Welcome to Your Airbnb
nytimes.com
nytimes.com
When toying with the idea of going on a vacation the idea of lying on a beach drinking beer for 7 seven days sounds fantastic. However, I've found that the real vacation is experiencing a new culture - and perhaps most importantly meeting new people.
That's what I like about AirBnb. You get to know and experience new people. An added bonus is that the hosts are often locals themselves and can help you avoid the usual tourist traps.
*Edit: Explained "thrill".
There has to be some magic filter introduced (other than good judgment) to clean out the desperate or greedy hosts monetising their sub standard assets & another to filter the rude or plain vandal guests.
On the plus side, if you complain to AirBnB you're treated like a prince!
I was in Krakow for unsound festival and i needed a place to stay super late minute, all that was left was this one plausible place south of the river, looked nice, okay reviews but in hindsight there were some mentions about about privacy etc. when i turned up late at night the room was not a private room but a couch in the kitchen and the actual tenant of this one bed flat was completely not cool with his landlord renting out the couch like this. so after one awkward night in krakow i rang up AirBnB, they refunded me the whole amount and gave me €50 credit.
My scenario was common i expect so it was very one-to-one with the rep, you must have gone from pillar to post.
Airbnb use Adyen for their payment processing which is a pile of shit when it comes to dev support imho.