Hi guys !!
It was interesting to see people taking notice of such an important issue. Post the original question, there are two things that I wanted to share here. One is my experience and the second is a moral question to the Airbnb folks.
First, my social housing stay experience
I was visiting London for 2 months last year. But decided to reach little early to catch the London design week. We booked this apartment from my husband’s Airbnb profile and it turns out to be a social housing apartment. First thing we notice were pile of notices and bills on the dining table. The apartment was managed by a professional agency, where the host was a ‘superhost’ with very high rating. We trusted them. Unfortunately, it was not as the images represented it to be. During our stay on the 3rd or 4th night power went off. According to the host, the actual landlord failed to top-up / pay his electricity bills. The following day also, there was no power because the landlord / host didn’t get time to pay their bills. Thank god the heating was still working somehow ! End of the stay the host refunded 50% of the per day charges for those 2 nights and Airbnb was not helpful enough to address this issue. Overall, it was a horrible weeklong stay in London, post which we moved to our actual rented apartment.
As a fellow traveller to any new city, I would not want anyone to experience such a nightmarish stay during their holidays/ business travels. I felt helpless and unsafe during my stay at this place.
It still bugs me on how such people are hiding behind property management agencies and making money of the system.
The moral question !
I am from a country where we do not have a social housing system. And whatever I read about the social housing project of UK or other developed nations, it is a great benefit to underprivileged citizens. I personally believe, if an individual is taking such benefits from the govt. they can not make money on it. If he/ she has enough resources to afford an alternate residence, then such housing benefit should be passed on to someone deserving. Letting out such apartments at a higher price on Airbnb is completely unethical.
Also, such property owners never list their properties directly, rather use a shield of a property management agency. I noticed this pattern when i was looking back at all my past London rentals. Back in 2016, we had stayed in an apartment at Clapham, which was also a social housing apartment. That time we did not realise it but we confirmed it our last visit.
Property management agencies usually has a superhost tag because of their traction and after seeing all the reviews, people trust them automatically. People are using such agencies to let out their social housing apartments. I am extremely appalled by this way of doing business.
When I asked Airbnb, they were unaware that these listing were social housing.
For managed property, Airbnb is not doing any background check on the property and the property owner. In my opinion, this is a major loophole in the Airbnb platform. Online platforms like Airbnb works on trust. And this is an example of misplaced trust, which made me as a consumer extra cautious, pushing me to chose Aparthotels and alternate accommodation, whenever I am not getting good individual listings.
So, the question to Airbnb is -
Do you find it ethical to list social housing properties on your platform ?
Do you have any moral obligation to do a background check / verification for the property owners of the managed properties ?
