If you are Airbnb, Expedia, TripAdvisor and Groupon — big names in travel tech — you are going to have to take your lumps sometimes because your brand is exposed in a major way and consumers and blogger/journalists love to take their shots at the big guys or girls.
A recent case about the removal of an Airbnb guest’s negative review of a stay at an apartment in Lisbon, Portugal, says much about the social media challenges of being a big-time brand, user-generated content, the peer-to-peer rental market, and the state of the blogosphere and journalism.
Angela Rhodes, a travel writer, blogger and photographer, wrote a post in her Perpetual Travels blog a couple of months ago complaining that Airbnb removed a negative review she had written about her month-long stay with her husband at this apartment.
In the review, Rhodes refers to the attractive appearance of the apartment and its excellent location, but then expresses her frustration that she and her husband were not informed before they arrived that the building and the apartment downstairs, in particular, were undergoing renovations.
“… This meant that most days were very, very noisy. The host promised this work would be over in a week, but it continued throughout our entire stay,” the review said.
She also took the host to task about an alleged lack of electricity and hot water in the apartment.
An Airbnb spokeswoman, Kim Rubey, says part of the review violated Airbnb’s review guidelines, although she declined to provide details, citing customer-privacy policies.
However, it can be surmised that perhaps the guest’s review crossed the line when she wrote: “The host also didn’t pay her electricity bill so the power was turned off by a man from the power company, and it was difficult getting hold of [host's first name, which Tnooz has deleted] to figure out what had happened.”
So if you are Airbnb, the publisher of another user review site such as TripAdvisor, a news site, or a blogger, what action should you take when a reviewer or commenter makes unsubstantiated allegations which may tarnish the reputation of a host, property owner, or anyone else, for that matter?
Whether review sites and blogs make themselves susceptible to libel lawsuits under such circumstances is open to debate, and a global company such as Airbnb would have to take into account that Internet, free speech and libel laws vary from country to country.
In her blog post, Rhodes wrote that the couple sent evidence about the apartment’s condition in the form of “videos, texts and pictures” to Airbnb, at its request, but “it now seems likely they have taken the host’s side and removed our negative review.”
And, indeed, Airbnb removed the review in question.
But, it seems highly unlikely that Rhodes could have provided Airbnb with evidence that the host hadn’t paid her electric bill, as alleged.
Sure, the power may have been off and you can speculate that perhaps the host hadn’t paid the bill, but if you are going to soil someone’s reputation in public like this, shouldn’t you really have proof?
“I understand that this is a delicate issue for Airbnb, … [about] who is telling the truth,” Rhodes wrote in her blog post. “But if Airbnb wants to succeed they need to understand that their stakeholder is the customer and not the host. By all means, don’t banish the host for doing business after one negative experience, but what is the purpose of a trust-based service when you can’t leave a negative review?”
Indeed, negative reviews, when warranted, provide a valuable service to travelers, and serve as a hedge against hotel or vacation-rental marketing-speak.
But, it appears that Airbnb tried to work with Rhodes and her husband to try to keep an edited version of the review on Airbnb.
“Our customer service team reached out to the guest several times to discuss proceeding with the posting of the review, but never heard back from the guest,” says Rubey, the Airbnb spokesperson.
And, Rhodes, the review writer, indicates in an email exchange with Tnooz that there had been some issues in communicating with Airbnb about the review. Rhodes says:
I had a couple missed calls from them but once they got through, the customer service agent told me that they took it down because it violated their guidelines. He told me that they made some changes to it and that they wanted my approval of these changes before putting it back up. He said that they tried sending it to my email (the same one you used), but that they got an error message and that my email wasn’t working anymore. I received several other emails that day and don’t think Gmail was down. I never heard from them again.
Rhodes says she doesn’t know for certain in what way the review allegedly violated Airbnb’s guidelines, and as a travel writer, she “stands behind” the review.
