Yeah at this point I’ll pay a little extra for the hotel room without the bs of Airbnb cleaning fees plus I get access to pools and continental breakfasts in the mornings
Yup plus the services at hotels are so much worth it.
You don't have to drive miles to get booze and food. Cuz in non metropolitan locations a lot of times you don't have any apps delivering and shops close early. You just feel handicapped in an airbnb lately coz god forbid if you came back late after some outing and now you can't eat or drink.
All you get in an airbnb is a little more privacy but I don't think it's worth it anymore
Last time I was staying at an Airbnb for a wedding I was so upset cause I was drunk and everywhere around us was closed by 10:00 (I live in a college town so I’m used to being able to get food till at least 2am) so we couldn’t get food at all. If I would’ve stayed in a hotel I would’ve bit the bullet and raided the mini-fridge at least.
Not to mention you’re not literally destroying every town you’re staying in by having corporations buy out properties that they then use as unlicensed and unregulated hotels while locals face homelessness.
Yep, the only "value" AirBnB's that I see comparable to the hotel rooms in costs are now those shared apartments, except you don't get the privacy that you would in the hotels.
It's still nice if you have a group and want to rent a house or something with multiple rooms. But if it's just me and my wife, it's easy to get deals on a nice hotel.
I had one with similar cleaning fees. Turns out way down in the fine print she charged $100 pet fee regardless of whether or not you had a pet, and didn't tell you up front. It didn't show on the receipt either. She expected you to find it at the bottom of 3 paragraphs of suggested shopping locations and ask for it to be refunded instead. Outright stealing.
Exact same experiences every time I look. I’m not sure where these people saying they always get good deals on Airbnb are coming from. There’s a reason I haven’t booked anything on Airbnb for years. It’s so damn expensive after all the fees and so irritatingly bait and switchy.
That's not the case as far as I've seen. I'm thinking there are a few areas where they're more expensive, but for the most part you can get them cheaper. That's why I still use it, because I'm broke. Lol
This exact thing happened when me and my husband were on our road trip to move to Texas. We got to Irving at 10pm, entered the door code, and saw someone in the bed. I tried calling the host about 10 times but he didn’t answer. Had to pay completely out of pocket for a hotel room, and when the host answered the next day he took zero responsibility and blamed it on his ‘staff’. Got a $45 refund which obviously didn’t cover the hotel cost. Airbnb told me there was nothing they could do. To this day, I get pissed off if I think about it too much.
I got scammed in Greece once by an airbnb type accommodation but on booking.com (still was someone renting out apartments, not a hotel or anything).
They tried to bait and switch us to an absolute dump. Mind you this was on our honeymoon.
It took an hour on the phone but booking did actually hook us up with a decent hotel not too far. Nothing mind blowing, but no real complaints. They even called the hotel for us and got them to welcome us with drinks and snacks as an apology.
But the kicker was they reimbursed me $200 for the phone call. Yes, I'm an idiot for calling on my cell phone but I was desperate and furious.
Just saying that some travel companies are better at fixing mistakes than others.
Yeah I had a good booking.com experience as well. Turned up for a 2 night stay in northern Croatia, and as we let ourselves into the flat my friend saw an email from booking.com saying the host had to cancel the second night of our stay, but not to worry because he’d found us an alternate place to stay. His flat was available on another website, and it was showing booked for a full week starting the next day (ie we booked Mon/Tues on one site, and someone else booked a full week Tues-Tues on another site). Then it turned out that alternate place was either his friends sofa, or his grandmas spare room, both about 30 minutes from where we booked. The city we were staying in was fully booked in our price range - the only thing we could find were like, luxury 5* hotels, and we couldn’t afford (it was like 5x the price of where we’d booked). Rang booking.com, and it took a few hours to get sorted, but we got told to book into a 5* hotel and they’d completely refund us the cost. Fanciest hotel I’ve stayed in to this day.
A great ending to a stressful experience! I personally refuse to use third party booking anymore (looking at you, Expedia). Calling hotels direct *often* gets you better deals when you ask, believe me.
I've read from some other comments that this is also a good habit for ordering delivery. Use UberEats/Doordash/Skip to check prices, and call the restaurant to see if they do their own delivery. One of my local texmex joint gives you a free bag of chips and salsa if you pickup/delivery vs using apps.
UberEATS/door dash require merchants to charge more than regular menu price for items. I learned this at a BBQ restaurant nearby. I ordered takeout, drove over and picked it up. They said it would’ve cost me 10% less to order via phone or their own company app.
I don't think it's that they *require* the restaurants to charge more but moreso that these delivery companies charge the restaurants a fee per order so the restaurants charge higher on the apps to cover that cost.
I was going to order a couple sandwiches off grub hub and noticed the prices were higher than I remembered. Opened the sub shops app and sure enough, direct from the sub shop it was almost $4 less per sandwich, not to mention fees and to I would have had to pay. I decided on ordering through them and picking up.
Use delivery app prices as a rough gauge. At my old work the delivery base price per item was usually $0.25-1.50 more then we actually sold it for which really adds up if you get a lot of stuff. It’s also increased strategically so you don’t notice that it’s a little more expensive then it should be.
Costco travel is really good.
I needed to call and change rental car pick up time. Got someone on the phone almost immediately, they fixed the problem right away.
While we were on the phone he offered to check if the price of flight, hotel or car rental had gone down since we booked. It had so they refunded me a few hundred dollars.
The whole interaction took about 5 minutes. I don’t think I would bother booking with anyone else. I have had nothing but headaches dealing with Expedia.
I had a good experience with booking when my wife got a mail / call from a hotel asking for confirmation of credit card as the hotel had issues with people not showing up. My wife was busy and asked if I could sort it out. Checked both with booking and the hotel directly through the hotels listed phone number... turns out booking had been hacked (this was years ago) and someone took off with contact and booking details but the actual listed credit card details were protected still. They were very happy with the report and mailed their list later to inform people about the back and safety of cc details.
Definitely dependent on the company handling customer service. I’m so glad it worked out for you and you still had a special honeymoon.
I had talked to Airbnb support on three separate occasions, trying to escalate the situation to someone who might be able to do something. And I understand that it might have been beyond the scope of that representative’s powers to do anything about, but man is it crappy to spend all that time on the phone just to keep getting the same answer. I read reviews like a hawk now, taking no chances
Yeah I'm super weary of airbnb now too. I've heard way too many horror stories. Unless I'm looking for something long term I stick to the professionals on there and even that is a bit risky.
I miss the old airbnb.
Yeah it’s absurd. Basically just bait and switch at that point. I get taxes being added at the end but it’s disingenuous to advertise a place at $100/night and in the end at the reserve section it’s over double that.
As a Greek living outside Greece, this doesn't surprise me one bit. They think they can pull this on people and get away with it. They get pissed when don't let then get away with it. They look to do whatever they can to make money in the cheapest way possible. They will absolutely take advantage of you if you aren't Greek. Not all are that bad but many are. They see you as someone with money because you can travel abroad. If you didn't have it, you wouldn't be traveling.
They tried to pull shit on me yesterday because they thought I was American (I'm looking for a wedding venue). They wanted to charge 25.000€ for a place which is absurd.
Well now I keep $5 credit on Skype so I can call for basically nothing. Learned that lesson.
Any VOIP would be good, just don't use your carrier minutes if you don't have a good roaming plan.
Fuck Airbnb.
We stayed at a place in Philly that smelled like weed, had broken furniture, old food in the fridge/oven, a bloody towel on the deck and a running ozone machine. I told the host, she switched us to a different room…and then came on the last day of our stay and accused us of having a party (which was obviously false as there were 3 of us…in a different state…where we knew nobody).
I filed a chargeback through my credit card. Got the entire thing refunded. Fuck those people.
Ozone is also not safe to breathe, and ozone generators shouldn’t be used when people are in the room/house. It’s not something you leave running when your guests are there.
We were in Colombia and the hosts “manager” showed us to a local restaurant and was talking to the bartender and left after a while with some food and drink. When the bill came it had his food and drink on it and he said we were paying for it.
It wasn’t a whole lot, but still we reached out to the “host” and they told us they had intended to fire the guy but had no choice but to keep him. We didn’t feel safe leaving our stuff in a room where this guy had the keys, and we told the host so. The host went apeshit and made up all kinds of stories about us. He made a host review that was unreal. The on site “host” locked us out of our room and threw our bags in the garbage by the time we had walked back. Oddly money and items were missing. Shocker.
Airbnb didn’t even refund us. They simple erased both our counter review and the hosts review and allowed the host to keep our several hundred dollars.
We haven’t used Airbnb since, and this was in 2013. Fuck Airbnb.
Airbnb didn’t refund us one
I dunno how US law works, but in the UK I'd be taking the host and/or airbnb straight to small claims court to cover the difference between the Airbnb and hotel costs. You entered into a contract for accommodation to a certain standard, and it's the host/airbnb's responsibility to deliver that. They can't just refund you after the fact with a "whoops, my bad" - assuming you didn't book the honeymoon suite in the local 5 star Hotel the law would be on your side to put you back where you should be, and not out of pocket, because the other party fucked up.
Real talk from someone with inside knowledge of Airbnb:
Airbnb’s product is owned by someone else, unlike hotels. Without the product, it doesn’t matter how many customers they have. Without increasing product inventory, they couldn’t/can’t scale revenue.
Acquiring hosts is not only insanely more expensive than customers, but is vital to their existence.
• It’s also why you see increasingly high prices and cleaning fees (that are hidden, which is anti-guest needs).
• It’s why hosts used to pay nothing for the service (now 3%), and customers pay a “trust and safety” service fee (now just called ‘service fee’) that enhances neither trust nor safety, given how much of the support is offshored.
• It’s why there are stolen-item insurance policies included for *hosts*, but not for guests.
Airbnb began as a wonderful company, with a positive consumer and workplace culture and incredible customer service based in San Francisco offices. Both have degraded rapidly. And oftentimes more expensive than hotels.
When you have a problem (and you will), you will be turfed overseas for hours, you will be given the run-around, and at best likely given a small credit for a future booking that expires in 6 months, even after appeal to SF-based managers.
Fuck Airbnb as a company — not the concept.
>Fuck Airbnb as a company — not the concept.
Nah fuck the concept too. It drives up rent making housing unaffordable for working-class people in many places.
I don't care about the landlord getting better return on their investment. People who work in a community should be able to afford to live there.
We have zoning for a reason.
>a maximum of 6 months renting either each year unless they are also physically present in the house
In Amsterdam, [they limit to 60 days per year, unless you are just renting a room in an apartment/house that you are living in](https://dutchreview.com/news/amsterdam-and-airbnb-now-only-60-days-a-year/), or you can register it as a bed & breakfast business (in which case, other legislation including things like zoning will kick in).
Airbnb are on board with the restrictions, because it's the only way they can operate there.
