Local Family Discovers Home Listed on Airbnb After Strangers Arrive
losangeles.cbslocal.com
losangeles.cbslocal.com
“…and he said, ‘Okay, someone will be in touch with you tonight.’ Nothing,” said Branch*
The listing stayed up for weeks and, last weekend, another stranger showed up to the home, saying she had rented the house on Airbnb.*
“Escalated to a specialized team.” Right.
Turns out the house is also listed on AirBnB and someone does live there (food in the fridge, stuff in drawers, locked bedrooms).
I think the person who booked it must've missed some detail, but we assumed because we specifically didn't use Airbnb, that we weren't going to be staying in someone's actual home.
I find that pretty deceitful, and it seems to incentivize high volume owners to ignore any customer support issues since a bad review will easily get buried.
A pretty bad sign of where that platform is heading.
Last Airbnb I booked resulted in a elderly Hispanic couple walking in on my SO and I in the act because apparently they double booked us by a couple days and use the same door code for all guests.
Just another example of a tech darling “disrupting” an existing industry by ignoring regulation and refusing to provide customer service.
This whole thread gives me pause to ever rent out my mother's property via AirBnB though. I think I will look for a reputable property management company and long-term renters instead.
They managed to book a hotel, but it was an awkward 2 hours to say the least while they called around.
What really set me off was that the door code was just completely public, so anyone that had stayed there in the past who knows how long could just walk right in.
Airbnb is a shit show and a huge step backwards in the name of progress.
Not even touching how they have royally fucked the renters markets in a lot of areas.