The way I genuinely been procrastinating getting aura I was thinking about that yesterday but I always forgot who’s codes are still active but definitely gonna try aura ❤
I clean air bnbs. fun fact! we do not get that $200 cleaning fee :) it goes to the host who most of the time never even visits the properties for months at a time. I get paid $16 an hour, clean for about 2-3 hours each property, resulting in a whopping $50 (roughly). not sure what the point of a cleaning fee is when its not even for the cleaner! and oh yeah the company is a failing one, currently looking for a new job :)
What really sucks about AirBnB is that it really started off like an online hostel type situation. It was a way to travel and experience the city like a local. I stayed at a really beautiful Victorian home with a super sweet host and it was really cool to see their personal recommendations and such. Now I can't even think about using the platform because it's been clearly taken over by landlords.
I swear, landlords are like plague insects, a few discover a source of income and then they swarm and mine the resource until they’ve ruined it completely.
All the hotels shown at the beginning of this video is what makes AirBnB such a unique experience. Unfortunately, 99% of the properties on the site are now just shittier, more expensive versions of your average hotel. Unless you're going to book one of those unique units, you're better of booking a hotel.
@@elsa_g I loved that one comment Gabi highlighted where the host was "in the middle of a career change." Sure dear, you're not just being a lazy slumlord leech who dreams of doing nothing while whining about lazy kids these days. I try not to hold a lot of hate in my heart but these people make that pretty tough..
My airbnb kept getting bad reviews because it was not enough like a hotel. Our pillows mismatched and so did our dishes. It wasn't perfect but we were much cheaper. The more people wanted more, the more we had to up out costs
so fun story, when my wife and I were dating, the apartment that we were living in at the time got posted on airbnb. except not by us. the leasing office called us furious and told us that people were there to pick up the key to their airbnb from the front desk. we were obviously insanely confused and freaked out. we reported the psychos who put up the listing, it got removed, we thought it was taken care of. they put the listing back up 2 weeks later. they didn’t even get banned. it’s actually just the wild fkn west out there
Earthquake destroys multiple properties. New townhouses built to replace them, new modern and up to code. Immediately purchased and listed as short term rentals, with people proudly posting it on social media
It's crazy that Omegle was sued over the users doing nefarious things on it but Airbnb isn't getting sued or reprimanded for their users doing nefarious things.
People keep saying “getting rid of Airbnb won’t make a dent in the housing market”. I live in a tourist town. More than half of the houses and apartments are used as airbnb. Because of that, myself and every young person are literally sharing bedrooms because there is nowhere else to live. If there were no airbnbs, we all could potentially have a place to live normally
I work with people whose side hustle is being landlords/having “investment properties” and I swear, they cannot comprehend the idea of limited housing stock + them buying the housing up -> less housing available for everyone else coming after. They’ve got that typical “I did it so that means anyone could if they just worked hard enough” and it’s like, yeah, you got your first home and decided you could make money, and now you're actively making it harder for everyone trying to buy a home to live in.
Honestly that was one part of her video I didn’t get. It’s obvious that Airbnb’s are taking up many properties even in places people don’t want to live so of course it would be a big impact if they disappeared
I worked for an Airbnb host that charged a standard $45 cleaning fee for most of their units, with higher rates for their "premium" properties. They hired their own cleaners to justify this price, so you would think that most, if not all, of this money would go to staff. Right? Wrong. The bosses rushed us to finish the properties quickly rather than thoroughly, which led to several cleanliness complaints, overworked and underpaid staff, and the Airbnb host making a profit off of the cleaning fees as well as the rental rates. This is just the tip of the iceberg; I have many more horror stories about these hosts.
I was the operations manager for this host; I managed both guest services and employee operations. They never had a direct interest in managing themselves, feeling content with leaving everything to me besides payroll. I worked from 6:00 in the morning to 11:00 at night with no true days off. If I wasn't on the ground helping the housekeeping staff or the laundry attendant, I was on call for any guest needs (pillows, blankets, toiletries, lock outs, etc). The host would throw a fit any time I tried to take time off, and even when I wasn't physically working I still had to take guest calls and requests. I was paid only $17 per hour for managing two major facets of their business, and my on call hours which only allowed me seven hours to myself netted me $500 per month. Not per week. Per month. And that's just what they did to me. Most of the staff when I started working there quit when they started pushing harder for cleaning to get done faster and less thoroughly. The host wrote them off as "expendable" and played it off as if they had no responsibility in it. I consoled one employee who was in tears because she wasn't making enough to support her kid anymore when she had been making enough just a few months before. One employee had a mental breakdown (she's better now) and another was fired because she asked for a raise. And they made a guest leave one of their units even though he had tested positive for Covid because someone else was checking in. They didn't bother telling the cleaner; but I did, and despite taking all precautions, he caught Covid and was out for over a week. I also caught Covid at this time and they made me come back to work after the minimum five day quarantine. Five days.
My spouse and I lived in a converted garage on the host's property so that they could make sure I was doing what they expected of me. The host's son in law gossiped about everyone behind their back and claimed that he "made me" who I am because we had worked together years before. And when my spouse and I had finally had enough and left, they made me clean the garage (fair) and said it was spotless, then proceeded to withhold $250 of my last paycheck as a "final deposit". They repainted the garage with that money. They own a real estate company and a construction company on top of it, and they build their own Airbnb units specifically for use as Airbnb units. This hurts the local real estate market and exacerbates the housing crisis in that town.
a friend of a friend’s dog died after an airbnb stay when they were exposed to open rat poison even though the property was listed as pet friendly. neither the host nor airbnb agreed to refund them. it was horrifying.
My dad’s girlfriend professionally cleans a lot of Air B&Bs and has found hidden cameras and other creepy stuff numerous times, but everytime she’s tried to get in contact with Air B&B to report the owner, they either make her go around and around about “proof” (even though she has pictures) or outright say she can’t input anything about it because she isn’t a renter. It’s insane. Air B&B is literally knowingly allowing these creepy owners to continue their thing.
Tip: When you stay at an AirBnB (or even a hotel), turn the lights off in your rental when you get there so its dark and then open the camera app on your phone and select video. If there's a hidden camera, when its dark in the room the camera's IR or infrared light will come on and your phone's camera can detect the light which is invisible to the human eye. Smartphone cameras do not have an infrared night vision light but hidden or security cameras do. You'll see the infrared light in your phone's camera app since it comes on automatically in the dark but you wont when you look away from the phone’s screen and directly at or in the direction of any cameras
They also now make IR detector apps and apps that can use your phones sensors to detect if a signal is being broadcasted as well. Like a camera feed. Do modern camera sensors pick up IR? Because my old hi 8 Sony handicam when I was a kid had "night vision" and it was just an IR light and used ir sensors
@terrykayla18 you can also use your smartphone to check your TV or other appliance remote controls to see if the batteries are dead or the remote is working. When you point the remote at your phone and use the camera app, the transmitter led bulb on the remote will blink and be visible to the camera app but since it's an infrared wavelength it won't be visible to the human eye
@@GMfwdSpence All modern security cameras have night vision; literally everything now has it. Do a search online and you can find any basic motion activated camera for even $29 and it will have night vision. For a security camera to serve its purpose whether its being used legally or surreptitiously, it needs both night vision and motion sensing features. Otherwise the camera is going to record constantly when no one is present and in the dark when it cant see. Hidden security cameras also need to be small enough to conceal and anyone willing to break the law to record you with a hidden camera is going to have already thought this out.
I live in a tourist town in Alaska. Housing prices were already crazy because of those two facts alone (Alaska, touristy), but in the past 5 or so years we've been infested with Airbnb's taking every single house, condo and apartment. Currently there are only 7 apartments for rent and 24 houses for sale, but 125 AIRBNBS AVAILABLE! GREAT! People who don't even live here will buy our properties, make them Airbnb's for tourists for mostly only the summer but keep it listed yearround, so that there's no housing left for actual residents. And the local economy is so dependent on tourism that any conplaints about the community literally decaying is immediately shut down because "we need tourism" (they refuse to find new ways to fuel local economy).
Also an Alaskan but in Anchorage. Had a friend who was just told they can’t renew their lease cause the landlord is converting to all short term rentals. Wish the city or state would do something about it!
Not in Alaska, but a small town in a tourist destination in Canada. The same thing is happening here... I'm moving out of my small town in a month because there's no places for me to rent or live.
This is exactly like Hobart in Tasmania. I moved down for uni and one of my classmates says there are 5 Airbnb's that he knows of in just his street alone, with around 5-10 new houses being listed/bought for Airbnb's every couple of weeks.
Same thing here in Northeast Georgia. I live in a tourist town that is being infested with short-term rentals (mostly AirBnB). I would prefer actual homeowners and families to buy the houses.
@Lonelyg33k43 barely and devastatingly. in my region there was a 66% drop in employment, 77% decline in business revenue, both of those being the highest decline in the entire state during this time, and then a loss of 9,000 jobs and $32 million in labor income. but once we became basically wide open again in 2021 we rebounded with tourists rushing in. we even broke records this year with how many people are coming in. because of that, local government won't listen to anything anyone has to say about how tourism does anything negative ever, even if it's as drastic as no one being able to find a place to live.
Strange how things economically balance out. Back when AirBnB was new, it was a great way to travel cheap and save money over expensive hotel stays. Well, right as AirBnB got more and more expensive, the big hotel chains generally started slashing their prices. Nowadays, it’s almost always cheaper to stay in a hotel. Also, I can’t even remember the last time an AirBnB gave me breakfast (at least 8 years ago). Isn’t that what their whole second “B” was supposed to be for???
literally never had breakfast from an AirBnB host 😂 and ironically, most hotels I stay at offer free continental breakfast, sometimes even delivered to your room
@@CaSCHWANK This!! Literally less expensive to go to a 4-5 star hotel with some nice amenities and sometimes food (or, at the very least, free coffee and an in-house bar/restaurant) now than it is to go to a full AirBnB.
the second B in Airbnb should stand for "being watched by a creep with a hidden cam as you f**k your husband yolo lmfao rofl xD" Bright side? At least it makes it easier on people to stick to boycotting more businesses on the boycott, divest, sanction israel list, out of which Airbnb is one.
Stayed in an air bnb recently, the bed had bedbugs, I was COVERED in bites that precipitated a full body allergic reaction that sent me to the hospital. Owners never responded to the messages telling them their property was infested. Love it.
to be fair, it's not the owner's fault, it means another guest brought them in.... and getting rid of bed bugs, if that's truly what it was, is a nightmare. also, sounds like you should never travel. and the other truth to this story is that airbnb will immediately shut down a host over bedbugs.
yea but its called reading the reviews... if you go with a host that doesnt have good reviews you are not smart. people choose the cheapest alternative and then this happens and wonder why! whatever fatty. @@aubryellaotero1064
I have a service dog, and the Airbnb policy is that the hosts have to accommodate service dogs per ADA law. I have heard COUNTLESS stories from others in the service dog community of hosts cancelling last minute, illegally trying to charge extra, refusing to accommodate after booking and offering no refund, etcetera and the company does nothing to help the service dog handler. I also know of multiple instances where a host lied about the property, claiming it would be accessible to wheelchair users, etc and it absolutely not being accessible. And once again, no refunds or accountability from Airbnb.
I saw a host complaining the other day that the guest didn’t tell them in advanced that they had a service dog and asking if they had any retaliation or could rate the guest lower for not disclosing this information. This is why guests don’t disclose things, but your dammed if you do, dammed if you don’t.
Most hotels don’t offer refunds unless you pay extra for a cancelation insurance. If you don’t like Airbnb then just rent a hotel. Problem solved. Plus they have these things called reviews where you can see other peoples input who have been there.
@xaphan8581 most hotels only rent to 21+ even despite local/state law age minimums, and reviews of anything in general are not immune to deceptive practices by the reviewee. once you start booking vacation rentals, you'll understand 💕
the biggest problem with air bnb is selling the dream of owning and renting to people. people gobble up houses and take it away from those who would normally be able to afford them, but cant out compete people buying and renting at exorbitant rates
i just stayed in an airbnb for the first time and the lady was so lovely, but a few days before we went to go her furnaces blew up. She helped us pay for another place last minute which she definitely didn’t need to do, but she wanted to make sure my family still got to celebrate thanks giving together. i feel very lucky to have had the experience i had especially after this video.
Also in a tourist town in Alaska, me and most of my coworkers in that also work in outdoor tourism are almost forced to live out of vehicles and tents to even work here
I've done a few AirBNBs during holidays and haven't run into issues, but I also am keeping an eye on their ratings and their reviews to ensure I'm not going to fall for a bad situation.
I went to one place where we were in an apartment. Neat place. But we looked around and saw other empty units with the curtains open that looked just like ours. We figured the entire complex was AirBnBs. That blew my mind and made me understand how it's negatively impacting the housing market. That's like 30 units that other ppl and families could've occupied.
@whutcat682 lol yea i swear, it's insane here. shit apartments in shit locations still go for like $1800/month, how tf am i meant to afford this lol. it's not like my income increases with the price of rent either.. :((
@highdefinition450 Yeah, and that is the problem. Like yes, the income doesn't increase with the cost of living. Like we pay 80% of our income for basic living, what can I save with only 20% left. I am not from the USA, but Europe is almost the same here, only we have free healthcare. Idk, I think I will be forced to live with 3 or 4 roommates to afford rent and utilities :(.
I was actually at a virtual hearing calling for the enforcement of local law 18 in NY. Many of the people there were AirBNB owners claiming they were being persecuted by the government. One woman bought 26 room household she could no longer rent out and asked the committee members how she was going to pay for her house now. It amazes me how they can victimize themselves so easily
@@earthtoemily4855 local law 18 basically makes it so that short term rentals in NYC are virtually not possible. Despite the law being passed if there is no enforcement then its kinda garbage hence why the hearing I attended was about the enforcement of the law.
@@Rosa-kd2cl Unfortunately they couldn’t, they are local government and these people are so bitter they might vote them out. But I felt bad for the officials it was like 10 hours of listening to people talk about how unfair it is that they can’t rent all of their properties out. They argued that they have no effect on the housing market because if they can’t do short term rentals they wouldn’t rent out their properties at all. Which was confusing but incredibly common.
Former banker here. I think the issue on airbnb is that it's not being used as intended. It was supposed to be a way for people to rent out properties that they own for some extra money. But what has happened is people are buying properties with only 5-20% down payment, and renting out their huge mortgages to other people. This is why they need to nickle and dime every customer. They need to make sure they dont lose money on their investment.
My "friend" did this. Somehow financed an L.A. residence and Malibu beachouse. Has to clean them to make any money, struggles w/ sketchy guests and pays thousands a month in mortgages....Id rather just work a regular job.
@user-ox2xi6kk8o for decades people with money have been able to use real estate to scale up their wealth very quickly. But that only comes when you have the wealth. People borrowing so they can be landlords are not the same thing as a lawyer who has 300K laying around, buys a house in cash, and rents it out for 12 years before selling it in a high market. Yet they don't realize this until they are financially ruined.
I live in Montréal, Canada and they started to think about making stricter rules around Airbnb only when a bunch of people died in a fire in a couple of illegal listing in a building.
(American here) I heard Trudeau was also looking to minimize foreign real estate investors swooping in? Vancouver is in a severe shortage of usable housing between that and Airbnb and just being a tolerable climate to live in.
@@jrob2430 Difficult to say. While there's probably some pressure from Canadians to bring down the cost of living of nearly everything, so much money is tied up in real estate here it's out of this world.
@@jrob2430he already did, there was a tax put into place for foreign buyers and it went from 15% to 5% of homes, but there’s a lack of regulation and the sad reality is conservatives want to not regulate housing and suppose anything to stop Airbnb while left leaning people want him to regulate, it’s really hard
@@itsanu1420 True, I understand the concept of wanting to deregulate, because that creates opportunities. However, we have seen some pretty bad results in both countries over the last 50 years. But that's coming from a left point of view.
I used to live in Montreal in an AirBNB in the HoMa area, which owner "rented" his room to me without a contract after a month and ripped me off after leaving. There are nice airbnbs in Canada. But now I prefer Best Westerns, Hiltons and Wyndhams over airbnbs.
the fact that the airbnb website doesn't even ask for proof of owning a property is insane 😭 what's stopping someone from putting up an address for a local Taco Bell? 😭😭😭
remember reading about this nightmare scenario someone in toronto got stuck in where someone else listed his apartment and airbnb was just like "well that sucks hope you figure it out"
This happened to us. Someone stole photos of our house off the internet, listed it on airbnb + ppl kept booking + showing up. Airbnb wouldn’t remove the listing despite us reporting, scammed renters reporting 3x, getting a police report. We eventually had to get an attorney involved and it still took months to resolve. When I made a TikTok video about our experience (with receipts ofc), airbnb used spam bots to spam report my account until my account was banned (eventually got it unbanned but all my videos were lost). Airbnb is a scum company.
I showed up to an air bnb that someone was living in was like nope i rent here not an air bnb but it was the address but not the host? The host wouldn’t reply and we were on the phone with customer service for like 3 hours while sitting Inuit car in -30° C weather
This has happened multiple time, of false adress, and when people arrive, they are on a wasteland, or they arrived at a perfectly fine house, ... where people are living, and DOESN'T belong at all to the person who rent it on AirBnB.
I lived in a large apartment complex which was for retired people (62+). Most of the residents I met said they sold their homes because they could not afford to live there anymore (their former homes).
Airbnb is genuinely ruining mexico city for the locals, not only do we have gentrification and a housing crisis, we also get entitled turists or "digital nomads" mistreating employees who make minimum wage because "how dare you not know english don't you see I'm trying to order my overpriced fancy tacos you peasant". The places I enjoyed pre pandemic really suck because of this now.