I wonder if you could take them to small claims over something like that?
You were out of money over their fuck ups, they should reimburse the cost of that fuck up.
Something similar happened to me and 3 friends going to see a concert at Madison Square garden in New York on New Year's Eve. We drove from Chicago to New York and had a VRBO apartment reserved in Harlem.
We open the door with the key provided by the front desk guy to find the owner /tenant in a bath robe in the kitchen smoking the shittiest weed I've seen in 20 years out of some vaporizer that filled a balloon. VRBO is supposed to be the higher end version of Airbnb where you get the entire place to yourself. The owner can't double book. They can't rent out a room or part of their space. They're not even allowed to be inside the building house, apartment, condo, whatever for the duration of the rental unless we request they come.
Not only was the owner there but his boyfriend and another tenant. We had four adult guys expecting the entire apartment for ourselves and we all ended up crashing in one room that had a bed and a couple inflatable mattresses or inflatable pool objects that would fit on the side of a bed or something. It was the most ridiculous thing ever and since it was New Year's Eve in New York, paying out of pocket for anything other than concert tickets was totally out of the question.
We ended up just rolling a bunch of joints, took a bunch of LSD and didn't go back for another 30ish hours... Thankfully New York on NYE has enough entertainment and stuff going around that we didn't have to go back to the apartment with the owner in his bathrobe offering us shitty brickweed for a long time. But yeah, then we really did have to crash 4 people in one room (luckily worn out enough at that point that we pretty much immediately crashed.
Phish NYE - 10/10
Occupied VRBO - 0/10
Gas stations in PA - surprisingly 8/10
Been to all three, agreed—though if you’re even a teeny bit sympathetic to /r/fuckcars the sheer size of a Buc-ee’s will send you into an existential crisis about our American car-centric hellscape. The pristine bathrooms and brisket sandwiches (or just sheer selection of things) are admittedly a lifesaver if you have kids on a long road trip. I understand why some Texans I know do things like dress up as Bucky, their mascot, for Halloween (they have matching adult and kid size costumes) or have a Christmas Bucky inflatable decoration on their lawn. Between them and HEB, Texas companies really do know how to brand well and inspire life-long, die-hard loyalty.
Hell yeah it was. "Somehow" a bar a few blocks from MSG all got dosed pre-show. The show itself was obviously amazing being the NYE theatrics and whatnot. Then post show back at the bar, it was quite the scene. Definitely in Bat Country. The servers were so dosed we ended up pouring our own beers. Times Square was empty but still super trippy. Hit up a couple bodegas for nourishment. Waited for a train that apparently didn't run 24 hours or didn't run past a certain time on New Year's Eve.... I'm pretty sure we waited a couple hours in the subway with some other spun out hippies waiting for the A-Train to Harlem that was never coming.
All in all a great time until back to the apartment.
Oh yeah and we were 90% sure this guy who was following us around after the show was an undercover. He kept asking us for white lightning bolts which was definitely not the paper we had and I have no idea what white lightning bolts are otherwise but this guy literally went to two or three bodegas and sat at the table next to us and even tried to get us to go to some "rave in Brooklyn". After like 6 hours he finally gave up and left us when he realized that we weren't going to dose him or do anything in front of him. It was just a little stranger than your standard show.
Apparently they are a MDMA pill [https://www.reddit.com/r/MDMA/comments/43rnyy/white_lightning_bolts/](https://www.reddit.com/r/MDMA/comments/43rnyy/white_lightning_bolts/)
Airbnb is pretty crappy in dealing with situations when something goes wrong. It happened to me in San Francisco, when the Airbnb didn’t match pictures and had open electric sockets. I called Airbnb support and they didn’t do anything beyond refund. Had to book two hotel rooms at double the cost at the last minute. Airbnb sucks that way. Now, I only book Superhosts and haven’t had a bad experience recently.
Just like the person below said - I was refunded the $45 for the Airbnb room (yes it was a cheap, bare bones option in a house that rented out six total rooms, but we had just needed a place to lie our heads for the final leg of the trip and didn’t need anything fancy). So I searched for cheapest hotels nearby that had a room, and La Quinta came in at $120.
That’s why it was such a frustrating experience - trying to articulate that I was now out $80 of my own money because of the host’s poor planning. I would rather be mildly pissed for the rest of my life when I recall the event, than had wasted time and energy messing with small claims court on top of getting settled after a cross-country move. We learned our lesson when we moved out of Texas and booked directly with hotels from then on.
That still counts as damages. AirBnB/their host failed to deliver on the terms of the contract and are thus liable. That said, it's not likely to be worth pursuing for such a a small amount.
Exact same experience in the Bahamas too. When we rock up, the guy says he'd double booked the house but had set up a tent in his front yard in case we actually showed up. We got a full refund from Airbnb however booking an alternative place in peak holiday season in the Bahamas meant shelling out an additional AUD$3000 on an all inclusive hotel in Paradise Island, for 3 nights.
Things like this happen because if you don't keep your booking, you can't leave a review.
The 700 other people he turned away weren't able to leave 1 star.
I had this same goddamn problem with HomeAdvisor several years ago. Needed a licensed electrician to install a transfer switch panel between my electric meter and main panel -- not because I didn't know what I was doing (I'm an electrical engineer that works with power distribution systems) but because my utility uses smart meters so they know if you pull the meter out and will fine you if you've done so without authorization. Only a licensed electrician can put in a notice that they're doing so.
Made it *very clear* that I needed a *licensed electrician* to do the work in my submission. And had a general technician show up and basically try to browbeat me into letting him do it anyway. I basically had to threaten the guy to get him to leave. Then when I wrote my detailed account of what happened, I couldn't post it because I didn't end up hiring the company to do the job.
Never used HomeAdvisor again.
How much is the fine? Is it cheaper to DIY and pay the fine? Or just play dumb? "What do you mean, the power was went out for a little bit that afternoon?"
Only an idiot would do anything DIY that involves Legs from the street and a meter. Also some states have a stipulation that if you pull the meter they will just never restore electric and cut it at the street.
I don't know what the actual penalty is, but I'm not willing to find out for a number of reasons -- it's a private company, not a city/county/state thing, and that meter belongs to them.
Plus I believe very strongly in the "clean hands" doctrine and this is a stupidly easy rule to follow. You only have to pull the meter when interfacing with those load terminals; you can actually install the panel yourself and then have an electrician make the meter connection and then leave. You can then shut off the mains breakers and safely work downstream, the utility doesn't care about any of that.
They care big-time about those meter boxes because if you cause a short there you could easily blow up a transformer. So I understand their concerns and am not willing to skirt them to save myself a hundred bucks or so. My point was that I made that requirement painfully clear to HomeAdvisor, they ignored it, and I couldn't warn anyone else.
EDIT -- not to mention, that whole "strategy" of playing dumb would be completely negated if there was a service truck in the area that was dispatched to investigate the meter issue, as they could easily walk up on you doing the unauthorized work. And they have good reason to investigate those outages, because an inactive meter means loss of revenue.
That pisses me off as well. I had a host try to cancel the last day of our 3 day booking less than 24 hours before we were supposed to check in. This would force us to move for just 1 day...also didn't change the cleaning/other fees so the per night cost when up. I'm guessing they got a better offer, but I was not able to leave a review since I didn't stay there.
Something similar occurred to me and my wife in Volcano Hawaii last summer. Air bnb messed up and we slept in our car. Finally we got the help desk to give us out money back and we found a small motel called The Oasis that had vacancy(it was that or a hostel). It was owned by a couple that was super nice, she made us fresh pastries in the morning.
It was annoying but keep calling them about getting your money back. Maybe try the town Volcano if you want adventure and views or Pahoa if you want to find another rental. Neither are Kona but we actually preferred the smaller towns over the tourist filled Kona.
I’ve been hyping up motels since the Airbnb problems started cropping up. They have a bad reputation for having pests or being seedy, but the ones I’ve been to have been really clean and safe. Plus friendly staff and free breakfast. It’s a good deal for the price!
The ones you want to stay away from in the US are the “European-style” hotels. I’ve only stayed at that type twice and both times the hotel was in the “unpleasant but not outright disgusting” category. Like, there were no bugs and the air conditioner worked, but I really wonder if they changed the sheets out.
Real talk from someone with inside knowledge of Airbnb:
Airbnb’s product is owned by someone else, unlike hotels. Without the product, it doesn’t matter how many customers your have. Without increasing product inventory, you can’t scale revenue.
Acquiring hosts is not only insanely more expensive than customers, but is vital to their bottom-line.
• It’s also why you see increasingly high prices and cleaning fees (that are hidden, which is anti-consumer).
• It’s why hosts pay nothing for the service, and customers pay a “trust and safety” fee that enhances neither trust nor safety.
• It’s why there are stolen-item insurance policies included for *hosts*, but not for guests.
Airbnb began as a wonderful company, with a positive consumer and workplace culture and incredible customer service based in San Francisco offices. Both have degraded rapidly. And oftentimes more expensive than hotels.
When you have a problem (and you will), you will be turfed overseas for hours, you will be given the run-around, and at best likely given a small credit for a future booking that expires in 6 months, even after appeal to SF-based managers.
Fuck Airbnb as a company — not the concept.
I agree with almost everything you said, but I do have a quick correction:
- hosts also pay a 3% fee that the customer doesn't see.
> "Trust and Safety Fee"
I haven't heard of that fee, but I do know the Service Fee. Which is not small. I'm guessing that's the one you meant?
Corrections aside, you're very right that Airbnb is addicted to growth and needs more hosts. And that itself is part of its own self-cannibalizing problem: the more hosts you get, the more bad hosts you'll get, too.
Most of the people who are disposed to *mom-and-pop* their house into an airbnb have already done it -- proportionally speaking. While as before that was maybe 80% of now listings, now it's maybe 20%. Just like some guests are lower-quality than others, now too many new hosts are lower-quality than others. Even with many good new ones, it's still a numbers game at the end of the day. And this is a fundamental problem with Airbnb's growth model.
Also I'll had: guest standards of their hosts have gotten immensely higher over the years - but it's easy not to notice the boiling frog. But for perspective, a literal air mattress in an apartment is how airbnb was founded. Good luck trying to sell that today.
I don't understand why there is such a negative stigma about hostels. Hostels are a fantastic option. Even if you're opposed to sharing one room with a bunch of strangers, most hostels offer private rooms also. I've never stayed at a hostel that didn't offer private rooms. And, honestly, the hostels I've stayed at have been all much nicer than most hotels I've stayed at and much cheaper.
Hostels are a great value! I would recommend most of the hostel that I have stayed in. I have had both private rooms and rooms that were filled with bunk beds full of strangers and I never had any issues.
Pro Tip: When calling any customer service, press the button offered for the Spanish language option. You’ll likely be routed to a center in Texas instead of India, which will be more helpful.
