6 ms·

Craigslist blocking Airbnb.com

50 points by foxit 14y ago

http://i.imgur.com/ILEyc.jpg While updating our ads today, this is what appeared on the screen. We can't submit an ad that contains airbnb.com. No explanation why.

foxit 14y ago
Image as link: http://i.imgur.com/ILEyc.jpg http://i.imgur.com/ILEyc.jpg
foxit 14y ago
I hope this submission gets noticed. Craigslist is the absolute best way to advertise Airbnb listings. Without it, we're kinda sunk, and it could have a big impact on Airbnb's bottom line.
- SeoxyS 14y ago
  I disagree. I've been an Airbnb host for 6 months now ($13k+ of revenue so far for our spare bedroom / couch in prime SF location, fantastic reviews). We used to use the Craigslist posting feature in the early days, but we now get so many requests that we actually have to decline most, just from organic Airbnb search and referrals. The quality of users referred through Craigslist has historically been lower than organic Airbnb users, so stopping Craigslist was a no-brainer. In fact, the only bad experience we've ever had was a Craigslist guest.
  - foxit 14y ago
    1. You have a prime SF location and your fantastic reviews will always get you a high place in Airbnb's listings. SF and NY have enormous exposure. Enough people coming to town a) need an alternative to high hotel prices and b) are aware of the existence of a site called Airbnb that you will never run short of guests. 2. We don't use the Craigslist posting feature through Airbnb's site. It would make some sense for Craigslist to limit the use of that tool, since they have limited the use of other automated tools (limiting their own utility as a service, but that's beyond the scope of what I'm talking about). This is not being able to type "airbnb.com" into the posting form at all, something quite different. Potential guests ask for reviews, as they should, and we direct them upfront in our Craigslist ads to Airbnb, Homeaway, and other places we have excellent reviews.
- eps 14y ago
  Do you work for Airbnb?
  - foxit 14y ago
    I operate vacation rentals and my family makes part of our living through Airbnb, and thus have an interest in their continued growth and success as a company.
    - Terretta 14y ago
      Would you mind dropping me a note? I'd like to ask you for a bit of advice, but no contact info in your profile. My profile here says how to email me (HN nick, on Google's system).
- foxit 14y ago
  To whomever is downvoting everything I am posting, tell me why. I think this is REALLY important. I didn't want it to pass without notice as when I posted the "Airbnb killer" link 10 days ago; that was worth noting too, but this is vital. Ability to link to Airbnb on Craigslist may not be important in the large markets where people will see your Airbnb ad anyway, as in SeoxyS's case, but for the just-getting-going places where Airbnb wishes to grow, it's vital.
igorsyl 14y ago
Try using an URL shortener such as http://bit.ly http://bit.ly
- ianferrel 14y ago
  When I see a URL shortener in a craigslist ad, I assume it's some kind of spam. I bet a lot of other people do, too.
poppew 14y ago
I think craigslist is notorious for this. I remember they recently blocked my favorite posting app, Bazaar, and all they did was host the images you posted from your phone. This was the simplest most user friendly app to post to craigslist with. So basically craigslist blocked any ad that had an image hosted by Bazaar. Killing Bazaar was a huge disservice to me as I stopped posting as many things to CL and a huge disservice to their community. These guys are doing a disservice to the American public. Imagine how much more used stuff could be sold on craigslist if their interface and experience was better. One statistic is smartphones, which can resell for as much as $200 after two years of use, yet most people leave them in their drawer. If a platform existed where selling and buying was easier, then people that are too busy to use craigslist would have an alternative to give new life to the stuff that is just sitting in their drawer. More people could own higher quality products instead of buying the cheaper new crap as an alternative. We consume way too much new crap. I bet there are >10 million used iphones sitting in drawers, while cost conscious consumer resort to buying the Motorola Triumph as that is all they can afford for $200. I know a lot of people love craigslist, but it is time for something better. It is time to create an efficient and "beautiful" consumer to consumer marketplace that everyone wants to use. Craigslist is huge, but it serves only a fraction of the potential customer base. I would bet more people would use it if some of its fundamental flaws were fixed. End of rant... Let me know if you agree. I am actually doing something about this and am always open to input and help...
- incongruity 14y ago
  > These guys are doing a disservice to the American public. This comment blows my mind. How quickly we take things for granted is astounding. CL is a largely FREE site – I for one have sold around $1k of stuff I didn't want on there in the last decade or so – not much, but I paid exactly $0 for that. Try that with eBay or, even better, your local newspaper classifieds. The entitlement that lurks behind comments like the one above – or at least the hyperbole within it is amusing, at best. CL works – it's far from perfect, sure, but it's perfectly free for most users and most things – the change it has brought about and the value its given to its users makes it a textbook case for service to the American public in my book. Now, if we want to talk about how it can be made better, sure, there's a lot there, but don't blow it up to be a crime against humanity, or God, King or Country...