This is what I always think of when I think of tourism in Hawaii. Tourism cities rarely ever help the people that live there, but people always try to make it out that way
@@abhinav5847airbnbs make rent more expensive and put annoying tourists right next door to you where they treat you like a fucking monkey, “oh look honey, a local!” “Oh how adorable, does it speak English?”
I used airbnb when I first moved to NYC because I didn't want to stay on my friends' couch (I didn't want to be a burden). What was advertised to me was a private bedroom in a shared apartment. What I got was a pull-out couch bed in a room with other pull-out couch beds, no hot water, and - worst of all - roaches crawling on the walls over my couch bed! I had booked for two weeks. I only stayed one night before sucking it up and asking my friend for help. Airbnb never refunded me despite the photo proof I sent... This was seven years ago but I'm still mad abt it
You should have sent a certifed hand written letter by usps to the CEO. If you still have the proof, id send this letter now. Put certified number on your letter too, and photocopy for your record.
@@arfriedman4577I'm gonna be honest, I wouldn't have the slightest bit of trust that any tech CEO is even gonna read my letter, let alone actually care about it. I doubt sending a letter would have done anything at all
@FeeshUnofficial I've been sending certified letters to companies for good or bad things since I was around 14 years old. I always get a response and or phone call. Your writing to an executive level, not some phone call customer service level that has no power.
i work at a law office that does tons of real estate (NOT as a lawyer as an assistant) and it’s absolutely insane to me that you don’t have to, bare minimum, show that you hold title on a property (or have lessor rights) to list it on airbnb. absolute nightmare.
It’s a loophole and Airbnb doesn’t care until laws are being made because the more listings the better the business it is for Airbnb. In the end Airbnb is not really responsible of people not following up with their own local laws and rules of hosting. Nevada just passed a law because they want you to stay at the resorts & casinos
When i worked as a property manager, they absolutely did a background check, a verification of ownership, and sent out a rep to check that the photos match the property. I hate them, but they do have regulations
I reported one in my neighborhood which was ran as a trap house with squatters and crackheads inside and no heat or indoor plumbing it was discovered the owner was a elderly woman living in a different state
My biggest gripe with Airbnb is the amount of us that ended up without a home because landlords make more money charging temporary rent to yuppies, and it drives rent up across the board.
Trying living under an Airbnb. An absolute nightmare, a screaming baby showers, weekends are NON STOP parties, kids bouncing balls and jumping, suitcases dropped and rolled along the ground, light cigarettes thrown off the balcony onto yours, strangers buzzing your doorbell all night, bachelor parties. I had to check the Airbnb website to see if I’d be sleeping that weekend and going to work on a Monday…and my rent was astronomical in a tight housing crisis with little on the market.
Amen to that, the apartment above me is the noisiest nightmare of hollow floors and shitty furniture scraping and thuds from shitbag tourists. It's owned by some faceless assets management company several states away.
When you put it that way I'm so glad that it's not allowed in my flat block, one of the landlords tried to airbnb their flat and they were like 'you can't install a lockbox outside the property'
honestly hotels (i especially like local family owned ones) are awesome, you don’t get a list of chores when you check in and there’s a pool and buffet in a lot of them it’s very fun
Hotels suck if you have a large family, so I understand the demand for an Airbnb, but like unless you have like five people with you, a hotel is infinitely better...
@@theflyingspaget definitely!! i can’t say that there’s no need for airbnbs to exist because in a lot of cases people need more space or appliances while traveling, but airbnb needs to be more regulated. here in puerto rico entire streets of homes are being turned into airbnbs by the american millionaires and billionaires that move to puerto rico to exploit the “tax benefits” and gentrify the island. i know quite a few people who have been essentially kicked out of their rented homes because their landlords sell their properties to these american investors. airbnb shouldn’t exist so you can build a real estate empire
I live in Orlando and work doing kids birthday parties. I just had to travel to a neighborhood I soon found out was entirely airbnbs. Every door had the same company mat on it, every house with a backyard pool had a rules signs like a community pool (no glass/running etc). A pristine playground surrounded by a locked gate, and NO street parking or else you’d get towed. It was the most unwelcoming place I’ve ever been and over half of them were sitting empty.
AirBnB is just another example of a good idea that got ruined. People love talking about corporate greed, but corporations are led by people. These vacation rentals are also owned by people. Common denominator. I looked into an AirBNB for a recent week-long trip, and the cleaning rules/cleaning fees made it more expensive than a full-service hotel, and I didn’t have to clean a dang thing at the hotel. No-brainer.
Your analysis is missing the most important factor here: class. These are all people, yes, but more importantly they're all petit bourgeois parasites who are looking to live off the property they own rather than live off their own labor.
AirBnB shows that greed isn‘t just an issue of corporations, but of all people. There are just way too many people that will you rip someone else off given the chance to do so.
The annoying thing is that AirBNB is still kinda good in Europe. We used it when we went to Vienna recently and it was affordable and in keeping with the original spirit of the site. We rented a bedroom downtown for like 60 bucks and the hosts were great. The difference? REGULATION.
@@XJapanGonnaGiveItToYa-cd4xj Andddd, this is what we mean when we talk abt corporations. If only the US actually regulated companies like Europe does, then they wouldn’t have this problem.
I live on a small island and Airbnb has completely decimated the housing market here. It’s horrible because so many locals just can’t find long term housing anymore and are forced to live in Airbnbs during the off seasons and then live in tents, trailers or pushed off the island during spring and summer. So many people who don’t even live on island buy up properties and houses here just to profit off Airbnb and locals are left housing insecure.
over 50+ houses near the college in my town have been turned into Airbnbs for rich douchy alumni to park their cars at for 1,200 a day so they don't have to walk to far to watch the football games. They don't even stay half the time just want a place to park its so stupid and its causing rent and housing costs for all the available places to be absolutely strangling.
I got full on scammed out of 3000$ when I needed emergency housing on airbnb. Found an affordable month rental and when I showed up it straight up didn’t exist and Airbnb said that was an issue between me and the renter, not them. Instead of being homeless with all my luggage in -30 Celsius snow covered Montreal, I shoved out my entire savings of 2000$ for a last minute shitty little month rental airbnb in a much less accessible (and trop Francais) part of the city. Now I just can’t afford to go on vacation so I don’t even look at airbnb.
It's so upsetting because staying at Airbnb's has created some of the best vacation experiences (houses on farms with animals, houses on lakes where you can kayak, and big houses in general where you can have 10+ people stay at once) & some of the hosts have been incredibly helpful & inviting (i.e. leaving free snacks). But the CLEANING FEE!!! It makes it incredibly hard to choose Airbnb over just staying in a stuffy hotel room. It's so odd to me that you can literally leave the place spotless besides unmaking the beds and still be charged upwards of $200 extra.
I think the issue is that there’s no real spaces dedicated for large gatherings/get togethers with hotels. Each person/couple/family would have to get their own rooms, but even then where do y’all share a space just for yourselves and intended invited guests? That’s why/when I used Airbnb.
@@davidpachecogarcia Agreed! That’s a big thing that drew me to Airbnb because staying at a hotel on a group trip can often feel separated and awkward. Having a kitchen, living room, yard, sometimes even office and not having to deal with strangers on the other side of each wall is much more comfortable. & a few years ago before the insane cleaning fees and scams, splitting the cost of an Airbnb booking was often cheaper than staying in separate hotel rooms.
Danny Gonzales told a story on the sad boyz podcast (I believe) about how him and his wife had an Airbnb they had to cancel bc the host said that everytime they entered the place they needed to use a delivery code, that expired after one use, and everytime they wanted to get in again they needed to text her and get a NEW delivery code. She wasn’t allowed to give out the door code so this was her solution. Insane lol
I remember seeing a listing in the UK that had only optional heating. I queried this with the host only to be told 'well we do have heating but we ask guests to contribute to the cost because of the high energy costs right now' out of curiosity I asked how much it would be... They got back to me two days later 'well, we can sort that out at the end of your stay with us' I couldn't believe they were renting a place with optional heating in winter in the British countryside (I'm British so know that heating is essential in winter especially given my boyfriend is used to southern Italian temperatures) but then to have the audacity to not even be transparent about the cost of energy we were expected to cover. Needless to say we didn't book.
Energy is expensive as hell right now, but then raise your price to account for and cover that. Basically saying "hey I know you agreed to this price but you'll owe me more to be warm" is insane.
We loved airbnb when it first came out. We did a cross country trip renting out rooms/places for 1 night at a time along the planned route (pre pandemic). This was when ut was real people renting out their spare rooms and the cleaning fees were little or nothing. Sadly it is nothing like that now and hotels are just cheaper and more convenient. The greed has killed the business model.
My parents & I got lucky with our one and only airbnb stay back in 2022. It was fairly priced for a two night stay in a neighborhood outside Boston & it was actually a private section of the house just for us. The owner lived upstairs and you could tell they converted the layout of both levels to be separate living spaces but still pretty accessible. It was nice trying it out but my family is a lot old fashioned, slow with technology and stuff so we probably wouldn’t do it again It IS expensive
I used to use airbnb back then because my dog is a needy little brat who almost never has to be alone because we arrange things so we can bring her when we go most places, and my best experience was the lovely couple who dogsat for us during the wedding we were attending, so we picked up treats for them and their dog at the farmer's market as a thank-you. At its best, it was a great concept. Capitalism ruins something new every day
I used to live in a building where 7 out of 20 apartments were listed as Airbnb. Living there was a nightmare. Constant noise and parties, random drunk people roaming halls, mess in a hallway. I can't count how many times someone tried to open my door by accident in a middle of the night. The last straw was when my landlord tried to raise a rent for an insane amount, so I moved out.
Not only United States, Canada, United Kingdom and Australia, it also happens in countries such as Chile, Brazil, Mexico, Germany, France, Japan, what is happening with this same issue, Airbnb should improve its services and also throughout the world
Mfs be blaming liberal govt in Canada personally like saying they need to stop immigration as if air bnb isn’t heavily effecting the housing market and not immigration
In Antwerp (Belgium) it turned out several of the hosts (that had a lot of properties on offer) weren't real people, but members of criminal orginanisations and the properties were used for money laundering
I am one of the victims of that organization in Antwerp. I lived in a beautiful appartment near the cathedral for almost 12 years. Then that organization turned all appartments around me into airbnb's - with the approval of the greedy landlord. The noise of the entitled tourists became unbearable. The organization wanted me to leave. They did it by stealing property and even by death threats. The city officials refused to help me or to take action against the plague of airbnb. Finally I moved to another city. The whole inner city of Antwerp is now a tourist wasteland. PS The airbnb organization is led by the son of a powerful university professor and the local Greek maffia. DON'T RENT AIRBNB IN ANTWERP!!!
Also, I personally LIKE "cookie cutter" hotel rooms and having a general idea of what to expect when i book a room. I like not having to deals with not being 100% positive about where i'm sleeping in a city/state/country I've never been to. I like that I mostly don't have to worry about the staff at the hotel being creeps and crooks (and I have a target to sue if they do end up being shady). Most importantly, I love being able to check reviews outside the native app. Imagine if you could only get reviews for a Hilton on the Hilton's site, or you couldn't cross-reference info about that AirBnB on other sites like Google/TripAdvisor/Expedia, especially when you use these tools to check out every other aspect of your trip.
Completely agree. You know exactly what to expect, and sometimes breakfast is provided. Usually when people travel places, they do for a specific reason. Like, how much time do you actually plan to spend in the place you sleep? I have the opinion that Hotels do exactly what they’re supposed to: provide a safe place to eat and rest so you have energy to do whatever you actually travelled for.
Me too. I associate hotel rooms with travelling, which a positive in my mind. I like having the front desk, security, cleaning staff, food services, as immediate resources.
Laura is a hero in my eyes for taking on those greedy a-holes.The AirBnB/Verbo/STR problem is so bad here in Puerto Rico that they're now in the process of regulating them & I am 100% for it. One town I worked at for awhile currently consists of roughly 70% STRs (mostly ABnBs) which is an absolute nightmare since it meant that everyone who worked there either had to commute over an hour BY BOAT (if it didn't break down), 30 minutes by plane (too expensive for most workers) or cram themselves into a house with 5+ people while working multiple jobs. Nothing ever opened on time (or at all sometimes) so it meant that we encountered a ton of pissed off tourists & locals whenever we'd get to the place. Oh, and STR guests would usually get into fights with ferry terminal staff because the hosts failed to disclose on their listings that you were supposed to buy tickets online at least a week in advance. The worst time of year during that job was obviously Spring Break because it meant 90-100% occupancy rates at the STRs so you had to buy tickets to get to work about 1-2 months in advance just to beat out all the tourists. The ferry staff is also told to prioritize getting people to the town vs supplies because of that. It usually devolves into FyreFest levels of madness (ex. "food & water runs out faster than usual, causing the National Guard to have to intervene"). Sure, you can say "that's not the host's fault" but when you create & promote an economy that solely focuses on one industry, a ton of stuff tends to get neglected in the process. In this case, basic human necessities. Don't even get me started on people illegally running ABnBs out of section 8 housing, using HUD funding to make even more STRs, hosts sending their guests to get "complentary meals" at friggin soup kitchens & the increment of crime in communities that are mostly STRs/not lived in full time.
I just got my first ever bad review this past weekend because I mentioned to the host I felt unsafe being watched from his ring camera in a private backyard. The host had a history of retailing against guests that complained about safety or cleanliness with bad reviews, and yet, he remains a host. Airbnb is the bad place!!!
As someone who used to work for corporate Airbnb, cameras need to be disclosed in the description if they are on property and where they are located. The only time the company will do something is if it was not disclosed.
There is no problem with outdoor cameras as long as they disclose them. You do realize hotels have outdoor cameras and cameras in the hallways as well and people don't freak out about that. We have an Airbnb and have outdoor cameras and guests are completely fine with it. We don't sit and watch our cameras all day if anything happens such as parties or someone is hurt there is evidence to prove it. If you don't like the use of cameras stay at a property that doesn't have them.
I bought a house this year and could always tell when listings were previously AIRBNBs bc they always were renovated in such a cheap and tacky way. They’re ruining the interiors of houses too 😢
I work as a maid and we work alottt with bnbs Everytime I clean a new one I can't help but look at what a nice house it could have been for a family or person and how I could never buy a home in this day of age
I don’t want a huge house, just a quaint one with an extra room for my sewing and a little herb garden since I like to cook. I’d take a two bed one bath cottage and live there with my man I am serious about. Sadly, that’s not going to be a reality for my generation 😫
I used to work at a hotel in Southwest Florida and the amount of people who would show up at the hotel looking for a room or call the hotel looking for a room because their Airbnb was basically a lie..........is astonishing
I live in Florida and it's amazing how many homeowners try to rent their place as an Airbnb knowing full well it's illegal. It's even more laughable when the poor guests show up to the guard gate and ask where the resort office is(!) The guard politely tells them to get lost.
The apartment below mine was turned into an airbnb and while it's been okay mostly, some of the people staying there have been actually hellish. One time a group of 20-somethings stayed there while one of my country's biggest music festivals was going on in my city. They were playing music in the middle of the night and when I went to complain I was told to "chill" because this happens "only once a year". (It's not once a year, there's a lot of events in my city during summer) I had to call the cops on them when they later came to bang on my door. I happened to catch the host the next day and told her what happened, she was really dismissive about how scared I had been and just said to call the cops again if it happens again. Another time there was like three people staying there for like two weeks. Every night a woman would scream like she was getting murdered, and I had no idea what she was talking about because she was speaking in a foreign language. I could hear random words like "You're evil", a lot of "fuck"s, etc. I was half-convinced that the girl was possessed or something. This happened every single night for HOURS. I couldn't sleep because of it and I called cops on them 4 different times. I tried going through Airbnb and they were no help at all, only relaying my complaints to the host. Heard from other neighbours that the owner never answers their phone and it's hard to get in contact with them so... yeah...
Wouldn’t you want to contact HOA who runs your apartment complex? If you don’t have one, you might want to complain to your local jurisdiction and file a complaint
@@henrylam92 I've sent complaints to the property manarger each time the airbnb guests have caused disturbances but there isn't much else I can do myself when I am renting an apartment here and not an owner. Due to how my country's law works, "the HOA" (not exactly the same thing as it is in America as far as I know) cannot ban short term rentals unless all of the home owners agree to it (=not possible because the Airbnb host is not gonna agree to that). Getting someone evicted is a long process here as well, and basically impossible when the disturbances aren't happening all the time. Honestly there isn't anything that can be done as long as the law here is the way it is.
@@katriinaj I totally understand but as a renter you have your own rights too. In the end this really falls on the homeowner who is renting it on airbnb. They need to enforce stricter rules like no music after certain time or install noise meters that will notify the homeowner if it gets too loud. As a host it is your responsibility to make sure your guest are being respectful not just to the property but also to the neighbors and if the host is not cooperating then you need to complain also to your own landlord and tell them you can't live there if nothing changes.
i can’t believe the cleaning fees… i stayed in an airbnb in toronto, canada and the cleaning fee was $15. $200 is actually insane and completely ridiculous
My city (New York) effectively kneecapped their business and I don't cry a single tear about it, particularly for what they did to rents and the culture and quality of life of our neighborhoods
so what you mean is, free market of new york effectively isn't free market anymore. I mean I understand the effect they have on housing but ? isn't that market forces.
