The “Bottification” of Airbnb
Under the brutal heat dome that hovered over the eastern seaboard in mid-June of 2024, my family and I were in Washington D.C. to do the typical tourist things: the Air and Space museum, Arlington Cemetery, the Holocaust Museum, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the U.S. Capitol tour, and more. My wife found an ideal location near Eastern Market and Capitol Hill. The space was cool and comfortable, and very well equipped –– other than just one dish towel, a notable absence of spoons and forks, and an air conditioning system that whined loudly and made for a sleepless first night until the second night, when we turned it off just before bedtime.
The afternoon before our last day, the fire alarm went off, although there was no smell of smoke; some water was dripping into our downstairs unit from above, and the noise from the alarm was loud and obnoxious; but I guess no one would ever sleep through it!
Some kind of corporate fire alert system had been installed near the entrance to property, which had six rental units in it. The alert system panel included a large number of buttons, including one to push to stop the alarm and one to immediately notify the company operating the system; but this turned out to be hopelessly useless. Even calling the number on the panel yielded nothing but the advice to call the fire department. So, after urgently texting our host and getting no response, we called the DC Fire Department, and they showed up right away, with a lot of interesting tools: special axes, hooks, and a unique looking crowbar.
We let them know that water was dripping through the ceiling in a couple of places, and they decided to check the upstairs apartments. When no one answered at the first one, we watched them break down the door, but they discovered nothing; above that apartment, they had to break down another door, and found a sink which had been left running by one of the tenants. (Later, a comment from the Captain in charge of the DC FD crew: “You’d be surprised how often that happens; stupid people keep us very busy.” Somehow, the property manager learned what was going on, and after the sink was shut off by the guys from the DCFD, we were told by a representative from the property management company that the property had to be vacated immediately for repairs.
So we called our “host,” someone purportedly named Paul, to let him know the situation. Here’s where it gets weird: we repeatedly asked “Paul” to call us by phone but he refused to do anything but text on the Airbnb app. Some of the responses were a bit stiff and non-responsive, but he eventually made an offer for us to stay in a different place in D.C. that he owned for our last night; but the location was not at all convenient. He refused to give us any other options or any sort of refund to find our own more convenient place, and refused to call. Our daughter in law, well experienced in corporate ways, looked at all of the texting between us and Paul, and quickly concluded that we were dealing with . . . a bot.
Bots don’t call, but they do text as though they were human.
WTF? Back when Airbnb was getting started, we used it a lot, and there was always a real person who was the host. A bit of investigation reveals that more and more Airbnb “hosts” are actually LLCs or other corporate entities. As noted in Vox, in November of 2023:
“Airbnb began as a more flexible, more social experience than hotels, but that sense of peer-to-peer exchange has all but disappeared. Airbnb hosts today are often professionals who intend for hosting to be their main job and source of income, and new hosts often list entire homes rather than home-sharing their primary residence. Many form LLCs, hire employees, or engage the services of professional property management companies to manage their listings. The majority of Airbnbs are run by hosts with multiple listings. That’s contributing to the persistent shadow now looming over Airbnb: the perception that it’s a social ill worsening the housing crisis.” (from What happened to Airbnb? Financially, the sharing economy darling is thriving, but guests, hosts, and cities have had enough.)
Notably, absentee owners generally are driving up affordability in many markets. Your commentator believe that Airbnb now has a lot of absentee owners.
https://www.nbcnews.com/data-graphics/absentee-homeowners-crowding-housing-market-data-rcna69828
Back in the heat dome, we spent most of the afternoon outside on the sidewalk, dealing with the “fire” at the Airbnb, and did find other lodging for the night; our daughter in law had plenty of “points” with Marriott, so we got a great location in City Center near the White House. Eventually, through my wife’s persistence, we were able to get a credit for the night’s stay we didn’t use, but we had to call Airbnb’s help line, not the host, and eventually, too, secured $250 for our inconvenience –– from Airbnb corporate.
So, what’s going on here? Wealthy individuals, or business entities, have transformed what was initially a room sharing service with hosts into a money maker for owners of Airbnb properties. The proper remedy is to do what both Asheville N.C. and Boulder Colorado have done: require Airbnb properties to always have a host in residence. To some, this may seem like bureaucratic “red tape,” impinging on the freedom of those who want to make more money. To us, it seems like good manners, good ethics, and plain old common sense to have a responsive host on hand for people visiting from other places. The “bottification” of Airbnb is really a story of how many corporate absentee owners will be content to count their dollars more than care about their customers.
Want to know if your Airbnb host is actually a “bot”? See how much personal information is provided about your host, and see if the same issues keep cropping up in customers’ reviews: for example, we noticed that the “host” had been notified about the absence of forks and spoons, as well as the noisy AC system, many times, with no resolution. That’s a solid sign that there is no “someone” who actually cares about your vacation. Again, as noted by Vox, that sense of “peer to peer” has all but disappeared. It’s a sad sign of our corporate-driven times. All “perfectly legal,” of course.