And this is why Airbnb doesn't care. This is insane to me that they end with "Dealing with Airbnb’s easily exploitable and occasionally crazy-making system is still just a bit cheaper than renting a hotel." after ALL that. It's like the author has stockholm syndrome. I can't wrap my head around why you'd ever use Airbnb again after an experience like that, esp. when hotels are about the same cost.
But, I've never been scammed on Airbnb. My experiences have all been excellent. That's one rental in the US and 5 across western Europe in the last 7 years. Not sure if it matters, but none of these were "cheap" rentals - they were all mid-priced. And almost all with "Super Host" rating (no clue if that gives any extra protection).
That's a fair question. I may have generalized a bit with that statement, however, from what I have seen lately if you use a hotel deal site, it has been about the same cost. On my recent vacations, after looking at options like Airbnb vs hotels in popular US cities, it has been an easy decision to get hotels over an Airbnb with the price difference averaging around $25-50 (esp. after you factor in all the crazy fees Airbnb does now, that you don't see until checkout). However, you do make a good point for your specific needs of the kitchen, that will obviously change a lot in terms of a hotel pricing with that amenity.
For what it's worth, I've also only ever had good experiences with Airbnb in the past when I have used them, but still my main point was if I was the author, I don't know how I could ever go back to using Airbnb after that.
But did AirBnB help the scammer keep her $800? Still giving AirBnB business after that is indeed ridiculous.
Aside from that... why aren't Airbnb detecting when multiple properties have very similar photos and investigating this themselves? (Of course they may be, and these examples are cases where they didn't pull the fraudulent listing).
What surprises me is that the card issuers don't come down harder on businesses with this practice. I suppose Airbnb is a pretty large customer (of the card issuers) and so aren't so easy to influence, however...
The chargeback is for the exact fraudulent type of activity described in the article, and the business who allows it should be punished.
Heck, that is the primary reason I use my credit card, for this type of protection.
Declining a charge in this way is thus less insurance, and more telling the merchant "I am not paying you." While it may be justified (like in this story), the merchant is never going to be happy about losing those funds and losing the control over the funds.
I had a similar situation with the App Store where I purchased a subscription under a mistaken assumption and when I could not find any recourse through Apple or the publisher (I simply could not find any way to get in touch with anyone), I declined the charge on my credit card. This led Apple to block all activity with that card - so much so that I was unable to download any free apps until I added another payment method to my profile.
When I attempted to contact Apple to resolve this issue I was told that it was "for my security", to prevent further fraudulent transactions on my card. Explaining the situation, and that there was no fraudulent use of my card or account, just a misleading subscription did nothing to help. They insisted that the only way to resolve the situation would be if I reversed the dispute from the credit card (thus releasing the funds back to Apple), and only after that was completed would I be able to try to get a refund from Apple. Left with no other choice that is what I did.
The issue at hand here was obviously that Apple was refusing to give up control to the credit card companies. By effectively banning any user that disputes a charge they are able to force their users to keep all complaints within Apple's purview (and they do not provide a way to submit complaints digitally).
I can still use Qatar and Expedia.
Airbnb should not be allowed to ban me for this reason.
With Steam, you lose your entire library when banned.
With Uber, you lose the ability to create an account tied to your phone number (i.e. you need to get a new phone number to ever have a new account).
I don't use AirBnB because it is a scam haven, so I can't comment on how their dispute process works.
FWIW, "back in the day" chargebacks used to be done in a manual way which made it harder to automate the banning process that tech companies utilize. But the likes of Stripe and other processors have made it part of their API so you can easily trace the chargeback to the transaction and determine what recourse you have.
The result would mean that 75% of my trip would be spent not in Singapore. So I requested to leave the plane because the plane had to go back to the gate to refuel, because of how long it waited on the runway.
Qatar tried to argue that this wasn't their problem, but BoA told them to eat the cost. Two sides of the same coin. I would have accepted a partial refund but BoA gave full refund.
So the idea that "I can just take my business elsewhere" is maybe a dying notion, in this modern economy. They're not brick-and-mortar stores where you can just walk down the street to another one.
