Some customer support acts based on their personal opinion a...
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Some customer support acts based on their personal opinion and they seem to come up with their own conclusion, which is frust...
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Hello all! I have only used airbnb once but am planning on going to Paris, France in a couple months. I have found a place but there are no reviews for the place and Iโm concerned about the legitimacy of the property. Can anyone chime in and provide me advice? I have attached the link to the property. Additionally, there are 2 individuals both listing the same property and both have referenced one another in the private messages I have sent them. Thank you for feedback in advance!
https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/39264124?source_impression_id=p3_1581882630_si1gMD3%2BIn1If%2BPp
This is exactly what I'm talking about, @Helen427 - the more you look, the more you see. We're all over here, endlessly stressing about the 5-star win/4-star fail conundrum, while these chancers are running rampant all over every market worldwide, causing chaos and destruction in every neighbourhood they pitch up in with their unmonitored listings and their out-of-control, anti-social guests, hoovering up great swathes of local long-term rental stock, multiple accounts riddled with false reviews from fake profiles, clear evidence from their guests' real reviews of long histories of serious safety, security, privacy and host standard policy violations etc etc - yet somehow, all these swarms of "bad actors" are still managing to evade detection by Airbnb's super-duper risk-assessment technology? Really??
If we - with zero tools, training or technological tricks - can so easily see and isolate the identifying patterns that clearly indicate the high probability of fraudulent activity on a "host's" profile - why do Airbnb's safety and security systems seem to have such a hard time in tracking them down and eliminating them? And how are so many of these rogue hosts getting away with with their fraudulent activities for so long?
That would indicate that - at the very least - Airbnb's current system of internal checks and balances is abjectly failing to identify and shut down fraudulent hosts on their own platform. Given the sheer volume (and tone) of negative and seriously damaging PR the recent viral media articles have already whipped up for the company (and for each and every one of us) - and given that it's over 3 full months now since Airbnb was forced to amend its global policies and issue public statements in response to public outrage over this very issue - it should be of deep concern to us all, that more - a lot more - hasn't been done by the company to halt or eliminate the prolific rogue element, that's skirting dangerously close to putting us all out of business. Including Airbnb.
Airbnb will fail to swiftly and adequately put strong and appropriate measures in place to deal with this phenomenon, at their peril. On foot of the global media coverage, potential guests have now been made fully aware that there are quite significant risks associated with booking on the Airbnb platform, and understandably, they're showing clear signs of being a lot more wary of using Airbnb at all. All evidence is confirming that user confidence in the trustworthiness and authenticity of Airbnb listings and Airbnb hosts, has already plummeted to unprecedented lows in recent months (and because Airbnb insists on lumping us small independent hosts right in there in the same searches as the "pro's", with no distiction between the two - that consumer scepticism extends to us, and our listings, too)
Airbnb - you need to step up and be seen to be cleaning house - properly cleaning house - ASAP, because guests are really struggling to place any trust or faith in your hosts, or in your listings - and despite all your big promises, you're still not doing anything that comes even close to an acceptable job of weeding out the "bad actors".And until you do, more and more guests are going to get stung. And fewer and fewer guests are going to trust your service. Or your hosts.
Of course they have, @Marit-Anne0 - the boys have been publicly outed on the CC. They've been naughty, and they've made the silly mistake of getting caught. So there's no option but to take them down.
Let's see how long they stay down. Or at least, let's see how long before the listings pop back up under various other bogey profiles associated with the account, as with so many of their counterparts. Will they be pemanently delisted? Or merely suspended, with a smack on the wrist? Or perhaps even hidden from view until the fuss dies down, while having all the naughty stuff erased from their profiles, getting "educated" by Airbnb (on what, I wonder - how not to get caught next time?), and reinstated with a lovely fresh new profile for another lucrative little crack of the whip? It will be interesting to note if there really has been any improvement in Airbnb's "policing" of such cases, since the Vice scandal broke.
Thats a lot of guests displaced right there over 25 listings though. How many unnecessarily stressed out, abruptly cancelled guests is that going to result in today? That's if Airbnb does actually cancel the reservations, of course. Either way, perhaps they'll just take down/hide the listings, yet still allow the fraudulent, scamming host to continue to honour bookimgs that had already been made by unsuspecting guests - as they did in the AJ, Montreal case. Only time will tell, I guess...
@Susan17 @Marit-Anne0 @Colleen253 @May1178 Thank you for all your insight!!! Wonderful to have a community where we can share ideas and experiences. Is it a safer bet to go with a โSuperhostโ who lists a property even if the property has no reviews?
still visible from & in Auckland
@Colleen253 hmmm did not last long offline, seems it is up and running again.
