Would you book an apartment with no reviews?

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Thank you so much Violetta. I was about to check out of the forum, due to a lack of support from the forum moderator and owner Tom, who seems to have no problem with things becoming destructive, and hosts giving unrealistic or misleading information. I truly do care about other hosts and guests knowing that although there can be good experiences, as a decently long term (3 years) highly rated superhost (for whatever that means), I came into it explaining away all the risks to my very tentative husband, only to realize how incredibly naive I had been after being burned repeatedly.

Yes, weā€™ve met nice people, especially in the beginning, but this past year in particular, we have had negative experiences that have left us quite traumatized and feeling very taken advantage of. We have been blackmailed, and had our only negative review of the traumatizing incident removed - airbnb doesnā€™t want the really bad stories being told. We have had disasters of all kinds, from people who seemed totally legitimate and trustworthy. We are neither dumb or lacking the skills to be careful about who we have allowed into our home. Unfortunately however, when the crap hits the fan - and I assure you over time it will, airbnb will not always be there to back you up. Airbnb cares about airbnb - they think there will always be more hosts, and more guests, and with their huge company attracting more people by the day, they are right. But in this being the case, all kinds of people, including those that are unscrupulous, unprofessional and worst of all criminal are a part of the system, and you donā€™t have a way of knowing who these people are, until you are smack bag in the middle of it. And you donā€™t have to rely on my word to see how airbnb will manage the situation then. Please continue to the links below.

It is now very well documented that the review process doesnā€™t work. People have studied why: it comes down to people feeling too uncomfortable about leaving bad reviews for people they have met face to face, so they leave either all five stars, or just donā€™t review. So you donā€™t know if the place with all five stars is really that great, or if half of the guests just didnā€™t review.

Please look at all the experiences people are discussing online: and these are just the tip of the iceberg, because most wonā€™t sign up to share their bad experience (including myself - I thought about it but hate giving my email out everywhere).

Here is a Boston university paper that explores the issue:
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2554500

One of the numerous articles:

Please check the trusted review sites for airbnb. You will see the trust is very very low indeed. This is where you will see what can happen. I am just one of the many that after years of hoping each bad incident would be a one off, have realized that there are real and true dangers associated with hosting or being a guest on airbnb.
https://www.trustpilot.com/review/www.airbnb.com


Also, an article I finally did write giving details of my experience - although not all the gory details. http://bedmaybebreakfast.com/xfa-blog-entry/diary-of-a-burned-out-airbnb-host.4/

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Thanks for all these stories Sandy. Lots of bad ones out there, yikes!

Confess I am a host of five years at AirBnB but would NEVER book as an AirBnB guest myself! Just too much hassle, fees too high, too many unknowns!

I recently traveled to Seoul and Tokyo to visit my twin sons who are in those locations for the academic year as they are exchange students. I didnā€™t even think of booking AirBnB. I loved my little Seoul hotel. It was right in the heart of the university area, ten paces from the station, near great eating and I loved it. I wanted a nice hotel, someone who was in THE BUSINESS of being a hotel, who changed the towels and took the trash every day and brought me fresh soaps. Left Maxim coffee (yum)ā€¦ Allowed me to store my luggage in their lobby for FIVE nights while I took a side trip to Tokyo, gave me late check out as I had a 9:30pm flight to Honolulu and basically treated me awesomely. My hotel in Toyko would have been the same had I not booked the wrong location by accident! (When I first arrived in Shinjuku Tokyo, I stayed in a capsule hotel! Lovely, safe, quiet and clean. Womenā€™s only floor. Shiesedo shampoos and lotions. Only $30 USD! Canā€™t beat that!)

And the prices! Wonderful. My Seoul hotel? $35 USD per night. My Tokyo hotel? $60. No deposits, no cleaning fees. Perfectly good and just what I wanted!

There is a lot to be said for the consistency and reliability of a good old fashioned HOTEL.

Airbnb is too expensive and has too many unknowns!