jeremydavid 14y ago
Perhaps it has something to do with last year's infamous "Craigslist Airbnb scandal"? http://davegooden.com/2011/05/how-airbnb-became-a-billion-dollar-company/ http://davegooden.com/2011/05/how-airbnb-became-a-billion-do... http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2603844 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2603844
philipdlang 14y ago
Its too bad that nobody has figured out how to move onto a better version of Craigslist. Their real estate listings in particular are a major source of pain for New Yorkers, and they even charge for postings there. Craigslist's lack of any customer support opens a black hole for any account issues you may be having.
- andrewfelix 14y ago
  Craigslist has an established audience. It's the same with Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Once a service reaches a critical mass it becomes very difficult to dislodge its position in the market.
- photon_off 14y ago
  People like you contribute to the problem. Your company, Suitey, spams the hell out of craigslist.
bizodo 14y ago
I think it's bc they found out about how airbnb used robots, scrapers and fake gmail accounts to scrub Craigslist and spam people listing their apt.
- jurre 14y ago
  I think you should post some proof when making accusations like that?
  - foxit 14y ago
    I think he's referring to what jeremydavid posted above: http://davegooden.com/2011/05/how-airbnb-became-a-billion-dollar-company/ http://davegooden.com/2011/05/how-airbnb-became-a-billion-do... It's an inaccurate representation of what happened as well as a year-old story, and I don't think it has much relevance to why they chose to block airbnb.com today.
athst 14y ago
I don't understand - why should they allow AirBnB postings in the first place? When someone comes to Craigslist, I think the assumption is that you'll be doing business on Craigslist and not through a third party site like AirBnB. Why should they allow another company to take advantage of their audience if they don't want to?
- andrewfelix 14y ago
  Yeah it's funny the expectations people have of long running commercial services like Craigslist. Craigslist is not a public utility.
  - bahoo 14y ago
    Agreed; but listings do often link out to other external sites. CraigsList seems to draw the line between a property management company and somebody like AirBNB.
    - rhizome 14y ago
      You're generally prohibited from putting links in ads at all, outside of jobs and maybe a couple other categories.
- foxit 14y ago
  This isn't about them allowing postings via airbnb, but rather not allowing the string "airbnb.com" to appear in the ad.
  - foxit 14y ago
    What in the world was this downvoted for. Seriously. I was explaining a misunderstanding. For those who don't know, Airbnb has a posting-to-Craigslist option. It is not an auto-poster; rather, it formats a post into the html that'll be accepted by Craigslist, then you have to log into your Craigslist account to post to Craigslist what Airbnb's given you. We haven't used this option since we started. It does invite you to go to Airbnb's site so the transaction is not being conducted via Craigslist's email system. It chooses "no email - see below" as the default option and does not include a phone number. You can, of course, since you are the poster and it's not being auto-posted, change anything and everything about the format and the options. Then you have our situation, the situation that has developed. We indicate our reviews on Airbnb and other services. The other services remain fine and untouched. But we can no longer show potential customers our Airbnb reviews.
ericd 14y ago
I think this is likely an automatic ban for an unusual non-dictionary word/phrase, probably just another automatic tool in their arsenal against spammers. I don't think Craigslist has it in for AirBNB specifically.
- foxit 14y ago
  I post ads every single day of the week. This is the first occurrence of the term being blocked.
  - ericd 14y ago
    Yeah, it takes a LOT of posts with that unusual word to initiate a permablock of the whole word. Before that, it just counts against your dupe score, I think.
garethsprice 14y ago
I'm guessing they got blocked because of the automated "Post to Craigslist" feature on AirBnb that pushes an AirBnb user through various screens on Craigslist, filling in information automatically, and all the user has to do is hit "Submit" at the end. CL is openly against anything that isn't a human individual expressing their energy by posting ads to another human individual via manually entering text into a mid-90s HTML interface. Anything else is too much like capitalism, man.
- rhizome 14y ago
  It's not about capitalism, it's about the tragedy of the commons. Spend some time in the Craigslist Flagging Forum and see what kind of garbage people are trying to post. Craigslist's persistent value to their users is precisely a function of its self-imposed limitations.
foxit 14y ago
Ha. I see they've gotten around it temporarily by changing the link to airbedandbreakfast.com, as in this ad: http://newyork.craigslist.org/mnh/vac/2983382098.html http://newyork.craigslist.org/mnh/vac/2983382098.html
- rhizome 14y ago
  Ban evasion is never a good strategy, and it reflects poorly on AirBnB that they would start adopting spammer tactics.

