The good news is that there are plenty of great deals to be found for those in the market, as long as you’re only looking to live there yourself. In the Gene Autry neighborhood, one listing warns potential buyers: “Property can not be short term rented as there is a STR permit cap in the neighborhood.”
While the article explains how some investors will lose hundreds of thousands of dollars, the fact that these policies make homes more affordable for people who want to live in them is why more cities should implement caps.
The guest who booked at the highest price was able to actually stay at the property, and Goel would cancel all other reservations using a “false excuse” as to why the property suddenly became unavailable, according to the indictment.
Goel was FAR from the only host using this approach to scam AirBnB customers out of $$ and ruin vacation plans. I hope the discovery includes the attempts people made to get the platforms to actually do something about the increasingly common behavior from hosts.
It won’t happen, but AirBNB should be held partially accountable for having a platform which allows this to happen in the first place. They did nothing to prevent the scheme, and barely helped the victims at all
It is a shitty experience when the host posts photos that are different, in a convenient way, than what you find in the house.
It also makes it shitty that AirBnB uses a ‘mediation’ protocol that seems designed to stall and that is not upfront with what remediation the client can expect.
Host-client conflict resolution by AirBnB feels like gaslighting. ----- And I say this because, even with photographic evidence of the differences between the listing offer and the real thing, in the bathroom and the beds; even with that clear cut photographic evidence, AirBnB only returned less than 15% of the rent amount. Does that sound like a fair treatment for a fraud? AirBnB supported the fraudster.
Hotels aren’t going to screw with the housing market. They’re also regulated, meaning they have legal obligations towards their customers. There’s also proper house/apartment rentals, as well as BnBs outside of AirBNB so one can avoid supporting that awful company and all the shady practises it comes with.
The idea behind AirBNB was to offer a platform where people could let their spare rooms and whatnot easily. That’s not what AirBNB is today. Today it’s a cancer.
So I should spend thousands of dollars more, because the housing market is screwed up? Well I’m sure you would definitely do that if it were you money but I’m not that rich to be able to piss money away because local governments can’t figure their zoning and regulations out.
Depending on what consumer laws you’re covered by you could try to have your bank do a charge back on the payment. Wouldn’t expect to use AirBNB ever in the future though.
Which really you shouldn’t ever use AirBNB as it’s flooded with grifters that buy property and “rent” it out as an unlicensed and unregulated hotel business. Hotels exist for a reason, and in cases where you do get stiffed by a hotel, there is legal recourse for getting your problem rectified. You’ve got basically no protections when using AirBNB.
AirBNB should be much heavier regulated. It might conk their businesses, which just goes to show that their business model doesn’t work.
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