Regarding the new Terms and Conditions, TL/DR: Hosts are screwed.
There is a new thing called a "Travel Issue" that allows a guest to cancel and get a refund within 24 hours of arrival if they decide they find a, er, "travel issue."
Some of them are reasonable (guest can't get into the place and can't get ahold of the host to get the key, etc.). But some are so open to interpretation that any halfway sneaky guest could use them to cancel. Such as:
"...(iii) special amenities or features represented in the Listing are not provided or do not function, such as decks, pools, hot tubs, bathrooms (toilet/shower/bathtub), kitchen (sink/stove/refrigerator or major other appliances), and electrical, heating or air condition systems, or (iv) the physical location of the Accommodation (proximity). (c) at the start of the Guest’s reservation, the Accommodation: (i) is not generally clean and sanitary (ii) contains safety or health hazards that would be reasonably expected to adversely affect the Guest’s stay at the Accommodation in Airbnb’s judgment, (iii) does not contain clean bedding and bathroom towels available for the Guest’s use, or (iv) has vermin or contains pets not disclosed on the Listing."
Notice the words "do not function." That basically means the guest's word against the host's. The heater may not get the house hot enough or the A/C may not get the house cold enough for the guest's taste. The toilet may not flush completely because the guest didn't push the handle down far enough.
"Not generally clean and sanitary" or "has vermin" means they can move your appliances and probably find some kind of dead bugs and dust.
Does anyone else find this a frightening development that signals a big shift by Airbnb toward satisfying guests at the expense of the hosts, or is it just me?
The worst thing is that I think the guests who will try hardest to weasel out of a booking are the ones paying the most (who maybe feel they are overpaying), like for a holiday weekend. And there go the big paydays we all wait all year for. :-P
EDIT: I can't find the old version of the policy on archive.org since apparently Airbnb does not allow indexing of their site. If this stuff was in the previously existing terms of service, let me know. It's still pretty bad, but if it exists already and guests are not abusing it, maybe it's not a huge deal.
Submitted December 08, 2016 at 01:03AM by TillikumWasFramed http://ift.tt/2gVpNJI AirBnB
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