And, she adds that her husband works for Booking.com, the hotel site, and perhaps Airbnb — if it indeed was aware of her husband’s employment — may have taken that into account and felt that the review was colored because it was coming from someone who was working for a perceived competitor.
Rhodes wrote in her blog post that prior to the review being removed, the couple received an apology and a coupon toward a subsequent booking from Airbnb, presumably to make up for the poor, lodging experience.
“… We may have given it another shot if our review was not removed, but if this is how Airbnb works then how can we trust that the next booking we make hasn’t had a negative review that was simply removed?” Rhodes wrote in her blog.
Under a different name, Rhodes apparently chimed in about her Airbnb experience on a Quora thread entitled, Why are there so few negative reviews on Airbnb?
An Airbnb representative writes on the Quora thread that the company’s default position is not to censor or delete reviews, but does so under extraordinary circumstances when the company’s content guidelines are violated.
Indeed, the guest reviews you see on Airbnb these days are overwhelmingly positive, and if you are a big brand such as Airbnb, it is easy for consumers, bloggers and journalists to assume that something sinister and commercially tinged must be going on when the review portfolio is so damn exuberant.
On the journalism front, it is incontrovertible that a story about big, bad Airbnb removing guest reviews out of greedy motives makes for a much juicier article and more compelling blogosphere fodder than a more complex tale speculating whether the review was erased because it may have violated content guidelines or made unfair allegations that just couldn’t be proven.
And, it might be needlessly messy to point out that Airbnb apparently tried to work with the review writer to save a version of the review — or at least was in contact with the guest — before the critique was removed.
Rubey of Airbnb says the company “rarely encounters reviews that violate our review guidelines.”
That being said, although you can find negative reviews on Airbnb without much trying, the review crop there is overwhelmingly positive.
How can that be?
Rubey says: “The vast majority of reviews on Airbnb are positive because the vast majority of experiences on Airbnb are positive. People are entitled to write whatever they want, as long as they follow the content guidelines.”
Believe it — or don’t.
UPDATE: Rhodes claims she has the proof that the host did not pay the electric bill. Rhodes says:
I find it curious that you would not ask me in advance if I can substantiate our claims? Â Indeed I have all the evidence I need to write a negative review: A representative from the electrical company came in person to turn it off, I had confirmation from the owner that it was the case that they hadn’t paid the bill, and I have photos of the extension cord he used to get electricity from the connection box of the apartment building’s elevator. Â I also took videos to show how noisy the apartment was. Additionally I have text from the owner showing that she was uncooperative when these situations arose.
And, when asked to elaborate on her proof that the host didn’t pay the electric bill, Rhodes says “the host’s husband told us he hadn’t paid it in the last three months.”
However, if Airbnb or any publisher had to defend itself in the legal arena, would it be sufficient evidence to rely on Rhode’s version of events that an electric company employee had turned off the electricity and that the host’s husband said he hadn’t paid the bill in three months? (In the review, Rhodes writes that the host hadn’t paid the bill.)
In this case, assuming the electric bill issue may have been part of the problem with the review, absent an email, taped phone conversation or video with the host or electric company documenting that the host herself hadn’t paid the electric bill, would taking Rhodes’ statements at face value be enough to publish the review?
You could think of all kinds of other scenarios, however unlikely, of why the power was out.
And no one is saying that Rhodes didn’t have proof that the conditions in the apartment were subpar.
It should be noted that the above article does point out that Rhodes says the couple sent evidence of the apartment’s subpar condition to Airbnb.
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Very interesting. On Sunday I will be staying in accommodation booked through Airbnb and my decision was based primarily on the cost, location and on the reviews left by other consumers. The reviews were primarily positive, but I did read a few negative reviews which actually made me feel a little more comfortable about booking.
I guess it’s a matter of watch this space…
As the blogger and reviewer in question, I’m surprised about the twist of how this is presenting my review!
