Perhaps - I’ve never had a photo of.a guest drunk/partying/smoking in six years of hosting and cohosting and now almost a thousand guests so I can’t believe it’s that common @gillian
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API is an extremely common term in the context of what georgy girl wrote. If you’d like to know what it is, try google. If you’d like to understand how it applies here, read posts regularly. Most hosts here will patiently explain, even though it’s been explained many times, if someone inquires in a kind, adult fashion.
Meanwhile, your use of all caps and GRAWLIX is extremely rude.
#IYKYK
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You’re so right to point this out.
Many guests would feel that they are not ‘noisy.’ In my opinion, what the listing or messaging needs to explain to them is what ‘noise’ is under the local noise ordinance.
Here, in part, it’s this:
“No person shall engage in persistent or repeated yelling, shouting, hooting, whistling, singing, or the making of other loud noises between the hours of 9:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m. in such a manner as to be plainly audible in any public place at a distance of 25 feet or more in any direction . . .”
Another part of the noise ordinance says: “No person shall make or cause or permit to be made or caused any music or sound . . . when the level of sound increases the broad band sound level, when measured at the property line of the establishment, by more than 10 dB(A) above ambient [sound levels].” Chapter 9 § 1A (e) (7).”
Note: A sound 10 dB(A) above the ambient level is generally perceived as twice as loud. You can download free sound level meters for your smart phones, such as the NIOSH sound level meter app for ios devices or Sound Meter for Android devices.
It doesn’t even need to be intelligible. That is, you don’t need to make out the words. If someone in a public place 25 feet away can hear that you’re talking that is the definition of a ‘loud noise.’
I’ve played with the NIOSH sound level meter app and it’s not hard by simply talking to create a sound of 10 dB(A) above the ambient level when the sound is generated near the property line.
Where I live I doubt that anyone would really be disturbed by talking that meets just these minimum noise levels, but it demonstrates how easy it is to inadvertently violate a noise ordinance.
My personal takeaways are that if I’m outside at night I need to know that if I’m not talking at a hushed level or playing music even at what I might feel is a pretty low level I’m probably violating the local noise ordinance.
If it’s a hot summer night and neighbors have their windows open, that sound might well carry and disturb them. So this is another example where ‘partying’ is just too vague. A person violating this noise ordinance might well be disturbing a neighbor and yet honestly say that they are not ‘partying.’
That’s why I think that ‘party’ should be defined, that noise in excess of the local noise ordinance should not only be prohibited but also spelled out, whether or not that is an element of partying.
I haven’t personally had any requests with photos like that and they may not be common, but I have definitely seen guest photos that would lead me to decline a booking. Half-naked, wasted at a party, selfie bikini shots, giving a finger to the camera, etc. One guy had a photo of himself brandishing a gun.
There was a guest post from a young woman who was having trouble being accepted for a long term booking with her dog. She sounded like a nice, responsible girl, and she sounded articulate and respectful in her post. But I suggested she change her profile photo, wearing something different from the little crop top with “Thug Love” emblazoned across it. (Perhaps that’s the name of some rap band or clothing brand, I don’t know)
If someone doesn’t understand the difference in how to present themselves when asking to be trusted to rent someone’s home, as opposed to what they might choose to post on Instagram or Tinder, they just don’t seem like a good bet as a guest. (I’ve also seen profile photos of women looking to be hired as co-hosts, that show them in what looks like a dress you’d wear to a nightclub- silver sparkly, skin-tight, and low cut with major cleavage, not exactly how most hosts would want their co-host to present themselves to guests)
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API, in this instance, stands for Application Programming Interface. It’s what allows, say, the Airbnb backend servers to communicate with a PMS (Property Management System) like OwnerRez in order to sync calendars, update pricing, and whatnot.
If you’re looking for a story, in addition to this one you should look here also:
I don’t think Airbnb’s policy is the right one but it’s kind of amazing that if someone has an Alexa device in a sleeping area that that is a violation of Airbnb policy.
And that violation is a big deal, because a guest asserting it could likely get a complete refund.
@Cyn I would love it if you would quietly direct Amanda to this sort of story…AirBnb withholding owner payouts, …instead of a another soundbite story regarding parties, and the wonderful AirBnb publicity machine. Just a personal thought.
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The problem is that the media exists to make money. Sometimes they inform or educate but not at the expense of making money. A story about hosts not getting paid, especially “big rich absentee landlords who make a lot of money investing in party houses,”* isn’t going to sell.