50 points by foxit 14y ago

http://i.imgur.com/ILEyc.jpg While updating our ads today, this is what appeared on the screen. We can't submit an ad that contains airbnb.com. No explanation why.

foxit 14y ago

Image as link: http://i.imgur.com/ILEyc.jpg http://i.imgur.com/ILEyc.jpg

foxit 14y ago

I hope this submission gets noticed. Craigslist is the absolute best way to advertise Airbnb listings. Without it, we're kinda sunk, and it could have a big impact on Airbnb's bottom line.

SeoxyS 14y ago
I disagree. I've been an Airbnb host for 6 months now ($13k+ of revenue so far for our spare bedroom / couch in prime SF location, fantastic reviews). We used to use the Craigslist posting feature in the early days, but we now get so many requests that we actually have to decline most, just from organic Airbnb search and referrals. The quality of users referred through Craigslist has historically been lower than organic Airbnb users, so stopping Craigslist was a no-brainer. In fact, the only bad experience we've ever had was a Craigslist guest.
- foxit 14y ago
  1. You have a prime SF location and your fantastic reviews will always get you a high place in Airbnb's listings. SF and NY have enormous exposure. Enough people coming to town a) need an alternative to high hotel prices and b) are aware of the existence of a site called Airbnb that you will never run short of guests. 2. We don't use the Craigslist posting feature through Airbnb's site. It would make some sense for Craigslist to limit the use of that tool, since they have limited the use of other automated tools (limiting their own utility as a service, but that's beyond the scope of what I'm talking about). This is not being able to type "airbnb.com" into the posting form at all, something quite different. Potential guests ask for reviews, as they should, and we direct them upfront in our Craigslist ads to Airbnb, Homeaway, and other places we have excellent reviews.
eps 14y ago
Do you work for Airbnb?
- foxit 14y ago
  I operate vacation rentals and my family makes part of our living through Airbnb, and thus have an interest in their continued growth and success as a company.
  - Terretta 14y ago
    Would you mind dropping me a note? I'd like to ask you for a bit of advice, but no contact info in your profile. My profile here says how to email me (HN nick, on Google's system).
foxit 14y ago
To whomever is downvoting everything I am posting, tell me why. I think this is REALLY important. I didn't want it to pass without notice as when I posted the "Airbnb killer" link 10 days ago; that was worth noting too, but this is vital. Ability to link to Airbnb on Craigslist may not be important in the large markets where people will see your Airbnb ad anyway, as in SeoxyS's case, but for the just-getting-going places where Airbnb wishes to grow, it's vital.

igorsyl 14y ago

Try using an URL shortener such as http://bit.ly http://bit.ly

ianferrel 14y ago
When I see a URL shortener in a craigslist ad, I assume it's some kind of spam. I bet a lot of other people do, too.

poppew 14y ago

I think craigslist is notorious for this. I remember they recently blocked my favorite posting app, Bazaar, and all they did was host the images you posted from your phone. This was the simplest most user friendly app to post to craigslist with. So basically craigslist blocked any ad that had an image hosted by Bazaar. Killing Bazaar was a huge disservice to me as I stopped posting as many things to CL and a huge disservice to their community. These guys are doing a disservice to the American public. Imagine how much more used stuff could be sold on craigslist if their interface and experience was better. One statistic is smartphones, which can resell for as much as $200 after two years of use, yet most people leave them in their drawer. If a platform existed where selling and buying was easier, then people that are too busy to use craigslist would have an alternative to give new life to the stuff that is just sitting in their drawer. More people could own higher quality products instead of buying the cheaper new crap as an alternative. We consume way too much new crap. I bet there are >10 million used iphones sitting in drawers, while cost conscious consumer resort to buying the Motorola Triumph as that is all they can afford for $200. I know a lot of people love craigslist, but it is time for something better. It is time to create an efficient and "beautiful" consumer to consumer marketplace that everyone wants to use. Craigslist is huge, but it serves only a fraction of the potential customer base. I would bet more people would use it if some of its fundamental flaws were fixed. End of rant... Let me know if you agree. I am actually doing something about this and am always open to input and help...

incongruity 14y ago
> These guys are doing a disservice to the American public. This comment blows my mind. How quickly we take things for granted is astounding. CL is a largely FREE site – I for one have sold around $1k of stuff I didn't want on there in the last decade or so – not much, but I paid exactly $0 for that. Try that with eBay or, even better, your local newspaper classifieds. The entitlement that lurks behind comments like the one above – or at least the hyperbole within it is amusing, at best. CL works – it's far from perfect, sure, but it's perfectly free for most users and most things – the change it has brought about and the value its given to its users makes it a textbook case for service to the American public in my book. Now, if we want to talk about how it can be made better, sure, there's a lot there, but don't blow it up to be a crime against humanity, or God, King or Country...