The reason I wrote the article on my blog was because my experience with AirBnb was that I felt completely powerless as a tourist. When things went wrong, we had a powerful and popular American company and a hospitality company seemingly working together against us (the host we stayed at were professionals also running a hotel in Lisbon). It was very intimidating, and I wanted to let the world know about our experience, and I still do as I am trying to be an honest and upfront travel writer. I’m surprised you’re using it as an example of unsubstantiated allegations – because you never asked me if I had any evidence or backing for my review. It feels not different from the experience we originally had with AirBnB. But how much evidence can a private citizen provide when things go wrong overseas and you want to get out of the situation – you are in a vulnerable position in the first place. I took photos, videos, screenshots and asked questions and provided it all to AirBnB. I based my review on all of this, having more backing than I believe most online reviews have.
Whether or not AirBnb is an easy target is an interesting speculation. I had a very bad experience in the first place, and as a small time blogger (my blog has 56 followers!) it certainly does not feel like they’re “an easy target” when it even attracts US media attention and criticism when you criticize them. As a silly example: While they get to answer in the article, I need to comment in the comment field. So quite to the opposite it’s the experience that never stops sucking…
Angela I totally understand where you are coming from. My partner and I used Airbnb over Christmas to rent out a place in Brooklyn NY. We had a run of events that I would not wish upon anyone including a hostile host, cat faeces in thebathtub, mold on the ceiling and a bed that smelled.
We contacted customer service and went back and forth over a number of days while trying to find another place to stay. We ended up leaving before new years eve and were lucky enough to have an acquaintance let us sleep on their floor for a few days.
Not only did we not receive any refund or compensation but the negative review we posted was removed soon after it went up.
I have vowed never to use them again!
Angela and Michael, I second the two of you as well. We recently stayed in a place in Paris via AirBnB. We booked the place 2.5 months ahead of our stay, and as I was taking my sister and my brother-in-law with us, we wanted to make sure we planned things right. We tried to contact the host to see if there was any possibilites to check-in a couple of hours earlier as we took the early train from London. There was no reply from the host for almost 1.5 months. If the host did not want to let us to have earlier check-in or leave our luggages after check-out, that’s fine if he simply said NO to us. Rather, he ignored our messages at all. My husband and I were so frustrated as we were so worried that what if we could not reach the host even the day before as we waited for 1.5 months and there were just another 2 weeks to go at that point till our visits. I had no choice to contact AirBnB customer service, they helped, and guess what, the host suddenly replied. I was trying to be PC when I left him feedback, but he was so rude on my review complaining that I contacted AirBnB for help when I couldn’t find him. Come on, I contacted AirBnB after trying to reach him for 1.5 months. I don’t think that it was not unfair. I didn’t even think AirBnB cares about him being so unfair in his comment to guests. I did use AirBnB and stayed at other hosts. Other hosts gave me a lot of good feedbacks as I often left places clean and tidy. That Paris host even said I didn’t leave the flat tidy. So unfair, as I even took the bins out for him. That’s crazy.
Angela: Maybe you didn’t see it, but prior to you comment appearing, I updated the article to include your arguments that you had provided enough proof to make your claims about the electric bill.
NO ONE is saying that you didn’t have the right to write a negative review….and again, I noted in the article that you say you provided videos and all kinds of corroboration to Airbnb about the condition of the apartment.
However, the part of the review that I was calling into question was your statement about the host, whom you named, not paying her electric bill. You are basically saying that she is a deadbeat.
And, you still did not provide enough proof, from my standpoint, at least, to tell the world forever that the reason that apartment didn’t have power was because the host didn’t pay the electric bill.
Call me a stickler or someone who is being overly cautious, but when a lawsuit gets filed over a review, you, and possibly the publisher, whether it is Airbnb or anyone else, had better be able to come up with actual proof of your claims.
And, whatever objections Airbnb had to your review, it seems like they had been willing to work with you on making changes to it.
