Just What We Need: AirBnB - Front Page News - Not good!

John1574
Level 10
Providence, RI

Just What We Need: AirBnB - Front Page News - Not good!

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BREAKING NEWS: THIS JUST IN!

 

 

Host goes berserk?

 

Host smashes through bedroom picture window in the middle of the night.

 

It costs the guests $6500 to relocate in LA.  They want nothing to do with AirBnB rebooking (and who would blame them).

 

AirBnB offers $2500 and five therapy sessions to "overcome the trauma."

 

The Hotel lobby couldn't buy this kind of negative publicity for $100,000, and Airbnb cheaps out on the refund.  OMFG!

 

Days are numbered.

 

https://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2018/10/08/airbnb-guesthouse-horrors/NJhq55qg0a2h6nO0aOsEJK/sto...

 

https://www.newsweek.com/airbnb-offers-2500-and-therapy-sessions-couple-who-was-attacked-host-116032...

 

41 Replies 41
John1574
Level 10
Providence, RI

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You can't make this shi'te up.

 

Heads should roll in the Customer Service Department.

 

The handling of this incident is a slap in the face to all conscientious hosts who deliver good value.

Letti0
Level 10
Atascosa, TX

@John1574  Sounds like the guy (host) had a nervous breakdown or was doing some major drugs in addition to illegally renting out the guest house. AirBnB is going to be giving that couple the $5,000 today would be my guess and replace the owners window just to make this go away. 

John1574
Level 10
Providence, RI

 

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This was on the front page of the Boston Globe with a readership in the millions. We all need to be concerned with how AirBnB's customer service reflects on us as hosts.  This incident will hurt business, and it could have been avoided if AirBnB customer service had handled it appropriately in the first place, not after the fact, to make it go away.

 

This goes in the archives:

 

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosting/How-Do-You-Rate-AirBnB-for-Customer-Service/td-p/712486

Emilia42
Level 10
Orono, ME

My favorite part is “One of the officers told Jackson and Uwandu he had been babbling about Airbnb cleaning fees!” 

 

Robin4
Level 10
Mount Barker, Australia

@Letti0  @Emilia42  @John1574

This is the 'sh*te' that is seeing governments all around the world get tough on short term rentals...and all Airbnb can publicly say is...."This doesn't happen often" ....."we have removed the host"!!

God Almighty, what sort of clowns are running this concern.

 

This is the problem when companies outgrow themselves...I have seen it 100 times in my life...a small trader does really well and builds his business up and moves to larger premises, takes on a few staff! Business continues to grow and so do the personnel, and the very reason the business became successful starts to become lost. Public capital gets involved and the number crunchers. An internet site is set up to sell and promote, but not support. The next thing you know someone says its cheaper to sell on the internet, walk in sales are slipping...'lets shut the shop front', revenue falls, investors turn away and the compny goes bust!

We have all seen it, haven't we?

 

People who are now making these decisions in Airbnb have no personal link with where this company has come from...it's just a day to day job for them, and they make stupid decisions like this, and as @John1574 says....... the hotel lobby dream of just this scenario. 

 

Airbnb, if you can hear, this is that fork in to road situation.....that one in the Monty Python film 'Life of Brian' where all the newly departed arrive in a line at the pearly gate and St Peter says to each of them..."Which is it for you, Salvation of crucifiction?" 

Will someone up there please select 'Salvation' and put on a public  face that will make this problem disappear. If you don't owe it to yourselves, you owe it to your millions of hosts!

All I can say is......'Far out'!!!

 

Cheers......Rob

Victoria567
Level 10
Scotland, United Kingdom

Hi@Robin

Goverments are looking at short term rentals as the cause of housing shortages for young locals looking for secure tenured long term rentals and those who are looking to buy their first home.

 

Several air bnb businesses have flourished and in many streets, “units”  have sprung up, rows and rows of them, exacerbating the housing shortage an excuse used by many government departments to pass the buck, for their own financial mismanagement etc.

 

This type of publicity including the nut job host or even the nut job guests, is manna from heaven for many .

 

One of the good things about air bnb , is that it’s given the hotel industry room for thought and as a result many hotels have upped their standards.

Robin4
Level 10
Mount Barker, Australia

@Victoria567

Yeah, can't argue with a thing you say there Victoria!

I just wish Airbnb would be a little more pro-active and be seen to be 'good, community partners' and make a serious attempt at settling situations like this....make every attempt to appease all sides.

I understand that in some areas where there is a chronic housing shortage, landlords are being seen to chase the more lucrative dollar the short term rental market has to offer....

 

Three hours later, I got called away to welcome another pesky guest and attend to other duties!

I am back!

I would love to bury  threads like this one!

Admittedly I am part of a small community! Here in Mt Barker area we have 32,000 residents and throughout the entire Adelaide hills there would not be more than 80,000 residents, so we don't see the issues that the high density population areas see. 

I and a few other Airbnb hosts have gone out of our way to work with the local authorities and the local traders association and get them on side....and we have had spectacular success. Airbnb is totally welcomed in our community! Some businesses are putting Airbnb welcome stickers which I have had made on their doors!

I conducted a straw poll over a twelve month period and asked each guest how much they would have spent in the area during their stay. A considerable number were one nighters who probably spent less than $100.....a bit of takeway and a bottle of wine and that was it.

