Airbnb Whistleblower

The following thread is long, detailed and prob bit convoluted, but for anyone who has *any* concerns about how @Airbnb is operating/evolving in 2021 - hosts, guests, communities, activists, law/policymakers, media etc - please stick with it Hopefully, it might open a few eyes.

@SadCustomers @PhillyInquirer ".. digital options have overtaken the telephone as the primary complaint channel since early 2020" Well of course they have, when big companies purposely make it next to impossible to *find* their phone numbers and even when they can be found, you're left on hold for hours.. 🙄

Seldom is this "rage" or "revenge" in my experience. It's typically a company failing to provide timely and/or helpful Customer Service and a consumer losing faith in all other channels. Definitely on the rise. #badcustomerservice @PhillyInquirer inquirer.com/business/consu…

@dfwaaronlayman Yes it is. And has been from Day 1

Out of 200-250 local short-term rentals, only 8 are paying the hotel occupancy tax, only 7 are registered as required by code. It's almost like Airbnb's business model is based on regulatory avoidance. 🤔 dentonrc.com/news/denton/de…

@ElaineARoche @AirbnbHelp @Airbnb @deirdrenugent4 This is a very regular occurrence with #Airbnb bookings, Elaine. Happens all the time, particularly with commercial hosts (they'll happily leave guests stranded by cancelling bookings right up until last minute if they can get higher rates elsewhere)

I cannot believe someone can just do this when it was fully paid for @AirbnbHelp @Airbnb really puts a shadow on our weekend @deirdrenugent4 having driven 4 hours from Wexford and now having no accommodation 🥹 #airbnb

@seanjkellogg @DanielleMorrill @Airbnb Lol! You're kidding, right? @Airbnb violates its own Terms of Service, all day, every day. Also, @Airbnb systematically abuses and mistreats hosts as a matter of course.

@esthercrawford @Airbnb In many (most) cases, those offering #Airbnb experiences also offer same service privately and have own websites If you *really* want to support local businesses, far better to book with hosts direct, rather than giving Airbnb the opportunity to cream a whopping 20% off the top

10/10 would recommend booking an @Airbnb Experience if you’re wanting to do local activities without any planning while traveling. I went on a delicious street food tour in Bangkok that had 2 Michelin star stops, eating things I never would’ve tried or found on my own.

@Airbnb Here's a radical idea for increasing solo traveller safety, @Airbnb - how about you focus on verifying that the listings on your site actually EXIST and that your 'hosts' are who they claim to be, rather than introducing even more glitchy 'features' that never work anyway?

📈 solo travel increased by 33% on airbnb last year. our solo traveler safety feature is a specialized in-app experience that aims to support guests traveling solo in a private or shared room on airbnb. news.airbnb.com/airbnb-expands…

@sama @bchesky Hey @bchesky - if you're such a big fan of ChatGPT, why is it that the mods on your Community Centre forum are surreptitiously deleting comments from posters questioning whether certain posts are from actual real-life hosts, or from makey-up, pretend ChatGPT 'hosts'..?

here is GPT-4, our most capable and aligned model yet. it is available today in our API (with a waitlist) and in ChatGPT+. openai.com/research/gpt-4 it is still flawed, still limited, and it still seems more impressive on first use than it does after you spend more time with it.

@bchesky @sferik @Airbnb Also, quite fascinating to note the number of supportive/fawning responses to @bchesky on this tweet, from somewhat dubious posters who have only a handful of followers..

@sferik @Airbnb I’m having someone reach out to you

I know it’s a long shot, but does anyone know an engineer at Airbnb named Jeroen who’s using my listing (Room.first) as sample data for testing? If so, could you please ask him to find a different room?

@bast_i @bchesky @sferik @Airbnb Nope. It's a rather transparent attempt at damage limitation

@mbyBrice @bchesky @sferik @Airbnb Do some research, Alexander

@bchesky @sferik @Airbnb Looks like #Airbnb is getting VERY close to being rumbled for your years of ghost bookings and artificially boosted 'data' @bchesky! You certainly wouldn't be responding to such a mundane tweet if you didn't have something to hide. It's been a long time coming..