Dennis you’re kidding right? Taped conversations required before submitting a review where one recounts a convo detailing why the power got cut? Regardless if it was the host (who I assume is the person who listed the property) or the husband (who I assume is, you know, married to the host) is irrelevant. If this had been a hotel and the power was turned off, what you’re saying is that the guest would need a recorded conversation with the Manager of Electricity Payments and nobody else to submit a review. that’s ridiculous.
Another good reason for having a smartphone – so you can record all conversations on the off chance you’ll need them for your AirBnb review!
Stuart: I’m saying that if you rent me your apartment and I wrote an online review saying Stuart didn’t pay his electric bill, then I’d better have corroboration.
Glad to hear other views.
Which it sounds like she does. Or, AirBnb contacts the host and asks is this true? Seems very simple to me. Did they?
Stuart: As stated in the article, all we know is that when Airbnb tried to follow-up with the guest, apparently to work on an edited version of the review, the guest and Airbnb didn’t connect and the review was removed.
Did you contact Airbnb for comment on this article? Would be really interesting to hear what their policy is.
@theodora – yes, of course we did
see the paragraphs above from Airbnb official Kim Rubey…
Sorry, not trying to be argumentative here, but I do think a case like this highlights the entire Issue with “verified reviews”. I assume the host promised electricity – why isn’t the onus on them to prove they provided it rather than on the guest to prove it wasn’t? The author appears to be a normal, verifiable human who isn’t at first glance a ratbag, yet when the property owner comes into question Airbnb fall back onto a nebulous policy.
Why only challenge the veracity of user reviews? How about the claims properties make about them self?
Several times used the resource for booking, only one was negative. Still the host was ineffective and uncooperative, the support from Airbnb was as helpful as they could.
Before the Internet, the vast majority of travel publishers took their independence and journalistic integrity extremely seriously. If a place was bad the review said so, as it is the travel writers’ duty to warn other travellers and portray a place exactly as it is.
Nowadays there are a disturbing number of cases where negative reviews are deleted or edited giving travellers a distorted and inaccurate picture. It is simply unacceptable if reviews are deleted (in extreme cases they may be edited for legal reasons but this should be accompanied by a note from the editor explaining why it was edited and the overall gist of the review should not be altered). Sometimes it is forgotten that a review is supposed to represent an independent opinion of either a traveller or a travel writer (depending whether it is a guest or editor’s review), reviews are not intended to be free publicity for any accommodation establishment and they should not be treated as such.
In the above example the reviewer had every right to write what she did. It was certainly not defamatory and the most that Airbnb could expect to do is remove any names from the review, but for them to remove the entire review is absolutely appalling.
There is a lot of poor quality content on the Internet with some bloggers being swayed by freebies, ‘Internet marketers’ buying cheap (often inaccurate) content, software that automatically fills sites with fake user-generated content and now, major travel sites deliberately deleting the most accurate reviews to mislead their customers. These sites give a bad name to online travel content, which is a real shame since there some sites out there that have a passion for looking out for the traveller with high quality independent content including real uncensored travellers reviews that are not swayed by unreasonable bullying from owners of hotels, hostels or short-term rental accommodation.
It is interesting to see an article where the headline is muddled and the entire body does not seem to be cohesive.
Things to keep in mind:-
1. Airbnb does not share the full name of the host. It is rare for anyone to associate the host’s first name with the review – e.g. by doing a google search as there are just too many people with the same first name.
2. What happened here was a serious matter. Airbnb wanted the traveler to tone down their review and later took the step of deleting it altogether thus essentially furthering the interests of a host and themselves – remember they make 12-15% of every successful transaction. Who lost out ? The large number of people who might have booked this property in the interim, may be doing so even now.
3. The quora thread is interesting reading to go over Airbnb’s overall policy to reviews.
I am sure now that Airbnb will because of the negative feedback alter their policies on reviews. However, what’s next? The policy on photographs? – All photographs on the website seem artistically shot, airbrushed, over exposed (to make the properties look brighter) – In general, the entire website seems to be geared to portray the properties in an overly positive light as opposed to showing them as they are.
