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Post by Maria Lurdes (Milu) on Sept 13, 2016 11:16:23 GMT
I woke up this morning to a notification from Airbnb (sent at 1am) of an email from brand new user Josh "is it available can I come now". By the time I reply it's of course 5 hours later, and I give my standard blah blah about I see that you are new, welcome to Airbnb, please read the full description reply back confirming so, you can book for tonight (his request was for today for two nights). An hour later he replies "can I come now". So I get it - he's brand new, doesn't know how it works, flew in from LA and might still be crashed at an airport trying to find a place to book and check in 12 hours early. But you know what? I want to decline him. He isn't taking my lead, he's dancing to his own music. He wants to ignore my questions, he wants to check in super early and honestly, for a two-day booking I don't really want any hassle. But he's African American (or the photo he used is of an African American) and now I'm having to second guess myself, and NOT decline him, but continue to go back and forth about check in times, etc. and the result will be the same. He won't want to check in at the correct time so he won't book but I guess the big difference is that it will be his choice instead of my decision.
Is this the new normal?
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Post by CC on Sept 13, 2016 12:11:16 GMT
One thing's for sure with me--there will be no early check in for anyone of any color. Now, if you're wanting to pay appropriately, and you are a block away waiting for the address and the green light, come on down! I do that all the time. Instant Book--here within 5 minutes. I have to make concessions like that because my house is so Special Needs. I wonder how this whole thing would be for me if I had a normal nice house....
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Post by High Priestess on Sept 13, 2016 13:48:27 GMT
I dont' think Airbnb would ever be doing "tests" of hosts this way. It would be pointless to couple a rude inquiry with a black profile photo, and think you're doing some sort of test about race. Guests may want to "test" hosts, but that is forbidden by Airbnb. Read about that here: www.benedelman.org/news/062316-1.html -- the author of that article is the author of the Harvard study on "race and Airbnb" (NOT! Actually on "user names" and Airbnb). He was upset by the prohibition on doing random tests of hosts -- he calls it "testing" -- I and most all hosts I know would call it "trolling" -- he thought Air shouldn't prohibit this. Like Airbnb is really going to encourage a million users to start plying hosts with insincere inquiries and "tests" of everyone! Good God, anyone who thinks that would be okay to do is cuckoo! |
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Post by helgaparis on Sept 13, 2016 17:40:44 GMT
I don't believe it's a test, just an obtuse person. I had a guy, who asked twice for an early morning to late next evening stay by booking one night. The first time I wrote nicely and he gave up eventually, the second tome I saw he had convinced two nice elder ladies in the meantime. As I'm only nice looking in case of such demands, I explained it in no uncertain terms that he would have to book 3 nights for that. Nothing more since then. January will be his "anniversary " of the demand, I'll see by then.
- If he does not answer at all but repeat his request like a broken disk, you could put him on spam.
The article reminds me of a young fool I clashed with on the French CC soon after it opened. He attacked Edith, after she had said something about filtering guests. He called her racist and was not polite. I described how she had sheltered different hosts from the Open after the attack in Paris and the attendees were of different color and orientation. When he then attacked me, I joked about him, which spiked his ire. The telling blow was the question if he would prefer his (muslim) mother take every guest without knowing anything about him. Would he not worry about that? - Evidently, for the own mother it would be reasonable to filter or even not take men at all, but all others should not discriminate.
The halfbrained idealists are the worst. Clearly, the study writers think they know better than everyone how airbnb should work and how hosts should run their businesses and lives. One wonders why those people don't set up competing start-ups thst should work much better.
From a scientific point of view, he should ask himself, if the proposed "testing" resulting in hosts getting a lot more requests without intended booking, would not alter the behaviour of his tested subjects. Imagine you get a black request that you decline and a white one after that? A few fall for it and get a warning mail, then it's all over the Internet. What happens? Decline a black request and block one day of it for a while: no more testing.
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Post by Maria Lurdes (Milu) on Sept 13, 2016 17:54:14 GMT
Update - I agree helgaparis - just obtuse. After a few more ridiculous one line exchanges along the lines of "ok, so can i check in now", he's gone away. I assume he found someone more accommodating. |
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