No one can prove with 100% certainty that the person who left a glib comment on the Kickstarter page for the game Confederate Express was Maksym Pashanin, game creator and alleged AirBNB squatter. However, the comment did prompt backers to declare the project a “scam” and demand refunds. [More]
Airbnb
AirBnB Employee Handles A Sexy Photo Situation In The Very Best Way
By 7.25.14
When you can’t get what you want from a company, there are many bad ways a customer service representative can respond. Ahem. But in a bit of refreshing news, one Airbnb employee recently showed just how good customer service can be, even while having to reject that customer. Warning: before you keep clicking: Two attractive men in a shower. No genitalia shown, but NSFW. [More]
AirBNB Squatter May Be Developer Of Overdue Kickstarter-Funded Game
By 7.25.14
The man occupying a vacation condominium in Palm Springs, California without paying rent was not thrilled that his new landlord planned to cut off the electricity. He said that it would affect his work, which he does from home and earns $1,000 to $7,000 per day. What kind of work? Developing video games, apparently. [More]
AirBNB Guest Refuses To Leave Condo, Tries To Air-Condition The Desert
By 7.22.14
An AirBNB “guest” is taking advantage of gaps between the site’s policies and California rental law to squat indefinitely in a Palm Springs condo. Does that sound like a sharing economy nightmare? It is. [More]
Airbnb Guests Freak Out When Host Comes Home Drunk In The Middle Of The Night
By 6.25.14
It can be tough enough to get a good night’s sleep in an unfamiliar bed in a new place, but that experience was made infinitely tougher for one couple who claim that the host of their Airbnb Hamptons rental came home a bit early. Read: Drunk, in the middle of the night, while they were there. [More]
Airbnb Wants You To Have Strangers Over For Dinner
By 6.4.14
Airbnb has had a lot of success turning homeowners into semi-professional innkeepers, so why not see if it can do the same for users’ kitchens? That’s the idea behind tests the home-sharing service has been performing in the San Francisco area. [More]
Airbnb Agrees To Hand Over Some User Info To NY Attorney General
By 5.21.14
There’s been yet another development in the ongoing battle between Airbnb and the state of New York, with the online home rental service agreeing to turn over some data about its customers to the state’s Attorney General, but not to the extent that a subpoena from the AG’s office had originally sought. [More]
Judge Rules In Favor Of Airbnb In NYC, Says Company Doesn’t Have To Hand Over User Info
By 5.14.14
Airbnb won one round in a battle against New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman yesterday, when a judge ruled that the company doesn’t have to hand over thousands of customer records. But the AG’s office says it’s already planning a new subpoena. [More]
San Francisco May Consider Paying Residents To Rat Out Neighbors With Illegal Airbnb Rentals
By 4.29.14
Most of the headlines about local governments fighting over the legality of short-term apartment rental services like Airbnb and VRBO have focused on New York City, where many of the rentals listed arguably violate subletting regulations. But there are folks in San Francisco who have a problem with these services and are pushing the city to rein them in. [More]
Airbnb Pulls Thousands Of “Illegal” NYC Listings After State Attorney General’s Affidavit
By 4.22.14
In a battle that has been going on since last October, when New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman issued a subpoena seeking data about thousands of renters, Airbnb has pulled thousands of NYC listings. This, after Schneiderman filed an affidavit yesterday in support of his subpoena. [More]
Another Thing For Airbnb Renters To Worry About? Your Home Turning Into A Brothel
By 4.14.14
Much like the time your parents got an unexpected phone call that their car now resided upside down in the neighbor’s swimming pool, some Airbnb renters are none too pleased to find their homes have been used for ah, sexual recreation purposes that require police attention. In essence, beware the brothelization of your home. [More]
Airbnb To Start Collecting Taxes In Portland, San Francisco, Maybe New York City
By 4.2.14
Airbnb is a site that lets people rent rooms or entire apartments or houses, directly from the homeowner or renter. It has proven popular with travelers, but less popular with landlords, the hotel industry, and local governments. Why do local governments care? Airbnb rentals aren’t subject to sales and hotel changes. In some cities, that’s about to change. [More]
New York A.G. Subpoenas Airbnb For User Data On 15,000 Renters
By 10.8.13
On the heels of AirBnB’s apparent triumph in New York City over the right of its users to rent out part of their homes, the company now finds itself caught in the state’s baleful gaze: New York’s Attorney General Eric Schneiderman subpoenaed data from the company as part of an investigation into the website. [More]
NYC Reverses Illegal Hotel Fine Leveled Against Airbnb Host
By 9.30.13
In June we heard about a New York City resident who wanted to make a couple extra bucks by renting out a part of his apartment on Airbnb. That seemingly simple action, echoed by Airbnbers around the country on a regular basis, resulted in a fine for apparently tangling with the city’s laws providing against illegal hotels. Months later, vindication is his. [More]
Are You Really Saving Money When You Get A Room From Airbnb?
By 6.18.13
Some people prefer home-sharing services like Airbnb over hotels because they would rather stay in a cozy apartment than in a sealed-up room with of a chain hotel. Others choose these services because they feel they are saving money over the cost of a traditional hotel, but how much you save — or if you’re saving at all — depends on where you stay and how you book your hotels. [More]
Renting Out Your Home To Strangers? Prepare For The Worst & Hope For The Best
By 6.7.13
You’ve opened up your home to perfect strangers, not out of the mere goodness of your heart, surely, but because it’s a way to make some cash through Airbnb, Home Away From Home or other rental sites while you’re not using your dwelling. But what if those guests turn out to be worse than the monsters in the closet — what if they bash holes in your walls or turn your domicile into a brothel?. [More]
Airbnb Cancels Reservation Because You Don’t Want To Post A Video Of Yourself
By 5.30.13
One month ago, home-sharing service Airbnb began rolling out a program called Verified ID, which requires some U.S. users (and eventually people in other parts of the world) to go through a verification process that uses social media logins — either Facebook or LinkedIn — and offline proof of ID, like a scanned license or passport. But what if you don’t use Facebook or LinkedIn? [More]
Man Fined $2,400 For Renting Out Apartment Because Airbnb Is Technically Illegal In NYC
By 5.21.13
As a certain political candidate once put it so very accurately, “the rent is too damn high.” New York City dwellers know this all too well, which is why services like Airbnb can be a boon to anyone who doesn’t want to waste rent money on an empty apartment or bedroom should they be out of town. But one man who rented out part of his apartment to an Airbnb customer now has to pay $2,400 to NYC, all because of a city law intended to discourage illegal hotels. [More]