Since AirBnB is unwilling to actually tell anyone why they removed it, why such pressure on Angela to prove her point regarding paying of the bills? We don’t even know if that’s the reason it was removed.
Also, with the virtually non-existent need for proof of positive reviews, why such a high standard for the negative ones? Seems to me there’s quite a few positive reviews being left by friends of the hosts who have stayed there for example.
And then they have a section where the host’s friends can give references. Maybe I’m just cynical, but how is it useful to a customer to know what that person’s friends think of their friend? Because really, has any friend EVER left a negative reference?
“Bill’s a nice guy and all, but would I stay at his place? Probably not.”
Now that I would like to see.
I’m not at all surprised at sites removing negative reviews. As a professional travel critic, I do not make it a practice to “give away” reviews. That said, the one time I wrote a review for TripAdvisor (negative) of a hotel I visited in Nassau, it never got posted. Made me wonder how TripAdvisor screens its postings. While I am a professional travel critic./writer, I certainly do not have any particular axe to grind and I resented TripAdvisor not posting my comment. Seems like they prefer comments and ratings from relatively unexperienced travelers.
BEWARE!! Airbnb.com is really bad in helping hosts doing misconduct by Guests. If we see guests smoking weed or do bad things in your home, airbnb wont come to help in getting him move out. Instead, airbnb allow kicked out guests to put bad reviews on hosts even guest is a maniac. I removed all my listings from airbnb for safety and happiness.
NO MORE AIRBNB.COM again!!
My friend told me about this airbnb website and as I was trying to find an apartment for a week in Dubrovnik , I decided to give it a try, HUGE MISTAKE! I lost €100 within 48 hrs for reservations I have never made.
First I found this rental called “rooms old town” from an owner named Piero, as I have used other websites like hotels.com, booking.com, I asked for availability of the last week in August ( I asked last week, end of July ), the next thing I know that my reservation was confirmed, I looked at it and found that it was a room with a share bathroom , I quickly replied to the owner and told him, I did not want a share bathroom but want a room with private bathroom as he listed in the site, and of course I cancelled the reservation . Little did I know that they already deducted €30 euro from my credit card.
Then the owner replied back saying that the private room was only available for the 1st, 5th,6th and 7th night and asked me to move to another room in between , I immediately replied that I did not want the room as I had no desire to move 3 times during 7 nights stay.
The next day there was an email telling me that the reservation was confirmed and my credit card was charged. Then again, I cancelled the reservation and found that my credit card was charged for another €70 ! Of course , I emailed the owner and the website and told them this was totally ridiculous as I have never made any reservation and merely asking questions. I have made it very clear to the owner that I did not want to move from room to room!
Someone from the website emailed me back stating that it was “company policy” and never explain to me why I was charged even if I did not make the reservation. Their attitude was ” tough luck, you sucker!”
I felt totally being cheated and am furious of these kind of scam! How unethical these people can be!
The website never again send me any reply and the owner of this property said that “don’t worry, they will refund you since you cancel almost a month before , they only deduct when cancellation is within 5 days.” I do not know if the owner really did not realize of this total scam or he is actually working with this website to rib people off.
I have now lost €100 by asking availability of a room one month before my travel date.
Can anyone give me any suggestion as to what I should do?
Yea, Carrie, I suggest you try changing the wording of your probably dishonest review. I have now seen “your” post in three different web threads under three different names. You are a troll and need to be get a life. Sincerely, James Ryan (my real name).
I have to agree with the article. Airbnb does not present honestly and transparency in their business dealings with customers.
I am currently trying to resolve an issue with a dishonest AD, but they are non responsive to date.
I will never recommend or use this service again, nor should you. There are many other more professional services available.
They also over charged my credit card, but when queried blamed my bank, in fact it wasn’t my bank it was their company that did it, and they have yet to refund that amount also.
Airbnb -failure.