*stereotype that causes people to hate Airbnb/STR
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You might be right; I don’t know.
But what if the story is something like “What You Don’t Know about Airbnb CAN Hurt You.”
Maybe the story goes like this:
- Airbnb Doesn’t Really Care about Parties, Just Bad Press about Parties because if They Did . . .
- Airbnb Wants More Hosts But it Doesn’t Vet Them, So it’s Guest Beware!
- Airbnb Recruits More Hosts But it Withholds Thousands from Hosts to Make Money While Hosts Wait.
- Airbnb Says it Protects Hosts with AirCover but the Truth is Something Else; It Pays Pennies to the Dollar
- Heads Airbnb Wins, Tales Communities Lose: How Airbnb Hosts with 10-Plus Properties Are Destroying Communities and Increasing Rents
- How Safe Are Airbnb Homes? – Why Airbnb Doesn’t Care
- Why Airbnb Revamped Their Arbitration System and How it Plays the Game
- Heads in Beds; Why Airbnb Wants Hosts to Admit Guests in Their Home but Won’t Even Tell Hosts Their Name.
ALL: What Would You Add to the List? and/or How would You Edit the List?
Maybe Amanda could write an article that sells along these lines.
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Nothing. Most of what you write is too long. This is for Wired, not The Economist or The Atlantic. Think Entertainment Tonight, not NPR. And if it weren’t for government funding, NPR wouldn’t exist.
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Less than 1% of their funding comes from the federal government. Accuracy please…
Thank goodness for NPR. When you get ‘news’ media based on profit, you get… Fox News…
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You’re both incorrect. The NPR stations I listen to both specifically mention that “the programming is paid for by listeners like you”. (and I know they mean me)
I know they mean it because they say it a lot, especially in October when they do that big membership drive. And I know they’re right too because we donate every year and even though we donate at a high enough level to get a t-shirt we usually just choose the little pack of stickers instead, thereby making sure more of our donation goes directly to programming costs.
So there.
Lol.
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Yes, 100% of their funding comes from people ‘like us’, but only 1% of that comes thru fed monies granted - a subtle difference form sure - but certainly NPR has not been (in the last 30 years at least) ‘government funded’. Thanks to conspiracy folks who think that somehow quality programming like Sesame Street and Nova is an insidious channeling of ‘woke’ propoganda, this false funding trope shows up.
Reminder what President Obama said - “The government… is us”.
And (last comment) remember that ‘woke’ is a synonym for ‘enlightened’. Woke is only 4 letters, so it is easier for those folks who have trouble with longer words…
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Let me amend my statement to remove the word “funding.” If it weren’t for government, public broadcasting wouldn’t exist. And regardless of the breakdown of the sources of funding now, it’s non profit. I’d like to write a dissertation on the topic but don’t have time.
In any case, I’d be very surprised if any Wired reporter wants to report on how Airbnb exploits hosts.
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Is there a common thread among all of the hosts who are having issues getting timely payouts?
We always get a message on the day after check-in that they’ve released $xxx.xx to our bank. And then I get the bank message same day or next business day that a deposit occurred for that amount.
Knock on wood.
As a former journalist I would say that sounds more like a list of host whinges than a story @HostAirbnbVRBO
I’ve also never had an issue getting paid. A few times they didn’t release the payment the day after check in, it was a couple days later. One weird tech glitch though, is that it will often still say “Processing” after it has already appeared in my bank account.
It would be interesting to know if there is some common denominator among the hosts who experience non-payment, but the only thing I’ve noticed is that the amounts owed are always in the thousands of dollars, not hundreds, like my payments are.
What I can’t quite understand is why hosts would continue to take bookings if they weren’t receiving payouts. If I had more than one payout not come through, I’d close my calendar until the issue got sorted.
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Hmm, I wonder if this is a nationality thing? I live in Australia, like @gillian, and fully half of my guests seem to have profiles that show them partying. I assume because that’s when they are looking glamorous and like the pictures they’ve taken of themselves. And maybe because Aussies like to party?
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Nah mate I’m a huge clickbait fan who loves a good tabloid read, and any of those headlines would get me to click. I laughed out loud at @HostAirbnbVRBO Glenn’s “Heads in Beds: Why Airbnb Wants Hosts to Admit Guests in Their Home but Won’t Even Tell Hosts Their Name.”
But, eh, maybe it’s because I’m an Airbnb host. 
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