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

[John1574]

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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...

[Daniel1992]

@John0

I stated no facts?  He literally told a CNN anchor that he was fake news to his face: https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-refuses-to-let-cnns-jim-acosta-ask-question-youre-fake-news

As for the alleged dismemberment, you obviously don't know the whole situation, as not only is it still being investigated, the Turkish president has not accused Saudi Arabia of doing such a thing, nor have any arrests been made in the standing.  It's way too murky right now to make any sort of conclusion.  Unless you believe that the accusers have the power, which isn't how it works in the US.

Regardless, you clearly disregarding stated facts as opinions when you, yourself, stated an opinion (that this was bad publicity for AirBnB), along with the fact that you lump all Millenials as clueless, I'm willing to bet that you have issues with people younger than you.

[Suzanne302]

@Daniel1992  Don't argue with crazy! Just let it go!

I tried to block him months ago so I didn't have to see his posts but this forum doesn't allow it.

[Robin4]

@Suzanne302

Hey, I think you are right....just let it go!

We are all going to have a different opinion.....with close to 4,000 posts here I have had my fair share of detractors. I even left the Community Centre for 3 months once back in the start of 2016 because I came in for so much criticism because of something that I made some stupid stance over!

You may seath inside Suzanne, but don't mention trying to block contributors...you will polarise people by saying that....let the hosting community ebb and flow, we are all in this lifeboat trying to navigate the Airbnb ocean together!

Learn what you can, and those you can't learn from, just have a quiet chuckle to yourself....and move on to the next post!

Cheers......Rob

[Suzanne302]

@Robin4You must have misunderstood. To "seethe" would be to get angry, and that is not what is going on here. I disagree that a block button wouldn't be useful. I come to this community for comradery and to learn and share experiences. And 95% of the time that is what happens. The majority of people in here are so helpful and kind!

However, there are two or three people I see in here regularly that contribute nothing but negativity and condescending attitudes. If I didn't have to waste my time weeding throught their responses it would make for a better community experience. It's a shame we don't have that option.

[Robin4]

@Suzanne302

I concede your point, I too have my pet dislike contributors!

I worked for a time in a support role as part of the Airbnb 'experts group' Suzanne.....but I gave it away, I was feeling cornered because, I was not on duty 24 hours a day....."Are you there, what do I have to do to get some help here"!

Or, if I was on deck!...."Can you not understand, I am not like those other hosts, this is an exception and you need to grant me an exemption"! 

This community made me a competent, confident host, but only because of the diversity of opinions. Maybe seethe (I think I am in the early stages of Alzheimers, I struggle now over simple words) was not a good choice of words, but, I value all contributions, some I won't agree with but I certainly don't want to deny the fact that they may be there.

My feeling is, if we have the ability to start blocking certain contributors, threads become disjointed because we only hear one side of the story.....

I am not saying I disagree with you Suzanne, I am just offering an alternate suggestion!

Cheers......Rob

[Suzanne302]

No need to concede anything @Robin4! I get where you are coming from. You always bring value to the conversation!

[John1574]

@Ute42@Susan17@Allison2@Daniel1992

So, @Ute42 , we agree it could have been handled better. 

However, I don't think that your ploy would have been sucessful. I don't think they would have signed off on such an agreement. 

One thing AirBnB did wrong was to not respond with a sense of urgency to apease the clients and stop the story in it's tracks.

Do you also agree that it was bad publicity, especially in the short term?

[Ute42]

.

@John1574,

• So, Ute , we agree it could have been handled better.

Yes

• I don't think they would have signed off on such an agreement.

You don't know and I don't know. But if they don't sign the agreement, they would not get 1 Dollar from me as an airbnb representative. If I as airbnb make a non-obligatory payment, I want something in return, and that's the signature. In front of a court they would get nothing as, again, this entire story has nothing to do with airbnb and short term rentals.

• Do you also agree that it was bad publicity, especially in the short term?

Yes

John, basically what You have brought up here with this thread is, that airbnb, even though they are not guilty in any way, should have made sure to avoid bad publicity. And they failed. I told You what I would have done. I think I would have gotten the deal for $2500. I'm not sure, but I believe so.