I completely believe the story of Angela Rhodes, AIrbnb are very quick to protect their image in anyway they can.
In my opinion, AIrbnb is only concerned with making money and they certainly control the content on their site with respect to both the host AND the guest. They once suspended my account because I had not replied to reservation requests. At that time, I was too busy and traveling, and simply did not have the time to respond. Why did they suspend me? Because not replying does not look good for Airbnb. Recall, I am a single preson, not a hotel and thus do not have the resources to respond to all requests. But, Airbnb has always touted themselves as providing an alternative experience to hotels. So why the lack of understanding about not replying to request???
Also, Airbnb does very little to address the fact that, in many instances, the rental contract or Home Owners Association rules of the hosts prevents any hosting to occur, and that by hosting, any renters or home owners insurance becomes invalid. They do provide a note on the site to check into these things, but that’s it.
Furthermore, they are in clear violation of San Francisco rental laws (SF Adminstrative Code 41a), do not want to pay the newly required SF hotel tax and have provided no clear direction for hosts in SF, where they are based, concerning how to deal with the newly imposed hotel tax on Airbnb hosts. I was present at the meeting in the SF CIty Hall (March 28, 2012) regarding the hotel tax issue. At this meeting, a young lady, who identified herself as an Airbnb host AND employee, said that without hosting on Airbnb, she would not have been able to pay her medical bills for a recent accident. After the meeting, I spoke 1-on-1 with co-owner/founder Joe Gebbia and asked him why the young lady did not have adequate health insurance provided by Airbnb. His face turned red and he told me he did not know about her specifically or her circumstances but that all Airbnb employees have health insurance. When I suggested that the insurance provided might not be good enough, he asked me my name (presumably to bounce me off the site) and when I refused to tell him my name, he walked away quickly.
I am not a big fan of AIrbnb because I feel that the people running the company are greedy and do not have much concern for the human element involved in their business, nor do they care about SF residential and tenant laws which they are known to violate. The fact is that if all the laws regarding hosting were followed (tenant contract, HOA rules, SF city laws) there would be no Airbnb in San Francisco at all, and Airbnb is well aware of this, but does nothing about it.
As a host I can tell you why they suspended you. Because, if you don’t respond to guest requests, you are a terrible host. If you don’t want to actually to follow the rules why don’t you quit? Also, if you are so opposed to breaking the laws in SF (where I also have an apartment) why are you even doing Airbnb as a host. What a tool.
I have had a very similar experience with airbnb. I feel for Angela.
My husband and I rented a home in the St. Petersburg, FL area for a month. We communicated with the owner before we arrived about whether or not the home had been treated for bugs. I have two small children and did not want anything crawling on them in the house. The owner assured me that he had regular treatments on his home and that we shouldn’t be concerned about it.
The first day that we arrived we found a dead roach in the living room. I was concerned because my baby sat on it and it was on the back of her diaper. I contacted the host and told him about my concerns. He said that we shouldn’t worry about it as the bug was dead. We encountered multiple roaches during our stay and eventually left early. He refunded the remainder of our stay but we were very inconvenienced with having to find another rental situation immediately.
We left a review on airbnb about our experience with both the cleanliness of the house and the roach problem (which other guests had encountered according to their guest book). Airbnb removed our post because the owner harrased them continually to have it removed (airbnb told us that this was the reason). Airbnb told us that we should have provided them with proof that there were roaches in the house. All I could think was, “are you kidding me?”
In the end, I have to think that they continually remove reviews that are negative so that they can continue to make money with their hosts. The website is very host-oriented in my opinion. I cannot rely on their review system based on my experience. How do you know if anyone has actually had a problem with the rental? If they are willing to take down a negative review because the host pressures them to do so then they are exposing their guests to a wide range of problems.
Here’s the deal.
I have a floor in a commerical area with bars and restaurants in Nashville. I leased a similar floor in an 1820s building in Bowling Green, KY for close to a decade.