I worked at customer support at Airbnb last year and I can confirm that everything in this video is right. About background checks - yes, there are none. For people on customer support, there are specific ways we must follow depending on the situation. For example, if you list somebody else's house, and the actual owner of the house calls airbnb claiming their house is on Airbnb but they didn't put it there, there is a specific team that deals with cases like that. I don't know what happens next because I was not in that team. If you rent an area that is actually a garden and nobody complains, everything will go fine until the guests reach the "house". Those people will have to call Airbnb support and Airbnb support will have to look for a similar place for them to stay in. After that, the person who looks for a similar place for the guests might or might not report in your profile (it can only be seen by airbnb workers tho) that you have a fake rented place. Some workers do report, most do not. After a specific number of reports, your account gets banned. But you can create a new one. (oh btw, I had people calling asking me if a host is actually renting a real house. That message to workers only appears after there are reports and Airbnb support workers cannot say those things even if they see the host is scamming people. And believe me, I saw many scams in a few months of work) Oh also it's good you didn't publish that fake listing you created but worry not if that had happened by accident. Listings take 72 hours to appear on the website. I had to say this on this phone so many times, that even a year later, I still remember it all. A person in the comments mentioned that a cleaning lady cannot denounce things on Airbnb and that's true. On Airbnb support, it's expected that the person who reports has an account on Airbnb and that they are reporting about a reservation they have - either as a host or as guest. The only exceptions in which a person without an Airbnb account can report is against guests - a "too much noise" report or a "too many guests" report (since covid). When doing any of these two reports, one must say they are a neighbour. The "too many guests" report is expected mostly if the host and the neighbour are close and the neighbour is aware of the number of people the reservation was supposed to have but they see a different number of people entering the house. Airbnb will ask you for your email if you do a report as a neighbour, btw. Airbnb does have a safety team, but idk what they do. Airbnb only verifies the houses in the Airbnb Pro program. An Airbnb Pro host and a superhost are not the same thing, btw. Superhost houses are not verified. Airbnb Pro is (or was at least at the time I was working there) a program in which Airbnb invites certain hosts to join. They really should verify all houses in the platform tho. Live chat support team isn't even a level 1 support team. All they can do is pass to level 1 support team (which is the team picking up the phones and the messages sent to support) and then if the situation is really complex, only level 1 support team can pass the case to the right team. So it feels like a ping pong to the customer. About cleaning, idk if that's still up right now. But last year there was a page on Help Center literally telling hosts to find a way of getting their listing clean without paying for it - it even said "get a friend do to the cleaning for no charge" and everytime I came across that page, I cringed so hard.
Hey thanks for your comment. I’m making an app similar to airbnb for bathrooms and you seem like you have some deep experience in the space. Wondering if I could chat with you more on ways your past employer fell short?
"Airbnb does have a safety team, but idk what they do." they troll the forums making sure that hosts and guests are saying anything too defamatory against ABB, or that you don't say anything real ie, you must adhere to Woke principles. in the past 3 years they have banned every excellent host from the forums, and now have a handful of trusted bootlickers (literally 5 people) and newbies in the forums. all the experience, real people have migrated to other sites.
I live in a turistic zone on spain and thanks to Airbnb the rent prices and housing prices skyroked. Back in the day a 2 bedroom aparment cost 400€ or 500€. Now the same aparment can go to 900 or 1000€ and the monthly salary goes to 1100 to 1200€. In some places (like Malaga) people go to the key boxes and hotglue them so they can't get the key.
Oh yeah, Barcelona with cockroach infested studios for 1k while this is the monthly salary for lots of locals. Whole buildings made into airbnbs. I moved here for work and honestly I can’t wait to save up money to go somewhere else, the city is unlivable because of the tourists and many other problems the government is not taking care of.
laura is a hero and the airbnb owners complaining about her “causing hardship to strangers” like they aren’t doing that themselves by buying homes people could live in or rent long term.
What’s unfortunate is it’s not even people anymore. Sometimes companies buy out a lot of properties and it all funnels back into a separate company. So its not even exactly home owners all the time either, but companies who will never live there
Air bnb owners remind me of this gut from Texas who called into npr once. He just wanted to talk about his plan to, in his own words, "buy up a neighborhood in Detroit and gentrify the city." He talked about how he was gonna kick the poor people out too and this guy was just a literal ghoul and I hope he tried. Everyone I've ever known who tried lost a ton of money doing so.
@dismurrart6648 That guy sounds like when plot owners post the Civil War would take all the healthy land and put a law saying only white ppl could own that property legally. Not saying yours had to do w race but same jest of owning land. Tho theirs actually worked, and that's how we have those borders of one neighborhood being "better" than the other. Since once those ppl bought up the property they legally barred ppl from buying more desirable land
I have legitimately seen AirBnB listings in my neighborhood that charge more for a weekend’s stay than what I pay per month in rent, only to sit empty after summer ends. Shit’s crazy. Anyways, I loved how much effort went into making this! It’s great seeing a smaller creator grow
I love these types of deep dives. It’s wild to me that some people still conflate “Airbnb” with “cheaper than a hotel” when that is not the case anymore in most places.
It's cheaper than a hotel most the time for large families/groups since the per-room price is often lower + having a kitchen means that you're not having to eat out with a large family for every meal.
It costs less. It just does. For us, $2800 plus less. I don’t want to eat every meal out, be in the crowds, or share a room with my older kids for a week.
Yea, I wanted to have a trip to cali and hotels were 200ish per night, an airbnb of the same price would've been a single room in a household with 5 people already living in it, with no access to the kitchen or livingroom lol. Shared bathroom and hallways too
Absolutely. Loads of hotels have kitchens in them and separate rooms. And then you're not stuck using unwashed towels and checking every nook and cranny for cameras
I got a big life disappointment when I realized that all of the houses in nature within an acceptable radius to work where all bought by big corporations to serve as Airbnb's. It genuinely breaks my heart. It was my lifelong dream, and it's now out of reach due to greed.
Also, should be noted, you didnt even touch on the fact that AirBNB can bring crime to areas. We had an apartment unit nearby that had tenants renting out units, and it caused a lot of localized crime/incidents. Apartment went from maybe two police incidents a month (if that) to two-three a week, from tourists and people overdoing with drinks (we were in a historic district with a lot of local dive bars). It completely changed the nature of the neighborhood we were in.
I think it’s so crazy that I found your video a couple weeks after my birthday. My boyfriend had surprise me with an Airbnb booking with me and my friends with a hot tub. The house was rustic, vintage and perfect and was advertised as 420 friendly. It turned out to be a total nightmare. the owner kept encouraging me and my friends to walk around naked. One of the rooms had a bed soaked in cat urine because the owner had left the animal in that bedroom for three days. My friends were able to find beds to sleep on, but my boyfriend and I could not find a room to sleep, until we found a bedroom downstairs. Little did we know that this bedroom was actually a sex dungeon, where there were disco lights turned on with sex toys laid out for everyone to see. that room was not advertised in the Airbnb, and at that point my boyfriend and I had no other place to sleep. Then the owner tried to extort my boyfriend of $300 because he tried to claim that it was $300 per person rather than $300 a night. He ended up taking $150 from him. this owner took my boyfriend and I belongings (and our only available place to sleep that didn’t have cat pee) and told us that room was off-limits. And it also turned out, that the hot tub that he was encouraging us to go naked and was right next to this man’s bedroom window. We were this man’s first guest. When everyone left (which we were able to make it out without conflict) my boyfriend confronted the owner and got his money back and making sure the owner knew that he was a pervert. The owners response was on the lines of “Ouuu but it’s 420 friendly”. THAT DOESNT MEAN ENCOURAGING EVERYONE IN THE NUDE AND MAKING EVERYONE AWARE OF YOUR SEX DUNGEON. Fortunately, we were able to get the listing down however, my boyfriend has still yet to receive a refund for all of this. I’m so glad that I am not alone with this Airbnb debacle. edit: we were able to call the police and get his listing down from the air bnb
@@apatheticsticker8137 no we never got the refund but we were able to get his listing off but no police were involved since they pretty much disregarded it all
oh boy. Airbnb has been an absolute $hitshow in the past few years. One time we stayed at a place that the host was clearly not supposed to be renting out. We use it mostly because of dogs but now hotels are starting to allow dogs. My last airbnb was a 100+ year old building that was under renovation and had a very musty smell. The owner left me "." as a review. Wow. Thanks bud.
As someone who used to post reviews for an Airbnb host, I know why they did that. The more reviews you post about your guests, the higher your properties appear in the search algorithm. I never learned how that worked, but that's what I was told by the host. I'm sorry they left you just a . instead of something meaningful.
I just found your channel and I’m on my second video of what will probably be a lengthy binge but I just want to say the effort and research you put in is so thorough and conversely easy to consume. I identify with your viewpoints and as a professional economist that regularly in my job and so I hope there’s some validity in me saying you’re doing a kick ass job as teaching others and incredibly insightful. Much love! Can’t wait to watch more vids 💕
I booked an Airbnb in the Smokies. I guess I got lucky hearing the horror stories. The cabin was clean, the only thing we had to do was take out the trash and throw towels in the washer but don't turn it on. The cleaner left a gift basket with snacks and there was a book that was basically a journal for guests to fill out about their stay and what they did in the area if you want ideas. There was a hot tub which I was scared about, but it was super clean. TVs had streaming access with no log in required (when password sharing was allowed we used the hosts netflix). Probs wont' be doing a bnb again though, I'll tap out while I'm on top.
i once left my netflix logged into an airbnb and it was fun seeing the people add profiles leaving little messages xD now i realise that was stupid for security reasons
There's a ton of rental companies out there that control all those houses. They existed well before Airbnb and probably will survive after. Rare if any of them are built for actual long term living.
My partner & I stayed in a cabin in the Smokies back in 2005, that sounds like yours. It had a hot tub on a balcony overlooking the mountains, and was just awesome. It was rented out by a company though, not a single person. Apparently it’s gone now, or at least in different hands. Airbnb scares me. Too many variables…and potentially creepy hosts. They had a great idea, but their greed to keep growing too big, too fast kinda ruined it. The lack of information & background checks collected from hosts is terrifying.
There are certainly lots of people who rent out their proprties with good intentions and care about what they do, but there's almost no punishment for people who cut corners or break laws so it attracts those kinds of people as well. I stayed in an Airbnb once and it was great, but as a business they're pretty horrible and the people who profit most off of it are already rich and make the housing market worse to get even richer.
I booked an Airbnb when I was in London for a week, the pictures looked fine given the area and price. It was a literal dorm room that some college kid had rented out 😭
I used to work for them and if that was the case, you would be entitled to a full refund and would be assisted in finding a new listing. We even have the ability to cover the difference in pricing as long as it was similar to the initial booking.
@@CaptainCaterpillars it was a while back but knowing what I know now I should have tried to get a refund. The place wasn’t horrible, it was a private room with a bathroom. I guess I was just afraid I wouldn’t be able to find something else within budget
@@Elleram - No worries. Most don’t even contact us when they encounter issues as they don’t know the assistance that could be provided. If you ever use them again, don’t be afraid to contact the customer service via phone as emails are backlogged like crazy. They can assist with refunds, finding a new place, or even book you in a hotel. You’ll also be reimbursed for activities or food you get while you wait for them to do that up to $200 with any Travel Manager and up to $500 with Team Manager approval.
This is wild to watch bc my parents rented out the room above our garage and my dad was sooooo into it like he got towel and sheet sets from home goods and collected hotel soaps to put in the bathroom and set up a nice little coffee/tea making station and then we just cleaned it ourselves lmao like my dad would give me $50 if I cleaned it for him
the trend I've been seeing in the comments (and kind of my experience) is that they're great if it's a family renting out a spare room where they live, and a gamble if the place is bought just for renting out
@@diethylmalonate ABSOLUTELY TRUE. If it's mainly seen as a primary business, with the sole purpose to rent, people get lazy as fuck and don't care. But if they CARE about the property, it's an absolute shit show. They REALLY needed to vet individuals more, track reputation, and ability to leave verified feedback with honesty and ability to rate on many different criteria. They should ALSO FORCE renters to include instructions, any codes, and basic checklists in the app, ahead of time, for all to see and tie it to their reputation.
@@1337GameDevI definitely recommend that good renters avoid AirBnB altogether and look for alternatives. VRBO is one, but it’s hard to say if I can trust it as it’s a similar platform. There are also local rental agencies in popular tourist areas, most of which are definitely more reputable than AirBnB.
wow im sitting in st pete fl thinking about our shite situation this whole video (and laura's omnipresent signs), and to see the piece about my exact concerns towards the end of this video is just...so validating. Excellent video.
In Vieques, one of the islands in Puerto Rico with around 10,000 residents, over 1/3 of properties have been turned into airbnbs, most having been bought by investors looking to evade taxes in the archipielago and its devasted the local population with gentrification, inflated prices for housing and food, and even limiting availbility of ferries for residents traveling between islands. This is a small island that doesnt even have a hospital for its residents. Due to lack of laws protecting citizens from these predatory property buyers and taxevading laws created by a corrupt goverment to try to solve Puerto Ricos bankruptcy, Vieques has become a microcosm of the general displacement of puertoricans, aided by AirBnb.
One time I stayed at an Airbnb that was literally just someone's backyard. Anyone who paid $20 could pull up their car/tent/whatever could just sleep in their backyard. At the time I was traveling alone and so sleeping in my car was no problem (honestly preferred cause it's way cheaper than a hotel), and considering this was in the dead center of a large city, honestly kinda worth it. There should be a service like that!
from what i hear this is kind of how it started. it was never meant to be a full hotel or rented property. just litteraly air mattresses in someone’s house for cheap
I'd never stay in an air bnb. I would find it really odd to be in someone else's house. I'd feel really uncomfortable and like i was intruding on someone else's personal space, even if they weren't on the property. I'd rather have a hotel room and save myself the anxiety.
Once i was on a trip in Portland and booked a room in a house , showed up and the host was absent and when she finally arrived she told us the room was full there was a couple basically squatting in the room and legally she couldn’t make them leave (Some Oregon law?) it was a nightmare trying to either get a a refund or find someone nearby that did in fact have room. It was all a nightmare. Like why make the room book-able at that point it felt so scammy and sketchy
The best airBnB I’ve ever sayed at was a really nice house that the host lived in, he had the whole second floor set up for guests, and cooked us breakfast in the morning. Just a really nice person who ran it more like a bed and breakfast.
Hey, I used to work with my mom at her cleaning service(it’s closed down now) and we would mostly clean air bnbs and oh my god. The dirt and grime was always awful, people would leave their “special juices” on sheets, one time someone literally left A GUN. A lot of the time when we’d get there stuff would be destroyed, holes in walls, toilet clogged, sheets stained, but in the small chance, things would be semi clean leaving us just have to do basics like clean sinks, put away dishes, etc. It was pretty fun sometimes cause people would leave stuff and just never come back to get them so we could just take. The best thing is when people would leave food and we’d get to take it(but only if it was unopened) The owners however SUCKED. They were a couple that had some kids(divorced now) and the wife always made it seem like me or my mom were flirting with her husband(I’m a minor, they were in like early 30’s I’d assume) and it would me super uncomfortable.
Much respect for gabi filming with the pimple patches then putting a band aid over the wound she got from winning an intense knife fight and still making an awesome, high quality video
When I was staying at an Airbnb in Italy this couple showed up with their kid to stay there. Turns out someone had duplicated our hosts properly to scam people.
We own a condo in 8 units. The new guy who moved into the garden unit listed his on airbnb but neglected to tell the guests that we had assigned parking so they parked wherever. Since he didn't tell us, we had them towed and the owner got a negative review. We later banned airbnb in the bi-laws because we already have one unit rented long term and the owner does nothing to manage their renters.
I've only stayed at an airbnb twice in my life. 1st was in Montreal, this was a really great experience tbh. It was a shared apartment. The room was lockable, I was given a key to it. The place was super clean. And the host was a Tunisian PhD student who made me a homecooked harissa chicken meal on the first night and we talked and had a glass of wine. Was really nice overall. 2nd was in Toronto in a house in the suburbs near Casa Loma. It was a converted cellar, was really clean, totally separated from the rest of the house. Honestly really nice. But the downside was the host was really difficult to communicate with. They too didn't tell me where to find the key to the place until I had been waiting outside the house with my suitcase for about 20 mins. Very tame, but all these horror stories and the effect it has on things like housing makes me never want to use it again. Especially as its now just as if not more expensive than a hotel. I'd rather get a hotel nowadays because at least I know I'll be able to get in to the place on arrival. But no homecooked harissa chicken unfortunately. Pros and cons
I had booked an Airbnb in Minneapolis. When I got there, the outside was pretty shady, seemed pretty run down, and even the halls followed the same look. However, when I got to my room, it looked amazing! The problem though, was that it had not been cleaned. I quickly messaged the host, who apologized and refunded me immediately, and allowed me to stay the night in another room for free. Turns out, her cleaning lady had been forced to stay in her apartment building because their next door neighbor had been killed. Definitely the craziest travel experience I’ve had.
I’ve been duped by Airbnb like 4 times because we would naturally trust what was listed on the app and show up to the supposed HOUSE we rented only for it to be someone’s basement or something. I scoured the listing/descriptions too, I’d always book “entire house” and every single time it would be a shared space 😭
WOW I don’t understand how these blatant issues aren’t resolved! Like that is literally false deceptive advertising. It’s like a bait and switch. That should be fully illegal and easy to fight against.
As someone who used to work for their corporate office, it’s considered an entire house if it has its own entrance and isn’t accessible from any other part of the premises. Not defending them but you really need to research and do your due diligence such as reaching out to the host if you’re interested in a property.
@@CaptainCaterpillars that seems to be the loop hole for them but in each of my situations the only way we would’ve known it was a shared space is if we reached out directly to the host which should absolutely not be the case.
@@kookykiddo - Again, Airbnb does not define “shared space” the same as it may be implied. Shared space means that others staying there will have access to what you do in your listing. If it is walled off or locked off, they do consider that an entire listing. Is it a little shady, sure but working there has taught me to always read a company’s TOS or ask questions for clarification. I don’t use Airbnb after I left the company because of what I’ve witnessed being a Travel Manager and a T&S worker.