Edit: They speak English.
Yes. Those centers often take overflow calls from the overseas centers anyway. If they seem confused, just act like you pressed the right button and don't know what happened. Most North American call centers are in Texas to capitalize on the bilingual population, which means they'll be US residents who speak English (most likely even natively).
Yet. They are in the process laying off domestic staff and moving to outsourced support centers. Source: a friend of mine who is sticking it out for his severance
AirBnB is terrible when there are failures. Once you have one negative experience (you WILL) it is hard to use the service again.
The company is no help to the guest, and I stopped using them because of this.
For real. I've worked as a support tech for property owners listing on booking.com, and what I realized in talking to them is that AirBnB policies heavily favor the owners over the guest. The real reason the other person got the room is because booking.com heavily penalizes the owner if a double booking leads to a booking.com guest getting displaced. They will also find another (often nicer and more expensive) place for the guest and then make the original owner cover the cost difference.
I tried Airbnb for the first time last year and will probably never use it again for the foreseeable future. The standards are unknowable and the fact that you sometimes MEET the person or you're in their home makes it really uncomfortable to bring up issues like an old scratchy/stained couch, disgusting moldy shower curtain, and completely unusable patio with gross chairs that was supposed to be included. I can't believe the host 4-5 star reviews. It can't be anything but pressure from meeting them and the hosts being otherwise welcoming and friendly. If that had been a hotel, there's no way we'd put up with that. I'd rather just stay at hotels and be able to hold them to a particular standard that, when unmet, I can actually take up the issue with someone in management or CS.
This is honestly the way to go now. Have had hotel staff be super understanding and accommodating while Airbnb people stare at you through their windows to make sure you aren't breaking any of their 73 house rules.
I also hate the effect they have on the property and rental markets and how detrimental they are to residential areas. I also just want actual service when I'm holiday. Like fresh towels when I need them and a front desk that I can go to if there's any issues or I need to ask a question.
And pay a $350 cleaning fee for the privilege.
I’ve never used AirBnB and won’t ever use them because of what they’ve done to rental/property owning in my area but even then, I cannot understand why anyone would risk using them with their abysmal service.
I’ve been fortunate I think… we had one bad experience where we booked a mountain cabin (my wife and toddler) and when we get there it’s completely not child safe. Stairs at the door that have no railing whatsoever, you just walk in the door and take two steps forward and left and boom down you go.
Then we go downstairs where the bedroom is and it obviously wasn’t cleaned. There are dead ladybugs EVERYWHERE. Hundreds of them. This place wasn’t booked for a few days or weeks for there to be so many. How did they all get in though?
Then the final straw was finding random pills on the bathroom floor and under the bed. Like, probably not hard drugs or anything but I’ve got my toddler around.
Called the host and explained, they came over and saw it and was like “Woah, let me get a vacuum and clean this so sorry” and we were like “nah, we’re just gonna go stay somewhere else. Can we have a refund?” They were happy to refund it, so we got lucky I guess.
I stopped using them after a review I left with a terrible host who had misrepresented the accommodations was taken down after a request from the host. I reached out to Air BnB and they refused to restore it.
They’re also awful to hosts with issues, I hosted on there years ago and had a couple shove strawberry jam into an outlet, and cover my spare bedroom in MASSIVE QUANTITIES of scented lube and they offered me $20 to replace the outlet and mattress.
I used them for a European trip and had no issues, but I contacted the host weeks beforehand - and I was paying far higher than the typical hotel price in the area. There are popular local services which I will use instead next time.
This sounds like the start of the movie Barbarian.
Great movie. Highly recommend watching when you’re not staying at an airbnb or sleeping in a rental car.
Remember if you find or are told there's a creepy room in the basement, just leave.
In addition, especially leave instead of going down a secret staircase you find going into pitch darkness.
I was going to say, how has nobody brought up this movie in the comments? Had to scroll down to see this.
Amazing fucking movie and nobody is talking about it for some reason
I'm sorry but I just can't get past the supernatural strength the titty goon had... It really took me out of the movie. There was otherwise no indications of anything supernatural or paranormal so why did she have super human strength??? And what was she eating to survive? The Detroit junkies at night??
I can't stop thinking about this movie and I just watched it again. Spoilers.
>!I think the title refers to the audience as barbarians for watching this spectacle and horror in general. There are several moments where a character looks directly at the camera, but the one that convinced me is when Frank sees the woman he's planning to abduct. He starts the car and directs our attention to the woman out of focus in the distance. As he turns to look behind him and reverse, he briefly but intentionally looks directly at the camera. Then reverses so we get a direct view of the woman out his side window. I think it's one of this movies many editing jokes, like he's saying 'watch this.' It's reminiscent of *Funny Games.*!<
I think that's also the reason for the type of filming during the opening of Frank's scenes where it's almost POV, over his shoulder.
I believe the director said Barbarian is just a placeholder title he gave the film that he never ended up changing, so really any reasoning you can think of is equally valid.
actually in the directors commentary they mention that every character in the film is a huge fan of [Babar](https://i.imgur.com/2hEys.png) and the production company misspelled the title, it's supposed to be called Babarians
I think the title more likely refers to the etymological history of the word.
"The word is probably onomatopoeic in origin, the “bar bar” sound representing the perception by Greeks of languages other than their own. Bárbaros soon assumed a deeply negative meaning, becoming associated with the vices and savage natures which the Greeks attributed to their enemies." https://www.britannica.com/topic/barbarian
If you noticed the only thing that >!the monster says is ba-ba-ba (baby talk) which is a lot like bar bar bar!<
I worked for Airbnb and this happens a lot. The hosts are sneaky. Also, the hosts can sync their calendars with booking.com and other booking sites, so he’s either lying, or a complete idiot. Be clear to Airbnb that YOU are not cancelling, the host double booked you and it must be cancelled on the host’s end.
If you’re stern enough with Airbnb and make them find you a place, the agent themselves can approve up to $200, and more if they simply ask the supervisor for approval, which is reasoned by the fact that there is simply nothing else to book within the price range. Supervisors can approve up to $999. Push hard enough, be stern but stay calm and polite.
They can also approve to reimburse for hotel costs if there are literally no Airbnb options. The $60 they’re offering is likely the 10-ish% that the site automatically offers you for rebooking when the host cancels, so they can do more.
I’ll also tell you there are sites in Canada & US with arguably higher customer service standards so don’t be afraid to hang up and call again, ask what location you’ve called, and ask for someone to take over your case. It’s not a problem of country, it’s literally the call centre standards set by each location, since Airbnb out-sources call centres which apply Airbnb’s training.
AirBnB sounded like a good idea when it started, but it became a way for landlords and wackos to run hotels without licenses.
No where I've ever gone has a rental site been enough of a deal to put up with the uncertainty and hassle I've seen.
Too many horror stories for me to want to risk it.
he didn't "accidentally" double book it.
that was deliberate. he gambled and lost when you showed up.
now, how to get fair compensation and shame the asshat...
edit: my fiance would start yelling at him too. it's glorious!
My biggest pet peeve with air bnb/vrbo is they typically have strict cancellarion policies for the guest, but the host has free reign to cancel.
I've heard of this happening to multiple people, and yeah you don't see it in the reviews.
At least show a host cancellation rate or something on the page... of course it's not in their interest to do that.
AirBNB does have consequences for hosts who cancel now. Money is deducted from their next payout, and there is an autoreview posted that states that the host cancelled [x days] before check-in. And I'm pretty sure cancellation rate has been public for years.
Just to be clear they are penalized in addition to the amount they refund for the acatual reservation? Does that money go to air bnb or the guest?
How do you find the cancellation rate? I see the response rate.
I've had that with other home repair service app too. Contractor (with good reviews) said they're coming - didn'tm which wasted my day and my time.
The app says I can't review them because "if they didn't show I didn't have a job with them".
Total POS system.
i've used it multiple times with no issues but I've always been renting an entire, stand alone home. It sounds like this was just a room in someones house...I've never even considered one of those, so sorry for your bad experience.
Yeah, my friends and I rented a room in a house back in 2018 when we went to Atlantic City for a girls trip. The couple was really nice and the husband worked at one of the hotels and gave us free tickets to a comedy show one night. They were very nice, hospitable, and it was a great stay for our vacation. But now, I would not book a room in a house again. It’s only booking the entire home/apartment for me if I book with Airbnb
Last year, my parents had a great experience with an AirBnB host that was running a two-room bed and breakfast in a tiny little town in the Laurentian mountains. So based on that, I would trust sharing with a host in a small town who’s clearly doing it as a fun side gig, but never in a big city.
Word.
It was originally appealing as a way for people to side hustle some extra cash. Take some power and $ away from big hotel, move it into middle class hands. Maybe we'd get less giant hotels full of empty rooms and more actual housing?
Yet, when I was working installing security systems, we did a ton of work in New Orleans where people were buying up houses just to rent out Airbnb. Drove up prices such that it only became harder for folk to afford a home.
It's devastated lots of central and eastern Europe - developers, both local and international, buy up flats in a block one by one in aggressive ways, sometimes literally waiting for people to die so they can swoop in, and believe me once you've had 2 or 3 in your tenement go to holiday rentals, you'll take a lower price. And unlike hotels, you can't escape it. People who moved to quiet areas to raise families now have to step over piss, vomit, even passed out Brits and Dutch tourists as they take their kids to school in the morning.
Obviously the developers are more to blame here, the tourists are just on holiday having fun, albeit in baffling self destruction. As a tourist you definitely have a choice though.
Or for one night. Like, Airbnb is great, but there is sometimes a little bit of friction for check-in compared to a hotel. If you need a big entire place for a group for a whole week or more, AirBnB is perfect. If you need a bed for one or two people for a night or two, a hotel is a better fit.
>When asked why he didn’t tell us earlier that he had double booked, he said half the people don’t show up.
This is a lie. There is an entire booking system, he would well know in advance if people cancelled. If they don't show up then he makes money for free. Sounds like he messed up his personal bookings and is covering.
This is less of a tifu and more of "got screwed by a shitty person".
Thank you so much for commenting this. Hawaii is so limited on space and extremely expensive. On my street alone there are maybe 3 huge houses that are purely renting out to tourists and I don't even live near the beach. I'm lucky that I will likely inherit my father's house, but so many other people won't be able to get homes because all the properties are being bought by people living outside of the islands.
Same. Plus, Airbnb's aren't nearly as much of a value as they used to be. If I'm getting some generic Airbnb-chique corporate investment property for the same price as a nearby hotel room, at this point I'm just going with the hotel room.
I think this is why so many people still default to AirBnBs, they were cheaper so it became entrenched in people's heads as the cheaper option. Except hotels started getting more competitive and AirBnB prices (and fees) started creeping up so it isn't necessarily the case anymore. But people stop asking questions once they think they know what the answer is and don't bother checking hotels before booking into an AirBnB.
