Hacker News Reader

Comment by random42 | Hacker News Reader

Why would you continue to give airbnb your business, once experiencing something like that anyways?

Because the expected value of using the platform is still greater despite the known risks?

over $1000 lost is still greater value?

Where are you getting $1000 from? He says 3 figure so it's in the hundreds, I'm assuming lower. Everyone has there point where they'd be fine burning the bridge. To me the ability to get a place quickly with an app from anywhere has a good amount of value, but I'd have trouble putting an exact price on it.

Read the article. He paid $1,221 plus for the new last-minute hotel. Got refunded $399.

Expected value takes into account probability. You aren't going to lose $1000 every time you use air bnb. Probably.

....what kind of behavior were you expecting? AirBnb has always had atrocious customer service.

I disagree. I've been both a host and customer for many years, and in general I've found the customer service to be good or even very good for resolving issues either as a host or as a customer.

In fact, many 'scare' articles about airbnb puzzle me, because it seem seems that the problems could have been avoided if the guest had read the reviews and/or booked with a superhost (or other host with a history of good reviews).

Having said that, I do think it's insane that the reviews are no longer listed in chronological order (or at least with the option to view them in chronological order).

> or other host with a history of good reviews

But how can I trust that the reviews are good if, as this article talks about, people are hesitant to post anything but good reviews for fear of receiving a retaliatory review?

Neither review is visible until both are done, so that's nonsense.

Uhm, that sounds even worse: so your bad review won't show up until a host responds, so they can simply decide not to, and your bad review never shows up.

No, because there's a fixed time limit to submit a review, afterwhich the review is posted irregardless. Hey, I guess airbnb put more than 10 seconds of thought into the design of the process, what do you know.

You act like people’s real names and contact information are not exchanged. AirBnb has no quality enforcement mechanism to protect your privacy, the quality of your stay, or the resulting fallout from a conflict.

The mechanism for preventing most bad stays is called the reputation system, which is based on reviews. As for exchanging real names, do you think the system would be improved if all participants were completely anonymous? There's a reason a hotel knows your real name and contact information as well. You sound like a troll.

> I've found the customer service to be good

Yea? Do explain your confidence.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com