[shiftpgdn]

Airbnb could EASILY fix the issues by two tiering their market place and having a HUMAN BEING validate listings and holding hosts to a very strict set of standards.

Unverified listings could be in the tier two marketplace. The problem would sort itself out.

[bkfunk]

They do this. It’s called Airbnb Plus [0].

[0]: https://www.airbnb.com/plus

[bckygldstn]

Interesting, I didn't know about this.

I've wondered before if Airbnb could do a Guest Plus: instead of paying a massive service fee (which likely goes towards insurance and customer support) and cleaning fee, a guest could clean the house to its original standard, wash the sheets, put the bins out on bin day, sharpen the knives, etc. You'd also get a late checkout as the host wouldn't need to get a cleaner between guests.

See also: that Black Mirror episode where everyone rates each other.

[hdjjhhvvhga]

I don't believe they would do that. They know we know there are both honest and dishonest hosts, but they prefer that it is us who take the risk. Based on the reviews, apparently.

[shiftpgdn]

That behavior is going to drive their company to ruin as they slowly poison their own well with bad experiences.

[alexashka]

That's not what happens when you're a monopoly. What happens is the people just eat it.

You can see it more clearly in politics. Does anyone think politicians have the people's interest at heart? The answer is it doesn't matter, because people have proven that they'll just eat it, for decades.

[airstrike]

> That's not what happens when you're a monopoly.

But they're not a monopoly at all. There are countless other ways to find lodging, whether short term or long term, and even the market for app-powered short term letting like airbnb has very low barriers to entry so someone with enough capital (harder in the current environment, but eventually doable) can come in and outcompete them

[yeputons]

> There are countless other ways to find lodging

Would you mind sharing some? I only know of Booking.com, the rest are country-specific billboards at best. E.g. Craigslist in the US, Bazaraki on Cyprus or Avito in Russia. In all of them you'd better view the apartment in person first, and you manage your own contracts and payments.

[hdjjhhvvhga]

> That's not what happens when you're a monopoly.

Fortunately, that's not exactly correct. After getting burned a few times with AirBnB I now use booking.com mostly. Of course they are evil in their own ways, but the percentage of incidents is much lower for me.

[shoulderfake]

Its not a monopoly at all. In europe booking.com is more prevalent and for example florida rentals most ppl use vrbo

[alexashka]

If I live in a town with one internet service provider, it doesn't help me that they have a different provider in Europe.

There is a monopoly on internet service, in my town. Get it?

[joshuajill]

They have underpaid, undertrained human beings.