Dang, I guess I've just been lucky! Here's how I avoid terrible airbnb experiences 1) never stay in a shared-space rental, like where the host is in the same unit 2) don't go for the cheapest possible option, or a "luxury" option. Both will be disappointing 3) airbnb only makes sense to use in certain cities. If there are hotels/motels which are cheaper and/or closer to what you're doing, do that 4) never stay somewhere without multiple guest reviews, or if the guest reviews are mostly negative
I've never had a bad experience and I do the same. Additionally, I tend to only book with superhosts, I refuse to book any of the ones with the huge cleaning fees and I feel like sometimes you are able to tell which hosts are more cranky based on how the listings (especially house rules) are written
be VERY careful with reviews. if there are none, don't even consider that one. if they're negative or there are some very specific negative ones, skip it. look super closely at photos and description.
I’d also like to add a big reason people are having trouble building houses is it’s a lot of government bureaucracy. My parents are doing a self build in Canada. While waiting for the paperwork for each stage, inflation raises building prices. When they started building in 2020 they could afford to build, now it’s completely out of reach and myself and my partner are putting this house together to save my aging parents a heart attack. (we’re also in a housing crisis / my province has placed new rules for airbnbs)
Yeah but we wouldn't need to build so many houses if this all didn't happen. Our government allowed Airbnb to take over, let homes sit empty from foreign investment, let house flippers dominate the markets, and (this will be controversial but idc anymore) are flooding areas with new people (through shady immigration) -- so you've got half the housing being taken up by this but everyone wants to blame a lack of new builds/ "NIMBYS". on my rural street alone (with 10 houses), there's 3 empty homes, while all our wildlife is being destroyed for building new homes. We wouldn't need that if the gov had used their heads.
My former boss got most of her income from her Airbnb properties and when Seattle implemented their new rule on the number of properties you’re allowed to list as short term rentals she started mysteriously getting very stingy and anxious about the overall income of the coffee shop I worked at…like I’m actually so extremely sorry that you have to rent the majority of your properties to long term residents who want stable housing in a historically unstable environment but unfortunately I simply cannot do anything about it as a 23 year old child
@@p3xo It's funny. Isaac Asimov predicted that as lifespans increased, people would experience an extended adolescence mentally. Like a 30 year old still acting like a teenager was his example.
I remember using it in the early 2010s and it was like staying at an elderly couples house where the kids moved out, or like a condo where the family was on vacation. It felt less slum lordish.
One of my favorite AirBNB stories was when my local radio station was doing a photoshoot, they rented a high rise apartment for it and when they got there, the bachelor’s party that rented before and said they’d leave the night before, was still going on
As a Miami native, I can confirm that the lack of housing in the city is not due to locations but to the fact that the majority are either luxury condos or wildly overpriced-and city commissioners and mayors allow that to happen because big developers bring “more money” than the average citizen, it’s disgusting.
That's a big issue in all of South Florida. Every developer wants to build a luxury neighborhood or condo building because if they slap the word luxury on it, they can charge twice as much for it. The units are still built with the cheapest, lowest grade materials the builder can find but it's got quartz countertops in the kitchen so it's "luxury".
I'm an Airbnb cleaner and get paid $50 if I clean solo and $25 when cleaning with another person (per house). It takes usually 2- 3hrs depending on how the guests left the house and how much laundry there is. We usually end up waiting on laundry to finish on good days. Lots of horror stories on how guests have left some of the houses I've walked into. But there's also a few owners that just don't seem to care if their house is falling apart or if guests complain about stained sheets because they won't supply us with new ones for months even when we ask repeatedly for them. I can't believe how much the shitty owners charge people. There's a handful of owners I clean for that are genuinely good people but the ratio of good to shitty owners is not great.
@@sadmermaid There's a few places that are shit shows regularly. They're the bigger houses we clean so people tend to throw parties in them the most. The most recent super trashed house we had was last month. The owner actually took his house off listings because the guests had a sex party and left us cleaners all sorts of fun things to find and clean. I didn't clean it personally but from the pictures and videos our boss shared, it was not a fun deep clean.
My first airbnb experience was listed as a spare room in someone's apartment in virginia. Turned out it was a sofa bed in her living room, no privacy and no separate access to the apartment, so when she left for work, I had to leave too. Had to plan my day around hers in order to have access to the space I'd rented.
Something that can be added as well in here is the fact that in third world countries (such as the one I live in) Airbnb has become a way to launder money super easy. Since you don't need to give out a receipt when people use your property, there was a trend going where nice houses were uploaded with relatively low prices just as a mean to justify drug money. I've personally noticed this and there has been many cases of things similar all over my country. It's specially shitty since there's a current housing crisis in the country because of a lot of drug overlords buy properties to launder money and makes the whole housing climate pump up in a stupid way. Houses that are worth 200k dollars (which is a lot in my country) are selling for 400k or more at times. And since the property isn't worth that, no bank is gonna actually give you a loan to get the house, so the only people that can actually "buy it" are those drug overlords (obviously they don't actually pay that much, since the seller is normally part of the operation). Airbnb has become an extra income way to do this even more, and in some years it can very well destroy the overall economy of the country.
I always thought coin operated businesses (laundromat, car wash, video arcade) would be the best way to launder money because it's almost entirely a cash business. My friend rented a home to an undocumented handy man who paid her in cash and her accountant warned her about making a lot of cash deposits. In this country that can trigger some tax audits. I suppose short term rentals would be a good way to launder larger electronic transactions because it gives a false but legal reason for all of the transfers. Even before this recent housing crisis, I saw a lot of foreign buyers making cash offers on homes - particularly condos - here in my city. Sellers tend to prefer these offers to the buyers who have a mortgage provider involved in the transaction so it was making it hard to buy homes downtown. I also used to work next to a condo building in the uptown area that seemed mostly empty (few apartments lit at night) and always wondered if these buyers were essentially hiding assets abroad by buying real estate. I also wondered if condo association fees are a good trade off for not having to maintain a property that you didn't really buy to live in.
not needing to give a receipt doesnt mean you dont have to declare where your money comes from. Those are two very distinct things. The government has total control and watch over you, it's not that easy to hide money the government will do anything to get, even invade your privacy
@@tinabean713 it really is wild. Recently some friends of mine invited me to their apartment, and while being there we spent some time at the balcony watching the city. It was a residential area which has started to transition to a more building based housing instead of condos. When it started getting dark, we noticed three buildings that didn't light up at all. Not one single room. I knew for a fact that they were not that new, at least a year being there, but there was obviously no one living there. We thought that maybe they were office buildings but one of my friends pointed out that the local counsel wasn't letting letting any office buildings nearby to not disturb the people living nearby and to avoid excessive traffic. So those buildings were, most likely, owned by some sort of people that wanted the receipts of rent without the hazzle of having people live there... Wonder who could have the money for that? It really messes up the market and I'm really tired of it. My family is currently without a house (we are renting) cause the prices are at least 30% more than what they actually cost. The bank won't give you the money since the house is not worth that much and it leaves you having to pay that extra straight out of pocket, which is impossible for most of the people. I've been looking for an apartment to live in myself and it's the same thing. Unless you want to commute for 3 hours everyday to get to your job, you aren't getting an apartment worth less than 2-3 minimal wages in my country. The worst part of it all is that, unlike the case on the US, where the housing crisis will eventually blow up since the people won't be able to keep up with the mortgage payments, here drug money is basically endless. There's no reason why they would stop moving their money this way, so we are stuck between paying outrageous prices for a house that isn't worth that or renting for more than what a mortgage would cost.
@@kiwd-dynamic of course not, but it doesn't matter when you like in narcostate like I do. The seller asks the buyer 200k dollars but in reality they only pay them 100k and the rest of the money is laundering. The buyer can have many means of justification for where that money is coming from, from other properties to ghost businesses (normally barbershops and mini malls).
I greatly appreciate you're source document! It made a great starting point for a paper I had to write on Airbnb, since I knew that you discussed topics I wanted to cover 😄
I live in Berlin, GER and my landlord has turned every single apartment, except for mine and that of one older neighbour, into TWO short-term apartments, charging more than twice the amount of money I would pay (if we'd calculate per week). Same landlord has also tried to sue me and my remaining neighbour out of our apartments, which was only unsuccessful because we went to a property lawyer together to see if they can do it. Turns out they couldn't. However, now we receive little to no support for our apartments and have to threaten them to get something fixed, it is so fcked up. Not to speak of the sheer traffic we're getting within the building because of it. And I can't move because THERE IS NO HOUSING. It's so frustrating.
My mother cleans those air bnb towns/apartments. She says she gets like about $115 per apartment. She says it's not a bad pay rate since she claims that they aren't dirty most of the time and can get done in about 30 mins. Only time she charges these air bnb owners more is if they require a deep clean. ie cleaning stained carpets, cleaning dirty ovens, and picking up dirty dishes that were left lying around rooms from guests. Still, after seeing how empty and lifeless these air bnb apartments were, it made me feel anger and sadness. They could've deadass housed people here and instead these apartments are collecting dust until more guests decide to stay there.
I used to live in Zaandam, a city right next to Amsterdam. About three years before I moved Airbnb's started to open up around my house and it drove me nuts. You'd be surprised how many times people felt the need to go outside of the airbnb to very loudly talk to friends or family on the phone in the middle of the night, mostly right underneath my window. Very often I would get stopped by tourists to ask me where the red light district is. I've once seen them ask a child this question. I worked retail and very quickly saw a shift of just casually talking in Dutch to suddenly being interrupted by an offended tourist just say "English" as if they pressed a button on a choice menu. No, "Can you speak English, please?" , just "English". When I was in search of a house I couldn't afford to live in my hometown of Zaandam anymore and had to move to a quiet town up north. I still visit Zaandam as I've got family living there still, but it honestly just feels like I'm visiting another country.
When I moved abroad for a few years I lived in a really cool share house with amazing people that slowly over time ended up being used more as an Air BnB as longer term renters moved out and it made me kind of sad when I finally moved as one of the last few people that was left of the people from the original crowd I stayed with, and I moved out realising about 8/10 of the apartments were being used as short term stays. I know it seems a little silly but the place had so many memories for me and knowing there wouldn't be a new generation experiencing that comradery and memories like "Oh yeah that night in this apartment we had such a good time. You should have met those people."
Your comparison to Amazon seems exactly right. I used AirBnB from 2012-2021. I hit the wall in Alaska, when I stayed in a property that I would describe as a catfish. The pillow had no pillowcase. The photographer must have used photoshop. And, the heat didn't work. They had ONE space heater. The host had a huge attitude, like I was asking for too much. Finally, the cleaning task list was nuts. Screw AirBnB!
I remember staying in two Airbnbs in 2021 on two different trips to avoid being in a hotel due to COVID stuff still happening- one was in Moab, Utah in March and the other was in Seattle, Washington during August. The one in Utah was a cabin-like house in a complex of other cabin-like houses, and there was a pool that we had no idea was a community pool located in a separate building we had to walk to because all the listing said was that there was a pool included(and we weren't the only guests that didn't know either)! It was a beautiful place and we got lucky with our host being available fairly consistently for questions we had about the property and giving us instructions to get in before we arrived, but we had so much responsibility put on us to figure out ourselves how the community jacuzzi worked, all for a place that frankly felt like a more posh version of staying in the cabins that are outside of a national park! The Seattle one was in a neighborhood that was a mix of actual houses and Airbnbs and I had a pretty good experience with that one, though me and my family did have some hiccups getting in, but otherwise it was a good experience, our host responded within an hour, and we also had a fully functional Pac-Man arcade in there lmao! I feel like with both of my experiences though it was definitely visible seeing the rise of the saturation of the Airbnb market, seeing just how many areas were entirely consisting of Airbnb cabins in Utah or how the one house in Seattle was located in a suburban neighborhood that was definitely having a rise of Airbnb bookings when we arrived(and if I recall correctly, several houses were also in the process of becoming Airbnb properties). I appreciate the research you did for this video(especially the housing market section), with how many people I've seen try to "make it big" by being a host on Airbnb. Thank you for providing your experiences, and I'm really sorry about how awful your prior Airbnb encounters were.
To get all-in-one online safety protection, use my sponsor's link: aura.com/GabiBelle to get 14-Days free of Aura
@@dogearmy29 i second this motion and raise you to appreciate the fit transitions. such ADHD friendly, much stimulate, very attention.
This laundry aint gonna do itself
The way I genuinely been procrastinating getting aura I was thinking about that yesterday but I always forgot who’s codes are still active but definitely gonna try aura ❤
I tried, but it wont accept my finnish zip code
Damn I was actually folding my laundry at 40:37
I clean air bnbs. fun fact! we do not get that $200 cleaning fee :) it goes to the host who most of the time never even visits the properties for months at a time. I get paid $16 an hour, clean for about 2-3 hours each property, resulting in a whopping $50 (roughly). not sure what the point of a cleaning fee is when its not even for the cleaner! and oh yeah the company is a failing one, currently looking for a new job :)
Tell me, like a supervisor trying to fuck you over the most. Doing everything to f&@k you over!
Then what’s the point of the cleaning fee
@@icee6431the point is to line the host’s pockets with even more money, obviously
@@caitlynr7295 well I had feeling that not all of the cleaning fee went to the cleaners but I was thinking at least half lol
Cleaning fee on top of a long list of cleaning tasks you have to do smh
What really sucks about AirBnB is that it really started off like an online hostel type situation. It was a way to travel and experience the city like a local. I stayed at a really beautiful Victorian home with a super sweet host and it was really cool to see their personal recommendations and such. Now I can't even think about using the platform because it's been clearly taken over by landlords.
I swear, landlords are like plague insects, a few discover a source of income and then they swarm and mine the resource until they’ve ruined it completely.
They are literally drains on society, maybe if they actually did what they were supposed to and care for property they would be OK, but they never do
All the hotels shown at the beginning of this video is what makes AirBnB such a unique experience. Unfortunately, 99% of the properties on the site are now just shittier, more expensive versions of your average hotel. Unless you're going to book one of those unique units, you're better of booking a hotel.
@@elsa_g I loved that one comment Gabi highlighted where the host was "in the middle of a career change." Sure dear, you're not just being a lazy slumlord leech who dreams of doing nothing while whining about lazy kids these days. I try not to hold a lot of hate in my heart but these people make that pretty tough..
My airbnb kept getting bad reviews because it was not enough like a hotel. Our pillows mismatched and so did our dishes. It wasn't perfect but we were much cheaper. The more people wanted more, the more we had to up out costs
so fun story, when my wife and I were dating, the apartment that we were living in at the time got posted on airbnb. except not by us. the leasing office called us furious and told us that people were there to pick up the key to their airbnb from the front desk. we were obviously insanely confused and freaked out. we reported the psychos who put up the listing, it got removed, we thought it was taken care of. they put the listing back up 2 weeks later. they didn’t even get banned. it’s actually just the wild fkn west out there
There are people out there trying to SELL properties that they don’t own.
Terrifying!!
oh goodness
Wow who put on the listing? Acquaintances of yours? This is so wild
hmmmmm I'm skint, good idea 👍
Earthquake destroys multiple properties. New townhouses built to replace them, new modern and up to code. Immediately purchased and listed as short term rentals, with people proudly posting it on social media
It's crazy that Omegle was sued over the users doing nefarious things on it but Airbnb isn't getting sued or reprimanded for their users doing nefarious things.
Airbnb openly lobbies politicians with things like free stays at premium locations, Omegle didn't lobby anyone and has little to offer if it did.
i love that bribes are still legal😍
Anyone can sue anyone for anything. Whether the charges go through is what matters
Airbnb has been sued
100th likeee
People keep saying “getting rid of Airbnb won’t make a dent in the housing market”. I live in a tourist town. More than half of the houses and apartments are used as airbnb. Because of that, myself and every young person are literally sharing bedrooms because there is nowhere else to live. If there were no airbnbs, we all could potentially have a place to live normally
I work with people whose side hustle is being landlords/having “investment properties” and I swear, they cannot comprehend the idea of limited housing stock + them buying the housing up -> less housing available for everyone else coming after. They’ve got that typical “I did it so that means anyone could if they just worked hard enough” and it’s like, yeah, you got your first home and decided you could make money, and now you're actively making it harder for everyone trying to buy a home to live in.
Honestly that was one part of her video I didn’t get. It’s obvious that Airbnb’s are taking up many properties even in places people don’t want to live so of course it would be a big impact if they disappeared
@@Honeyin2013 The problem is that even if a lot of airbnb's listed their properties, interest rates are still going to be high to combat inflation
youd go to the streets if your city is a tourist destination and there were no airbnbs
“getting rid of Airbnb won’t make a dent in the housing market”
- Investment firms
I worked for an Airbnb host that charged a standard $45 cleaning fee for most of their units, with higher rates for their "premium" properties. They hired their own cleaners to justify this price, so you would think that most, if not all, of this money would go to staff. Right? Wrong. The bosses rushed us to finish the properties quickly rather than thoroughly, which led to several cleanliness complaints, overworked and underpaid staff, and the Airbnb host making a profit off of the cleaning fees as well as the rental rates. This is just the tip of the iceberg; I have many more horror stories about these hosts.
Please do tell!
Go on then, don't be shy
I was the operations manager for this host; I managed both guest services and employee operations. They never had a direct interest in managing themselves, feeling content with leaving everything to me besides payroll. I worked from 6:00 in the morning to 11:00 at night with no true days off. If I wasn't on the ground helping the housekeeping staff or the laundry attendant, I was on call for any guest needs (pillows, blankets, toiletries, lock outs, etc). The host would throw a fit any time I tried to take time off, and even when I wasn't physically working I still had to take guest calls and requests. I was paid only $17 per hour for managing two major facets of their business, and my on call hours which only allowed me seven hours to myself netted me $500 per month. Not per week. Per month. And that's just what they did to me.