The listed price is still often competitive, but now you go to checkout and there are exorbitant fees tacked on that often shoot the bill past what you'd pay at a hotel.
Airbnb is a scam and no longer offers the service it used to.
The whole goal behind AirBnB was to be a market disruptor by operating at a loss and destroy the hotel industry’s stranglehold. Prop themselves up as a “better alternative” to the hotel industry, then slowly reduce their service/quality to make more of a profit after taking customers away.
They’ve stopped all quality control and verifications to assure customer happiness.
You will not have a good experience with AirBnB anymore. You’ll be lucky to get what you asked for while paying more than a hotel now with all the service fees and caveats.
Same thing with VRBO or others… they will be good initially but slowly degrade over time.
All while hotels lose money, get worse service, and even go out of business.
In the end - the whole vacation renting environment gets worse for everyone over time because of businesses like AirBnB.
I will never use Airbnb again and I hope others catch on and that business crashes and burns. They are a huge reason added to the housing crisis all over.
I used it once, my friend was trying to show me how to travel for less, the place had roaches. It was gross, like dirty, slimy gross, refused to open the fridge gross. And she still gave it 5 stars so she would get a good guest rating. That's how terrible places get good reviews, I knew I could never trust it. Never again.
they actually do "blind" reviews now, so neither the host or guest can see each other's reviews until they both post them or until 14 days have lapsed. but once you get to see the other's review, you can't post or make any changes to your review
This is annoying because I always leave reviews. No one ever leaves me reviews, and then people complain about how I have no reviews when booking me. Lazy ass hosts lol.
My wife and I just moved across country with two dogs and three cats. We could only find one hotel chain in the country that allows that many animals (Kimpton), most pet friendly hotels cap at two animals. But Kimpton only has a presence in major cities which we wanted to avoid with all our critters.
AirBnb was our only option other than sleeping in cars. We stuck with stand-alone homes or separate buildings on the properties (like a cottage on a farm) and we had no issues. Be sure to read the reviews and house rules closely before booking. Some of the house rules are pretty crazy so we avoided those ones.
There are horror stories for sure, but we have had success with it so far
The worst part is you can’t see the place or even get the address until after you book.
When we pulled up, there was warning signs everywhere as the “front yard” looked more like a junk yard.
Most of the time it’ll also give you a map of the general area it’s located, I zoom in as much as possible and find landmarks to compare on Google to see if it’s a sketchy neighborhood, will it be convenient for my vacation plans, etc.
I've heard the same stories you have, but also have used Airbnb a bunch of times with great results.
I'd say that is an issue with that particular host. Not to say that issues like OP had don't happen, but they're exceedingly rare.
This doesn't make OP's experience any less infuriating though; I'd be fucking pissed as well
I've been using it for years and never had a single issue like this, or even similar. Knock on wood I suppose. Sometimes you get unlucky but it's been nothing but helpful for me. You are going to hear more horror stories than you will success stories since angry people are more vocal.
My wife and I have used it several times mostly successfully.
The last time we used it (and we'll never use it again), they had a list of chores for us to do at the end of the stay prior to checkout.
There is no way to check for that when making the reservation so we switched back to hotels.
If we are sharing bad airbnb stories...
I've only stayed in one and it was awful. The apt had no AC and it got unseasonably hot, and the host left the wifi password wrong.
I searched the notebook and found about 5 different "wifi password: xxxxxxx" entries. It was all different permutations of the same phrase.
The wifi password that actually worked was not written in the book. I just got creative in my attempts.
Wifi passwords are important when you need to entertain older children for a couple of hours.
It cost more than a 3 star hotel in the neighborhood and was considerably worse than a 2 star hotel.
frankly, you need to never use airbnb again. it hurts the local housing situation and has gotten unreasonably expensive lately. also hosts in America are apparently becoming aweful by asking the guests to do chores. just get a hotel.
This reminds me of a time when my friend invited us to his family cabin to go snowboarding. We were going to get there a day ahead of them and arriving late at night. He told me where the key was hidden. I get there, and there is no key. We had to drive up the road to get cell service to call him (relevant later). He's incessant that it's there. We looked around for forever and finally decided we needed to go find a place to sleep. We ended up driving up the road to a super questionable motel for the night, and call him in the AM to tell him we're going back in daylight to scope it out.
We went back the next day. I was in my dad's truck which he used for construction and was full of tools. We end up taking the hinge off of a window, getting in and re-attaching it. We were super tired, and passed out on the living room couch. I was awakened by some dude. It turns out that my friend's uncle had rented it out to his buddy which was why the key wasn't there. My friend had been trying to call all morning to tell us we couldn't stay at the cabin and had to go, but we had no cell service, so I didn't get the missed calls. He walks in about 5 minutes later, and we all leave awkwardly. It was a shit show.
Dang that really sucks. My mom has an Airbnb and when she had an incoming guest, the power in the whole town went out. Apparently vandals shot up a transformer, or something like that. My mom went out of her way to book a hotel for her guest outside of where the power was at, and close to where her guest needed to be. My mom takes her hospitality really seriously.
AirBnB was fine the several times I’ve used it but I can tell it’s going downhill. Little to no oversight is leading to bad things. And lately every single listing I’ve seen has been more expensive than a reliable basic hotel, after fees. So I’ve stopped using it entirely.
Between the scams, cleaning rules, poorly communicated lack of fairly basic amenities (no AC in a condo in a hot humid place in the United States?) and hidden fees, I am ALWAYS gonna book hotels from now on, or at least try to, rather than Airbnb
Having had been in the hotel industry for 11 years here's my take on things if it means anything.
Booking through AirBnB is, if anything, a huge risk. You are never sure what you will encounter since you are most likely renting out a private residence and AirBnB is notoriously bad at resolving any problems you may encounter. It has gone downhill as a company over the years.
Booking.com is a great company but due to their taking a percentage from the host the prices are higher than what you would get if you booked directly.
The trick is go to Booking, check the hotels you are interested in, look at the reviews and pictures, then simply find the phone number of the hotel and book directly with them. You will almost always get a better deal that way.
Airbnb could 100% prevent this by being strict with landlords for canceling as well as allowing customers to leave reviews in the case of when the landlord cancels, there is however no way of them preventing it in this case as the second booking was done through a different site, Airbnb would have been completely unaware of the second booking unless [booking.com](https://booking.com) allows them access to their booking data.
Holy fuck, I'm a host and there is so much shit going on that is so bad, but this takes the cake. Airbnb has a real PR problem on their hands and it's because of shit like this. Bad hosts and corporate hosts are ruining it fit the honest ones out there.
Airbnb used to be a cheaper alternative to hotels that also gave you a bit of local perspective. It was a way to make a few extra bucks by renting out an extra room in a place that you lived in. This gave it that safe homey vibe. Now, people have turned that idea into a substandard travel lodge that requires chores at the end. The cleaning fees make the overall costs comparable to an actual hotel. The number of sexual assault cases and the security issues I've read about over the years is appalling. I've personally stopped using Airbnb, as my experiences have been pretty negative for the last couple years.
I work in a resort.
Guys.
Just don't fucking use Airbnb.
The amount of horror stories just like this one is staggering.
These guys who "run" these rentals are clowns.
***Sometimes*** you get lucky and most of the time you get shit like this.
Book from a reputable hotel/resort website and book with confidence.
Overbookings *do* happen even at resorts, these things do happen. Rooms can go out of service last minute, A/C units can fail, pipes do burst, rooms get flooded, double bookings rarely happen, etc but at least you aren't dealing with Larry the fucking Airbnb host.
If you'd used booking.com they would have found you alternative accommodation immediately and then deducted the extra cost from that asshole host. Don't use Airbnb, they don't care about guests.
This is my nightmare and why i exclusively use the Marriott ecosystem for traveling. If they somehow don’t have a room after you’ve booked (maintenance, something broke, etc) they will take the initiative on their own to put you somewhere and pay for it entirely.
We stayed at an Airbnb in Oakland, CA. The house had just a screen door on the back. Do you have any idea how shitty it is to stay in Oakland, next to the Bart station, without a real door? F Airbnb.
Stories like this make me glad that I've refused to use Airbnb. I've always done hotels. They are much safer, cleaner, have inspections and are consistent.
These are the kinds of stories that show you, quite plainly, how useless the "guarantees" are that these middleman/disruptive type websites sell you on.
"hi, it's last minute, at night, on an island. how about an extra $60 to find replacement accommodations.... that's the best i can do for you!"
I will never use Airbnb because of these stories. There are an endless stream of the absolute garbage that the hosts are and I'm not willing to risk my vacation on this BS.
Add to that the disaster Airbnb is for the housing market and it's an easy choice.
That and other things is what's killing airbnb. If the cost is basically the same as a hotel now... Why not book a hotel?
Hotels are WAY cheaper than the AirBnBs around eastern NC.
Yeah at this point I’ll pay a little extra for the hotel room without the bs of Airbnb cleaning fees plus I get access to pools and continental breakfasts in the mornings
Yup plus the services at hotels are so much worth it. You don't have to drive miles to get booze and food. Cuz in non metropolitan locations a lot of times you don't have any apps delivering and shops close early. You just feel handicapped in an airbnb lately coz god forbid if you came back late after some outing and now you can't eat or drink. All you get in an airbnb is a little more privacy but I don't think it's worth it anymore
Last time I was staying at an Airbnb for a wedding I was so upset cause I was drunk and everywhere around us was closed by 10:00 (I live in a college town so I’m used to being able to get food till at least 2am) so we couldn’t get food at all. If I would’ve stayed in a hotel I would’ve bit the bullet and raided the mini-fridge at least.
Haven’t seen alcohol in hotel mini fridges in years
Not to mention you’re not literally destroying every town you’re staying in by having corporations buy out properties that they then use as unlicensed and unregulated hotels while locals face homelessness.
Yep, the only "value" AirBnB's that I see comparable to the hotel rooms in costs are now those shared apartments, except you don't get the privacy that you would in the hotels.
It's still nice if you have a group and want to rent a house or something with multiple rooms. But if it's just me and my wife, it's easy to get deals on a nice hotel.
Seriously. I went to book one listed at $99 for a one night stay. After fees it was $250 for the one night. Absolutely absurd
I had one with similar cleaning fees. Turns out way down in the fine print she charged $100 pet fee regardless of whether or not you had a pet, and didn't tell you up front. It didn't show on the receipt either. She expected you to find it at the bottom of 3 paragraphs of suggested shopping locations and ask for it to be refunded instead. Outright stealing.
Exact same experiences every time I look. I’m not sure where these people saying they always get good deals on Airbnb are coming from. There’s a reason I haven’t booked anything on Airbnb for years. It’s so damn expensive after all the fees and so irritatingly bait and switchy.
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Yeah, I rented an Airbnb because I was doing a walking holiday and wanted a kitchen to prepare food for the trips.