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Lucky you KonaC. I must say our month in Japan was very different. We had a short term rental (non airbnb), but the entire bedroom wall was covered in black mold (toxic, and I had a streaming face of allergies every day, swollen eyes almost shut from it), the very hard and lumpy mattresses found in some places there that were so painful we sometimes slept on the floor on the tatami mats instead, and we were woken at the crack of dawn by loud music speakers from the local primary school right next door - that we had no idea was there before hand. A nightmare, and made our otherwise great time very hard to manage. I was sick the whole time. I love Japan, but I would never, ever do it that way again. Unfortunately this was a paid trip and they thought weā€™d be more comfortable in an apartmentā€¦ Ugh, no! Not unless you are going to get proper executive suites! I too would never use airbnb. This new trend is just not as safe as it is being made out to be. Not by a long shot.

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Mind you, some travelers would call my Seoul hotel funky and hate it (toilet is in the shower, Asian style) no doubt, but I just loved it. Loved the radiant floor heating (which allowed us to open the windows in single digit weather) loved the trains rolling byā€¦ loved the kitchenetteā€¦ by esp loved being within walking distance of my sonā€™s university. Had the advantage of him being able to check it out for me beforehand, and even though the TripAdvisor reviews were bad (clearly Americans didnā€™t get it) I left them a four star review because they were ideal for my needsā€¦ which was to mainly stay in an affordable, sweet, comfortable place right by the university area.

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Oh, and no BOOKING FEE forked over to AirBnB either! When you add all that stuff up, Air turns out to not be the bargain everyone thinks it is. Here in Hawaii YESā€¦ because the hotel industry is so tight and dominantā€¦ Air really gives travelers some nice alternatives, especially out here in the country. We probably get less riff raff guests too because they are coming to Hawaii on vacation and are definitely in holiday modeā€¦ whereas some of these cities like LA or Hollywood, (where poster Luke is located) could get other, less desirable types of travelers. Ours are 100% tourists and they are here to mainly see the sights. They want to snorkel and see the volcano. Stay with me and I am right in the middleā€¦ where there are no hotels. Iā€™m in the tropical zone and centrally located for the best sightseeing. Iā€™m also at cool elevation but still near a secluded beach (not trying to advertise myself here but just sayinā€¦) I think thatā€™s why I have a record of nearly all good guests. Plus I describe the property, flaws and all, CLEARLY. How far away it is, how it is not the Mauna Lani. What they can expect in excruciating detail!

That said I get tired of the guest grind, have a break from guests in the summer and am enjoying it very much thank you!

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Sandy, that is why we need honest open discussions, and not marketers, braggers and those that are attacking other host for bringing it up and hopefully finding a solution that works for all.

Airbnb is a great concept, but it is a new concept. It is still in itā€™s infancy. Hotels send their staff for training and consult many attorneys. We as Host do not have those resources. So this Forum should be a place where one may not have an answer but many could find a answer.
Shame on the Host that want to have other Host look bad. Shame on the Marketers that want to exploit Host that are putting sweat and blood in hosting.

Lastly, yes there are many Host and Guest that will sign up and than move on, but eventually the Concept will suffer, and there is no need for that to happen.

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33

Violetta, I couldnā€™t possibly agree more with what you have just shared. In such a new system, it is natural that there will be growing pains, and there will have to be checks in place to stop the unscrupulous taking advantage. In the meantime, people will be taken advantage of, both hosts and guests, and hosts will struggle with the fall out of having to deal with an unruly public some of who feel that given they are dealing one on one with a single person, they can try things on with them that they know they couldnā€™t get away with at a larger company.

As a community here, we should be able to support one another through these issues and struggles, and be there to hold one another up through crises and bad experiences and disappointing responses from airbnb. It is hard to imagine why anyone would be here just to ridicule, humiliate, shame and try to denigrate other hosts or guests, just to try to claim they are so much better at (seemingly everything) than everyone else is. If they have no empathy or nothing helpful to offer, they can always keep their vitriol to themselves.

I wish you great, happy experiences, and lots of extra earnings :slight_smile:ļø

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Bola - have you gone on your trip yet? How did it work out?

You should be able to find the host on facebook or just google him/her and get an idea.

I joined airbnb in 2012 and never used it until 2015. I joined to search for some rooms but didnā€™t find one that worked for us.

