AirBnb...is It Real Or is a SCAM!

The company which started 10 years ago in the United States, particularly in San Francisco, California by two miserable roommates who were unable to afford their apartment fees is now the talk of many.

Airbnb which stands for AirBed & Breakfast started their company concept by offering short-term living quarters to those who can not afford paying for hotels. But the question that keeps arising whether or not the company is worth the praise or is it simply a SCAM!

I’ve heard many negative reviews about Airbnb before experiencing it myself. The company’s weak rules and policies in my opinion needs A LOT of attention.

Throughout the history of business companies always worked hard to attract customers hence targeting to provide the best customer services in order to ensure customer satisfaction and loyalty. Studies, Technologies, trainings, books, apps and many more are thriving to develop newer methods to keep customers happy but unfortunately this is not the case with Airbnb.

The “no customer protection” leaves Airbnb at the edge. The listings’ information, images and locations are not always accurate as indicated under the listings’ description. The company reveals the exact location of a listing only when the guest pays for it, How weird! Besides that, Airbnb doesn’t offer any backup solutions for guests who face issues with hosts or their listings leaving it up to the guests to search for a new place themselves. The Airbnb refund policy wholly relies on the host if s/he wishes to issue a full refund to the guest when he faces issues with the booked property, however, if the host chose not to refund despite his property problems(and s/he can), Airbnb can poorly help by refunding only a 20% of the property cost per night. This refund policy implies as long as the guest remains at the property even if s/he is in the process of negotiating and looking for another replacement regardless if these negotiations are undergoing with the host or with Airbnb. In simple words the guest can ONLY get a full refund if s/he sleeps in the street. At the end the victim in any of the cases is always the guest.

Adding to that the reviews by both the host and guest can not be viewed by both parties (guest & host) until a certain time determined by Airbnb and they are revealed to the public at the same time too without amendments whether they are right or wrong. Thus, reviews can be faked and manipulated by either the host or the guest to their preference without any worries and Airbnb will not do anything even if you provide evidence about your experience with the host. Airbnb unlike other companies seems to be retaliating on their guests giving credit to hosts to do whatever they want. Looking in depth into Airbnb’s mysterious rules and policies it seems that the founders Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia want to ensure they make their guests go through the same experience they both did when they were nothing but miserable roommates.

Article By : Wessam Tariq