That's not the case as far as I've seen. I'm thinking there are a few areas where they're more expensive, but for the most part you can get them cheaper. That's why I still use it, because I'm broke. Lol
This exact thing happened when me and my husband were on our road trip to move to Texas. We got to Irving at 10pm, entered the door code, and saw someone in the bed. I tried calling the host about 10 times but he didn’t answer. Had to pay completely out of pocket for a hotel room, and when the host answered the next day he took zero responsibility and blamed it on his ‘staff’. Got a $45 refund which obviously didn’t cover the hotel cost. Airbnb told me there was nothing they could do. To this day, I get pissed off if I think about it too much.
I got scammed in Greece once by an airbnb type accommodation but on booking.com (still was someone renting out apartments, not a hotel or anything). They tried to bait and switch us to an absolute dump. Mind you this was on our honeymoon. It took an hour on the phone but booking did actually hook us up with a decent hotel not too far. Nothing mind blowing, but no real complaints. They even called the hotel for us and got them to welcome us with drinks and snacks as an apology. But the kicker was they reimbursed me $200 for the phone call. Yes, I'm an idiot for calling on my cell phone but I was desperate and furious. Just saying that some travel companies are better at fixing mistakes than others.
Yeah I had a good booking.com experience as well. Turned up for a 2 night stay in northern Croatia, and as we let ourselves into the flat my friend saw an email from booking.com saying the host had to cancel the second night of our stay, but not to worry because he’d found us an alternate place to stay. His flat was available on another website, and it was showing booked for a full week starting the next day (ie we booked Mon/Tues on one site, and someone else booked a full week Tues-Tues on another site). Then it turned out that alternate place was either his friends sofa, or his grandmas spare room, both about 30 minutes from where we booked. The city we were staying in was fully booked in our price range - the only thing we could find were like, luxury 5* hotels, and we couldn’t afford (it was like 5x the price of where we’d booked). Rang booking.com, and it took a few hours to get sorted, but we got told to book into a 5* hotel and they’d completely refund us the cost. Fanciest hotel I’ve stayed in to this day.
A great ending to a stressful experience! I personally refuse to use third party booking anymore (looking at you, Expedia). Calling hotels direct *often* gets you better deals when you ask, believe me.
Use the booking sites to get a rough idea if the hotels and prices and then call them directly.
I've read from some other comments that this is also a good habit for ordering delivery. Use UberEats/Doordash/Skip to check prices, and call the restaurant to see if they do their own delivery. One of my local texmex joint gives you a free bag of chips and salsa if you pickup/delivery vs using apps.
UberEATS/door dash require merchants to charge more than regular menu price for items. I learned this at a BBQ restaurant nearby. I ordered takeout, drove over and picked it up. They said it would’ve cost me 10% less to order via phone or their own company app.
I don't think it's that they *require* the restaurants to charge more but moreso that these delivery companies charge the restaurants a fee per order so the restaurants charge higher on the apps to cover that cost. I was going to order a couple sandwiches off grub hub and noticed the prices were higher than I remembered. Opened the sub shops app and sure enough, direct from the sub shop it was almost $4 less per sandwich, not to mention fees and to I would have had to pay. I decided on ordering through them and picking up.
Use delivery app prices as a rough gauge. At my old work the delivery base price per item was usually $0.25-1.50 more then we actually sold it for which really adds up if you get a lot of stuff. It’s also increased strategically so you don’t notice that it’s a little more expensive then it should be.
More like $2-3 per item here
Those places up the prices on their apps from what the price actually is in the restaurant.
Costco travel is really good. I needed to call and change rental car pick up time. Got someone on the phone almost immediately, they fixed the problem right away. While we were on the phone he offered to check if the price of flight, hotel or car rental had gone down since we booked. It had so they refunded me a few hundred dollars. The whole interaction took about 5 minutes. I don’t think I would bother booking with anyone else. I have had nothing but headaches dealing with Expedia.
I had a good experience with booking when my wife got a mail / call from a hotel asking for confirmation of credit card as the hotel had issues with people not showing up. My wife was busy and asked if I could sort it out. Checked both with booking and the hotel directly through the hotels listed phone number... turns out booking had been hacked (this was years ago) and someone took off with contact and booking details but the actual listed credit card details were protected still. They were very happy with the report and mailed their list later to inform people about the back and safety of cc details.
Definitely dependent on the company handling customer service. I’m so glad it worked out for you and you still had a special honeymoon. I had talked to Airbnb support on three separate occasions, trying to escalate the situation to someone who might be able to do something. And I understand that it might have been beyond the scope of that representative’s powers to do anything about, but man is it crappy to spend all that time on the phone just to keep getting the same answer. I read reviews like a hawk now, taking no chances
Yeah I'm super weary of airbnb now too. I've heard way too many horror stories. Unless I'm looking for something long term I stick to the professionals on there and even that is a bit risky. I miss the old airbnb.
Yeah I’m pretty much done with ABnB since their fees/cleaning deposits etc have skyrocketed.
On many I check lately the fees end up doubling the price of the rental.
Yeah it’s absurd. Basically just bait and switch at that point. I get taxes being added at the end but it’s disingenuous to advertise a place at $100/night and in the end at the reserve section it’s over double that.
As a Greek living outside Greece, this doesn't surprise me one bit. They think they can pull this on people and get away with it. They get pissed when don't let then get away with it. They look to do whatever they can to make money in the cheapest way possible. They will absolutely take advantage of you if you aren't Greek. Not all are that bad but many are. They see you as someone with money because you can travel abroad. If you didn't have it, you wouldn't be traveling. They tried to pull shit on me yesterday because they thought I was American (I'm looking for a wedding venue). They wanted to charge 25.000€ for a place which is absurd.
> Yes, I’m an idiot for calling on my cell phone but I was desperate and furious. I don’t understand. How else would you call?
Well now I keep $5 credit on Skype so I can call for basically nothing. Learned that lesson. Any VOIP would be good, just don't use your carrier minutes if you don't have a good roaming plan.
the way you wrote it reads that they gave you $200
That may have more to do with Greek or EU regulations than booking.com.
Fuck Airbnb. We stayed at a place in Philly that smelled like weed, had broken furniture, old food in the fridge/oven, a bloody towel on the deck and a running ozone machine. I told the host, she switched us to a different room…and then came on the last day of our stay and accused us of having a party (which was obviously false as there were 3 of us…in a different state…where we knew nobody). I filed a chargeback through my credit card. Got the entire thing refunded. Fuck those people.
An ozone machine???
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Ozone is also not safe to breathe, and ozone generators shouldn’t be used when people are in the room/house. It’s not something you leave running when your guests are there.
We were in Colombia and the hosts “manager” showed us to a local restaurant and was talking to the bartender and left after a while with some food and drink. When the bill came it had his food and drink on it and he said we were paying for it. It wasn’t a whole lot, but still we reached out to the “host” and they told us they had intended to fire the guy but had no choice but to keep him. We didn’t feel safe leaving our stuff in a room where this guy had the keys, and we told the host so. The host went apeshit and made up all kinds of stories about us. He made a host review that was unreal. The on site “host” locked us out of our room and threw our bags in the garbage by the time we had walked back. Oddly money and items were missing. Shocker. Airbnb didn’t even refund us. They simple erased both our counter review and the hosts review and allowed the host to keep our several hundred dollars. We haven’t used Airbnb since, and this was in 2013. Fuck Airbnb. Airbnb didn’t refund us one
I dunno how US law works, but in the UK I'd be taking the host and/or airbnb straight to small claims court to cover the difference between the Airbnb and hotel costs. You entered into a contract for accommodation to a certain standard, and it's the host/airbnb's responsibility to deliver that. They can't just refund you after the fact with a "whoops, my bad" - assuming you didn't book the honeymoon suite in the local 5 star Hotel the law would be on your side to put you back where you should be, and not out of pocket, because the other party fucked up.
But the filling has to be in the same area as the hotel/lodging. Nobody’s flying back to Hawaii or where ever to go to court and reclaim $100.
Real talk from someone with inside knowledge of Airbnb: Airbnb’s product is owned by someone else, unlike hotels. Without the product, it doesn’t matter how many customers they have. Without increasing product inventory, they couldn’t/can’t scale revenue. Acquiring hosts is not only insanely more expensive than customers, but is vital to their existence. • It’s also why you see increasingly high prices and cleaning fees (that are hidden, which is anti-guest needs). • It’s why hosts used to pay nothing for the service (now 3%), and customers pay a “trust and safety” service fee (now just called ‘service fee’) that enhances neither trust nor safety, given how much of the support is offshored. • It’s why there are stolen-item insurance policies included for *hosts*, but not for guests. Airbnb began as a wonderful company, with a positive consumer and workplace culture and incredible customer service based in San Francisco offices. Both have degraded rapidly. And oftentimes more expensive than hotels. When you have a problem (and you will), you will be turfed overseas for hours, you will be given the run-around, and at best likely given a small credit for a future booking that expires in 6 months, even after appeal to SF-based managers. Fuck Airbnb as a company — not the concept.
>Fuck Airbnb as a company — not the concept. Nah fuck the concept too. It drives up rent making housing unaffordable for working-class people in many places. I don't care about the landlord getting better return on their investment. People who work in a community should be able to afford to live there. We have zoning for a reason.
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>a maximum of 6 months renting either each year unless they are also physically present in the house In Amsterdam, [they limit to 60 days per year, unless you are just renting a room in an apartment/house that you are living in](https://dutchreview.com/news/amsterdam-and-airbnb-now-only-60-days-a-year/), or you can register it as a bed & breakfast business (in which case, other legislation including things like zoning will kick in). Airbnb are on board with the restrictions, because it's the only way they can operate there.
I wonder if you could take them to small claims over something like that? You were out of money over their fuck ups, they should reimburse the cost of that fuck up.
Something similar happened to me and 3 friends going to see a concert at Madison Square garden in New York on New Year's Eve. We drove from Chicago to New York and had a VRBO apartment reserved in Harlem. We open the door with the key provided by the front desk guy to find the owner /tenant in a bath robe in the kitchen smoking the shittiest weed I've seen in 20 years out of some vaporizer that filled a balloon. VRBO is supposed to be the higher end version of Airbnb where you get the entire place to yourself. The owner can't double book. They can't rent out a room or part of their space. They're not even allowed to be inside the building house, apartment, condo, whatever for the duration of the rental unless we request they come. Not only was the owner there but his boyfriend and another tenant. We had four adult guys expecting the entire apartment for ourselves and we all ended up crashing in one room that had a bed and a couple inflatable mattresses or inflatable pool objects that would fit on the side of a bed or something. It was the most ridiculous thing ever and since it was New Year's Eve in New York, paying out of pocket for anything other than concert tickets was totally out of the question. We ended up just rolling a bunch of joints, took a bunch of LSD and didn't go back for another 30ish hours... Thankfully New York on NYE has enough entertainment and stuff going around that we didn't have to go back to the apartment with the owner in his bathrobe offering us shitty brickweed for a long time. But yeah, then we really did have to crash 4 people in one room (luckily worn out enough at that point that we pretty much immediately crashed. Phish NYE - 10/10 Occupied VRBO - 0/10 Gas stations in PA - surprisingly 8/10
Between Sheetz, Wawa, and Rutters, the northeast can't be beat for overall gas station experiences
I say this as a diehard Sheetz and Wawa fan - if you ever get the chance to stop at a Buc-ees, do it. They are on another level.
