zlacker

My last Airbnb experience was six months ago. A room rented in an old Silverlake home. It was a superhost with dozens of rave reviews. The woman who owned the house was in her 80's. A few weeks in to my one month stay, she knocked on my door at 10PM and asked me to get ice for her at Whole Foods. When I declined she began screamed profanities, then proceeded to blast calypso jazz for a few hours, among other things.

She had some sort of dementia which is sad, but I could not comprehend how she had been a superhost with Airbnb for years. That is, until I left a review of my experience and Airbnb promptly deleted it. I'll stick to hotels from now on. As far as LA apartment hunting goes I still think I made it out unscathed.

Oh, also I started shorting $ABNB shortly after this experience and it's almost made the whole thing worth it.

Edit: It feels really good to finally tell someone about this. It was so bizarre I'm too embarrassed to tell friends or family.

>>DrFunk+(OP)
> I left a review of my experience and Airbnb promptly deleted it

That’s interesting. They can do that? On what grounds was it deleted?

>>jb1991+X3
I recall the wording being some sort of corporate-speak 'we've deemed this review not helpful to future guests' or something of the like. Sometimes I wonder how far I could have gotten taking Airbnb to small claims court. They misrepresented my stay, it was terrifying and I lost money.

>>jb1991+X3
Not only can they do it, but they do it all day long. Many, many stories of deleted reviews out there. Check this thread for a start... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34219422

>>DrFunk+(OP)
There is a certain class of people that will somehow call that an authentic experience and give them 5 stars. I think they need help, but there are quite a few out there.

>>encryp+6z3
I met a lot of those in New York. They conflate crime, nuisance, feeling unsafe with 'heh, classic new york'. They're almost always transplants from other states.