[John1574]

@Allison2 

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Thank you for making this much needed clarification.  I'm quoting here because I'm afraid many eyes will miss it buried in the middle of the thread. You wrote an accurate, succinct explanation of the "how" and "why".  Much needed, thanks, again.

@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

[Paul154]

My favorite part of the article was about the owner who lives on the property.

"I didn't know it was being rented as an Airbnb" 

Yeah, right.  

The owner is the deep pocket here and easy to sue.

[John1574]

@Paul154

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Yeah, there are a lot of gems in there for pull quotes.

For example, after pounding on their door, the guest calls the host who answers onthe other side of the door and says:

"Yeah, that was me,” JJ told Jackson of the knocking incident. “Sorry about the confusion. Life’s too short for me to give you an explanation. Have a nice time in LA.”

The guest:  “Maybe things are just different on the West Coast,” Jackson recalled thinking.

And when the host came crashsing through the window: 

"Jackson, still in bed, struggled to understand what was happening: Am I dreaming? Am I watching TV? Am I delirious? She grabbed her phone and crawled under the bed."

“Your Airbnb host attacked you?” she remembers being asked in a skeptical voice."

"Soon, they heard the sound of a helicopter overhead. Then, the courtyard between the guest house and the main house was bathed in blue light."

This must be what peope mean when they call something a "surreal" experience -- helicopters and blue lights will do that.  Lol

Then there's this exchange.

"One of the officers told Jackson and Uwandu he had been babbling about Airbnb cleaning fees. “He told the police that Airbnb had ordered him to evict us, over cleaning fees,” Uwandu recalled."

"At about that time, an elderly woman came out of the main house. “Who are you?” she asked Uwandu and Jackson."

The eldery owner on not knowing JJ was running an AirBnB:

“But he rents it all the time,” Uwandu and Jackson told her. “Didn’t you notice all the people coming and going?”

“I thought those were JJ’s friends visiting him,” she said.

Yes, Paul, maybe the guests could sue the elderly owner, but all they asked for was $5K from AirBnB and this would have gone away never to appear in Headline News across the nation.  Talk about penny wise and pound foolish.

[John1574]

@Robin4@Paul154@Victoria567     @Ute  

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THIS JUST IN!

AirBnB apologizies to Dr. Jackson and Dr. Uwanda for LA incident.

“Our original handling of this incident fell well below the high standards we set for ourselves,” the San Francisco company said in a statement. “We have apologized to Dr. Jackson and Dr. Uwandu for our insufficient response.”

"We are reviewing every aspect of this case from the reports of the host’s disturbing behavior to our response,” the statement continued. “Our community’s safety is our priority, we are deeply sorry for the anguish and inconvenience our guests have experienced and again we are working to make it right.”

What is reallly enlightening is reading the comments section after the articles.  There wer 256 comments after the initial article and over 50 so far today.

If you don't believe that this is incredibley bad publicity for AirBnB just read through the comments section, after the article,  people describing their bad AirBnB experience and their loathing for the company.

AirBnB still hasen't settled with the guests!

For a plaltry difference of $2500 AirBnB made fools of and embarrassed all hosts. 

Who knows how many thousands of dollars in revenue willl be lost due to the mishandling of this incident. Who knows how badly this will turn out as regulators grab onto it for their agendas.

AirBnB cheaped out over $2500 bucks and landed in a big pile of doggy doo doo.

Now they act contrite? 

Yeah, right . . .  as many of teh Globe commentators point out, only because of the Boston Globe.

All hosts who pay attention know that AirBnB customer service is atrocious and hosts have sent warning after warning through this forum warning them to right their ship -- they did not listen.

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosting/How-Do-You-Rate-AirBnB-for-Customer-Service/m-p/718796#M...

You can review this thread above for proof of how hosts view AirBnB Customer Service.

Then put that information in the context of the Boston Globe articles below and how badly they mishandled the incident.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2018/10/10/consumerairbnbfolo/Jzp3N0pblLV3KOwBulAKoM/story.html

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