My first guest that booked with me had no photo, no profile write up, not reviews or ID checked. Upon request he added a photo, etc. He was a young French kid traveling with two girls. I thought I was crazy for booking him.

He was an exceptional guest - when one of the girls had a little accident he came and told me right away so I could get the linens in the wash - what a gentleman - was kind and thoughtful with his friends - stripped the beds and took out the trashā€¦

I know, I got very lucky.

Had another guest - in her photo she looked creepy!! And conversation wasnā€™t all that easy - but she and her family were gems and when we travel to Philly in February weā€™ll stop and have coffee with them.

Again, very lucky.

A group of 4 young Swedish guys with no reviews or experience. I expected them to come home loud and rowdy. They were incredibly polite. They left me a nice tip and were totally a pleasure to have. They even left a google watch in the sheets - unfortunately they wanted that back. ; )

Another group - guy who booked the room was one of my first experienced, well-reviewed guests and a good communicator. Then he showed up early unannounced (I work several jobs, have three kids, time is important to me, we are not often home in the evening so he got lucky). When his friends arrived around midnight (expected and normal because of traffic from NYC, no problem) they were loud and disruptive and obviously made no attempt to use ā€˜inside voicesā€™. (I never ever hear guests from their quarters). Then they left beer bottles and trash all around. They were VERY VERY loud at breakfast. My family couldnā€™t hear itself think. (And nothing is as loud as a foreign language-loud!!!).

My first arrival was an airbnb host from France with lots of reviews and an experienced guest. He kept communicating with me all day and dragging me along until the absolute last minute before actually booking. It was very stressful. I didnā€™t know until 7 or so that evening that they were actually coming in - and because they planned poorly they arrived after the buses stopped. I was happy to pick them up at metro anyway, especially as they had a baby, but had to scramble to find a baby seat - without even knowing if they were actually going to come. (Iā€™d handle that differently now)

Soā€¦I just donā€™t know what to thinkā€¦ A huge percentage of my guests have been new users. And have been great. I wish there was an easier way to know.

But at the end of the day, sharing you home with strangers is RISKY. Thatā€™s why people havenā€™t done it in the past. Open your door to someone walking down the street? Are they clean? Dirty? Well dressed? Speak English well? Talk haltingly with an accent? None of those things are going to tell you what will happen after they walk into your home.

I know my day will come when weā€™ll have much worse guests than students being raucous and loud and leaving trash around.

Until then, my family is having a blast meeting all these new people, and now we have connections with people all over Europe, Asia, and Australia.

Do let us know how it turns out!!

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35

This is an excellent response DC! And very true. Awesome awesome post. Wish we had stickies for the really good posts with excellent info for newbies. This would be a good one because itā€™s so true.

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My first guests were in 2010. I had finally got my studio cleaned up after my ex and I divorcedā€¦ and he had left a total mess thereā€¦ (not to go into too much detail) but suffice to say the toilet was so gross I had to install a new oneā€¦ and he left a ceiling fan hanging from the wall and enough crap and crumbs everywhere that mice had got in! My exBF helped me with everything, including putting in new stairs and screens and painting and powerwashing.

My first furnishings and such were pretty sad and in those days, Air had no online manuals or anything. You had to send the directions directly to the guest. No deposits either, so you had to ask them to paypal it. Once I received his deposit, then I sent him the directions!

Super nice folks from New Zealand! And they loved itā€¦ Iā€™ve had 97% good guests since. A few clunkers but that is expected. More Eastern Europeans in those days tooā€¦ people used to traveling by hostelā€¦expected lessā€¦ but as we know, less of that now. They want the 4 Seasons for the Motel 6 price. Ainā€™t gettinā€™ that here! Move along!

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I would wonder about no single review since 2013. Perhaps they listed the place and lost interest in the airbnb format, and do nothing to promote the listing eg tinkering with pricing (ie they donā€™t need the airbnb money)!

That said, in our city, I find that the professional hotels and B and Bs that list often have no reviews (and tend to be way pricier)!
Perhaps it is because the AirBnB crowd wonā€™t book a proper hotel through airbnb, or perhaps they donā€™t feel the need to review a professional outfit!

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It can be that a host traveled as a guest from that year or just became a member and Never used it

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