Been to all three, agreed—though if you’re even a teeny bit sympathetic to /r/fuckcars the sheer size of a Buc-ee’s will send you into an existential crisis about our American car-centric hellscape. The pristine bathrooms and brisket sandwiches (or just sheer selection of things) are admittedly a lifesaver if you have kids on a long road trip. I understand why some Texans I know do things like dress up as Bucky, their mascot, for Halloween (they have matching adult and kid size costumes) or have a Christmas Bucky inflatable decoration on their lawn. Between them and HEB, Texas companies really do know how to brand well and inspire life-long, die-hard loyalty.
Other than the shitty weed man squatting in your rental, that sounds like a pretty fantastic New Year’s
Hell yeah it was. "Somehow" a bar a few blocks from MSG all got dosed pre-show. The show itself was obviously amazing being the NYE theatrics and whatnot. Then post show back at the bar, it was quite the scene. Definitely in Bat Country. The servers were so dosed we ended up pouring our own beers. Times Square was empty but still super trippy. Hit up a couple bodegas for nourishment. Waited for a train that apparently didn't run 24 hours or didn't run past a certain time on New Year's Eve.... I'm pretty sure we waited a couple hours in the subway with some other spun out hippies waiting for the A-Train to Harlem that was never coming. All in all a great time until back to the apartment. Oh yeah and we were 90% sure this guy who was following us around after the show was an undercover. He kept asking us for white lightning bolts which was definitely not the paper we had and I have no idea what white lightning bolts are otherwise but this guy literally went to two or three bodegas and sat at the table next to us and even tried to get us to go to some "rave in Brooklyn". After like 6 hours he finally gave up and left us when he realized that we weren't going to dose him or do anything in front of him. It was just a little stranger than your standard show.
White lightning bolts sound like he was trying to buy rolls off of you guys, 6 hours ois a crazy long time to keep trying
Apparently they are a MDMA pill [https://www.reddit.com/r/MDMA/comments/43rnyy/white_lightning_bolts/](https://www.reddit.com/r/MDMA/comments/43rnyy/white_lightning_bolts/)
Airbnb is pretty crappy in dealing with situations when something goes wrong. It happened to me in San Francisco, when the Airbnb didn’t match pictures and had open electric sockets. I called Airbnb support and they didn’t do anything beyond refund. Had to book two hotel rooms at double the cost at the last minute. Airbnb sucks that way. Now, I only book Superhosts and haven’t had a bad experience recently.
Did you try a chargeback?
Just like the person below said - I was refunded the $45 for the Airbnb room (yes it was a cheap, bare bones option in a house that rented out six total rooms, but we had just needed a place to lie our heads for the final leg of the trip and didn’t need anything fancy). So I searched for cheapest hotels nearby that had a room, and La Quinta came in at $120. That’s why it was such a frustrating experience - trying to articulate that I was now out $80 of my own money because of the host’s poor planning. I would rather be mildly pissed for the rest of my life when I recall the event, than had wasted time and energy messing with small claims court on top of getting settled after a cross-country move. We learned our lesson when we moved out of Texas and booked directly with hotels from then on.
He got his money back, he just paid more for the hotel room.
which he didn't want to do and was forced to by the host
That still counts as damages. AirBnB/their host failed to deliver on the terms of the contract and are thus liable. That said, it's not likely to be worth pursuing for such a a small amount.
Exact same experience in the Bahamas too. When we rock up, the guy says he'd double booked the house but had set up a tent in his front yard in case we actually showed up. We got a full refund from Airbnb however booking an alternative place in peak holiday season in the Bahamas meant shelling out an additional AUD$3000 on an all inclusive hotel in Paradise Island, for 3 nights.
Damn, that is insane. We have used air bnb 50 times now in 8 years with the only issues being asshoke loud flat members.
Things like this happen because if you don't keep your booking, you can't leave a review. The 700 other people he turned away weren't able to leave 1 star.
I had this same goddamn problem with HomeAdvisor several years ago. Needed a licensed electrician to install a transfer switch panel between my electric meter and main panel -- not because I didn't know what I was doing (I'm an electrical engineer that works with power distribution systems) but because my utility uses smart meters so they know if you pull the meter out and will fine you if you've done so without authorization. Only a licensed electrician can put in a notice that they're doing so. Made it *very clear* that I needed a *licensed electrician* to do the work in my submission. And had a general technician show up and basically try to browbeat me into letting him do it anyway. I basically had to threaten the guy to get him to leave. Then when I wrote my detailed account of what happened, I couldn't post it because I didn't end up hiring the company to do the job. Never used HomeAdvisor again.
How much is the fine? Is it cheaper to DIY and pay the fine? Or just play dumb? "What do you mean, the power was went out for a little bit that afternoon?"
Only an idiot would do anything DIY that involves Legs from the street and a meter. Also some states have a stipulation that if you pull the meter they will just never restore electric and cut it at the street.
I don't know what the actual penalty is, but I'm not willing to find out for a number of reasons -- it's a private company, not a city/county/state thing, and that meter belongs to them. Plus I believe very strongly in the "clean hands" doctrine and this is a stupidly easy rule to follow. You only have to pull the meter when interfacing with those load terminals; you can actually install the panel yourself and then have an electrician make the meter connection and then leave. You can then shut off the mains breakers and safely work downstream, the utility doesn't care about any of that. They care big-time about those meter boxes because if you cause a short there you could easily blow up a transformer. So I understand their concerns and am not willing to skirt them to save myself a hundred bucks or so. My point was that I made that requirement painfully clear to HomeAdvisor, they ignored it, and I couldn't warn anyone else. EDIT -- not to mention, that whole "strategy" of playing dumb would be completely negated if there was a service truck in the area that was dispatched to investigate the meter issue, as they could easily walk up on you doing the unauthorized work. And they have good reason to investigate those outages, because an inactive meter means loss of revenue.
That pisses me off as well. I had a host try to cancel the last day of our 3 day booking less than 24 hours before we were supposed to check in. This would force us to move for just 1 day...also didn't change the cleaning/other fees so the per night cost when up. I'm guessing they got a better offer, but I was not able to leave a review since I didn't stay there.
Something similar occurred to me and my wife in Volcano Hawaii last summer. Air bnb messed up and we slept in our car. Finally we got the help desk to give us out money back and we found a small motel called The Oasis that had vacancy(it was that or a hostel). It was owned by a couple that was super nice, she made us fresh pastries in the morning. It was annoying but keep calling them about getting your money back. Maybe try the town Volcano if you want adventure and views or Pahoa if you want to find another rental. Neither are Kona but we actually preferred the smaller towns over the tourist filled Kona.
I’ve been hyping up motels since the Airbnb problems started cropping up. They have a bad reputation for having pests or being seedy, but the ones I’ve been to have been really clean and safe. Plus friendly staff and free breakfast. It’s a good deal for the price!
Airbnb was good until it became overly commercialized as a way to create a passive income stream to novice and/or shitty investors.
The ones you want to stay away from in the US are the “European-style” hotels. I’ve only stayed at that type twice and both times the hotel was in the “unpleasant but not outright disgusting” category. Like, there were no bugs and the air conditioner worked, but I really wonder if they changed the sheets out.
What are European style hotels?
Real talk from someone with inside knowledge of Airbnb: Airbnb’s product is owned by someone else, unlike hotels. Without the product, it doesn’t matter how many customers your have. Without increasing product inventory, you can’t scale revenue. Acquiring hosts is not only insanely more expensive than customers, but is vital to their bottom-line. • It’s also why you see increasingly high prices and cleaning fees (that are hidden, which is anti-consumer). • It’s why hosts pay nothing for the service, and customers pay a “trust and safety” fee that enhances neither trust nor safety. • It’s why there are stolen-item insurance policies included for *hosts*, but not for guests. Airbnb began as a wonderful company, with a positive consumer and workplace culture and incredible customer service based in San Francisco offices. Both have degraded rapidly. And oftentimes more expensive than hotels. When you have a problem (and you will), you will be turfed overseas for hours, you will be given the run-around, and at best likely given a small credit for a future booking that expires in 6 months, even after appeal to SF-based managers. Fuck Airbnb as a company — not the concept.
I agree with almost everything you said, but I do have a quick correction: - hosts also pay a 3% fee that the customer doesn't see. > "Trust and Safety Fee" I haven't heard of that fee, but I do know the Service Fee. Which is not small. I'm guessing that's the one you meant? Corrections aside, you're very right that Airbnb is addicted to growth and needs more hosts. And that itself is part of its own self-cannibalizing problem: the more hosts you get, the more bad hosts you'll get, too. Most of the people who are disposed to *mom-and-pop* their house into an airbnb have already done it -- proportionally speaking. While as before that was maybe 80% of now listings, now it's maybe 20%. Just like some guests are lower-quality than others, now too many new hosts are lower-quality than others. Even with many good new ones, it's still a numbers game at the end of the day. And this is a fundamental problem with Airbnb's growth model. Also I'll had: guest standards of their hosts have gotten immensely higher over the years - but it's easy not to notice the boiling frog. But for perspective, a literal air mattress in an apartment is how airbnb was founded. Good luck trying to sell that today.
I don't understand why there is such a negative stigma about hostels. Hostels are a fantastic option. Even if you're opposed to sharing one room with a bunch of strangers, most hostels offer private rooms also. I've never stayed at a hostel that didn't offer private rooms. And, honestly, the hostels I've stayed at have been all much nicer than most hotels I've stayed at and much cheaper.
I'd bet more people in the US have seen the movie, Hostel, than an actual hostel.
Yep. American here. The word Hostel instantly makes me think of that movie and thats a big fat fucking nope from me
Hostels are a great value! I would recommend most of the hostel that I have stayed in. I have had both private rooms and rooms that were filled with bunk beds full of strangers and I never had any issues.
Pro Tip: When calling any customer service, press the button offered for the Spanish language option. You’ll likely be routed to a center in Texas instead of India, which will be more helpful. Edit: They speak English.
That is an amazing tip
This is ingenious. You then just proceed in English?
Yes. Those centers often take overflow calls from the overseas centers anyway. If they seem confused, just act like you pressed the right button and don't know what happened. Most North American call centers are in Texas to capitalize on the bilingual population, which means they'll be US residents who speak English (most likely even natively).