Both are serviced by an exterminator. But there’s nothing you can do to prevent roaches and other insects from entering the building from outside. And in the early AM in either city, it’s common enough to see large roaches scurrying across the street. There’s nothing I can do, except petition the local chamber of commerce and government, for better sanitation.
Guests in my space can thus expect to see dead roaches. The roaches enter, they encounter pesticides, they die. Thus, occasionally, guests will also encounter roaches that have just entered the building, or their offspring.
Several doctors and lawyers live in the building, and seem to understand that this is just what it is, if you want to live within three blocks of two of Nashville’s major medical complexes.
If any potential guest were to ask in advance, I’d be glad to explain this to them, frankly, in advance.
From your informal description, above, it’s impossible to tell if your host was sufficiently frank and honest, or deceptive and misleading– or if there was no extermination in place in the building. These factual details matter, an without them, your post wanders into slander or libel, for which a forum such as AirBNB has potential legal liability.
If there were roaches, you should have documented them with pictures or video. It’s easy enough in these days of cameraphones, tablets, PDAs and the like.
Otherwise, I think the anti-AirBNB sentiment here is a little overwrought and overhyped. They do what they do; it is innovative, and there are bound to be disruptions as things progress and get worked out. But I’ve had showerheads explode at the Holiday Inn in Lawrence and won’t even talk about treatment by innkeepers in Kyiv or rural Scotland.
In the end, compared to hotels which in some areas (Gent comes to mind) can begin at $250US/night, AirBNB offers an easy way to connect with locals, save a lot of money (rooms in Gent can be found for $15-25US/night), and often, be much more cosy and comfortable than a hotel. Are there risks? There always are. Those risks must be factored into the equation of saving $100-200+US / night, and as the site informs guests, one should always have a backup plan.
I just booked 9 nights in Amsterdam through Expedia. The hotel reviews on that site seem to be legit in that there is a sufficient variation among them. I’m paying $62.50 a night in a Best Western. I know what I’m going to be getting for my money and I am quite happy with this price. I’m sure if you booked through Hotwire or Expedia, you could find the same great prices in Gent, or any other place in Belgium.
Maar ik weit niet:
It’s the middle of December, not mid-summer. Hotwire shows two undisclosed locations at $94 and $110, and Expedia has two decent-ish hotels near downtown for $107 and $110. Good luck in June or July with music festivals almost all the time.
I’m going in the late spring and I combined the cost with a flight, which lowered the cost of the hotel. I’m staying right in the Museum district of Amsterdam.
Hi, I’m a flemish guy on a world trip, traveling for a year now. Having much fun with these discussions. Have used all booking systems multiple times and would give one simple advice: wether it’s airbnb, booking.com, expedia or whatever, use them to organize your arrival in a new place (booking one or a few nights at most) and then see if you like the place and look around for alternatives. In my experience, doing your own ground work always beats what’s on offer on the web. I’ve particularly grown very careful about using airbnb, as the rates are often a bit of a joke. I’m in Nicaragua now and have no issue finding better end cheaper places to stay then anything listed okn airbnb! By the way, in some countries the whole airbnb approach is simply illegal: in Greece, for instance, it is forbidden to rent out rooms or appartments for a short lease unless you have a EOT license (Greek tourism organisations), which most of the private people advertising on airbnb obviously don’t have. Use Airbnb there and you basically end up in the black market. The prices though will often be at the level of the neighboring hostal which did go through the effort of getting an EOT license. Talk about dishonest competition…
Kenneth,
Thank you for your post. I couldn’t disagree with you more though. If AirBNB wants to be taken seriously as a reputable lodging option then they need to provide a forum for people to post honest reviews……period. Every other travel website allows for open and honest reviews. AirBNB does not. They remove views that hurt their business model. It’s as simple as that.
Kelly,
Thank you for your reply and disagreement as well.
If the reality is as you claim, and AirBNB is removing reviews that “don’t fit their business model” in a censoring manner, then that is problematic.
