@Robin4
I got this, Rob. I know exactly what I'm doing, thanks ๐
Re. "We nees to form strategies to work with the bullsh*t.. I'm sorry Rob, but we've been "working with the bullsh*t" for years. And where has that got us? Precisely nowhere, is where. Just deeper and deeper into the bullsh*t.
Whether they realise it or not (yet), the questions I'm asking here are actually highly relevant and crucially important to every small, independent host on the platform, who's trying to stay in the game in every market that has been commandeered by hordes of these scammer "professional" hosts - just like the ones exposed in the viral articles above, and the ones I'm referring to in my questions. The ones who are also flying high in the searches and hoovering up lots of lovely business for their scores/hundreds of local listings. courtesy of the hundreds of glowing fake 5 star reviews, from scores of false profiles assosciated with their accounts. These aren't rare or isolated incidents - these guys have their grubby, greedy paws in every market.
Despite all of them having seriously sketchy reviews and reputations, their ratings always remain artificially high on Airbnb, and their calendars full, as they flood their profiles with glittering reviews from the bogey profiles, burying the dam*ing ones. Many of them seem to have extraordinary good fortune in having their very worst reviews deleted by CX too. No surprise there, really.
Meanwhile, small local amateur hosts with exemplary track records and 5 star ratings - who sadly, aren't lavished with the preferential policies, practices and Pro-tools that Airbnb favours these wideboy "Pro's" with- are forced to battle for survival on a horribly-skewed playing field, under infinitely more severe and punitive terms and conditions.
The scary thing is, Rob - no small host can work with this particular bullsh*t for very long. Because this false review/fake profile/fraudulent host bullsh*t, is the very bullsh*t that's putting so many of them out of business in the first place. And ultimately, it's harming us all, whether we want to believe it or not.
Every small host needs to read these articles. Really read them, and process what they're saying, and what they're telling us about Airbnb's biased, two-tier systems. And open our eyes to exactly what is going on on this platform, the negative impacts for us all, and what the small armies of rogue "hosts" are getting away with in every major market - and many secondary markets now too - on the planet. I've been documenting them and writing about them on this very forum for years.
And they haven't gone away, you know. Not at all. They've just bred and spread like a plague of cockroaches Name me any market worldwide, and I'll find you several of these shady sh*ts within the hour - no AI, machine learning or algorithms needed. This problem is rampant, chronic, totally out of control, and is directly costing thousands upon thousands of small local hosts - including myself - their income, their livelihoods and their businesses, on a daily basis.
So hell, yeah, I want to know - and have a right to know - exactly what Airbnb is doing (if anything) to curb these cheating f*ckers global trail of destruction. And yes, I'm d*mn sure I want to know if Airbnb ever allows these scammers to remain on the platform, despite knowing that their accounts are riddled with false reviews (cos we all know how Airbnb are so, so vocal about the integrity of their review system, right?) And yes, absolutely, I'd love to know if Airbnb would ever, ever suspend the profile of a host/mega-host they know to be fraudulent, delete all the incriminating evidence of their fake reviews and false profiles, and reinstate that "host" with a squeaky clean profile. And quite frankly, every other small independent host - including homesharers - should be demanding to know too. But they're not, because they think it's not affecting them. They're very mistaken.
I'll keep asking though, until I get my response. Whatever it takes. I mean, there's really no need for reticence, is there? The obvious (and only acceptable) answer to both my most recent questions should - theoretically - be just a swift and simple "Absolutely not. We never allow fraudulent activity on our platform, under any circumstances." What's so difficult about that? Nothing incriminating whatsoever in such a response.
Tbh, it looks a great deal more incriminating that Airbnb didn't immediately give that very answer in their response that Lizzie posted, to my original set of questions in the OP. Perhaps they missed it. Not to worry though, they still have the opportunity to clear that up for us now, once and for all, in response to my second set of questions. In the interests of trust, transparency and openness, of course.
I get that you may not understand or even approve of my solo journey Rob, and that's cool, too.. but please - please.. just leave me to plough my own furrow, in my own way.
Cheers ๐