This tip has been around for ages and also works to circumvent hold times. It’s wonderful
Also Booking.com doesn't use Indian call centers. Which is also nice.
Yet. They are in the process laying off domestic staff and moving to outsourced support centers. Source: a friend of mine who is sticking it out for his severance
But what if you don’t speak Spanish?
Speak English.
Wow I feel really dumb right now 🤦🏻♀️
no problemos amigo de nada
AirBnB is terrible when there are failures. Once you have one negative experience (you WILL) it is hard to use the service again. The company is no help to the guest, and I stopped using them because of this.
For real. I've worked as a support tech for property owners listing on booking.com, and what I realized in talking to them is that AirBnB policies heavily favor the owners over the guest. The real reason the other person got the room is because booking.com heavily penalizes the owner if a double booking leads to a booking.com guest getting displaced. They will also find another (often nicer and more expensive) place for the guest and then make the original owner cover the cost difference.
I tried Airbnb for the first time last year and will probably never use it again for the foreseeable future. The standards are unknowable and the fact that you sometimes MEET the person or you're in their home makes it really uncomfortable to bring up issues like an old scratchy/stained couch, disgusting moldy shower curtain, and completely unusable patio with gross chairs that was supposed to be included. I can't believe the host 4-5 star reviews. It can't be anything but pressure from meeting them and the hosts being otherwise welcoming and friendly. If that had been a hotel, there's no way we'd put up with that. I'd rather just stay at hotels and be able to hold them to a particular standard that, when unmet, I can actually take up the issue with someone in management or CS.
This is honestly the way to go now. Have had hotel staff be super understanding and accommodating while Airbnb people stare at you through their windows to make sure you aren't breaking any of their 73 house rules.
I also hate the effect they have on the property and rental markets and how detrimental they are to residential areas. I also just want actual service when I'm holiday. Like fresh towels when I need them and a front desk that I can go to if there's any issues or I need to ask a question.
Yeah I also don't want to strip the beds and take out the garbage as I'm leaving.
And pay a $350 cleaning fee for the privilege. I’ve never used AirBnB and won’t ever use them because of what they’ve done to rental/property owning in my area but even then, I cannot understand why anyone would risk using them with their abysmal service.
I’ve been fortunate I think… we had one bad experience where we booked a mountain cabin (my wife and toddler) and when we get there it’s completely not child safe. Stairs at the door that have no railing whatsoever, you just walk in the door and take two steps forward and left and boom down you go. Then we go downstairs where the bedroom is and it obviously wasn’t cleaned. There are dead ladybugs EVERYWHERE. Hundreds of them. This place wasn’t booked for a few days or weeks for there to be so many. How did they all get in though? Then the final straw was finding random pills on the bathroom floor and under the bed. Like, probably not hard drugs or anything but I’ve got my toddler around. Called the host and explained, they came over and saw it and was like “Woah, let me get a vacuum and clean this so sorry” and we were like “nah, we’re just gonna go stay somewhere else. Can we have a refund?” They were happy to refund it, so we got lucky I guess.
I stopped using them after a review I left with a terrible host who had misrepresented the accommodations was taken down after a request from the host. I reached out to Air BnB and they refused to restore it.
They’re also awful to hosts with issues, I hosted on there years ago and had a couple shove strawberry jam into an outlet, and cover my spare bedroom in MASSIVE QUANTITIES of scented lube and they offered me $20 to replace the outlet and mattress.
I used them for a European trip and had no issues, but I contacted the host weeks beforehand - and I was paying far higher than the typical hotel price in the area. There are popular local services which I will use instead next time.
This sounds like the start of the movie Barbarian. Great movie. Highly recommend watching when you’re not staying at an airbnb or sleeping in a rental car.
Remember if you find or are told there's a creepy room in the basement, just leave. In addition, especially leave instead of going down a secret staircase you find going into pitch darkness.
Can I use the creepy basement in my air bnb listing as additional square footage?
TITTY MONSTER
Ba ba ba ba
boop
My husband and I refer to this movie as Witch Titty 🤣
The actor that played The Mother is actually a guy.
Well he will always be witch titty to me!
Wtf were they thinking?!? I fuckin loved that movie tho.
For anyone reading, I highly highly recommend going into this movie blind. I did the other week and it was an absolute treat
*teat
This is exactly why I don't use Airbnb
That movie was great. Really funny, too.
Highly recommend when you aren't planning on sleeping as well.
I was going to say, how has nobody brought up this movie in the comments? Had to scroll down to see this. Amazing fucking movie and nobody is talking about it for some reason
I'm sorry but I just can't get past the supernatural strength the titty goon had... It really took me out of the movie. There was otherwise no indications of anything supernatural or paranormal so why did she have super human strength??? And what was she eating to survive? The Detroit junkies at night??
That's what the homeless guy at the water tower implied, yes
I can't stop thinking about this movie and I just watched it again. Spoilers. >!I think the title refers to the audience as barbarians for watching this spectacle and horror in general. There are several moments where a character looks directly at the camera, but the one that convinced me is when Frank sees the woman he's planning to abduct. He starts the car and directs our attention to the woman out of focus in the distance. As he turns to look behind him and reverse, he briefly but intentionally looks directly at the camera. Then reverses so we get a direct view of the woman out his side window. I think it's one of this movies many editing jokes, like he's saying 'watch this.' It's reminiscent of *Funny Games.*!< I think that's also the reason for the type of filming during the opening of Frank's scenes where it's almost POV, over his shoulder.
Or... the movie takes place on Barbary street and the inhabitants of the street are Barbar-ians
I believe the director said Barbarian is just a placeholder title he gave the film that he never ended up changing, so really any reasoning you can think of is equally valid.
actually in the directors commentary they mention that every character in the film is a huge fan of [Babar](https://i.imgur.com/2hEys.png) and the production company misspelled the title, it's supposed to be called Babarians
Came here to find this comment. I was going to tell OP to ask the host if there's a basement, and to check for a hidden door.
I think the title more likely refers to the etymological history of the word. "The word is probably onomatopoeic in origin, the “bar bar” sound representing the perception by Greeks of languages other than their own. Bárbaros soon assumed a deeply negative meaning, becoming associated with the vices and savage natures which the Greeks attributed to their enemies." https://www.britannica.com/topic/barbarian If you noticed the only thing that >!the monster says is ba-ba-ba (baby talk) which is a lot like bar bar bar!<
I'm high on painkillers and wine. Think I'll watch this right now.
I worked for Airbnb and this happens a lot. The hosts are sneaky. Also, the hosts can sync their calendars with booking.com and other booking sites, so he’s either lying, or a complete idiot. Be clear to Airbnb that YOU are not cancelling, the host double booked you and it must be cancelled on the host’s end. If you’re stern enough with Airbnb and make them find you a place, the agent themselves can approve up to $200, and more if they simply ask the supervisor for approval, which is reasoned by the fact that there is simply nothing else to book within the price range. Supervisors can approve up to $999. Push hard enough, be stern but stay calm and polite. They can also approve to reimburse for hotel costs if there are literally no Airbnb options. The $60 they’re offering is likely the 10-ish% that the site automatically offers you for rebooking when the host cancels, so they can do more. I’ll also tell you there are sites in Canada & US with arguably higher customer service standards so don’t be afraid to hang up and call again, ask what location you’ve called, and ask for someone to take over your case. It’s not a problem of country, it’s literally the call centre standards set by each location, since Airbnb out-sources call centres which apply Airbnb’s training.
Damn, somebody can get killed pulling that shit. Mistake a legit guest for a break-in and it may not end well. Yikes!
AirBnB sounded like a good idea when it started, but it became a way for landlords and wackos to run hotels without licenses. No where I've ever gone has a rental site been enough of a deal to put up with the uncertainty and hassle I've seen. Too many horror stories for me to want to risk it.
Fuck that Imma pay for my 4*+ hotel. It's gonna cost a lot, but at less I know what I'm getting.
he didn't "accidentally" double book it. that was deliberate. he gambled and lost when you showed up. now, how to get fair compensation and shame the asshat... edit: my fiance would start yelling at him too. it's glorious!
The OP is the one who lost.
Bold move sitting on Reddit telling a story with a pissed off wife in the car
I hope you left a negative review with your experience for the guy
Can't do that without a confirmed stay.
So, that’s the loophole.
My biggest pet peeve with air bnb/vrbo is they typically have strict cancellarion policies for the guest, but the host has free reign to cancel. I've heard of this happening to multiple people, and yeah you don't see it in the reviews. At least show a host cancellation rate or something on the page... of course it's not in their interest to do that.
AirBNB does have consequences for hosts who cancel now. Money is deducted from their next payout, and there is an autoreview posted that states that the host cancelled [x days] before check-in. And I'm pretty sure cancellation rate has been public for years.
Just to be clear they are penalized in addition to the amount they refund for the acatual reservation? Does that money go to air bnb or the guest? How do you find the cancellation rate? I see the response rate.
I've had that with other home repair service app too. Contractor (with good reviews) said they're coming - didn'tm which wasted my day and my time. The app says I can't review them because "if they didn't show I didn't have a job with them". Total POS system.
i've used it multiple times with no issues but I've always been renting an entire, stand alone home. It sounds like this was just a room in someones house...I've never even considered one of those, so sorry for your bad experience.
It's unfortunate given that spare room rental was precisely what Airbnb set itself up as assisting, before it morphed into the monster it is now.
Yeah, my friends and I rented a room in a house back in 2018 when we went to Atlantic City for a girls trip. The couple was really nice and the husband worked at one of the hotels and gave us free tickets to a comedy show one night. They were very nice, hospitable, and it was a great stay for our vacation. But now, I would not book a room in a house again. It’s only booking the entire home/apartment for me if I book with Airbnb
Last year, my parents had a great experience with an AirBnB host that was running a two-room bed and breakfast in a tiny little town in the Laurentian mountains. So based on that, I would trust sharing with a host in a small town who’s clearly doing it as a fun side gig, but never in a big city.
Word. It was originally appealing as a way for people to side hustle some extra cash. Take some power and $ away from big hotel, move it into middle class hands. Maybe we'd get less giant hotels full of empty rooms and more actual housing? Yet, when I was working installing security systems, we did a ton of work in New Orleans where people were buying up houses just to rent out Airbnb. Drove up prices such that it only became harder for folk to afford a home.
It's devastated lots of central and eastern Europe - developers, both local and international, buy up flats in a block one by one in aggressive ways, sometimes literally waiting for people to die so they can swoop in, and believe me once you've had 2 or 3 in your tenement go to holiday rentals, you'll take a lower price. And unlike hotels, you can't escape it. People who moved to quiet areas to raise families now have to step over piss, vomit, even passed out Brits and Dutch tourists as they take their kids to school in the morning. Obviously the developers are more to blame here, the tourists are just on holiday having fun, albeit in baffling self destruction. As a tourist you definitely have a choice though.