On the other hand, the Internet has emerged as a sort of Wild West, where anyone (thinks they can) say anything. That is definitely not at all true. The kind of unsubstantiated accusations you make, above, might well result in a libel or other suit. You seem to be using your real name. On the AirBNB site, the target of your accusation is well aware of your public statements, and often suffers clear and immediate financial damage.
If I were AirBNB– an entity with clearly deep pockets compared to some other operations–, I’d want to be treading as softly as possible around the kind of litigation that could result.
FWIW, I appreciate your position as well.
P.S. – No one disputes that showerheads explode or that innkeepers can be less than ideal, however, we should be able to discuss our experiences openly and without censorship. AirBNB is a useless website if bad reviews are removed. Censorship kills an online presence and makes people distrust the business that does not allow for open and honest reporting.
I’ve just started looking at the airbnb site for an upcoming trip and was just thinking how come all the reviews seem to be so lavish….I haven’t seen one negative reivew. That seems highly suspicious. I’ve done a lot a traveling and always am looking at reviews before booking at such sites like trip advisor, etc. There are plenty of negative reviews and have learned that some are probably more legit than other, but, to see a site that has no negatives is quite strange.
It gets more interesting when you compare Airbnb reviews with reviews of hotels on other booking sites. Every other site I’ve seen so far allows negative reviews. If you do a bit of comparison shopping, this difference between Airbnb and other sites becomes really, really obvious.
Beware of Airbnb. I imagine it’s rare, but if you have to deal with their customer service reps get ready for some condescending attitudes. I booked what I thought was an entire apartment (that was the classification anyway) to find out that there would be someone staying there! 20 min after I paid, I canceled and tried to get my 50% fee and booking fee back. (over $400) The renter was cool and willing to do the refund but Airbnb was anything but. 10 emails and 6 phone calls got me the 50 % back but Airbnb refused to refund me 75 dollars for a misunderstanding of the rental and only 20minutes of actual booking.
They sell themselves as a laid back nice “hipster-type” business but they are just a bunch of elitist jerks in disguise.
Glorified Craigslist. never again.
There is a simple solution for the above: reverse the charge
.
I have used Airbnb several times now and am planning to use it again in an upcoming trip to Costa Brava.
Let’s compare my experience of renting a holiday apartment using a foreign property company. We found mice and other pests in our first hour, and no solution was offered by the company. We insisted on having an alternative the next day, and for 3 nights we had 3 different apartments, none thankfully with mice.
If they hadnt had an English speaker and been prepared to act, we would not have had any redress, as I would have needed to take a claim in a Portuguese court.
Compare that with Airbnb. In my first experience I was unhappy with the flat I rented. The host was not interested, and we left early. Airbnb took up the matter, and considered the evidence I had sufficient to remove the listing and refunded my money after 10 months.
In my second I rented a lovely apartment in Istanbul. Great host, and I was very happy, left a strongly positive review. Only he wanted to charge for damages. When airbnb asked him to show proof of the damage (to a set of cups) he said it was missing not damaged. He then retracted the charge, and he and I have just chalked it up to “these things happen”. Well if he had held the deposit in cash or a less careful agency held it, I would have lost money. The host put up a lovely review of me as guest so he cant have felt bad about the process.
Anyone can have a negative experience, whether Airbnb can help you either as host or renter is after the fact. You have already had a problem that affects your holiday. I have found Airbnb staff are fair in my dealings with them.
The problems that people encountered, getting charged for bookings that they quickly retract: maybe its too easy to make a booking. Most websites give a warning, such as ebay, do you want to confirm this bid. However, the more people publicise this risk the better for others will can resist that green button.
I find this argument very interesting AND depressing. The phenomenon of “disappearing bad reviews” is something I’ve addressed in an article on my website.
It’s my contention that a lot of these so-called reviews are airbrushed and turned into marketing fodder. It’s not only Airbnb who’s doing this; it’s happening on practically all review sites.
So much for the democracy of the internet.