Anyone even considering hosting on #Airbnb should be fully aware that Airbnb habitually suspends/bans hosts w/ neither notice nor explanation, leaving many w/ zero income Below, 1000+ threads w/ tens of thousands of comments from wrongly suspended hosts community.withairbnb.com/t5/forums/sear…

@TeeeHeish @Airbnb Anyone even considering hosting on #Airbnb should be fully aware that Airbnb habitually suspends/bans hosts w/ neither notice nor explanation, leaving many w/ zero income Below, 1000+ threads w/ tens of thousands of comments from wrongly suspended hosts community.withairbnb.com/t5/forums/sear…

I am a 7 year Navy Veteran and full time almost 5 year Airbnb Super Host. @Airbnb is how my wife and I pay our bills and feed our family. Today Airbnb suspended all of our listings out of nowhere with zero communication…not a single phone call message or explanation

@StayNotreDame @Airbnb Yes, this is #Airbnb's standard practice now - suspend/ban the *hosts* who report partying/anti-social guests to them The perfect deterrent to stop hosts from reporting parties, which in turn allows #Airbnb to concoct the 'data' that (wrongly) claims their 'Party Ban' works🙄

We report a party at our home and @Airbnb instead of getting the guests out immediately they block us from future bookings. Good job #AirCover

@BrettFromDJ So while you're 1500 miles away putting in 'zero effort', your cleaner is going to get out of bed at 4am to go break up an out-of-control party if (when) it happens at your 'Airbnb', are they? Let's see if you're still 'booked out' once your newbie search rankings boost expires

Since Airbnb’ing our place in the Midwest, it’s been booked out constantly. The best part is it requires zero effort on our part even though we’re 1500 miles away. Our cleaner takes care of everything. Currently making about 5x the mortgage. Not bad.

@lukebussey @BrettFromDJ New listings get a (brief) artificial boost in search rankings so they'll receive several bookings quickly to 'lock them in' After that, you're flung back in the grossly over-saturated pool to battle for survival, along with the thousands of other unbooked hosts in each market

@BrettFromDJ We launched our place in February and it’s fully booked in March in a super saturated market. abnb.me/SqdFF7AdTwb

@scoopercooper "Human rights group Safeguard Defenders revealed that Chinese authorities set up such police stations across the world, mainly in Europe" "In recent weeks [Irish Foreign Ministry] asked the Chinese embassy to “close and cease operations” [in Dublin]" politico.eu/article/irelan…

RCMP has confirmed national security units are investigating suspected Chinese police stations in Montreal. Notable to me is a few high level Chinese espionage investigations have occurred in this area, one involving US national security.

@dreamsr210 @AirbnbHelp @Airbnb You can add your complaint to thread above but better to start new thread of your own - that gets their attention quicker as they're always eager to get those posts dealt with quickly so the thread gets pushed down the boards ASAP If you have any media contacts, involve them too

@dreamsr210 @AirbnbHelp @Airbnb Post your story on #Airbnb's Community Centre @dreamsr210. Typically, hosts who post there find their payouts miraculously released within days, presumably because #Airbnb are aware that forum is being monitored by journos. Its all about the optics. GL! #M41175" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">community.withairbnb.com/t5/Manage-your…

@AirbnbHelp @Susan17Airbnb @Airbnb Its almost 3 months and i still keep getting the same response that some one will look into the matter but no results is there any one that can help get the payouts..

@insiderinternet @insiderinternet @kieranpressreyn Now do a story on all the other 1000s of homes listed on #Airbnb without owners' knowledge or consent, how Airbnb typically refuses to remove them until media intervention and how this ties in w/ Airbnb's disingenuous 'verification' pretences

Airbnb has removed a listing after a TikToker went viral claiming her dad's home was mysteriously listed by someone else trib.al/seFvP6F