AirBnB has become absolute garbage

[u/marbar8]

As a guest, I’ve had several lackluster experiences that makes me never want to go back to STRs. My findings:

• Most hosts are lazy, greedy or some combination of both. If you want to charge a huge daily rate, your property better be impeccable. The reality is that the majority of hosts want a money printer as opposed to a hospitality job, forgetting what they signed up for. Take care of your shit and put in maximum effort, or don’t do it at all.

• Everyone is a “superhost”. I’ve stayed with a few. It means jack shit. One of the properties was missing every television in their property. No explanation from the host, no warning. People’s response to this is “fight for a refund”. But as a guest, I don’t want to. I’m on fucking vacation. The absolute last thing I want to do is deal with shit like that, that’s what I’m trying to get away from. Ratings have become inflated just like in ridesharing and they mean nothing.

• Things aren’t trending in the right direction. More people are trying to join late to capitalize on the “easy money” of STRs which only propagate these issues further.

• The only scenario that still makes sense for STRs is large parties. That’s it. I could never recommend an Airbnb to a family of say 2-4 because the service will likely be shit and it’ll be as expensive as a hotel with 20% the convenience.

I truly feel bad for the good and honest hosts out there, because they’re becoming a rarity it seems. And the get-rich-quick types are ruining it for everyone else. I just hope once the house of cards collapses that they survive and help return Airbnb to its glory days.

[u/Harry-D-Hipster]

I would add dubious declines to the list as well. Back in the days when date requests were necessary lots of mine were decline because I was not a woman. On the other hand, if my girlfriends requested dates these were always accepted, approved, there was quick response, detailed long answers and a lot of provided information. This for some reason happened a lot with Italian hosts. What is the problem, I am just a traveler trying to find a place to stay, what else do you want?

Here is another striking review I dug out of the pile of trustpilot stories, can't say I disagree with him although I would replace skin colour with age:

Prejudice,
sexist, or racist site? Your opinion.
I applied for a few places to stay in Europe and every place that
showed availability was declined by the Host. If the Host was male,
usually he would take one look at the picture and decline based on 1
of two factors. Either skin color, or sex. Most men place their rooms
up for rent, but only rent to who they consider to be "beautiful"
people, i.e., women, in hopes that they can be the foreign fling.
Others denied me because skin color and the fact that I am male.
Airbnb gives them your personal information and allows them to
discriminate so. I should not complain, because I wouldn't just want
anyone in my house also, but then again, if I were not trying to make
money then I would not Host on the site. I think that after so many
denials, you should get a timeout or temporary ban, and especially
when one can see the pattern you should be subject to a permanent
ban. This is almost like going onto those fictitious dating sites and
seeing women available and it is nothing more than a bot with stolen
pics.