jeremydavid 14y ago

Perhaps it has something to do with last year's infamous "Craigslist Airbnb scandal"? http://davegooden.com/2011/05/how-airbnb-became-a-billion-dollar-company/ http://davegooden.com/2011/05/how-airbnb-became-a-billion-do... http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2603844 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2603844

philipdlang 14y ago

Its too bad that nobody has figured out how to move onto a better version of Craigslist. Their real estate listings in particular are a major source of pain for New Yorkers, and they even charge for postings there. Craigslist's lack of any customer support opens a black hole for any account issues you may be having.

andrewfelix 14y ago
Craigslist has an established audience. It's the same with Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Once a service reaches a critical mass it becomes very difficult to dislodge its position in the market.
photon_off 14y ago
People like you contribute to the problem. Your company, Suitey, spams the hell out of craigslist.

bizodo 14y ago

I think it's bc they found out about how airbnb used robots, scrapers and fake gmail accounts to scrub Craigslist and spam people listing their apt.

jurre 14y ago
I think you should post some proof when making accusations like that?
- foxit 14y ago
  I think he's referring to what jeremydavid posted above: http://davegooden.com/2011/05/how-airbnb-became-a-billion-dollar-company/ http://davegooden.com/2011/05/how-airbnb-became-a-billion-do... It's an inaccurate representation of what happened as well as a year-old story, and I don't think it has much relevance to why they chose to block airbnb.com today.

athst 14y ago

I don't understand - why should they allow AirBnB postings in the first place? When someone comes to Craigslist, I think the assumption is that you'll be doing business on Craigslist and not through a third party site like AirBnB. Why should they allow another company to take advantage of their audience if they don't want to?

andrewfelix 14y ago
Yeah it's funny the expectations people have of long running commercial services like Craigslist. Craigslist is not a public utility.
- bahoo 14y ago
  Agreed; but listings do often link out to other external sites. CraigsList seems to draw the line between a property management company and somebody like AirBNB.
  - rhizome 14y ago
    You're generally prohibited from putting links in ads at all, outside of jobs and maybe a couple other categories.
foxit 14y ago
This isn't about them allowing postings via airbnb, but rather not allowing the string "airbnb.com" to appear in the ad.
- foxit 14y ago
  What in the world was this downvoted for. Seriously. I was explaining a misunderstanding. For those who don't know, Airbnb has a posting-to-Craigslist option. It is not an auto-poster; rather, it formats a post into the html that'll be accepted by Craigslist, then you have to log into your Craigslist account to post to Craigslist what Airbnb's given you. We haven't used this option since we started. It does invite you to go to Airbnb's site so the transaction is not being conducted via Craigslist's email system. It chooses "no email - see below" as the default option and does not include a phone number. You can, of course, since you are the poster and it's not being auto-posted, change anything and everything about the format and the options. Then you have our situation, the situation that has developed. We indicate our reviews on Airbnb and other services. The other services remain fine and untouched. But we can no longer show potential customers our Airbnb reviews.

ericd 14y ago

I think this is likely an automatic ban for an unusual non-dictionary word/phrase, probably just another automatic tool in their arsenal against spammers. I don't think Craigslist has it in for AirBNB specifically.

foxit 14y ago
I post ads every single day of the week. This is the first occurrence of the term being blocked.
- ericd 14y ago
  Yeah, it takes a LOT of posts with that unusual word to initiate a permablock of the whole word. Before that, it just counts against your dupe score, I think.

garethsprice 14y ago

I'm guessing they got blocked because of the automated "Post to Craigslist" feature on AirBnb that pushes an AirBnb user through various screens on Craigslist, filling in information automatically, and all the user has to do is hit "Submit" at the end. CL is openly against anything that isn't a human individual expressing their energy by posting ads to another human individual via manually entering text into a mid-90s HTML interface. Anything else is too much like capitalism, man.

rhizome 14y ago
It's not about capitalism, it's about the tragedy of the commons. Spend some time in the Craigslist Flagging Forum and see what kind of garbage people are trying to post. Craigslist's persistent value to their users is precisely a function of its self-imposed limitations.

foxit 14y ago

Ha. I see they've gotten around it temporarily by changing the link to airbedandbreakfast.com, as in this ad: http://newyork.craigslist.org/mnh/vac/2983382098.html http://newyork.craigslist.org/mnh/vac/2983382098.html

rhizome 14y ago
Ban evasion is never a good strategy, and it reflects poorly on AirBnB that they would start adopting spammer tactics.