Most of the staff when I started working there quit when they started pushing harder for cleaning to get done faster and less thoroughly. The host wrote them off as "expendable" and played it off as if they had no responsibility in it. I consoled one employee who was in tears because she wasn't making enough to support her kid anymore when she had been making enough just a few months before. One employee had a mental breakdown (she's better now) and another was fired because she asked for a raise. And they made a guest leave one of their units even though he had tested positive for Covid because someone else was checking in. They didn't bother telling the cleaner; but I did, and despite taking all precautions, he caught Covid and was out for over a week. I also caught Covid at this time and they made me come back to work after the minimum five day quarantine. Five days.
My spouse and I lived in a converted garage on the host's property so that they could make sure I was doing what they expected of me. The host's son in law gossiped about everyone behind their back and claimed that he "made me" who I am because we had worked together years before. And when my spouse and I had finally had enough and left, they made me clean the garage (fair) and said it was spotless, then proceeded to withhold $250 of my last paycheck as a "final deposit". They repainted the garage with that money. They own a real estate company and a construction company on top of it, and they build their own Airbnb units specifically for use as Airbnb units. This hurts the local real estate market and exacerbates the housing crisis in that town.
@AverageJoExplorations y in the world did u let the host treat u like that? After the first week u should found another job and quit.
a friend of a friend’s dog died after an airbnb stay when they were exposed to open rat poison even though the property was listed as pet friendly. neither the host nor airbnb agreed to refund them. it was horrifying.
RIP to a very good doggo
Sue their ass. You have a case.
Cool lie bro.
@@jdeluca6181 Cool no parents bro.
@@jdeluca6181 don't believe everything on the internet, BUT don't assume everything is a lie either.
My dad’s girlfriend professionally cleans a lot of Air B&Bs and has found hidden cameras and other creepy stuff numerous times, but everytime she’s tried to get in contact with Air B&B to report the owner, they either make her go around and around about “proof” (even though she has pictures) or outright say she can’t input anything about it because she isn’t a renter. It’s insane. Air B&B is literally knowingly allowing these creepy owners to continue their thing.
It's because they make the site money regardless of what they do
Had no idea it was so common. Pretty sure my boyfriend and I stayed in a place like that. But at the time I did nothing about it!!
@@HANS0LO.9980 that’s a weird connotation to make. Lots of divorced people don’t remarry but still have relationships 🤷🏻
@@HANS0LO.9980 So, whenever you're referring to your parent's partners, what do you call them?
She should definetly give this story to local news stations and the police, how horrific
Tip: When you stay at an AirBnB (or even a hotel), turn the lights off in your rental when you get there so its dark and then open the camera app on your phone and select video. If there's a hidden camera, when its dark in the room the camera's IR or infrared light will come on and your phone's camera can detect the light which is invisible to the human eye. Smartphone cameras do not have an infrared night vision light but hidden or security cameras do. You'll see the infrared light in your phone's camera app since it comes on automatically in the dark but you wont when you look away from the phone’s screen and directly at or in the direction of any cameras
holy shit i never knew about this, and just looked a video of someone trying . thats insane!!
They also now make IR detector apps and apps that can use your phones sensors to detect if a signal is being broadcasted as well. Like a camera feed. Do modern camera sensors pick up IR? Because my old hi 8 Sony handicam when I was a kid had "night vision" and it was just an IR light and used ir sensors
@terrykayla18 you can also use your smartphone to check your TV or other appliance remote controls to see if the batteries are dead or the remote is working. When you point the remote at your phone and use the camera app, the transmitter led bulb on the remote will blink and be visible to the camera app but since it's an infrared wavelength it won't be visible to the human eye
I mean yeah, it works -if- the camera has night vision. It can't detect a regular camera. So if they're just using normal cameras, you wont know.
@@GMfwdSpence All modern security cameras have night vision; literally everything now has it. Do a search online and you can find any basic motion activated camera for even $29 and it will have night vision. For a security camera to serve its purpose whether its being used legally or surreptitiously, it needs both night vision and motion sensing features. Otherwise the camera is going to record constantly when no one is present and in the dark when it cant see. Hidden security cameras also need to be small enough to conceal and anyone willing to break the law to record you with a hidden camera is going to have already thought this out.
I live in a tourist town in Alaska. Housing prices were already crazy because of those two facts alone (Alaska, touristy), but in the past 5 or so years we've been infested with Airbnb's taking every single house, condo and apartment. Currently there are only 7 apartments for rent and 24 houses for sale, but 125 AIRBNBS AVAILABLE! GREAT!
People who don't even live here will buy our properties, make them Airbnb's for tourists for mostly only the summer but keep it listed yearround, so that there's no housing left for actual residents. And the local economy is so dependent on tourism that any conplaints about the community literally decaying is immediately shut down because "we need tourism" (they refuse to find new ways to fuel local economy).
Also an Alaskan but in Anchorage. Had a friend who was just told they can’t renew their lease cause the landlord is converting to all short term rentals. Wish the city or state would do something about it!
Not in Alaska, but a small town in a tourist destination in Canada. The same thing is happening here...
I'm moving out of my small town in a month because there's no places for me to rent or live.
This is exactly like Hobart in Tasmania. I moved down for uni and one of my classmates says there are 5 Airbnb's that he knows of in just his street alone, with around 5-10 new houses being listed/bought for Airbnb's every couple of weeks.
Same thing here in Northeast Georgia. I live in a tourist town that is being infested with short-term rentals (mostly AirBnB). I would prefer actual homeowners and families to buy the houses.
@Lonelyg33k43 barely and devastatingly. in my region there was a 66% drop in employment, 77% decline in business revenue, both of those being the highest decline in the entire state during this time, and then a loss of 9,000 jobs and $32 million in labor income. but once we became basically wide open again in 2021 we rebounded with tourists rushing in. we even broke records this year with how many people are coming in. because of that, local government won't listen to anything anyone has to say about how tourism does anything negative ever, even if it's as drastic as no one being able to find a place to live.
Strange how things economically balance out. Back when AirBnB was new, it was a great way to travel cheap and save money over expensive hotel stays. Well, right as AirBnB got more and more expensive, the big hotel chains generally started slashing their prices. Nowadays, it’s almost always cheaper to stay in a hotel. Also, I can’t even remember the last time an AirBnB gave me breakfast (at least 8 years ago). Isn’t that what their whole second “B” was supposed to be for???
literally never had breakfast from an AirBnB host 😂 and ironically, most hotels I stay at offer free continental breakfast, sometimes even delivered to your room
@@CaSCHWANK This!! Literally less expensive to go to a 4-5 star hotel with some nice amenities and sometimes food (or, at the very least, free coffee and an in-house bar/restaurant) now than it is to go to a full AirBnB.
the second B in Airbnb should stand for "being watched by a creep with a hidden cam as you f**k your husband yolo lmfao rofl xD"
Bright side? At least it makes it easier on people to stick to boycotting more businesses on the boycott, divest, sanction israel list, out of which Airbnb is one.
Side note was anyone staring at the star sticker on her face the whole video? Lmao what was that about? 😂
@@sanguine2552its a pimple patch from starface i think
Stayed in an air bnb recently, the bed had bedbugs, I was COVERED in bites that precipitated a full body allergic reaction that sent me to the hospital. Owners never responded to the messages telling them their property was infested. Love it.
to be fair, it's not the owner's fault, it means another guest brought them in.... and getting rid of bed bugs, if that's truly what it was, is a nightmare. also, sounds like you should never travel.
and the other truth to this story is that airbnb will immediately shut down a host over bedbugs.
Not the owner’s fault but it still is the owner’s responsibility.
maybe you should do better research instead of complaining
@@chillpaws-2023pretty sure the Airbnb host didn’t advertise having bed bugs smart ass.
yea but its called reading the reviews... if you go with a host that doesnt have good reviews you are not smart. people choose the cheapest alternative and then this happens and wonder why! whatever fatty. @@aubryellaotero1064
I startled SO BADLY when she yelled "FOLDING YOUR LAUNDRY." because I was indeed ... Folding my laundry. I swear I'm paying attention Gabi 😭
i was a little spooked too cuz I too was folding my laundry 😭
me three omg! she's so good at teaching complex things in such an easy, understanding way that i can multitask w her in the background 💀
Same, and it's not the first time she's gotten me either LOL
How ironic that I am also folding my laundry
I have a service dog, and the Airbnb policy is that the hosts have to accommodate service dogs per ADA law. I have heard COUNTLESS stories from others in the service dog community of hosts cancelling last minute, illegally trying to charge extra, refusing to accommodate after booking and offering no refund, etcetera and the company does nothing to help the service dog handler. I also know of multiple instances where a host lied about the property, claiming it would be accessible to wheelchair users, etc and it absolutely not being accessible. And once again, no refunds or accountability from Airbnb.
I saw a host complaining the other day that the guest didn’t tell them in advanced that they had a service dog and asking if they had any retaliation or could rate the guest lower for not disclosing this information. This is why guests don’t disclose things, but your dammed if you do, dammed if you don’t.
(i would benefit from a service dog but i’m worried because of rude people not willing to accommodate me despite the law)
Landlords really are evil. What the fuck kind of person do you have to be to lie to someone about wheelchair access ??!
Most hotels don’t offer refunds unless you pay extra for a cancelation insurance. If you don’t like Airbnb then just rent a hotel. Problem solved. Plus they have these things called reviews where you can see other peoples input who have been there.
@xaphan8581 most hotels only rent to 21+ even despite local/state law age minimums, and reviews of anything in general are not immune to deceptive practices by the reviewee. once you start booking vacation rentals, you'll understand 💕
the biggest problem with air bnb is selling the dream of owning and renting to people. people gobble up houses and take it away from those who would normally be able to afford them, but cant out compete people buying and renting at exorbitant rates
i just stayed in an airbnb for the first time and the lady was so lovely, but a few days before we went to go her furnaces blew up. She helped us pay for another place last minute which she definitely didn’t need to do, but she wanted to make sure my family still got to celebrate thanks giving together. i feel very lucky to have had the experience i had especially after this video.
Also in a tourist town in Alaska, me and most of my coworkers in that also work in outdoor tourism are almost forced to live out of vehicles and tents to even work here
replied to the wrong comment, brother!@@DanTheGoomba
@@thecaptain291 😂
I've done a few AirBNBs during holidays and haven't run into issues, but I also am keeping an eye on their ratings and their reviews to ensure I'm not going to fall for a bad situation.
Your story is definitely an outlier
I went to one place where we were in an apartment. Neat place. But we looked around and saw other empty units with the curtains open that looked just like ours. We figured the entire complex was AirBnBs. That blew my mind and made me understand how it's negatively impacting the housing market. That's like 30 units that other ppl and families could've occupied.
Freaky. Truman show vibes
Yeah, for a younger person, this is really depressing....I do not want to rent all my life 🫠if I even can afford rent in the next 2-3 years
@whutcat682 lol yea i swear, it's insane here. shit apartments in shit locations still go for like $1800/month, how tf am i meant to afford this lol. it's not like my income increases with the price of rent either.. :((
@highdefinition450 Yeah, and that is the problem. Like yes, the income doesn't increase with the cost of living. Like we pay 80% of our income for basic living, what can I save with only 20% left. I am not from the USA, but Europe is almost the same here, only we have free healthcare. Idk, I think I will be forced to live with 3 or 4 roommates to afford rent and utilities :(.
that's literally how hotels work lol do you see empty hotel rooms and think it's insane there are empty rooms that families could live in.
I was actually at a virtual hearing calling for the enforcement of local law 18 in NY. Many of the people there were AirBNB owners claiming they were being persecuted by the government. One woman bought 26 room household she could no longer rent out and asked the committee members how she was going to pay for her house now. It amazes me how they can victimize themselves so easily
That’s absolutely ridiculous. Please tell me that the local government laughed her out.
Tell her that real estates is not a risk free investment. Like all industries it is subject to government regulations.
What is local law 18?
@@earthtoemily4855 local law 18 basically makes it so that short term rentals in NYC are virtually not possible. Despite the law being passed if there is no enforcement then its kinda garbage hence why the hearing I attended was about the enforcement of the law.
@@Rosa-kd2cl Unfortunately they couldn’t, they are local government and these people are so bitter they might vote them out. But I felt bad for the officials it was like 10 hours of listening to people talk about how unfair it is that they can’t rent all of their properties out. They argued that they have no effect on the housing market because if they can’t do short term rentals they wouldn’t rent out their properties at all. Which was confusing but incredibly common.
Former banker here. I think the issue on airbnb is that it's not being used as intended. It was supposed to be a way for people to rent out properties that they own for some extra money. But what has happened is people are buying properties with only 5-20% down payment, and renting out their huge mortgages to other people. This is why they need to nickle and dime every customer. They need to make sure they dont lose money on their investment.
My "friend" did this. Somehow financed an L.A. residence and Malibu beachouse. Has to clean them to make any money, struggles w/ sketchy guests and pays thousands a month in mortgages....Id rather just work a regular job.
@user-ox2xi6kk8o for decades people with money have been able to use real estate to scale up their wealth very quickly. But that only comes when you have the wealth. People borrowing so they can be landlords are not the same thing as a lawyer who has 300K laying around, buys a house in cash, and rents it out for 12 years before selling it in a high market. Yet they don't realize this until they are financially ruined.
I live in Montréal, Canada and they started to think about making stricter rules around Airbnb only when a bunch of people died in a fire in a couple of illegal listing in a building.
(American here) I heard Trudeau was also looking to minimize foreign real estate investors swooping in? Vancouver is in a severe shortage of usable housing between that and Airbnb and just being a tolerable climate to live in.
@@jrob2430 Difficult to say. While there's probably some pressure from Canadians to bring down the cost of living of nearly everything, so much money is tied up in real estate here it's out of this world.
@@jrob2430he already did, there was a tax put into place for foreign buyers and it went from 15% to 5% of homes, but there’s a lack of regulation and the sad reality is conservatives want to not regulate housing and suppose anything to stop Airbnb while left leaning people want him to regulate, it’s really hard
@@itsanu1420 True, I understand the concept of wanting to deregulate, because that creates opportunities. However, we have seen some pretty bad results in both countries over the last 50 years. But that's coming from a left point of view.
I used to live in Montreal in an AirBNB in the HoMa area, which owner "rented" his room to me without a contract after a month and ripped me off after leaving. There are nice airbnbs in Canada. But now I prefer Best Westerns, Hiltons and Wyndhams over airbnbs.
the fact that the airbnb website doesn't even ask for proof of owning a property is insane 😭 what's stopping someone from putting up an address for a local Taco Bell? 😭😭😭
remember reading about this nightmare scenario someone in toronto got stuck in where someone else listed his apartment and airbnb was just like "well that sucks hope you figure it out"
This happened to us. Someone stole photos of our house off the internet, listed it on airbnb + ppl kept booking + showing up. Airbnb wouldn’t remove the listing despite us reporting, scammed renters reporting 3x, getting a police report. We eventually had to get an attorney involved and it still took months to resolve. When I made a TikTok video about our experience (with receipts ofc), airbnb used spam bots to spam report my account until my account was banned (eventually got it unbanned but all my videos were lost). Airbnb is a scum company.
I showed up to an air bnb that someone was living in was like nope i rent here not an air bnb but it was the address but not the host? The host wouldn’t reply and we were on the phone with customer service for like 3 hours while sitting Inuit car in -30° C weather
This has happened multiple time, of false adress, and when people arrive, they are on a wasteland, or they arrived at a perfectly fine house, ... where people are living, and DOESN'T belong at all to the person who rent it on AirBnB.
👀 ✍️✍️✍️✍️ /j
If an entire business model is talking about how scared they are for there being more laws around them, it SHOULD DEFINITELY have more laws
I lived in a large apartment complex which was for retired people (62+). Most of the residents I met said they sold their homes because they could not afford to live there anymore (their former homes).
Airbnb is genuinely ruining mexico city for the locals, not only do we have gentrification and a housing crisis, we also get entitled turists or "digital nomads" mistreating employees who make minimum wage because "how dare you not know english don't you see I'm trying to order my overpriced fancy tacos you peasant". The places I enjoyed pre pandemic really suck because of this now.
This is what I always think of when I think of tourism in Hawaii. Tourism cities rarely ever help the people that live there, but people always try to make it out that way
how is that airbnb's problem wth?
@@abhinav5847.
Echen los weyes pa Tijuana en las 3 de la mañana
@@abhinav5847airbnbs make rent more expensive and put annoying tourists right next door to you where they treat you like a fucking monkey, “oh look honey, a local!” “Oh how adorable, does it speak English?”
I used airbnb when I first moved to NYC because I didn't want to stay on my friends' couch (I didn't want to be a burden). What was advertised to me was a private bedroom in a shared apartment. What I got was a pull-out couch bed in a room with other pull-out couch beds, no hot water, and - worst of all - roaches crawling on the walls over my couch bed! I had booked for two weeks. I only stayed one night before sucking it up and asking my friend for help. Airbnb never refunded me despite the photo proof I sent... This was seven years ago but I'm still mad abt it
You should have sent a certifed hand written letter by usps to the CEO.
If you still have the proof, id send this letter now.
Put certified number on your letter too, and photocopy for your record.
I saw a listing like that in nyc. A few hundred for a cot with a curtain with other cots in the living room.the audacity
@nxtx_xx1739 what you wrote is a bit crazy.
@@arfriedman4577I'm gonna be honest, I wouldn't have the slightest bit of trust that any tech CEO is even gonna read my letter, let alone actually care about it. I doubt sending a letter would have done anything at all
@FeeshUnofficial I've been sending certified letters to companies for good or bad things since I was around 14 years old.
I always get a response and or phone call.
Your writing to an executive level, not some phone call customer service level that has no power.
i work at a law office that does tons of real estate (NOT as a lawyer as an assistant) and it’s absolutely insane to me that you don’t have to, bare minimum, show that you hold title on a property (or have lessor rights) to list it on airbnb. absolute nightmare.
