The other day I was on the phone with my travel writing coach Tim Leffel. I’d always eschewed using AirBnB because they demanded my passport, and I wasn’t comfortable. To clarify, all international hotels and hostels require your passport; that wasn’t the issue. The AirBnB person was both strident and militant, which put me off, and giving such a large company so much personal information bothers me a lot more than handing my passport to a tiny hovel on a seaside in Spain. That’s not an attractive target. AirBnB is a very attractive target with a huge payoff.
They are so big these days that like the NSA and other low-hanging fruit, they are nearly screaming for a hacker. Lots of juicy personal information.
While several of the folks interviewed said that AirBnB is still cheaper than hotels and so are sticking with it (interestingly, including Conti herself, go figure) if you end up getting scammed out of thousands, your vacay is ruined when you landed in a flop house full of vermin, how is that cheaper?
Your time, your trouble, your peace of mind, your trust and your entire trip are shot.
That’s expensive.
And, according to Conti’s story, much of it isn’t recoverable, if at all. On top of that you end up getting vicious reviews which make it hard for you to stay elsewhere. That’s if you have the temerity to call out the bad guys for cheating, scamming and false advertising.
I can’t speak for anyone else but I’d rather pony up for a low brow place that I can review on Trip Advisor, or go through Booking.com (my preferred, or hostelworld.com) where there are some rules in place and people on site. Look, you might not like Motel Six, but by god you get precisely what’s advertised. I worry a lot less about scammers. Besides, since most of the time I’m there I’m sleeping, how can it matter?
AirBnB, like so many other platforms, started out as a great idea. Like Facebook, Twitter, Linked In and the now-defunct Tumblr, it is swiftly getting overrun with vermin in much the same way.
Caveat emptor.
There is good news, though. As of 11/1/19 the FBI is involved. If that isn’t an indication that something very, very serious is wrong with AirBnB, I’m unclear what is.
While the FBI does their due diligence (which is going to be much assisted by Conti’s ground work) you and I are still vulnerable. If those scammers get evicted, and AirBnB has to make a public and long overdue apology, you can also be guaranteed those scammers will simply zip up their luggage and move to another platform, as close to your wallet as possible.