handling of cases, conflicts, resolutions, and making good on their “host guarantee.” They are consistently answering hosts claims, in a calm friendly way with zero payouts, and the “reasons” are right out of Monty Python.

Of more concern, is that hosts who “make noise” and get angry in response, are simply being removed from the platform, with no notice or explanation, other than an email that says something like “We regret to inform you that we can no longer support you on the platform as a host or guest according to our community standards. In accordance with our Privacy Policy, which you agreed to, we are not obligated to explain any details surrounding our decision. At Airbnb we take these matters very seriously. Thank you for your cooperation in accepting that our decision is final and we consider this case permanently closed. Thank you for being part of the Airbnb Community.”

By the way, they use hyperlinks to direct you to any terms they reference, (i.e. “Privacy Policy”) But the letter you are receiving that is directing you to any information on the site, is explaining that you are hereby prohibited access to the site. So in addition to refusing to tell you who said what about you, they are pointing to what is actually public information, with link that is a stone wall.

At which point, all of your information, (including what you may need for tax purposes) vanishes (TOS: it’s their property) and there is no way for you to appeal or contact them unless you worm your way in through some sort of proxy, which will ultimately be met with the same firewall as anything coming from your known contact information/mechanisms.

Once dropped, any correspondence from you receives an automatic “Uh-oh, we seem to be having trouble. Someone will get right back to you as soon as possible!” You can literally pile up thousands of those messages over years and receive no response, like a button that’s just there “for show” but doesn’t do anything.

Through a personal mutual friend, I brought this to the attention of Senior Vice President for Global Policy and Communications, Chris Lehane, who had sent me a nice email promising to “have someone look into it.” That was a year and a half ago. (I figured with him having worked directly for Al Gore for a time, he might be a little more handy with making “the internet” work.)

BTW-Do not forget to back up anything on your site you want to save, REGULARLY. Especially your finance info. My “We’ll get right back to you!” messages were in response to requests for records I’m legally obligated by the government to produce. My accountant had me send a letter to my Attorney General, Maura Healey, to prove I did my due diligence but got dead air, and I received a letter from her that sufficed (along with a suggestion to call a private law firm.)

So how did a Pollyanna, 5-time Superhost, with nothing but consistent, endearing, 5-star reviews, wind up looking more like John Cleese whacking the bird on the counter?

I’m either crazy, or just emotionally attached to fairness, logic, honesty…and the basic tenants of the U.S. Constitution, including the 6th Ammendment (I think) which is that you have a right to face your accuser. You will see dozens and dozens of frantic hosts on the Airbnb Automated fb sites who are saying “I got an email from Airbnb shutting down my listing because a guest told them I didn’t disclose security cameras. I DON’T HAVE ANY SECURITY CAMERAS! I have one RING DOOR BELL that I used to LET THEM IN when they lost their key!” The back story was, they were in the midst of reconciling a claim concerning collecting fees for undisclosed guests (two of them canine, in a “no pets” listing) but they can only guess that was the reason because Airbnb staunchly defends that the guest has no right to know, having agreed to their “Privacy Policy.”

That’s my story for the day! And now I’m going to emulate your style and just walk out of the pet store, on this beautiful morning and Let it Go!

(Had to include the link to my obscure Monty Python reference-it never gets old…)

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I do sincerely wish you the best.

For readers here who are still hosts a couple of notes:

We advise people to do this with guest names and phone number in case the site goes down.

As for the information I need for income taxes that’s all on my bank account. My payments go to my bank.

Luck may have to do with their handling of problems but it has little to do with what I stated in my post:

I’ve hosted for 7 years in May. Over 600 reviews and I guess about 800 stays. I haven’t had any problems with Airbnb getting me my payments for anything. But this isn’t because I’m lucky, it’s because of the kind of listing I have and the way I run my business. I only expect Airbnb to be a listing site and a payment processor. If I had a stand alone vacation rental I’d have insurance to cover other loss. The rest would be written off on taxes and chalked up to “the cost of doing business.”

The 6th Amendment applies limits to the government, not to private corporations. Read the first words again, it says “In all criminal prosecutions…” So the 6th Amendment is irrelevant here.

It’s cheaper for Airbnb to recruit new hosts than to keep old ones happy. That sucks but that’s capitalism for you. It’s definitely not fair. What you won’t see on those sites and this one are hosts who find a forum and create a profile in order to say how wonderful Airbnb is. So those sites make it seem like there are a lot of unhappy hosts but it’s likely that they are a small share of the total. That’s why Airbnb mostly ignores them.

This is true and it’s the reason why Airbnb is unlikely to care about host complaints anytime soon.

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Hi, do you use eco-friendly cleaners? Non-toxic, minimal carbon footprint from production to transport…
If so I can recommend products from Cleancult. Thumbs up all around. Smells good, too!

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I like Myers brand.
vvvv

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I have not been inside a grocery store in almost a year. I order online and do curbside pick up at Walmart. I never shopped at WM before but I have a newfound respect for them now.

Some things I doubt I will change (for me) after the pandemic is over:
Shaking hands
Having clients in my car
Picking up hitchhikers, I miss picking up PCT hikers and hearing their stories :frowning:
Grocery stores, I hated them before and I love shopping on my phone

RR

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