<story><title>I Accidentally Uncovered a Nationwide Scam on Airbnb</title><url>https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/43k7z3/nationwide-fake-host-scam-on-airbnb</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>greggman2</author><text>I&amp;#x27;ve stayed at 22 airbnb&amp;#x27;s 11 were fine. 11 had issues most with false advertising in some form or another. One listed the wrong location and if they had listed the correct location I would not have rented even though the room&amp;#x27;s interior matched. A few claimed to include onsite parking but didn&amp;#x27;t which of course is very inconvenient. The last one that did that claimed &amp;quot;Easy Street Parking&amp;quot; as AirBnb&amp;#x27;s blatant lie. I usually had to park a mile way or pay for a $25 a night garage a few blocks away. One claimed wifi but was actually just stealing it from the neighbors and it only worked in a corner of the apartment if lucky. Another who I asked if their heaters worked, because a previous one was cold, said yes but when I got their the heater was as loud as a vacuum cleaner and their wifi had a notices &amp;quot;don&amp;#x27;t use much as it will run out&amp;quot;. This for a place I expected to get work done. AirBnb in Japan is full of listing claiming 2 or 3 bedrooms but that actually only have 1 and this isn&amp;#x27;t a cultural issue. Look at any J-apartment rental site and there is zero ambiguity about what 1, 2, and 3 bedrooms are.&lt;p&gt;It bugs me that YC appears to have absolutely no policy of conduct for the companies they fund. It&amp;#x27;s totally within their power to say in so many words &amp;quot;be evil and we&amp;#x27;ll pull your funding and report you to the authorities&amp;quot;. IMO AirBnB is complicit in these issues. There is no punishment for bad listings and often AirBnB doesn&amp;#x27;t even have the options in their system to list them correctly. They even removed my review that included pictures of proof.</text></item><item><author>julienchastang</author><text>There have been a few threads about AirBnb lately with a lot of people reporting negative experiences so I will add my own $0.02. I have stayed in many AirBnbs. The reason is, I find it is the only way to have a tolerable family vacation is when everyone has their own sleeping quarters. When we are all piled into one (often overpriced and not so clean) hotel room, it makes for less than ideal sleep and everyone ends up grouchy. Plus when you travel with children, it is really nice to have a kitchen and a way to do laundry.  At any rate, my observation for all my AirBnb stays is most of them are quite nice. Many hosts go to great lengths to have their guests have a nice stay. There have been a few crappy experiences, but not many. The main downside for me concerning AirBnb is it takes a long time to analyze the listings to find quality accommodations.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>throwaway35784</author><text>Compare that to 100% of My priceline bids being accepted by hotels that were much better than expected and at rates about half what you&amp;#x27;d book directly.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m so glad now after years of never booking an airbnb I can say that with pride. I never gave this scummy company a single dollar. I knew who they were from the first experience.</text></comment>
<story><title>I Accidentally Uncovered a Nationwide Scam on Airbnb</title><url>https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/43k7z3/nationwide-fake-host-scam-on-airbnb</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>greggman2</author><text>I&amp;#x27;ve stayed at 22 airbnb&amp;#x27;s 11 were fine. 11 had issues most with false advertising in some form or another. One listed the wrong location and if they had listed the correct location I would not have rented even though the room&amp;#x27;s interior matched. A few claimed to include onsite parking but didn&amp;#x27;t which of course is very inconvenient. The last one that did that claimed &amp;quot;Easy Street Parking&amp;quot; as AirBnb&amp;#x27;s blatant lie. I usually had to park a mile way or pay for a $25 a night garage a few blocks away. One claimed wifi but was actually just stealing it from the neighbors and it only worked in a corner of the apartment if lucky. Another who I asked if their heaters worked, because a previous one was cold, said yes but when I got their the heater was as loud as a vacuum cleaner and their wifi had a notices &amp;quot;don&amp;#x27;t use much as it will run out&amp;quot;. This for a place I expected to get work done. AirBnb in Japan is full of listing claiming 2 or 3 bedrooms but that actually only have 1 and this isn&amp;#x27;t a cultural issue. Look at any J-apartment rental site and there is zero ambiguity about what 1, 2, and 3 bedrooms are.&lt;p&gt;It bugs me that YC appears to have absolutely no policy of conduct for the companies they fund. It&amp;#x27;s totally within their power to say in so many words &amp;quot;be evil and we&amp;#x27;ll pull your funding and report you to the authorities&amp;quot;. IMO AirBnB is complicit in these issues. There is no punishment for bad listings and often AirBnB doesn&amp;#x27;t even have the options in their system to list them correctly. They even removed my review that included pictures of proof.</text></item><item><author>julienchastang</author><text>There have been a few threads about AirBnb lately with a lot of people reporting negative experiences so I will add my own $0.02. I have stayed in many AirBnbs. The reason is, I find it is the only way to have a tolerable family vacation is when everyone has their own sleeping quarters. When we are all piled into one (often overpriced and not so clean) hotel room, it makes for less than ideal sleep and everyone ends up grouchy. Plus when you travel with children, it is really nice to have a kitchen and a way to do laundry.  At any rate, my observation for all my AirBnb stays is most of them are quite nice. Many hosts go to great lengths to have their guests have a nice stay. There have been a few crappy experiences, but not many. The main downside for me concerning AirBnb is it takes a long time to analyze the listings to find quality accommodations.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>harryh</author><text>YC owns a tiny tiny piece of AirBnB. They definitely do not have any sort of power over the issues that you bring up.</text></comment>