I think the worst part of this is that companies can (often times intentionally) do extremely scummy and even illegal stuff with the knowledge that if they're caught, the worst they'll have to do is pay back what they should have in the first place. AirBNB probably makes thousands off of refusing to refund in cases where they were supposed to. And the one time that they're forced to, they don't have to pay a fine or damages.
NYC will hopefully start banning short term rentals starting next month:<p><a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/news/2023/08/25/new-york-law-airbnb-vrbo/70670581007/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/news/2023/08/25/new-yo...</a>
> "And all my requests for discovery were denied and the hearing happened the next day. I was NOT prepared to move forward with basically nothing..."<p>> "We had already played recordings of me crying with customer service (embarrassing) and in order to "prove" that I was impacted by this I had to submit anxiety medications my doctor had prescribed me that I was then cross-examined on (double embarrassing)."<p>> They claimed they had no record of a meeting I know occurred because my friend was there but I wasn't willing to sell out my friend to "prove" it (the judge wanted to see the email I had - wasn't going to do that.)<p>> the hearing itself got super bogged down into the weeds of whether I had PROOF that there was a camera (reminder, I didn't because the first customer service rep told me that the hosts' acknowledgment that there was one wasn't enough).<p>Let's just all agree to shut down AirBnB shall we?
Before airbnb, the idea was crazy that you’d let strangers into your home. It’s still kind of crazy because one stranger could damage and ruin the experience for everybody.<p>Similarly one host could ruin it for everybody.<p>The lesson from Airbnb over and over again is that they choose profits over a consistent guest experience.<p>Airbnb support is like Google, they really do leave you in the cold if you don’t know an insider.<p>Uber/lyft have a faaaaar faaaar more consistent experience. It’s not perfect but much better than taxis.<p>AirBnb has NOT been better than hotels. Pictures and actual place could be off, many fees tacked on, easily lose thousands if you don’t like the place. Customer support will acknowledge the problem but don’t do much to fix it.
I can see many issues with airbnb saying it's okay to have a camera pointing at bed but I'm trying to connect it with sex trafficking. From the keynote that she linked it's not clear. Obviously recording would be blackmail material but is the idea that airbnb owner would be a trafficker or conspire with traffickers against customer?<p>Note that the real issue is not lack of refund but deep implications of having cameras like that. Victims of blackmail would not be asking for refund...
Play with snakes get bitten.<p>I believe by this time people should be aware AirBnb is a deeply unethical company whose business is built around something that has massive social costs.<p>One the one hand I am glad to see it receiving negative attention.<p>On the other hand, I feel the people complaining are also getting what they deserve.