It’s a loophole and Airbnb doesn’t care until laws are being made because the more listings the better the business it is for Airbnb. In the end Airbnb is not really responsible of people not following up with their own local laws and rules of hosting. Nevada just passed a law because they want you to stay at the resorts & casinos
When i worked as a property manager, they absolutely did a background check, a verification of ownership, and sent out a rep to check that the photos match the property. I hate them, but they do have regulations
I mean, that's just big tech for ya. They're gonna do anything they can get away with to cut cost and cut corners, until they can't anymore
I reported one in my neighborhood which was ran as a trap house with squatters and crackheads inside and no heat or indoor plumbing it was discovered the owner was a elderly woman living in a different state
My biggest gripe with Airbnb is the amount of us that ended up without a home because landlords make more money charging temporary rent to yuppies, and it drives rent up across the board.
Trying living under an Airbnb.
An absolute nightmare, a screaming baby showers, weekends are NON STOP parties, kids bouncing balls and jumping, suitcases dropped and rolled along the ground, light cigarettes thrown off the balcony onto yours, strangers buzzing your doorbell all night, bachelor parties.
I had to check the Airbnb website to see if I’d be sleeping that weekend and going to work on a Monday…and my rent was astronomical in a tight housing crisis with little on the market.
Amen to that, the apartment above me is the noisiest nightmare of hollow floors and shitty furniture scraping and thuds from shitbag tourists. It's owned by some faceless assets management company several states away.
When you put it that way I'm so glad that it's not allowed in my flat block, one of the landlords tried to airbnb their flat and they were like 'you can't install a lockbox outside the property'
Jesus, it sounds like living in my college apartment. I'm sorry you're in that situation.
how were the reviews of the place before you went?
@@DefensiveDriverWas living normally until the upstairs owners sold and turned it into their own greedy hotel.
honestly hotels (i especially like local family owned ones) are awesome, you don’t get a list of chores when you check in and there’s a pool and buffet in a lot of them it’s very fun
Hotels suck if you have a large family, so I understand the demand for an Airbnb, but like unless you have like five people with you, a hotel is infinitely better...
@@theflyingspaget definitely!! i can’t say that there’s no need for airbnbs to exist because in a lot of cases people need more space or appliances while traveling, but airbnb needs to be more regulated. here in puerto rico entire streets of homes are being turned into airbnbs by the american millionaires and billionaires that move to puerto rico to exploit the “tax benefits” and gentrify the island. i know quite a few people who have been essentially kicked out of their rented homes because their landlords sell their properties to these american investors. airbnb shouldn’t exist so you can build a real estate empire
I booked a super nice and affordable hotel in South Tyrol (Italy) and was better than any Airbnb I ever stayed.
I only like corporate owned hotels. Local owned are usually trash and that is their only selling point, that they are 'locally owned'
@@valeriatsukinoAgreed you should at least personally own the 🏠 🏡🏠🏡 used as Airbnb rentals and maybe have a number limit per city.
Never used airbnb, no regrets. Also, this seems to be another case of rich people damaging economies/communities with no regard to the consequences.
Late stage capitalism baby
My friend finally found a place to live just because airbnb has become less popular in NYC
why would you living in your moms basement?
"i dont know the subject of the discussion but i will give my totally unrelated opinion anyway"
Rich people doing what they do best 😀
I live in Orlando and work doing kids birthday parties. I just had to travel to a neighborhood I soon found out was entirely airbnbs. Every door had the same company mat on it, every house with a backyard pool had a rules signs like a community pool (no glass/running etc). A pristine playground surrounded by a locked gate, and NO street parking or else you’d get towed. It was the most unwelcoming place I’ve ever been and over half of them were sitting empty.
AirBnB is just another example of a good idea that got ruined. People love talking about corporate greed, but corporations are led by people. These vacation rentals are also owned by people. Common denominator. I looked into an AirBNB for a recent week-long trip, and the cleaning rules/cleaning fees made it more expensive than a full-service hotel, and I didn’t have to clean a dang thing at the hotel. No-brainer.
Your analysis is missing the most important factor here: class. These are all people, yes, but more importantly they're all petit bourgeois parasites who are looking to live off the property they own rather than live off their own labor.
AirBnB shows that greed isn‘t just an issue of corporations, but of all people. There are just way too many people that will you rip someone else off given the chance to do so.
also airbnb is much better in europe. usa is notorious for lack of regulations compared to europe
The annoying thing is that AirBNB is still kinda good in Europe. We used it when we went to Vienna recently and it was affordable and in keeping with the original spirit of the site. We rented a bedroom downtown for like 60 bucks and the hosts were great.
The difference? REGULATION.
@@XJapanGonnaGiveItToYa-cd4xj Andddd, this is what we mean when we talk abt corporations. If only the US actually regulated companies like Europe does, then they wouldn’t have this problem.
I live on a small island and Airbnb has completely decimated the housing market here. It’s horrible because so many locals just can’t find long term housing anymore and are forced to live in Airbnbs during the off seasons and then live in tents, trailers or pushed off the island during spring and summer. So many people who don’t even live on island buy up properties and houses here just to profit off Airbnb and locals are left housing insecure.
That’s so sick
over 50+ houses near the college in my town have been turned into Airbnbs for rich douchy alumni to park their cars at for 1,200 a day so they don't have to walk to far to watch the football games. They don't even stay half the time just want a place to park its so stupid and its causing rent and housing costs for all the available places to be absolutely strangling.
that’s so disgusting :(
This sounds like Tallahassee
I got full on scammed out of 3000$ when I needed emergency housing on airbnb. Found an affordable month rental and when I showed up it straight up didn’t exist and Airbnb said that was an issue between me and the renter, not them. Instead of being homeless with all my luggage in -30 Celsius snow covered Montreal, I shoved out my entire savings of 2000$ for a last minute shitty little month rental airbnb in a much less accessible (and trop Francais) part of the city.
Now I just can’t afford to go on vacation so I don’t even look at airbnb.
It's so upsetting because staying at Airbnb's has created some of the best vacation experiences (houses on farms with animals, houses on lakes where you can kayak, and big houses in general where you can have 10+ people stay at once) & some of the hosts have been incredibly helpful & inviting (i.e. leaving free snacks). But the CLEANING FEE!!! It makes it incredibly hard to choose Airbnb over just staying in a stuffy hotel room. It's so odd to me that you can literally leave the place spotless besides unmaking the beds and still be charged upwards of $200 extra.
You say "stuffy", I was room service and cleaning
@@kylespevak6781 I mean stuffy in the sense of little space, especially for 5+ people
I think the issue is that there’s no real spaces dedicated for large gatherings/get togethers with hotels. Each person/couple/family would have to get their own rooms, but even then where do y’all share a space just for yourselves and intended invited guests? That’s why/when I used Airbnb.
@@davidpachecogarcia Agreed! That’s a big thing that drew me to Airbnb because staying at a hotel on a group trip can often feel separated and awkward. Having a kitchen, living room, yard, sometimes even office and not having to deal with strangers on the other side of each wall is much more comfortable. & a few years ago before the insane cleaning fees and scams, splitting the cost of an Airbnb booking was often cheaper than staying in separate hotel rooms.
Stuffy hotel room?? But but 😭😭😭 I love staying at hotels! And MAIDS. You don't have to clean shit!!
Danny Gonzales told a story on the sad boyz podcast (I believe) about how him and his wife had an Airbnb they had to cancel bc the host said that everytime they entered the place they needed to use a delivery code, that expired after one use, and everytime they wanted to get in again they needed to text her and get a NEW delivery code. She wasn’t allowed to give out the door code so this was her solution. Insane lol
Oof. That's awful.
Wtffff
How deranged
imagine how awkward that would make trying to meet the plug at 2am
Would be less horrible if the code expired when you check out
I remember seeing a listing in the UK that had only optional heating. I queried this with the host only to be told 'well we do have heating but we ask guests to contribute to the cost because of the high energy costs right now' out of curiosity I asked how much it would be... They got back to me two days later 'well, we can sort that out at the end of your stay with us' I couldn't believe they were renting a place with optional heating in winter in the British countryside (I'm British so know that heating is essential in winter especially given my boyfriend is used to southern Italian temperatures) but then to have the audacity to not even be transparent about the cost of energy we were expected to cover. Needless to say we didn't book.
Energy is expensive as hell right now, but then raise your price to account for and cover that. Basically saying "hey I know you agreed to this price but you'll owe me more to be warm" is insane.
Airbnb is probably responsible for Australia's current rental crisis because if you can charge $300+ pn why rent the property for $450+ per week.
We loved airbnb when it first came out. We did a cross country trip renting out rooms/places for 1 night at a time along the planned route (pre pandemic). This was when ut was real people renting out their spare rooms and the cleaning fees were little or nothing. Sadly it is nothing like that now and hotels are just cheaper and more convenient. The greed has killed the business model.
I wish it was still like that. Renting out a spare room or your second home is an honest way to offset costs, and it's not just corporate greed
My parents & I got lucky with our one and only airbnb stay back in 2022. It was fairly priced for a two night stay in a neighborhood outside Boston & it was actually a private section of the house just for us.
The owner lived upstairs and you could tell they converted the layout of both levels to be separate living spaces but still pretty accessible.
It was nice trying it out but my family is a lot old fashioned, slow with technology and stuff so we probably wouldn’t do it again
It IS expensive
I used to use airbnb back then because my dog is a needy little brat who almost never has to be alone because we arrange things so we can bring her when we go most places, and my best experience was the lovely couple who dogsat for us during the wedding we were attending, so we picked up treats for them and their dog at the farmer's market as a thank-you. At its best, it was a great concept. Capitalism ruins something new every day
uruururuu😢uuuuuuutufuuuruutuury😢😮😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊
the
I used to live in a building where 7 out of 20 apartments were listed as Airbnb. Living there was a nightmare. Constant noise and parties, random drunk people roaming halls, mess in a hallway. I can't count how many times someone tried to open my door by accident in a middle of the night. The last straw was when my landlord tried to raise a rent for an insane amount, so I moved out.
And he won, it was probably his technique to get rid of you and to put a new airbnb on the market. What a disgrace.
@@Maxmaj0rYep! It works exactly like that. I had the same sad experience.
Not only United States, Canada, United Kingdom and Australia, it also happens in countries such as Chile, Brazil, Mexico, Germany, France, Japan, what is happening with this same issue, Airbnb should improve its services and also throughout the world
or just cease to exist since there are too many problems to tackle it would be a hassle to go through one by one lol
@NotVille_girl… what are you on about…
How about AirBNB ceases operations?
Mfs be blaming liberal govt in Canada personally like saying they need to stop immigration as if air bnb isn’t heavily effecting the housing market and not immigration
@@alexandracitan777 I think it's a bot.
In Antwerp (Belgium) it turned out several of the hosts (that had a lot of properties on offer) weren't real people, but members of criminal orginanisations and the properties were used for money laundering
You just saved my Belgium trip that’s insane 😭
I am one of the victims of that organization in Antwerp. I lived in a beautiful appartment near the cathedral for almost 12 years. Then that organization turned all appartments around me into airbnb's - with the approval of the greedy landlord. The noise of the entitled tourists became unbearable. The organization wanted me to leave. They did it by stealing property and even by death threats. The city officials refused to help me or to take action against the plague of airbnb. Finally I moved to another city. The whole inner city of Antwerp is now a tourist wasteland. PS The airbnb organization is led by the son of a powerful university professor and the local Greek maffia. DON'T RENT AIRBNB IN ANTWERP!!!
I'm pretty sure members of criminal organizations are still real people 😀
Also, I personally LIKE "cookie cutter" hotel rooms and having a general idea of what to expect when i book a room. I like not having to deals with not being 100% positive about where i'm sleeping in a city/state/country I've never been to. I like that I mostly don't have to worry about the staff at the hotel being creeps and crooks (and I have a target to sue if they do end up being shady). Most importantly, I love being able to check reviews outside the native app. Imagine if you could only get reviews for a Hilton on the Hilton's site, or you couldn't cross-reference info about that AirBnB on other sites like Google/TripAdvisor/Expedia, especially when you use these tools to check out every other aspect of your trip.
Completely agree. You know exactly what to expect, and sometimes breakfast is provided.
Usually when people travel places, they do for a specific reason. Like, how much time do you actually plan to spend in the place you sleep? I have the opinion that Hotels do exactly what they’re supposed to: provide a safe place to eat and rest so you have energy to do whatever you actually travelled for.
@@maliathebeast101If I’m traveling but not on vacation, hotels all the way. AirBnB’s are best when you utilize them to find cool experiences.
and there are so many beautiful historic hotels, for example in states in a couple in Mexico, THAT WERE MADE TO BE HOTELS/HOSTELS
Me too. I associate hotel rooms with travelling, which a positive in my mind. I like having the front desk, security, cleaning staff, food services, as immediate resources.
Laura is a hero in my eyes for taking on those greedy a-holes.The AirBnB/Verbo/STR problem is so bad here in Puerto Rico that they're now in the process of regulating them & I am 100% for it.
One town I worked at for awhile currently consists of roughly 70% STRs (mostly ABnBs) which is an absolute nightmare since it meant that everyone who worked there either had to commute over an hour BY BOAT (if it didn't break down), 30 minutes by plane (too expensive for most workers) or cram themselves into a house with 5+ people while working multiple jobs. Nothing ever opened on time (or at all sometimes) so it meant that we encountered a ton of pissed off tourists & locals whenever we'd get to the place. Oh, and STR guests would usually get into fights with ferry terminal staff because the hosts failed to disclose on their listings that you were supposed to buy tickets online at least a week in advance.
The worst time of year during that job was obviously Spring Break because it meant 90-100% occupancy rates at the STRs so you had to buy tickets to get to work about 1-2 months in advance just to beat out all the tourists. The ferry staff is also told to prioritize getting people to the town vs supplies because of that. It usually devolves into FyreFest levels of madness (ex. "food & water runs out faster than usual, causing the National Guard to have to intervene"). Sure, you can say "that's not the host's fault" but when you create & promote an economy that solely focuses on one industry, a ton of stuff tends to get neglected in the process. In this case, basic human necessities.
Don't even get me started on people illegally running ABnBs out of section 8 housing, using HUD funding to make even more STRs, hosts sending their guests to get "complentary meals" at friggin soup kitchens & the increment of crime in communities that are mostly STRs/not lived in full time.
Right! I wish I could send her flowers
Most of the issues she stated should be blamed on the lack of regulation. The US is a dystopian hellacious.
I feel like I have a unjustifiable hatred for tourists because of how they destroy what was there before them
@@filiperocha4025 They are definitely a result of that & that's why these types of things should be regulated.
@@Honeyin2013 Personally, it's a love/hate thing at this point. I hope that Ethical Tourism becomes more of a thing in 2024 & beyond.
I just got my first ever bad review this past weekend because I mentioned to the host I felt unsafe being watched from his ring camera in a private backyard. The host had a history of retailing against guests that complained about safety or cleanliness with bad reviews, and yet, he remains a host.
Airbnb is the bad place!!!
Yikes !
As someone who used to work for corporate Airbnb, cameras need to be disclosed in the description if they are on property and where they are located. The only time the company will do something is if it was not disclosed.
@NotVille_shut up.
There is no problem with outdoor cameras as long as they disclose them. You do realize hotels have outdoor cameras and cameras in the hallways as well and people don't freak out about that. We have an Airbnb and have outdoor cameras and guests are completely fine with it. We don't sit and watch our cameras all day if anything happens such as parties or someone is hurt there is evidence to prove it. If you don't like the use of cameras stay at a property that doesn't have them.
@@gerryo25spoken like a true landlord and boomer
I bought a house this year and could always tell when listings were previously AIRBNBs bc they always were renovated in such a cheap and tacky way. They’re ruining the interiors of houses too 😢
I work as a maid and we work alottt with bnbs Everytime I clean a new one I can't help but look at what a nice house it could have been for a family or person and how I could never buy a home in this day of age
I don’t want a huge house, just a quaint one with an extra room for my sewing and a little herb garden since I like to cook. I’d take a two bed one bath cottage and live there with my man I am serious about. Sadly, that’s not going to be a reality for my generation 😫
I used to work at a hotel in Southwest Florida and the amount of people who would show up at the hotel looking for a room or call the hotel looking for a room because their Airbnb was basically a lie..........is astonishing
I live in Florida and it's amazing how many homeowners try to rent their place as an Airbnb knowing full well it's illegal. It's even more laughable when the poor guests show up to the guard gate and ask where the resort office is(!) The guard politely tells them to get lost.
The apartment below mine was turned into an airbnb and while it's been okay mostly, some of the people staying there have been actually hellish. One time a group of 20-somethings stayed there while one of my country's biggest music festivals was going on in my city. They were playing music in the middle of the night and when I went to complain I was told to "chill" because this happens "only once a year". (It's not once a year, there's a lot of events in my city during summer) I had to call the cops on them when they later came to bang on my door. I happened to catch the host the next day and told her what happened, she was really dismissive about how scared I had been and just said to call the cops again if it happens again.
Another time there was like three people staying there for like two weeks. Every night a woman would scream like she was getting murdered, and I had no idea what she was talking about because she was speaking in a foreign language. I could hear random words like "You're evil", a lot of "fuck"s, etc. I was half-convinced that the girl was possessed or something. This happened every single night for HOURS. I couldn't sleep because of it and I called cops on them 4 different times. I tried going through Airbnb and they were no help at all, only relaying my complaints to the host. Heard from other neighbours that the owner never answers their phone and it's hard to get in contact with them so... yeah...
Wouldn’t you want to contact HOA who runs your apartment complex? If you don’t have one, you might want to complain to your local jurisdiction and file a complaint
@@henrylam92 I've sent complaints to the property manarger each time the airbnb guests have caused disturbances but there isn't much else I can do myself when I am renting an apartment here and not an owner. Due to how my country's law works, "the HOA" (not exactly the same thing as it is in America as far as I know) cannot ban short term rentals unless all of the home owners agree to it (=not possible because the Airbnb host is not gonna agree to that). Getting someone evicted is a long process here as well, and basically impossible when the disturbances aren't happening all the time. Honestly there isn't anything that can be done as long as the law here is the way it is.