But many were longer stays up to 21 nights and the average spend by Airbnb guests in my listing was $285.00. Multiply that by the 127 guests who stayed equals $36,200 that verified Airbnb guests spent in my small community over the past 12 months. Multiple that by the 100 + Airbnb listings throughout the Adelaide hills area that means that Airbnb guests have brought into this community almost $3.7 Million over the past 12 months. 

These are figures that everyone likes to hear. These are figures that keep small businesses going and I have absolutely no problem promoting Airbnb in the community with business cards, stickers and getting their support.

We have to make our good fortune, I keep local council informed of all aspects of being involved with Airbnb and I can tell you, they support what Airbnb does here entirely.

 

Cheers.....Rob

Kelly149
Level 10
Austin, TX

I have a different take, rather than decrying ABBs inability to recognize a problem after it has happened, how about we all be offended that they refuse to verify on the front end that a "host" has the authority to host. My neighbor city has stringent registration requirements, but does ABB do anything to verify that listings are legal? Nope. This guy clearly shouldn't have been a host at all, but does ABB do anything to verify that "hosts" are owners or legally authorized to host? Nope. I own my home, I pay my taxes, I'm legal to have guests, but has ABB verified any of this? Nope.

This is a front end problem, the back end problem is a symptom not the disease.

Suzanne302
Level 10
Wilmington, NC

This is a highly sensationalized piece of journalism. The incident took place in July and is just now being reported on?

 

Does ABB have issues? Yes. Many. But this....This is a rare, isolated, freak occurrence.

 

I'm not worried.

Ute42
Level 10
Germany

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First of all pls note that I live in Europe, Germany. We in our country aren't used to cases like: Customer sues McDonalds for 1 Million USD bc coffee being too hot. This is just not in our legislation.

 

I think the $2500 offered by airbnb are fair. As the 2 guests have rejected the therapy sessions offered I assume there is no trauma on their side.

 

What happened really? 2 guests had a „live like a local“ adventure and after the first 2 nights they spent a nice holliday at the Hilton which was on airbnb. What more can You ask for?

 

 

 

 

 

@Ute42 That McDonald's case often gets tossed around as an example of "frivolous" lawsuits and how sue-happy Americans are. At the time McDonald's was super-heating their coffee because customers would often drive to work before consuming them. According to the NIH, most people like their coffee around 140F (60C) where McD's was heating to 190F (97.8C).

 

The woman in question suffered 3rd degree burns to her legs and genitals, requiring 8 days in the hospital, skin grafts, and surgery. When she asked McDonald's to pay for the $20,000 in medical costs they offered her $800. Without benefit of a functioning public health system, $20k is ruinous to many families. McDonald's received 700 complaints of burns prior to this incident, including other cases of similar severity, and the jury thought they should have known better.

 

Please keep in mind that Germany, and most other European countries, operate under a system of Civil Law inherited from the Romans where more is codified through ordinances and statues. The US operates under Common Law, inherited from the English. You're likely to have consumer protections written into law BEFORE it reaches you as an individual. We go with a wild west approach where an individual needs to sue for damages and set a new precedent in case law. It's only with new precedent that companies change their policies rather than suffer additional losses through litigation.

 

Neither system is perfect. Please don't besmirch this woman for standing up to bad business practices in our country and legal system.

 

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/darryl-s-weiman-md-jd/the-mcdonalds-coffee-case_b_14002362.html

John1574
Level 10
Providence, RI

@Ute42  @Suzanne302  @Victoria567  @Robin4  @Kelly149

 

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The problem with facts is that they're stubborn things . . . so I've heard said.

 

Here is a fact:  the newspaper pictured, a major metropolitian newspaper, the Boston Globe, published in a city aggressively trying to regulate AirBnB out of business, landed on my doorstep with this bold, above the fold story, dominating the front page, the lead story of the day.

 

Anyone who wishes to minimize this fact is welcome to do so, but to me it seems like denial.

 

Fact: The story appeared in the Globe long after the incidenct in July because, as the story clearly states, no refund was posted until the Globe reporter, Murphy, a consumer advocate, callled AirBnB, and they issued the $708 credit only a week ago. That's about 60+ days. It's unclear if they paid the $2500 yet after rejecting the $5000 request.

 

Fact:  the couple requested $5000 compensation but AirBnB offered $2500 and five therapy sessions.

 

Opinion:  that offer is a case of adding insult to injury.

 

Probable fact:  had AirBnB handled this properly, in a timely fashion, chances are slim that this would have ended up as front page news and made its way across the nation and probably the world  -  that it did go nation-wide and most likely world-wide probably scared away many potential AirBnB clients and strengthened the argument against short- term rentals many cities are using to regulate AirBnB.

 

Bottom line:  this should have been handled better and could have been handled better.

 

I hope that what come out of this is that the next time something atrocious happens AirBnb will do a better job of getting out ahead of it.

 

Fact: It would have been well worth the $5000 to avoid this "Front Page News".

 

How many hosts in Boston will now proudly admit that "I'm an airBnB host." 

 

 

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Suzanne302
Level 10
Wilmington, NC

@John1574 You are obviously very worked up about this!

 

I am not.

 

I hope you are able to relax some day! Maybe take a vacation to Wilmington...life is good here!

@Suzanne302 

 

Lol.  That's very reassuring, you not being worked up.

 

A bit condescending, but not worked up.  I concede to your superiorty.

 

I'm just commenting on the news.  You seem to be worked up about me commenting on this story.  Why is that?