An Open Letter to @Airbnb

I’m not a huge fan of open letters written by millennials. There’s some solid advice why we should stop writing them — but that’s mostly geared towards writing letters to people writing about other’s open letters.

This open letter is inspired by my own frustrations, experiences, and knowledge of the tech industry and sharing economy. It’s a letter to Airbnb, who can’t get their customer service standards straight. It’s about soul-crushing experiences through a medium in which I’d hope to find a new home; roots; a neighborhood to call my own forever home.

I’ve been using Airbnb as both a guest and host since 2011. I loved the experience when I traveled to San Francisco as editor of a prominent tech blog and needed housing that cost less than hotels. I loved the experience when I was staying those same Airbnb’s and could rent out my apartment in Seattle to recoup the costs and make a little extra cash, covering the cost of my rent and then some.

But when my husband I decided we needed to figure out where we wanted to call home, but didn’t have the luxury of staying in our expensive apartment until we found the next, Airbnb wasn’t there. What was there were half-of-homes priced nearly the same as luxury hotels just a few blocks away in downtown Seattle. (In fact, if you priced it right by booking through an agent, a luxury extended stay suite at the highly-sought-after Hyatt House would have cost less.) In this $200/night home, our puppy was nearly hit by a falling door frame; we were without hot water or pressure during showers in the morning; and other hell literally cost us. Our only option was to find another place to move to immediately — on my own, as my husband had a job.

This was not a vacation. This was a home for us. And a home where I worked from, as that’s what I’ve been doing for over five years. But instead, it had become my job to deal with this Airbnb, with everything falling apart, with every heater not working.

So in a frantic pace, I had to choose — without my husband, because, again, he had a 9–5 job that demanded his attention, not mine — another Airbnb to relocate to. It was the only option that would take a dog, so we paid the $1,000 rental fee out of pocket for another week until we were reimbursed for the cost of the week we wouldn’t be at the first Airbnb. Then, (and now unable to buy groceries) we moved in to a small cottage in a terrible, high-crime area of Seattle… only to find there was no wifi, no cable, no Netflix….and no cell service, all of which were promised on the listing (and typically expected in a rental anyway).

Upon move out, and now in a home we found listed on VRBO, the host of that Airbnb demanded I PayPal her a pet fee and a fee for “damage” to the entertainment center, which neither of us touched. If I didn’t, she threatened to take it to Airbnb which would freeze my account and leave a negative impact. Though I knew I was being extorted, I paid to save my account as we needed to be able to keep renting until we found that forever home.

This is the kind of shit that Airbnb looks the other way about, despite multiple attempts to contact customer service with no response, allowing hosts to capitalize on the housing bubble and hot hotel rates to infiltrate the site without being vetted. Anyone can put up a listing and say there are amenities when there are not. Demands can be made or else they will lie that you violated rules as a tenant. Hosts can create unreasonably strict rules or else leave a bad review, which will prevent tenants from being accepted as a guest at another property in the future.

Other vacation sites, such as VRBO, visually and verbally vet their properties. In fact, getting a home listed on a site like VRBO is nearly as difficult as pulling teeth. VRBO is also not keen on long term tenants, as our current landlord is still debating whether to let us sign a lease “offline” which could impact the landlord’s future relationship with VRBO.

Airbnb only cares about the cash they get from each booking, whether that’s one day or one month.

This is an open letter to Airbnb that I’m done. I’m done using your service and I’m done supporting the sharing economy. Thanks for that cup of coffee for the shit I had to deal with on my own, but until you give a shit about how your guests are treated by hosts — and should be treated — I’ll be the first to demand that you need to change, and until you do, those looking for housing look elsewhere… if only for the peace of mind that you won’t get scammed, one way or another.