@@katriinaj I totally understand but as a renter you have your own rights too. In the end this really falls on the homeowner who is renting it on airbnb. They need to enforce stricter rules like no music after certain time or install noise meters that will notify the homeowner if it gets too loud. As a host it is your responsibility to make sure your guest are being respectful not just to the property but also to the neighbors and if the host is not cooperating then you need to complain also to your own landlord and tell them you can't live there if nothing changes.
i can’t believe the cleaning fees… i stayed in an airbnb in toronto, canada and the cleaning fee was $15. $200 is actually insane and completely ridiculous
Cancel your meetings y'all we're watching the new Gabi Belle video
“Wow 22 likes and no comment, lemme fix that” -🤓
I literally missed my meeting so sure
cancel we are gabi belle
Just did
i’d skip my college graduation for a gabi belle video
My city (New York) effectively kneecapped their business and I don't cry a single tear about it, particularly for what they did to rents and the culture and quality of life of our neighborhoods
One of the founders is even from New York, which makes that funny in a cruel fate. When not even New York wants you, you oofed up
Did your rents get cheaper?
so what you mean is, free market of new york effectively isn't free market anymore. I mean I understand the effect they have on housing but ? isn't that market forces.
@@abhinav5847no such thing as a free market, it's a fantasy concept that only exists in theory
@@abhinav5847take that libertarian bullcrap right back out the door you came in.
I worked at customer support at Airbnb last year and I can confirm that everything in this video is right.
About background checks - yes, there are none. For people on customer support, there are specific ways we must follow depending on the situation. For example, if you list somebody else's house, and the actual owner of the house calls airbnb claiming their house is on Airbnb but they didn't put it there, there is a specific team that deals with cases like that. I don't know what happens next because I was not in that team. If you rent an area that is actually a garden and nobody complains, everything will go fine until the guests reach the "house". Those people will have to call Airbnb support and Airbnb support will have to look for a similar place for them to stay in. After that, the person who looks for a similar place for the guests might or might not report in your profile (it can only be seen by airbnb workers tho) that you have a fake rented place. Some workers do report, most do not. After a specific number of reports, your account gets banned. But you can create a new one. (oh btw, I had people calling asking me if a host is actually renting a real house. That message to workers only appears after there are reports and Airbnb support workers cannot say those things even if they see the host is scamming people. And believe me, I saw many scams in a few months of work)
Oh also it's good you didn't publish that fake listing you created but worry not if that had happened by accident. Listings take 72 hours to appear on the website. I had to say this on this phone so many times, that even a year later, I still remember it all.
A person in the comments mentioned that a cleaning lady cannot denounce things on Airbnb and that's true. On Airbnb support, it's expected that the person who reports has an account on Airbnb and that they are reporting about a reservation they have - either as a host or as guest. The only exceptions in which a person without an Airbnb account can report is against guests - a "too much noise" report or a "too many guests" report (since covid). When doing any of these two reports, one must say they are a neighbour. The "too many guests" report is expected mostly if the host and the neighbour are close and the neighbour is aware of the number of people the reservation was supposed to have but they see a different number of people entering the house. Airbnb will ask you for your email if you do a report as a neighbour, btw.
Airbnb does have a safety team, but idk what they do.
Airbnb only verifies the houses in the Airbnb Pro program. An Airbnb Pro host and a superhost are not the same thing, btw. Superhost houses are not verified. Airbnb Pro is (or was at least at the time I was working there) a program in which Airbnb invites certain hosts to join. They really should verify all houses in the platform tho.
Live chat support team isn't even a level 1 support team. All they can do is pass to level 1 support team (which is the team picking up the phones and the messages sent to support) and then if the situation is really complex, only level 1 support team can pass the case to the right team. So it feels like a ping pong to the customer.
About cleaning, idk if that's still up right now. But last year there was a page on Help Center literally telling hosts to find a way of getting their listing clean without paying for it - it even said "get a friend do to the cleaning for no charge" and everytime I came across that page, I cringed so hard.
Hey thanks for your comment. I’m making an app similar to airbnb for bathrooms and you seem like you have some deep experience in the space. Wondering if I could chat with you more on ways your past employer fell short?
"Airbnb does have a safety team, but idk what they do." they troll the forums making sure that hosts and guests are saying anything too defamatory against ABB, or that you don't say anything real ie, you must adhere to Woke principles. in the past 3 years they have banned every excellent host from the forums, and now have a handful of trusted bootlickers (literally 5 people) and newbies in the forums. all the experience, real people have migrated to other sites.
@@brunetteXer you sound like a 🤡
Thanks foe sharing
@@otea-appWhat an interesting concept, wishing you success on your app!
I live in a turistic zone on spain and thanks to Airbnb the rent prices and housing prices skyroked. Back in the day a 2 bedroom aparment cost 400€ or 500€. Now the same aparment can go to 900 or 1000€ and the monthly salary goes to 1100 to 1200€. In some places (like Malaga) people go to the key boxes and hotglue them so they can't get the key.
Oh yeah, Barcelona with cockroach infested studios for 1k while this is the monthly salary for lots of locals. Whole buildings made into airbnbs. I moved here for work and honestly I can’t wait to save up money to go somewhere else, the city is unlivable because of the tourists and many other problems the government is not taking care of.
Hotglue is genius I don't blame people
There is no justifiable reason to me someone should own more than one property. Absolutely none
laura is a hero and the airbnb owners complaining about her “causing hardship to strangers” like they aren’t doing that themselves by buying homes people could live in or rent long term.
the only karen i stand by with.
What’s unfortunate is it’s not even people anymore. Sometimes companies buy out a lot of properties and it all funnels back into a separate company. So its not even exactly home owners all the time either, but companies who will never live there
Air bnb owners remind me of this gut from Texas who called into npr once.
He just wanted to talk about his plan to, in his own words, "buy up a neighborhood in Detroit and gentrify the city." He talked about how he was gonna kick the poor people out too and this guy was just a literal ghoul and I hope he tried. Everyone I've ever known who tried lost a ton of money doing so.
@dismurrart6648 That guy sounds like when plot owners post the Civil War would take all the healthy land and put a law saying only white ppl could own that property legally. Not saying yours had to do w race but same jest of owning land. Tho theirs actually worked, and that's how we have those borders of one neighborhood being "better" than the other. Since once those ppl bought up the property they legally barred ppl from buying more desirable land
problem is with city planning though, most of the time.
I have legitimately seen AirBnB listings in my neighborhood that charge more for a weekend’s stay than what I pay per month in rent, only to sit empty after summer ends. Shit’s crazy.
Anyways, I loved how much effort went into making this! It’s great seeing a smaller creator grow
well over half a million subs is a "smaller creator"? lmao
@@ValkyrieTiara good point lmao
Sounds like you need to list that place on airbnb during the summer.
I love these types of deep dives. It’s wild to me that some people still conflate “Airbnb” with “cheaper than a hotel” when that is not the case anymore in most places.
It's cheaper than a hotel most the time for large families/groups since the per-room price is often lower + having a kitchen means that you're not having to eat out with a large family for every meal.
Still the best option for working remotely. Most "business" hotels with decent wifi are so expensive
It costs less. It just does. For us, $2800 plus less. I don’t want to eat every meal out, be in the crowds, or share a room with my older kids for a week.
Yea, I wanted to have a trip to cali and hotels were 200ish per night, an airbnb of the same price would've been a single room in a household with 5 people already living in it, with no access to the kitchen or livingroom lol. Shared bathroom and hallways too
Absolutely. Loads of hotels have kitchens in them and separate rooms. And then you're not stuck using unwashed towels and checking every nook and cranny for cameras
I got a big life disappointment when I realized that all of the houses in nature within an acceptable radius to work where all bought by big corporations to serve as Airbnb's. It genuinely breaks my heart. It was my lifelong dream, and it's now out of reach due to greed.
Also, should be noted, you didnt even touch on the fact that AirBNB can bring crime to areas. We had an apartment unit nearby that had tenants renting out units, and it caused a lot of localized crime/incidents. Apartment went from maybe two police incidents a month (if that) to two-three a week, from tourists and people overdoing with drinks (we were in a historic district with a lot of local dive bars). It completely changed the nature of the neighborhood we were in.
I think it’s so crazy that I found your video a couple weeks after my birthday. My boyfriend had surprise me with an Airbnb booking with me and my friends with a hot tub. The house was rustic, vintage and perfect and was advertised as 420 friendly. It turned out to be a total nightmare. the owner kept encouraging me and my friends to walk around naked. One of the rooms had a bed soaked in cat urine because the owner had left the animal in that bedroom for three days. My friends were able to find beds to sleep on, but my boyfriend and I could not find a room to sleep, until we found a bedroom downstairs. Little did we know that this bedroom was actually a sex dungeon, where there were disco lights turned on with sex toys laid out for everyone to see. that room was not advertised in the Airbnb, and at that point my boyfriend and I had no other place to sleep. Then the owner tried to extort my boyfriend of $300 because he tried to claim that it was $300 per person rather than $300 a night. He ended up taking $150 from him. this owner took my boyfriend and I belongings (and our only available place to sleep that didn’t have cat pee) and told us that room was off-limits. And it also turned out, that the hot tub that he was encouraging us to go naked and was right next to this man’s bedroom window. We were this man’s first guest. When everyone left (which we were able to make it out without conflict) my boyfriend confronted the owner and got his money back and making sure the owner knew that he was a pervert. The owners response was on the lines of “Ouuu but it’s 420 friendly”. THAT DOESNT MEAN ENCOURAGING EVERYONE IN THE NUDE AND MAKING EVERYONE AWARE OF YOUR SEX DUNGEON. Fortunately, we were able to get the listing down however, my boyfriend has still yet to receive a refund for all of this. I’m so glad that I am not alone with this Airbnb debacle.
edit: we were able to call the police and get his listing down from the air bnb
Did you ever get the refund omg or like is the owner in jail???
omg it's such a nightmare! I feel so sorry for your experience literally on your special day 😭
Yeah this all sounds odd……..like. I read all of this and nothing about this makes sense but ok.
Isnt this sexual harrassment and you could call the police for this...or am i the crazy person here
@@apatheticsticker8137 no we never got the refund but we were able to get his listing off but no police were involved since they pretty much disregarded it all
oh boy. Airbnb has been an absolute $hitshow in the past few years. One time we stayed at a place that the host was clearly not supposed to be renting out. We use it mostly because of dogs but now hotels are starting to allow dogs. My last airbnb was a 100+ year old building that was under renovation and had a very musty smell. The owner left me "." as a review. Wow. Thanks bud.
As someone who used to post reviews for an Airbnb host, I know why they did that. The more reviews you post about your guests, the higher your properties appear in the search algorithm. I never learned how that worked, but that's what I was told by the host. I'm sorry they left you just a . instead of something meaningful.
I just found your channel and I’m on my second video of what will probably be a lengthy binge but I just want to say the effort and research you put in is so thorough and conversely easy to consume. I identify with your viewpoints and as a professional economist that regularly in my job and so I hope there’s some validity in me saying you’re doing a kick ass job as teaching others and incredibly insightful. Much love! Can’t wait to watch more vids 💕
I booked an Airbnb in the Smokies. I guess I got lucky hearing the horror stories. The cabin was clean, the only thing we had to do was take out the trash and throw towels in the washer but don't turn it on. The cleaner left a gift basket with snacks and there was a book that was basically a journal for guests to fill out about their stay and what they did in the area if you want ideas. There was a hot tub which I was scared about, but it was super clean. TVs had streaming access with no log in required (when password sharing was allowed we used the hosts netflix). Probs wont' be doing a bnb again though, I'll tap out while I'm on top.
i once left my netflix logged into an airbnb and it was fun seeing the people add profiles leaving little messages xD now i realise that was stupid for security reasons
There's a ton of rental companies out there that control all those houses. They existed well before Airbnb and probably will survive after. Rare if any of them are built for actual long term living.
My partner & I stayed in a cabin in the Smokies back in 2005, that sounds like yours. It had a hot tub on a balcony overlooking the mountains, and was just awesome. It was rented out by a company though, not a single person. Apparently it’s gone now, or at least in different hands.
Airbnb scares me. Too many variables…and potentially creepy hosts. They had a great idea, but their greed to keep growing too big, too fast kinda ruined it. The lack of information & background checks collected from hosts is terrifying.
There are certainly lots of people who rent out their proprties with good intentions and care about what they do, but there's almost no punishment for people who cut corners or break laws so it attracts those kinds of people as well. I stayed in an Airbnb once and it was great, but as a business they're pretty horrible and the people who profit most off of it are already rich and make the housing market worse to get even richer.
I had such a good experience last week in Grand Rapids. The place was huge! A king size and 3 queens, finished sectional in the basement.
I booked an Airbnb when I was in London for a week, the pictures looked fine given the area and price. It was a literal dorm room that some college kid had rented out 😭
I used to work for them and if that was the case, you would be entitled to a full refund and would be assisted in finding a new listing. We even have the ability to cover the difference in pricing as long as it was similar to the initial booking.
☠️
@@CaptainCaterpillars it was a while back but knowing what I know now I should have tried to get a refund. The place wasn’t horrible, it was a private room with a bathroom. I guess I was just afraid I wouldn’t be able to find something else within budget
@@Elleram - No worries. Most don’t even contact us when they encounter issues as they don’t know the assistance that could be provided. If you ever use them again, don’t be afraid to contact the customer service via phone as emails are backlogged like crazy. They can assist with refunds, finding a new place, or even book you in a hotel. You’ll also be reimbursed for activities or food you get while you wait for them to do that up to $200 with any Travel Manager and up to $500 with Team Manager approval.
This is wild to watch bc my parents rented out the room above our garage and my dad was sooooo into it like he got towel and sheet sets from home goods and collected hotel soaps to put in the bathroom and set up a nice little coffee/tea making station and then we just cleaned it ourselves lmao like my dad would give me $50 if I cleaned it for him
the trend I've been seeing in the comments (and kind of my experience) is that they're great if it's a family renting out a spare room where they live, and a gamble if the place is bought just for renting out
Aww this is so heartwarming lol what year(s) did your family rent out a room? Why did you stop?
yeah like, thats the intended use!
@@diethylmalonate ABSOLUTELY TRUE.
If it's mainly seen as a primary business, with the sole purpose to rent, people get lazy as fuck and don't care.
But if they CARE about the property, it's an absolute shit show. They REALLY needed to vet individuals more, track reputation, and ability to leave verified feedback with honesty and ability to rate on many different criteria.
They should ALSO FORCE renters to include instructions, any codes, and basic checklists in the app, ahead of time, for all to see and tie it to their reputation.
@@1337GameDevI definitely recommend that good renters avoid AirBnB altogether and look for alternatives. VRBO is one, but it’s hard to say if I can trust it as it’s a similar platform. There are also local rental agencies in popular tourist areas, most of which are definitely more reputable than AirBnB.
wow im sitting in st pete fl thinking about our shite situation this whole video (and laura's omnipresent signs), and to see the piece about my exact concerns towards the end of this video is just...so validating. Excellent video.
In Vieques, one of the islands in Puerto Rico with around 10,000 residents, over 1/3 of properties have been turned into airbnbs, most having been bought by investors looking to evade taxes in the archipielago and its devasted the local population with gentrification, inflated prices for housing and food, and even limiting availbility of ferries for residents traveling between islands.
This is a small island that doesnt even have a hospital for its residents. Due to lack of laws protecting citizens from these predatory property buyers and taxevading laws created by a corrupt goverment to try to solve Puerto Ricos bankruptcy, Vieques has become a microcosm of the general displacement of puertoricans, aided by AirBnb.
That is disgusting, and so awful for all the folks who actually live there and just want to live fulfilling lives :(
I'm an economist and analyst, great job pointing out the lack of housing supply following the Recession in 2008, you're doing great educating people!
Oh so you lie for a living?
@@sleepysartorialist no?
@@Cexlbr what do you mean? She did point out the recession and I was impressed…
@@WackoWambo lol my bad buddy- I’m sorry
@@Cexlbr all good homie ❤️
One time I stayed at an Airbnb that was literally just someone's backyard. Anyone who paid $20 could pull up their car/tent/whatever could just sleep in their backyard. At the time I was traveling alone and so sleeping in my car was no problem (honestly preferred cause it's way cheaper than a hotel), and considering this was in the dead center of a large city, honestly kinda worth it. There should be a service like that!
There is. Hipcamp.
^^ came to comment the same thing
from what i hear this is kind of how it started. it was never meant to be a full hotel or rented property. just litteraly air mattresses in someone’s house for cheap
That will blow up and become very shitty
I'd never stay in an air bnb. I would find it really odd to be in someone else's house. I'd feel really uncomfortable and like i was intruding on someone else's personal space, even if they weren't on the property. I'd rather have a hotel room and save myself the anxiety.
I've had some great experiences on Airbnb and some really bad experiences. It's so hit and miss.
Once i was on a trip in Portland and booked a room in a house , showed up and the host was absent and when she finally arrived she told us the room was full there was a couple basically squatting in the room and legally she couldn’t make them leave (Some Oregon law?) it was a nightmare trying to either get a a refund or find someone nearby that did in fact have room. It was all a nightmare. Like why make the room book-able at that point it felt so scammy and sketchy
'Cause it was scammy, they lied and hoped AirBnBuckYou would make it so hard to get a refund that they could just keep your money for free.
All of my best airbnb experiences are in Portland
lmao thats hilarious xD
ah that sounds like portland /lh
Honey...it's Portland. Of course it was awful. People are weird there.