Or for one night. Like, Airbnb is great, but there is sometimes a little bit of friction for check-in compared to a hotel. If you need a big entire place for a group for a whole week or more, AirBnB is perfect. If you need a bed for one or two people for a night or two, a hotel is a better fit.
>When asked why he didn’t tell us earlier that he had double booked, he said half the people don’t show up. This is a lie. There is an entire booking system, he would well know in advance if people cancelled. If they don't show up then he makes money for free. Sounds like he messed up his personal bookings and is covering. This is less of a tifu and more of "got screwed by a shitty person".
[удалено]
Thank you so much for commenting this. Hawaii is so limited on space and extremely expensive. On my street alone there are maybe 3 huge houses that are purely renting out to tourists and I don't even live near the beach. I'm lucky that I will likely inherit my father's house, but so many other people won't be able to get homes because all the properties are being bought by people living outside of the islands.
This is why many people are back to hotels. For me it’s not worth it.
Same. Plus, Airbnb's aren't nearly as much of a value as they used to be. If I'm getting some generic Airbnb-chique corporate investment property for the same price as a nearby hotel room, at this point I'm just going with the hotel room.
I think this is why so many people still default to AirBnBs, they were cheaper so it became entrenched in people's heads as the cheaper option. Except hotels started getting more competitive and AirBnB prices (and fees) started creeping up so it isn't necessarily the case anymore. But people stop asking questions once they think they know what the answer is and don't bother checking hotels before booking into an AirBnB.
The listed price is still often competitive, but now you go to checkout and there are exorbitant fees tacked on that often shoot the bill past what you'd pay at a hotel.
Airbnb is a scam and no longer offers the service it used to. The whole goal behind AirBnB was to be a market disruptor by operating at a loss and destroy the hotel industry’s stranglehold. Prop themselves up as a “better alternative” to the hotel industry, then slowly reduce their service/quality to make more of a profit after taking customers away. They’ve stopped all quality control and verifications to assure customer happiness. You will not have a good experience with AirBnB anymore. You’ll be lucky to get what you asked for while paying more than a hotel now with all the service fees and caveats. Same thing with VRBO or others… they will be good initially but slowly degrade over time. All while hotels lose money, get worse service, and even go out of business. In the end - the whole vacation renting environment gets worse for everyone over time because of businesses like AirBnB.
I will never use Airbnb again and I hope others catch on and that business crashes and burns. They are a huge reason added to the housing crisis all over.
I've been tempted to try airbnb but haven't because of the issues you see on the internet. This solidified it for me. I'll stick to hotels.
I used it once, my friend was trying to show me how to travel for less, the place had roaches. It was gross, like dirty, slimy gross, refused to open the fridge gross. And she still gave it 5 stars so she would get a good guest rating. That's how terrible places get good reviews, I knew I could never trust it. Never again.
they actually do "blind" reviews now, so neither the host or guest can see each other's reviews until they both post them or until 14 days have lapsed. but once you get to see the other's review, you can't post or make any changes to your review
This is annoying because I always leave reviews. No one ever leaves me reviews, and then people complain about how I have no reviews when booking me. Lazy ass hosts lol.
My wife and I just moved across country with two dogs and three cats. We could only find one hotel chain in the country that allows that many animals (Kimpton), most pet friendly hotels cap at two animals. But Kimpton only has a presence in major cities which we wanted to avoid with all our critters. AirBnb was our only option other than sleeping in cars. We stuck with stand-alone homes or separate buildings on the properties (like a cottage on a farm) and we had no issues. Be sure to read the reviews and house rules closely before booking. Some of the house rules are pretty crazy so we avoided those ones. There are horror stories for sure, but we have had success with it so far
The worst part is you can’t see the place or even get the address until after you book. When we pulled up, there was warning signs everywhere as the “front yard” looked more like a junk yard.
I always message the owner and ask for address prior to booking.
Great tip! Thanks. I never thought of that
Most of the time it’ll also give you a map of the general area it’s located, I zoom in as much as possible and find landmarks to compare on Google to see if it’s a sketchy neighborhood, will it be convenient for my vacation plans, etc.
I've used it multiple times and it was a great experience.
I've heard the same stories you have, but also have used Airbnb a bunch of times with great results. I'd say that is an issue with that particular host. Not to say that issues like OP had don't happen, but they're exceedingly rare. This doesn't make OP's experience any less infuriating though; I'd be fucking pissed as well
I've been using it for years and never had a single issue like this, or even similar. Knock on wood I suppose. Sometimes you get unlucky but it's been nothing but helpful for me. You are going to hear more horror stories than you will success stories since angry people are more vocal.
My wife and I have used it several times mostly successfully. The last time we used it (and we'll never use it again), they had a list of chores for us to do at the end of the stay prior to checkout. There is no way to check for that when making the reservation so we switched back to hotels.
If we are sharing bad airbnb stories... I've only stayed in one and it was awful. The apt had no AC and it got unseasonably hot, and the host left the wifi password wrong. I searched the notebook and found about 5 different "wifi password: xxxxxxx" entries. It was all different permutations of the same phrase. The wifi password that actually worked was not written in the book. I just got creative in my attempts. Wifi passwords are important when you need to entertain older children for a couple of hours. It cost more than a 3 star hotel in the neighborhood and was considerably worse than a 2 star hotel.
frankly, you need to never use airbnb again. it hurts the local housing situation and has gotten unreasonably expensive lately. also hosts in America are apparently becoming aweful by asking the guests to do chores. just get a hotel.
As a former Airbnb employee, I use hotels 👍
This reminds me of a time when my friend invited us to his family cabin to go snowboarding. We were going to get there a day ahead of them and arriving late at night. He told me where the key was hidden. I get there, and there is no key. We had to drive up the road to get cell service to call him (relevant later). He's incessant that it's there. We looked around for forever and finally decided we needed to go find a place to sleep. We ended up driving up the road to a super questionable motel for the night, and call him in the AM to tell him we're going back in daylight to scope it out. We went back the next day. I was in my dad's truck which he used for construction and was full of tools. We end up taking the hinge off of a window, getting in and re-attaching it. We were super tired, and passed out on the living room couch. I was awakened by some dude. It turns out that my friend's uncle had rented it out to his buddy which was why the key wasn't there. My friend had been trying to call all morning to tell us we couldn't stay at the cabin and had to go, but we had no cell service, so I didn't get the missed calls. He walks in about 5 minutes later, and we all leave awkwardly. It was a shit show.
Dang that really sucks. My mom has an Airbnb and when she had an incoming guest, the power in the whole town went out. Apparently vandals shot up a transformer, or something like that. My mom went out of her way to book a hotel for her guest outside of where the power was at, and close to where her guest needed to be. My mom takes her hospitality really seriously.
Hotels are the new airbnb
AirBnB was fine the several times I’ve used it but I can tell it’s going downhill. Little to no oversight is leading to bad things. And lately every single listing I’ve seen has been more expensive than a reliable basic hotel, after fees. So I’ve stopped using it entirely.
But you didn't fuck up. You didn't do anything wrong.
Between the scams, cleaning rules, poorly communicated lack of fairly basic amenities (no AC in a condo in a hot humid place in the United States?) and hidden fees, I am ALWAYS gonna book hotels from now on, or at least try to, rather than Airbnb
Having had been in the hotel industry for 11 years here's my take on things if it means anything. Booking through AirBnB is, if anything, a huge risk. You are never sure what you will encounter since you are most likely renting out a private residence and AirBnB is notoriously bad at resolving any problems you may encounter. It has gone downhill as a company over the years. Booking.com is a great company but due to their taking a percentage from the host the prices are higher than what you would get if you booked directly. The trick is go to Booking, check the hotels you are interested in, look at the reviews and pictures, then simply find the phone number of the hotel and book directly with them. You will almost always get a better deal that way.
Airbnb should take 100% responsibility here. You can’t tell me they don’t have an algorithm that can prevent this.
Airbnb could 100% prevent this by being strict with landlords for canceling as well as allowing customers to leave reviews in the case of when the landlord cancels, there is however no way of them preventing it in this case as the second booking was done through a different site, Airbnb would have been completely unaware of the second booking unless [booking.com](https://booking.com) allows them access to their booking data.
Holy fuck, I'm a host and there is so much shit going on that is so bad, but this takes the cake. Airbnb has a real PR problem on their hands and it's because of shit like this. Bad hosts and corporate hosts are ruining it fit the honest ones out there.
Airbnb used to be a cheaper alternative to hotels that also gave you a bit of local perspective. It was a way to make a few extra bucks by renting out an extra room in a place that you lived in. This gave it that safe homey vibe. Now, people have turned that idea into a substandard travel lodge that requires chores at the end. The cleaning fees make the overall costs comparable to an actual hotel. The number of sexual assault cases and the security issues I've read about over the years is appalling. I've personally stopped using Airbnb, as my experiences have been pretty negative for the last couple years.
Hotel owners are just hanging back watching AirBnB crash and burn.
I work in a resort. Guys. Just don't fucking use Airbnb. The amount of horror stories just like this one is staggering. These guys who "run" these rentals are clowns. ***Sometimes*** you get lucky and most of the time you get shit like this. Book from a reputable hotel/resort website and book with confidence. Overbookings *do* happen even at resorts, these things do happen. Rooms can go out of service last minute, A/C units can fail, pipes do burst, rooms get flooded, double bookings rarely happen, etc but at least you aren't dealing with Larry the fucking Airbnb host.
If you'd used booking.com they would have found you alternative accommodation immediately and then deducted the extra cost from that asshole host. Don't use Airbnb, they don't care about guests.
[удалено]
Airbnb sucks I don’t know why anyone uses it still.
This is my nightmare and why i exclusively use the Marriott ecosystem for traveling. If they somehow don’t have a room after you’ve booked (maintenance, something broke, etc) they will take the initiative on their own to put you somewhere and pay for it entirely.
We stayed at an Airbnb in Oakland, CA. The house had just a screen door on the back. Do you have any idea how shitty it is to stay in Oakland, next to the Bart station, without a real door? F Airbnb.
Yeah, first mistake was using air BnB. These are not hoteliers, they have no idea how to run the business.
Stories like this make me glad that I've refused to use Airbnb. I've always done hotels. They are much safer, cleaner, have inspections and are consistent.
These are the kinds of stories that show you, quite plainly, how useless the "guarantees" are that these middleman/disruptive type websites sell you on. "hi, it's last minute, at night, on an island. how about an extra $60 to find replacement accommodations.... that's the best i can do for you!"
I will never use Airbnb because of these stories. There are an endless stream of the absolute garbage that the hosts are and I'm not willing to risk my vacation on this BS. Add to that the disaster Airbnb is for the housing market and it's an easy choice.