12 ms·

Airbnb Horror Story Points to Need for Precautions

20 points by mwytock 11y ago

deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
orthoganol 11y ago
The thing we need precaution against is AirBnB hosts who've turned renting out apartments into full fledged businesses. Because in my experience when someone doesn't actually live in the apartment, quality drops and there's no actual home-iness. One exchange: "Is this a mattress? Is it not just a box spring?" "I'm sorry you don't enjoy this type of mattress... For this price point for this rental, this is what you can expect." As far as full apartments go, I'd seriously like to meet one AirBnB host in Japan or China (the main places I've used it) who aren't part of AirBnB based businesses, just 1 person who is actually sharing their home while they're away for a bit, or whatever AirBnB claims it's all about. This is the giant elephant in the room about AirBnB, and I doubt they're ever going to discuss it publicly.
- JohnTHaller 11y ago
  The majority of AirBnB rentals in NYC are "entire place", or at least they were when it was easier to compare available numbers. This despite the fact that renting out your entire place when you're not there is illegal in NYC unless you've specifically been licensed as a bed and breakfast. Not just illegal as in 'violating your lease' (the majority of AirBnb) but illegal as in a violation of the law. Interestingly, AirBnB's NYC commercials only highlight the private room with the family also present since they own the place aspect - which is a very small portion of AirBnB's NYC business.
- dferlemann 11y ago
  In China, many people invest their money in properties. So, you would have a well-off household owns more and more apartments just for safekeeping. I would imagine it's a good opportunity for AirBnB type of services to thrive. At the same time, a lot of Chinese are quite distrusting of unknown person for good reasons. Renting out their own place with all their belongings can just be asking for trouble. Japan on another hand, might be doing a better job welcoming guest to stay over their own home. I wouldn't know though.
dferlemann 11y ago
Companies and products get their reputation damaged often because of the people who answer the call lack of common sense and empathy... At the same time, they expose the problems more effectively than anything else.
rayiner 11y ago
> Still, logic and decency would suggest that when you’re in danger, as Mr. Lopez claimed to be, Airbnb would come to your rescue. Does it? AirBnB doesn't have duties to guests because they're just a transaction middelman. Hotels are liable for the safety of their guests, but they also have control over the premises they rent, which AirBnB does not. Of the various criticisms against AirBnB, this is the least sympathetic one in my opinion (the tragedy of Mr. Lopez's individual situation aside). When you rent off AirBnB, you're renting from some random stranger, with all the attendant risks. You're not renting from a company that bears liability for your well being. That's just the nature of the transaction.
- pen2l 11y ago
  Perhaps the case here is that AirBnB is misleading guests into thinking that it'll assume responsibility equal to the responsibility a hotel would take, when it really doesn't. Anyway, sadly (and obviously) this submission has been flagged, would be better to carry discussion to a lessly-YC controlled platform: https://www.reddit.com/r/TrueReddit/comments/3h7ivz/airbnb_horror_story_points_to_need_for_precautions/ https://www.reddit.com/r/TrueReddit/comments/3h7ivz/airbnb_h...
  - DanBC 11y ago
    It probably got flagged as a dupe. YC and HN keep sayi g that they don't penalise negative stories about YC companies.
    - pen2l 11y ago
      This story hasn't been submitted before. It was ranked #1 for a little while, and promptly was demoted to non-front page. This happens a lot, most people just miss it/forget about it.
      - DanBC 11y ago
        > This story hasn't been submitted before Yes it fucking has. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10064782 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10064782 This version uses a mobile link. The previous version includes a bunch of URLcruft. In fact: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10064782 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10064782 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10063756 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10063756 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10063612 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10063612 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10063555 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10063555 It has had repeated submissions, and one previous submission has over 60 comments. It's probably being flagged as a dupe. EDIT: Also, NYT has a paywall and some people auto-flag any NYT submission.
DanBC 11y ago
See also this thread from a day ago (63 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10064782 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10064782