The best airBnB I’ve ever sayed at was a really nice house that the host lived in, he had the whole second floor set up for guests, and cooked us breakfast in the morning. Just a really nice person who ran it more like a bed and breakfast.
Sounds like a long time ago
Guesthouses. Sometimes they’re listed on Airbnb (like in India).
Sounds like your average Airbnb.
Good old times when Airbnb was new. I also slept in free rooms in flats the owners themselves lived in and I really enjoyed it
he put the b&b in airb&b
I did not think your video was "unnecessarily long" I thought it was comprehensive. Thank you for gathering the information; this is so interesting!
Hey, I used to work with my mom at her cleaning service(it’s closed down now) and we would mostly clean air bnbs and oh my god. The dirt and grime was always awful, people would leave their “special juices” on sheets, one time someone literally left A GUN. A lot of the time when we’d get there stuff would be destroyed, holes in walls, toilet clogged, sheets stained, but in the small chance, things would be semi clean leaving us just have to do basics like clean sinks, put away dishes, etc. It was pretty fun sometimes cause people would leave stuff and just never come back to get them so we could just take. The best thing is when people would leave food and we’d get to take it(but only if it was unopened) The owners however SUCKED. They were a couple that had some kids(divorced now) and the wife always made it seem like me or my mom were flirting with her husband(I’m a minor, they were in like early 30’s I’d assume) and it would me super uncomfortable.
Much respect for gabi filming with the pimple patches then putting a band aid over the wound she got from winning an intense knife fight and still making an awesome, high quality video
bandaid yes pimple patch no. very distracting and should not be worn in a video it’s not a good look. id rather see a bursting zit honestly its real
@@burkematthews9092how is it not a good look 😭 its just a star???
@@persivy it looks shiny and gross and I don’t want to look at the pus getting absorbed into a pad
When I was staying at an Airbnb in Italy this couple showed up with their kid to stay there. Turns out someone had duplicated our hosts properly to scam people.
Omg 😳
We own a condo in 8 units. The new guy who moved into the garden unit listed his on airbnb but neglected to tell the guests that we had assigned parking so they parked wherever. Since he didn't tell us, we had them towed and the owner got a negative review. We later banned airbnb in the bi-laws because we already have one unit rented long term and the owner does nothing to manage their renters.
That’s so weird wtf
Good for ur condo. Bad landlords r a headache
Bi Laws???
Eh, who am i kidding, i'm down
I've only stayed at an airbnb twice in my life.
1st was in Montreal, this was a really great experience tbh. It was a shared apartment. The room was lockable, I was given a key to it. The place was super clean. And the host was a Tunisian PhD student who made me a homecooked harissa chicken meal on the first night and we talked and had a glass of wine. Was really nice overall.
2nd was in Toronto in a house in the suburbs near Casa Loma. It was a converted cellar, was really clean, totally separated from the rest of the house. Honestly really nice. But the downside was the host was really difficult to communicate with. They too didn't tell me where to find the key to the place until I had been waiting outside the house with my suitcase for about 20 mins.
Very tame, but all these horror stories and the effect it has on things like housing makes me never want to use it again. Especially as its now just as if not more expensive than a hotel. I'd rather get a hotel nowadays because at least I know I'll be able to get in to the place on arrival. But no homecooked harissa chicken unfortunately. Pros and cons
I had booked an Airbnb in Minneapolis. When I got there, the outside was pretty shady, seemed pretty run down, and even the halls followed the same look. However, when I got to my room, it looked amazing! The problem though, was that it had not been cleaned. I quickly messaged the host, who apologized and refunded me immediately, and allowed me to stay the night in another room for free. Turns out, her cleaning lady had been forced to stay in her apartment building because their next door neighbor had been killed. Definitely the craziest travel experience I’ve had.
I’ve been duped by Airbnb like 4 times because we would naturally trust what was listed on the app and show up to the supposed HOUSE we rented only for it to be someone’s basement or something. I scoured the listing/descriptions too, I’d always book “entire house” and every single time it would be a shared space 😭
WOW I don’t understand how these blatant issues aren’t resolved! Like that is literally false deceptive advertising. It’s like a bait and switch. That should be fully illegal and easy to fight against.
As someone who used to work for their corporate office, it’s considered an entire house if it has its own entrance and isn’t accessible from any other part of the premises. Not defending them but you really need to research and do your due diligence such as reaching out to the host if you’re interested in a property.
my worst nightmare.
@@CaptainCaterpillars that seems to be the loop hole for them but in each of my situations the only way we would’ve known it was a shared space is if we reached out directly to the host which should absolutely not be the case.
@@kookykiddo - Again, Airbnb does not define “shared space” the same as it may be implied. Shared space means that others staying there will have access to what you do in your listing. If it is walled off or locked off, they do consider that an entire listing. Is it a little shady, sure but working there has taught me to always read a company’s TOS or ask questions for clarification. I don’t use Airbnb after I left the company because of what I’ve witnessed being a Travel Manager and a T&S worker.
Dang, I guess I've just been lucky! Here's how I avoid terrible airbnb experiences
1) never stay in a shared-space rental, like where the host is in the same unit
2) don't go for the cheapest possible option, or a "luxury" option. Both will be disappointing
3) airbnb only makes sense to use in certain cities. If there are hotels/motels which are cheaper and/or closer to what you're doing, do that
4) never stay somewhere without multiple guest reviews, or if the guest reviews are mostly negative
Agreed. These are pretty much my same guidelines as well.
I’ll also add in double checking the cleaning fee, because that can make or break the cost.
@@miss_anne_thropic_ totally! always go to the checkout process to see the actual price
I've never had a bad experience and I do the same. Additionally, I tend to only book with superhosts, I refuse to book any of the ones with the huge cleaning fees and I feel like sometimes you are able to tell which hosts are more cranky based on how the listings (especially house rules) are written
be VERY careful with reviews. if there are none, don't even consider that one. if they're negative or there are some very specific negative ones, skip it. look super closely at photos and description.
5) If you like kitchens and don't like AirBnB drama, extended-stay hotels are a thing and frequently have them.
I’d also like to add a big reason people are having trouble building houses is it’s a lot of government bureaucracy. My parents are doing a self build in Canada. While waiting for the paperwork for each stage, inflation raises building prices. When they started building in 2020 they could afford to build, now it’s completely out of reach and myself and my partner are putting this house together to save my aging parents a heart attack. (we’re also in a housing crisis / my province has placed new rules for airbnbs)
Yeah but we wouldn't need to build so many houses if this all didn't happen. Our government allowed Airbnb to take over, let homes sit empty from foreign investment, let house flippers dominate the markets, and (this will be controversial but idc anymore) are flooding areas with new people (through shady immigration) -- so you've got half the housing being taken up by this but everyone wants to blame a lack of new builds/ "NIMBYS". on my rural street alone (with 10 houses), there's 3 empty homes, while all our wildlife is being destroyed for building new homes. We wouldn't need that if the gov had used their heads.
@@RR-on4skI agree with most of this comment, but I’m curious what “shady immigration” is.
My former boss got most of her income from her Airbnb properties and when Seattle implemented their new rule on the number of properties you’re allowed to list as short term rentals she started mysteriously getting very stingy and anxious about the overall income of the coffee shop I worked at…like I’m actually so extremely sorry that you have to rent the majority of your properties to long term residents who want stable housing in a historically unstable environment but unfortunately I simply cannot do anything about it as a 23 year old child
23 year old *adult. your ass is grown, stop infantilizing yourself 😊
You’re 23, you’re not a child.
child ????
“23 year old child” is insane 💀💀
@@p3xo It's funny. Isaac Asimov predicted that as lifespans increased, people would experience an extended adolescence mentally. Like a 30 year old still acting like a teenager was his example.
I remember using it in the early 2010s and it was like staying at an elderly couples house where the kids moved out, or like a condo where the family was on vacation. It felt less slum lordish.
One of my favorite AirBNB stories was when my local radio station was doing a photoshoot, they rented a high rise apartment for it and when they got there, the bachelor’s party that rented before and said they’d leave the night before, was still going on
As a Miami native, I can confirm that the lack of housing in the city is not due to locations but to the fact that the majority are either luxury condos or wildly overpriced-and city commissioners and mayors allow that to happen because big developers bring “more money” than the average citizen, it’s disgusting.
That's a big issue in all of South Florida. Every developer wants to build a luxury neighborhood or condo building because if they slap the word luxury on it, they can charge twice as much for it. The units are still built with the cheapest, lowest grade materials the builder can find but it's got quartz countertops in the kitchen so it's "luxury".
I'm an Airbnb cleaner and get paid $50 if I clean solo and $25 when cleaning with another person (per house). It takes usually 2- 3hrs depending on how the guests left the house and how much laundry there is. We usually end up waiting on laundry to finish on good days. Lots of horror stories on how guests have left some of the houses I've walked into. But there's also a few owners that just don't seem to care if their house is falling apart or if guests complain about stained sheets because they won't supply us with new ones for months even when we ask repeatedly for them.
I can't believe how much the shitty owners charge people. There's a handful of owners I clean for that are genuinely good people but the ratio of good to shitty owners is not great.
im in the exact same boat, right-o
How many blatantly trashed places do you encounter?
@@sadmermaid There's a few places that are shit shows regularly. They're the bigger houses we clean so people tend to throw parties in them the most.
The most recent super trashed house we had was last month. The owner actually took his house off listings because the guests had a sex party and left us cleaners all sorts of fun things to find and clean. I didn't clean it personally but from the pictures and videos our boss shared, it was not a fun deep clean.
My first airbnb experience was listed as a spare room in someone's apartment in virginia. Turned out it was a sofa bed in her living room, no privacy and no separate access to the apartment, so when she left for work, I had to leave too. Had to plan my day around hers in order to have access to the space I'd rented.
A spare room will never have separate access. If it did, it would have been called… an apartment/studio.
@@absurdengineering a spare bedroom still would have privacy, a door to close.
Something that can be added as well in here is the fact that in third world countries (such as the one I live in) Airbnb has become a way to launder money super easy. Since you don't need to give out a receipt when people use your property, there was a trend going where nice houses were uploaded with relatively low prices just as a mean to justify drug money.
I've personally noticed this and there has been many cases of things similar all over my country. It's specially shitty since there's a current housing crisis in the country because of a lot of drug overlords buy properties to launder money and makes the whole housing climate pump up in a stupid way. Houses that are worth 200k dollars (which is a lot in my country) are selling for 400k or more at times. And since the property isn't worth that, no bank is gonna actually give you a loan to get the house, so the only people that can actually "buy it" are those drug overlords (obviously they don't actually pay that much, since the seller is normally part of the operation).
Airbnb has become an extra income way to do this even more, and in some years it can very well destroy the overall economy of the country.
Fucking hell...that's crazy.
I hate the free market jfc
I always thought coin operated businesses (laundromat, car wash, video arcade) would be the best way to launder money because it's almost entirely a cash business. My friend rented a home to an undocumented handy man who paid her in cash and her accountant warned her about making a lot of cash deposits. In this country that can trigger some tax audits. I suppose short term rentals would be a good way to launder larger electronic transactions because it gives a false but legal reason for all of the transfers.
Even before this recent housing crisis, I saw a lot of foreign buyers making cash offers on homes - particularly condos - here in my city. Sellers tend to prefer these offers to the buyers who have a mortgage provider involved in the transaction so it was making it hard to buy homes downtown. I also used to work next to a condo building in the uptown area that seemed mostly empty (few apartments lit at night) and always wondered if these buyers were essentially hiding assets abroad by buying real estate. I also wondered if condo association fees are a good trade off for not having to maintain a property that you didn't really buy to live in.
not needing to give a receipt doesnt mean you dont have to declare where your money comes from. Those are two very distinct things. The government has total control and watch over you, it's not that easy to hide money the government will do anything to get, even invade your privacy
@@tinabean713 it really is wild. Recently some friends of mine invited me to their apartment, and while being there we spent some time at the balcony watching the city. It was a residential area which has started to transition to a more building based housing instead of condos.
When it started getting dark, we noticed three buildings that didn't light up at all. Not one single room. I knew for a fact that they were not that new, at least a year being there, but there was obviously no one living there. We thought that maybe they were office buildings but one of my friends pointed out that the local counsel wasn't letting letting any office buildings nearby to not disturb the people living nearby and to avoid excessive traffic. So those buildings were, most likely, owned by some sort of people that wanted the receipts of rent without the hazzle of having people live there... Wonder who could have the money for that?
It really messes up the market and I'm really tired of it. My family is currently without a house (we are renting) cause the prices are at least 30% more than what they actually cost. The bank won't give you the money since the house is not worth that much and it leaves you having to pay that extra straight out of pocket, which is impossible for most of the people. I've been looking for an apartment to live in myself and it's the same thing. Unless you want to commute for 3 hours everyday to get to your job, you aren't getting an apartment worth less than 2-3 minimal wages in my country. The worst part of it all is that, unlike the case on the US, where the housing crisis will eventually blow up since the people won't be able to keep up with the mortgage payments, here drug money is basically endless. There's no reason why they would stop moving their money this way, so we are stuck between paying outrageous prices for a house that isn't worth that or renting for more than what a mortgage would cost.
@@kiwd-dynamic of course not, but it doesn't matter when you like in narcostate like I do. The seller asks the buyer 200k dollars but in reality they only pay them 100k and the rest of the money is laundering. The buyer can have many means of justification for where that money is coming from, from other properties to ghost businesses (normally barbershops and mini malls).
I greatly appreciate you're source document! It made a great starting point for a paper I had to write on Airbnb, since I knew that you discussed topics I wanted to cover 😄
Imagine losing a coin in the Airbnb couch, and when you stick your hand in to grab it you pull out a camera
I live in Berlin, GER and my landlord has turned every single apartment, except for mine and that of one older neighbour, into TWO short-term apartments, charging more than twice the amount of money I would pay (if we'd calculate per week). Same landlord has also tried to sue me and my remaining neighbour out of our apartments, which was only unsuccessful because we went to a property lawyer together to see if they can do it. Turns out they couldn't. However, now we receive little to no support for our apartments and have to threaten them to get something fixed, it is so fcked up. Not to speak of the sheer traffic we're getting within the building because of it. And I can't move because THERE IS NO HOUSING. It's so frustrating.
My mother cleans those air bnb towns/apartments. She says she gets like about $115 per apartment. She says it's not a bad pay rate since she claims that they aren't dirty most of the time and can get done in about 30 mins. Only time she charges these air bnb owners more is if they require a deep clean. ie cleaning stained carpets, cleaning dirty ovens, and picking up dirty dishes that were left lying around rooms from guests. Still, after seeing how empty and lifeless these air bnb apartments were, it made me feel anger and sadness. They could've deadass housed people here and instead these apartments are collecting dust until more guests decide to stay there.
I used to live in Zaandam, a city right next to Amsterdam. About three years before I moved Airbnb's started to open up around my house and it drove me nuts. You'd be surprised how many times people felt the need to go outside of the airbnb to very loudly talk to friends or family on the phone in the middle of the night, mostly right underneath my window. Very often I would get stopped by tourists to ask me where the red light district is. I've once seen them ask a child this question. I worked retail and very quickly saw a shift of just casually talking in Dutch to suddenly being interrupted by an offended tourist just say "English" as if they pressed a button on a choice menu. No, "Can you speak English, please?" , just "English".
When I was in search of a house I couldn't afford to live in my hometown of Zaandam anymore and had to move to a quiet town up north. I still visit Zaandam as I've got family living there still, but it honestly just feels like I'm visiting another country.
Smart to not name the quiet town
When I moved abroad for a few years I lived in a really cool share house with amazing people that slowly over time ended up being used more as an Air BnB as longer term renters moved out and it made me kind of sad when I finally moved as one of the last few people that was left of the people from the original crowd I stayed with, and I moved out realising about 8/10 of the apartments were being used as short term stays.
I know it seems a little silly but the place had so many memories for me and knowing there wouldn't be a new generation experiencing that comradery and memories like "Oh yeah that night in this apartment we had such a good time. You should have met those people."
Your comparison to Amazon seems exactly right. I used AirBnB from 2012-2021. I hit the wall in Alaska, when I stayed in a property that I would describe as a catfish. The pillow had no pillowcase. The photographer must have used photoshop. And, the heat didn't work. They had ONE space heater. The host had a huge attitude, like I was asking for too much. Finally, the cleaning task list was nuts. Screw AirBnB!
I remember staying in two Airbnbs in 2021 on two different trips to avoid being in a hotel due to COVID stuff still happening- one was in Moab, Utah in March and the other was in Seattle, Washington during August. The one in Utah was a cabin-like house in a complex of other cabin-like houses, and there was a pool that we had no idea was a community pool located in a separate building we had to walk to because all the listing said was that there was a pool included(and we weren't the only guests that didn't know either)! It was a beautiful place and we got lucky with our host being available fairly consistently for questions we had about the property and giving us instructions to get in before we arrived, but we had so much responsibility put on us to figure out ourselves how the community jacuzzi worked, all for a place that frankly felt like a more posh version of staying in the cabins that are outside of a national park! The Seattle one was in a neighborhood that was a mix of actual houses and Airbnbs and I had a pretty good experience with that one, though me and my family did have some hiccups getting in, but otherwise it was a good experience, our host responded within an hour, and we also had a fully functional Pac-Man arcade in there lmao! I feel like with both of my experiences though it was definitely visible seeing the rise of the saturation of the Airbnb market, seeing just how many areas were entirely consisting of Airbnb cabins in Utah or how the one house in Seattle was located in a suburban neighborhood that was definitely having a rise of Airbnb bookings when we arrived(and if I recall correctly, several houses were also in the process of becoming Airbnb properties). I appreciate the research you did for this video(especially the housing market section), with how many people I've seen try to "make it big" by being a host on Airbnb. Thank you for providing your experiences, and I'm really sorry about how awful your prior Airbnb encounters were.