let's be careful out there

[Lisa723]

https://www.businessinsider.com/airbnb-hosts-facebook-groups-gossip-guests-2019-10

[Helen427]

@Jennifer1421It's unfair on large families or extended families who may want to gather together for whatever reason to not have listings available for sleeps 16 plus.

I appreciate there are listings that simply shouldn't be listed where they have beds in Living areas and the like but genuine large families/ groups shouldn't be disadvantaged, should they?

[Jennifer1421]

What I meant, @Helen427 , is not that large listings shouldn't be allowed on the platform, but rather that hosts should consider very carefully whether Airbnb is the appropriate site on which to offer them. "Higher end" platforms might be a better choice to list on, as they may offer better protections. I apologize if my comment was unclear.

[Mark116]

It's an interesting juxtaposition, that a host group dedicated to sharing information about bad guests is shut down the same day there is a deadly shooting at an airbnb that was rented by a guest for the purpose of an against the rules house party.  

[Susan17]

There's also a bit of an ugly witch-hunt going on at the moment, with people trying to find out who "infiltrated" the closed FB groups and provided the screenshots of posts and conversations to reporters. It appears that some won't be happy until a scapegoat has been found, and duly subjected to trial by social media.

It doesn't seem to have occurred to anyone however, that the one entity with by far the most to lose by the existence of a FB page that highlights and  exposes the scale and magnitude of the Airbnb Party problem - and the most to gain by its closure - is Airbnb itself. (Nothing more damaging to investor confidence than having one's filthy laundry aired in public).

And as it happens, Airbnb just recruited a raft of brand new Social Media "Specialists" and "Analysts" in recent months too. Perhaps they've hit the ground running.

Also, the original investigation/report into the Airbnb Vent and Airbnb Blacklist groups, was carried out by Skift, a "travel intelligence" media company and marketing platform, whose flagship conference, the Skift Short Term Rental Summit for "a high level audience - Executives, Founders, Hotel Brands, Investors, Media, Property Managers, StartUps, Technologists and Vendors", takes place in NYC on December 5th. Hopefully, they'll have drummed up a few nice ticket sales for themselves ($595 to €895 apiece), on the back of their sensationalist, one-sided article.

The speakers at the salubrious event include top dogs from VC and speculator-backed corporate Airbnb mega-hosts such as Sonder, Stay Alfred, Domio, Turnkey, Vacasa etc (with tens of thousands of listings between them). Also appearing at the event is Andrew Kitchell, CEO of Lyric, another mega-host in which Airbnb itself recently led a $160 million funding round. 

Considering the fact that the unmonitored listings of many of the corporate mega-hosts have - ironically - an abysmal reputation when it comes to wild parties and anti-social guest behaviour, it's all rather convenient that the embarrassing Airbnb Guest Blacklist group has been shut down and eliminated. Better for all that sort of distasteful stuff to be brushed under the carpet. It would only upset the investors... 

https://forum.skift.com/short-term-rental-summit/

[Christine615]

Exactly. This is an AIRBNB problem. This is not a hotel business. This is a booking service that controls all the information flow. So they need to own this!

AIRBNB - you need to collect all user data and provide verification to hosts before a single person books a space. And you need to make it clear that violation of the policy will make them responsible for any and all damages. But you need to own up to - hosts would be safer if you didn't hide information from hosts and then refuse to provide it to the police.

Staying safe means a partnership with hosts. Not a dictatorship. GET YOUR ACT TOGETHER!

[Lizzie]

Hello everyone,

I wanted to be sure that you saw Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky’s response to the tragic incident that happened in Orinda, California, this week. He announced some meaningful investments and changes aimed at better prevention of incidents like this, rapid response if they do happen, and stronger enforcement of higher standards on guests (or hosts) who are responsible for these incidents. Airbnb has assembled a team to accelerate this work—we’ll keep you informed here on the Community Center as more information comes.

Thanks,

Lizzie

[Sarah977]

"Risk detection technology"??? Sure hope it works better than their supposed "ID verification", price tips, and what they "detect" as "similar properties".

[Helen350]

@Sarah977 It's all over the media, just saw it on BBC television news -Airbnb to ban party houses...... https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-50276485 

[Susan17]

@Sarah977 

I guess that means the "cutting-edge" risk assessment predictive analytics and machine learning technology, that they've been telling us all along were specifically designed with our safety in mind, must've actually been pretty sh*te then... 

[Helen427]

And then there's the Guest Facebook forums where Guests write not very nice remarks about Hosts, it's not just one sided.

[Suzanne302]

I see the headline and it really feels like a joke, "Airbnb banning party houses."

Airbnb should have been doing more for HOSTS who have been TRYING to ban parties at their homes. I'm a member of several Airbnb FB groups and I see it over and over. A host is uncomfortable, knows the group is a party but Airbnb pressures them to continue with the booking. Damages occur and of course the host is not reimbursed.

Or a host actually catches a guest in the act of hosting a huge party, and Airbnb does everything they can to appease the guest and in the cases I've seen, refunds the guest for their "trouble."

Hosts have been trying to prevent these types of bookings for a long time, Airbnb has not been listening.

"Mega" hosts are the problem as well. Corporations who have hundreds or thousands of listings don't care what happens to their properties as long as the money keeps rolling in.

[Hugo488]

Don’t use. When the host cancel a reserve, Airbnb only says ok e don’t give any assistance to the guest like me, that reserved three months ago and today, when the host Isabella canceled to give the flat to friends because is carnival, Airbnb only said goodbye. Now the prices are three times mor expensive and I can’t pay. I’ll the money paid on the flight tickets. Airbnb says that don’t have responsibility, but in the law of Brazil has. But Airbnb want only the taxes and give back to the guest, like these children that died in Chile. Let’s exclude them from the commerce. We can!