20 points by mwytock 11y ago

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

The thing we need precaution against is AirBnB hosts who've turned renting out apartments into full fledged businesses. Because in my experience when someone doesn't actually live in the apartment, quality drops and there's no actual home-iness. One exchange: "Is this a mattress? Is it not just a box spring?" "I'm sorry you don't enjoy this type of mattress... For this price point for this rental, this is what you can expect." As far as full apartments go, I'd seriously like to meet one AirBnB host in Japan or China (the main places I've used it) who aren't part of AirBnB based businesses, just 1 person who is actually sharing their home while they're away for a bit, or whatever AirBnB claims it's all about. This is the giant elephant in the room about AirBnB, and I doubt they're ever going to discuss it publicly.

JohnTHaller 11y ago
The majority of AirBnB rentals in NYC are "entire place", or at least they were when it was easier to compare available numbers. This despite the fact that renting out your entire place when you're not there is illegal in NYC unless you've specifically been licensed as a bed and breakfast. Not just illegal as in 'violating your lease' (the majority of AirBnb) but illegal as in a violation of the law. Interestingly, AirBnB's NYC commercials only highlight the private room with the family also present since they own the place aspect - which is a very small portion of AirBnB's NYC business.
dferlemann 11y ago
In China, many people invest their money in properties. So, you would have a well-off household owns more and more apartments just for safekeeping. I would imagine it's a good opportunity for AirBnB type of services to thrive. At the same time, a lot of Chinese are quite distrusting of unknown person for good reasons. Renting out their own place with all their belongings can just be asking for trouble. Japan on another hand, might be doing a better job welcoming guest to stay over their own home. I wouldn't know though.

dferlemann 11y ago

Companies and products get their reputation damaged often because of the people who answer the call lack of common sense and empathy... At the same time, they expose the problems more effectively than anything else.

rayiner 11y ago

> Still, logic and decency would suggest that when you’re in danger, as Mr. Lopez claimed to be, Airbnb would come to your rescue. Does it? AirBnB doesn't have duties to guests because they're just a transaction middelman. Hotels are liable for the safety of their guests, but they also have control over the premises they rent, which AirBnB does not. Of the various criticisms against AirBnB, this is the least sympathetic one in my opinion (the tragedy of Mr. Lopez's individual situation aside). When you rent off AirBnB, you're renting from some random stranger, with all the attendant risks. You're not renting from a company that bears liability for your well being. That's just the nature of the transaction.

pen2l 11y ago
Perhaps the case here is that AirBnB is misleading guests into thinking that it'll assume responsibility equal to the responsibility a hotel would take, when it really doesn't. Anyway, sadly (and obviously) this submission has been flagged, would be better to carry discussion to a lessly-YC controlled platform: https://www.reddit.com/r/TrueReddit/comments/3h7ivz/airbnb_horror_story_points_to_need_for_precautions/ https://www.reddit.com/r/TrueReddit/comments/3h7ivz/airbnb_h...
- DanBC 11y ago
  It probably got flagged as a dupe. YC and HN keep sayi g that they don't penalise negative stories about YC companies.
  - pen2l 11y ago
    This story hasn't been submitted before. It was ranked #1 for a little while, and promptly was demoted to non-front page. This happens a lot, most people just miss it/forget about it.
    - DanBC 11y ago
      > This story hasn't been submitted before Yes it fucking has. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10064782 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10064782 This version uses a mobile link. The previous version includes a bunch of URLcruft. In fact: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10064782 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10064782 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10063756 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10063756 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10063612 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10063612 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10063555 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10063555 It has had repeated submissions, and one previous submission has over 60 comments. It's probably being flagged as a dupe. EDIT: Also, NYT has a paywall and some people auto-flag any NYT submission.

DanBC 11y ago

See also this thread from a day ago (63 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10064782 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10064782