Is it the regular practice? Bait and switch?

[Gil1952]

I rented, well I was thinking I was renting the entire house as it was mentioned: "You’ll have the chalet to yourself". The description was nice and met my needs. However, at the bottom of the page, there is a section "during your stay", which is next to the footer. In that section that is partially hidden, was added that there are parents of the owner who will be staying in the basement of the house.

I didn't see that until my wife mentioned it to me. So I reached out to the owner and asked what is going on? The response was, that indeed there will be another couple staying in the house as well.  At this point, I mentioned that "You’ll have the chalet to yourself". This however didn't make any difference to the owner, and I was told to read more carefully next time.

Airbnb support was on the side of the owner as he generates them revenue, not me. I was told that a separate entrance is considered an entire home. Apparently in eyes of Airbnb homes and basements are not part of the same structure.  The basement can divorce the rest of the house at any time and be on its way to Florida.

The refund for this property was only 50%. So my question is what should I have done? Is it fair practices of Airbnb to support incomplete and misleading listings? By helping them, after all, they help themself, but the reputation in my eyes is gone. I am a comedian, so I take it with a rub of salt, but regardless it is in my opinion an organization that supports such behavior, only lasts so long. What do you think? What would you have done? Have you had similar issues?

[Mark116]

@Sarah977 @Gil1952  Exactly.  I just had an inquiry from someone who wants to know how close we are to the closest subway stop.  This information is literally the first thing you see, its in the thumbnail summary, where if you read nothing else, you will know this.  This person has not read a single sentence in the listing.  Not a single word.

Believe me, hosts don't want guests to show up and be unhappy about the listing details or feel deceived, this doesn't help anyone.  

We urge everyone at our first message to read the listing and the rules fully, we bolster that by mentioning, even though it is in multiple places in the listing that we live in the same house as the airbnb.  But there is only so much a host can do if someone books without reading anything. 

[Huma0]

@Sarah977 

All of my listing titles include 'near tube'. Then of course the description/location section gives more information.

It's amazing how many times I've been contacted by guests asking if the listing is near a tube station.

[Ann72]

@Gil1952 

I agree with @Lisa723 and @Mark116 that there should be a much clearer and more precise way to describe the set-up you booked. 

It isn't the host's fault, exactly, when they're given a few awkward choices and boxed into a description such as @Lisa723 describes.  I see your point that Airbnb could lose customers over this - and @Nick do you think that's what the company wants?  Hosts have asked for the housing description to be improved and it hasn't.  I can see how hard it would be to cover every permutation, but the platform does welcome any and all kinds of housing, so they really should work on this.  It's not like going to a Hilton and choosing between two types of rooms.

Caveat emptor and all that but I am sure that host has had more than one guest who is totally confused.  @Gil1952 these kinds of issues are often revealed in reviews by previous guests, in addition to the hidden details way at the bottom of the page.  (And believe me, many hosts here have complained about how hidden those details are.)  

[Laura2592]

@Ann72 agree! And I would love to see the house rules FRONT AND CENTER. All of them. Not just the boilerplate that ABB puts out there. Hiding house rules, IMHO, is the thing that creates the most distrust of the platform for hosts and guests. 

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Laura2592  Exactly. Hidden house rules and hidden and scattered descriptions are creating problems for both, guests and hosts. And it is so time-consuming...:(

@Gil1952  always read everything before you book. Airbnb wants you to book quickly without thinking much, then when you realize this is not a good fit you can cancel and book another place. This way Airbnb collects its service fee twice 🙂

This is the first thing you see when you look at my listings.... but to no avail....guests don't read and then complain, blame us, give us a low rating, and a bad review because it is not what they assumed it would be. And we all know the assumption is a mother of all fu*kups

[Gil1952]

Why do you folks think AirBnb is reluctant to make changes to the page layout? Just to drive you crazy? Because they can? Mistakes make them money?

[Sarah977]

@Gil1952  Good question. Hosts would like an answer to that, too. It's obviously counterproductive to both hosts and guests.

My take? Airbnb is quite arrogant and thinks their ideas are better than those of their users. Someone in their design department apparently thinks that the way they display things looks good. How it actually functions takes a backseat to the way they want their site to look.

And their main objective is to have bookings roll in as fast as possible. The less guests are required to do before hitting that "Book" button, like actually read through all the  information, the better for them. That it leads to misunderstandings is not their concern, as long as they get to collect their service fees.

[Laura2592]

@Gil1952 simple. They want guests to fall in love with pictures and forgive everything else. They want hosts to fall in love with making extra money, and forgive everything else. So they willfully design a website where the images and very scant info is front and center. All those pesky rules and details can be found if a guest wants to search, but ABB is banking on guests being so starry eyed that they won't bother. 

What you end up with are two sides of a dissatisfied equation. Hosts don't want their houses destroyed and their time wasted. Guests don't want to think they are getting freedom and seclusion to have the police called on their party. Airbnb COULD make things a lot easier and more clear. But they might not make as much money when people realize that all listings are not a fit for what they want to do.

[Mark116]

@Gil1952 I imagine there is some data that tells them the likelihood of booking drops after X minutes at a given listing, and this is why they hide all the details/rules and give hosts not much flexibility on the layout.  They WANT people to look at the pictures and then immediately book, because it's more bookings.

[Gil1952]

I agree. People buy with their eyes. This drives more sales for them, but more pain for you. It looks like there is a consensus that something needs to be done. However not many are taking any action. Why is that? Don't want to be kicked of the platform? Can they block your listing in search?

[Lisa723]

@Gil1952 what sort of action do you mean?

[Gil1952]

@Lisa723 sending complaints to AirBNB, leaving the platform, A/B testing with listing displays.

[Lisa723]

@Gil1952  people are certainly doing the first two of those things, but Airbnb has a monopoly in many markets. I don’t understand what you mean by the third.

[Mark116]

@Gil1952  Complaining to Airbnb is like complaining to god, not only do you almost never get an answer you can't even be sure that anyone is there to hear your story.  Airbnb's greatest strength is it's reach, even VRB* runs a distant second in terms of ability to generate bookings, so it's hard to leave the platform and not take a financial hit, and most hosts don't have either the money or the wherewithall [that may not a word] to market themselves with web site and social media.  Their massive market dominance is exactly why they treat everyone so poorly, and why so many suck it up and stay.  

[Ann72]

@Gil1952  Hosts can and do give feedback and guests can do so as well:  https://www.airbnb.com/help/feedback

Whether and when Airbnb acts on it is a different matter and not under our control.  Over time I have seen changes in response to host feedback, so we keep trying.

Hotels don’t list their rules front and center and neither do airlines, Broadway theatres, or theme parks.  But they are all there somewhere.