Why does AirBnB hate us all so much?
We've been abused by AirBnB several times recently, and we just locked in apartments for late fall 2019 (so we don't miss our favorites which are already largely booked for that period).
This gives us some expertise on all the anti-renter policies.
The worst one of course is the handling of cash. If you rent now, AirBnB charges 100% of the rental and their fees. You pay. It doesn't matter when the term starts or ends. Even IHG and Marriott and the rest of the bricks and mortar hospitality industry don't have the balls to do that!
It puts AirBnB up there with only one similarly lousy group: the airlines!
Now for the next injustice--penalties start immediately. If, for instance, you've rented a place for a month, on day 2, the penalty is 30 days. In other words, AirBnB took my money yesterday, claims 100% of it now, and I have to stay alive and healthy long enough to show up November 15, 2019 for a full month to benefit from this transaction.
Which leads me to a third criminal behavior by AirBnB. Let's say you're staying in this apartment you lined up, and paid for, a year ago. You arrive...and it turns out, like our current place on Rue du Courtalon in the 1er Arrondisement in Paris, to have bed bugs in one bedroom and rats in the garbage room. And an all night jazz club in the basement! Small details that could, perhaps, have been disclosed. Anyway, it doesn't matter. We can't get our money back, nor can we leave early. Instead, we can do what we're doing now--paying a second time for a hotel with clean sheets a block away.
Finally, AirBnB sets all these penalties for renters, but the real estate agents who control all the properties are never at risk. They aren't at risk for bad properties. They aren't at risk if we get sick or die. And, they aren't at risk if they get a better offer--which has happened to us in 3 out of 9 rentals. Within two weeks of our arrival, long after we have airline tickets and other non-refundable investments from other criminal corporations like Delta or United or Air France, we've been cancelled out. In each case we scrambled to find whatever was available (that's why we're in this sad sack apartment at the moment--another listing in St Germain canceled the week before we arrived.)
Guess what--no damages to the real estate managers! No punishments--the apartments are still listed, etc etc. And the friendly social media community? Try alerting other renters of bad homes or bad actors if you get cancelled--you have no recourse to the comments section. So the next sad victim will get damaged, just like you.
Just us renters get screwed by AirBnB.
This gives us some expertise on all the anti-renter policies.
The worst one of course is the handling of cash. If you rent now, AirBnB charges 100% of the rental and their fees. You pay. It doesn't matter when the term starts or ends. Even IHG and Marriott and the rest of the bricks and mortar hospitality industry don't have the balls to do that!
It puts AirBnB up there with only one similarly lousy group: the airlines!
Now for the next injustice--penalties start immediately. If, for instance, you've rented a place for a month, on day 2, the penalty is 30 days. In other words, AirBnB took my money yesterday, claims 100% of it now, and I have to stay alive and healthy long enough to show up November 15, 2019 for a full month to benefit from this transaction.
Which leads me to a third criminal behavior by AirBnB. Let's say you're staying in this apartment you lined up, and paid for, a year ago. You arrive...and it turns out, like our current place on Rue du Courtalon in the 1er Arrondisement in Paris, to have bed bugs in one bedroom and rats in the garbage room. And an all night jazz club in the basement! Small details that could, perhaps, have been disclosed. Anyway, it doesn't matter. We can't get our money back, nor can we leave early. Instead, we can do what we're doing now--paying a second time for a hotel with clean sheets a block away.
Finally, AirBnB sets all these penalties for renters, but the real estate agents who control all the properties are never at risk. They aren't at risk for bad properties. They aren't at risk if we get sick or die. And, they aren't at risk if they get a better offer--which has happened to us in 3 out of 9 rentals. Within two weeks of our arrival, long after we have airline tickets and other non-refundable investments from other criminal corporations like Delta or United or Air France, we've been cancelled out. In each case we scrambled to find whatever was available (that's why we're in this sad sack apartment at the moment--another listing in St Germain canceled the week before we arrived.)
Guess what--no damages to the real estate managers! No punishments--the apartments are still listed, etc etc. And the friendly social media community? Try alerting other renters of bad homes or bad actors if you get cancelled--you have no recourse to the comments section. So the next sad victim will get damaged, just like you.
Just us renters get screwed by AirBnB.
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