I believe it is still there.
@Colleen253 @Nick1826 @Helen427 @Marit-Anne0
Ah yes, just checked and I can still see it too. I assumed one of you guys must have reported it, when @Marit-Anne0 said it wasn't visible to her. Scores of cancellations on the account; reams of shockingly bad reviews citing serious safety, security, privacy, hygiene, maintenance and legal issues; as per the reviews, guests have been repeatedly reporting Alexandre to Airbnb as a scammer, since at least 2017. Reviews littered with all sorts of serious allegations, any one of them would be enough to have a regular host suspended, if not delisted. Yet these chancers are getting away with guests reporting their scamming ways for years, literally... so it's not like Airbnb can claim that they simply slipped under the radar, or their deception was unknown to the company. Yet still, Airbnb failed (ie - chose not) to remove them, for reasons best known to themselves.
@Susan17 @Marit-Anne0 @Colleen253 @May1178 @Helen427
Thank you ALL for for all your insight and feedback! I am taking my wife and two young children on their first trip overseas. It would be horrible if they had to spend their first day dealing with a scam and scrambling trying to find a place to stay in a foreign country. I definitely want this to be an enjoyable experience for them and that would not be an ideal way to start. I have located another property which seems to be managed by a โSuperhostโ but has no reviews for that particular property. Any thoughts on this? I am so sorry for my ignorance but I am not experienced with this process. THANK YOU ALL!!!
@Nick1826 @Colleen253 @Susan17 @Marit-Anne0 @May1178 and others, here's Jamie's listings that I was mentioning.
Draw one's own conclusions.
I've had a guest who had been at his place check in to my home via ABB Customer Services Team as they were so appalled.
I also had an enquiry from another young man who is here in NZ doing his Overseas experience who moved out of there because it wasn't up to standard.
@Helen427 wrote:@Nick1826 @Colleen253 @Susan17 @Marit-Anne0 @May1178
Thanks for this! Crazy we have to worry about such things and that it seems so prevalent. I simply want to take my wife and young children on their first out of the country vacation and make it an enjoyable, stress free experience. I sincerely appreciate all the feedback!!
Good morning @Nick1826 , visit New Zealand, there's lots of lovely genuine folk who host in the countryside.
Unfortunately I live in what's now cityside that once was countryside...at a guess, Los Angeles was also once countryside. Fortunately we still have several places where countryside is in the city... take a look at what we are blessed to have in my listing as I make sure I have featured the countryside ๐
I meet these young boys on our walk through Cornwall Park and they had never been up close to cows and calves before.
I explained the importance of how we were all in there "home" and how we would feel if a stranger entered our home to respect there territory.
The boys on my way back said they listened to what I said, managed to get inside a tree enclosure, and fed the cattle.
They told us on the way back they were no longer scared of the cows!
Do you have cows, calves, bulls, and sheep in your Los Angeles inner city parks to maintain them ?
If not, maybe you could lead the movement to have them back where they belong ...much better for the environment and one's well being!!
Love this! Downtown Los Angeles is a concrete jungle full of cars, tall buildings, and thousands of homeless and mentally ill individuals....no place for a nice, innocent cow ๐. I would however love to visit New Zealand and Australia at some point as well!
Enjoy @Nick1826 and @everyone-else, a blast from the past, present and future..about cows in Los Angeles, a little off topic from the Paris ABB but related to @Nick1826 and his family country experience.....you may have to share this with your local councils and media to create a conversation Los Angeles AIRBNB friends.
We of course would love to welcome you here in New Zealand
Lessons of the Cow - Los Angeles and New Zealand links
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/MT19310727.2.122.6?
Do they still take cows from school to school to show the children what they look like?
If not, maybe they should recommence doing so Los Angeles County/ City!!
Once upon a time back in 1909, a Los Angeles Lecturer suggested Cows should have toothbrushes @Nick1826 @Susan17 @Marit-Anne0
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/DOM19090308.2.7?
@Nick1826 They used to have cows in the wider Los Angeles location, whilst I'm not familiar with much of USA geography and rural / urban locations it would be great to learn which parts still have animals.
Is this Ranch/ Charity Farm still operating?
Rancho Los Amigos - Charity Dairy Farm
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/EP19390329.2.37?
Los Angeles Paradise
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/MT19071125.2.5?
They started testing of herds of pure breed cows 99 years ago in LA...
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/TEML19230227.2.25?
Persistent Youths - Stowaway with Byrd - Another LA -New Zealand link, more naughty boys, alas they reformed..
I wonder if their relations / descendants know about these stories?
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/AG19290108.2.66?