Persephone on Airbnb
I'd like to take this opportunity to thank Airbnb for two reasons:
- My cooperation with them has meant we have had a steady stream of bookings for our properties the last few years. Thank you, Airbnb! We appreciate our cooperation and everything you've done for us thus far.
- They never miss an opportunity to reaffirm my long-held belief that large, worldwide internet companies, such as TripAdvisor and Airbnb themselves, are totally incompetent when it comes to presenting reliable local information, that only a serious local expert could provide.
My second point in particular refers to their published Guidebooks. If guests visit my profile on Airbnb and look around, they are likely to discover not one, but two guidebooks, published by Airbnb without my knowledge, but bearing my name. In that respect, Airbnb is far worse than TripAdvisor. Everyone should know by now that TripAdvisor is a terribly run company, that they rely on crowdsourcing without any verification whatsoever, and that their pages contain an awful amount of misleading and downright wrong information, in addition to their infamous millions of fake reviews. I should know, as I used to be the Milos Destination Expert on TripAdvisor for several years. But at least they do not try to pin all this misinformation and associated garbage on their site on their partners such as myself.
Airbnb on the other hand, publishes these so-called guidebooks that are full of misinformation, missing information, wrong photos, wrong locations on the map, all supposedly compiled by me! There are currently two such guidebooks about Milos on Airbnb under my name:
Guidebook for Andreas
Andreas' guidebook
Perhaps I clicked somewhere on the Airbnb site once, giving them the OK to publish guidebooks in my name, based on texts I've sent throughout the years to my guests. I honestly have no recollection of that, but the end result is that my own name is signed under each one of these monstrosities! And to add insult to injury, they do not allow me, the expert, to edit or add to them!
Examples:
Venus de Milo, the famous statue of Aphrodite (Venus), the Goddess of Love and Beauty, was discovered in my native island of Milos. The original is housed at the Louvre Museum in Paris, France, since 1820, with an exact replica of it at the Archaeological Museum in Plaka, Milos. Not according to Airbnb, excuse me, "my" Airbnb guidebook. According to the Airbnb map in "my" Airbnb guidebook, Venus de Milo is located a few thousand miles away... in Southern California!
Several listings of sights, beaches or restaurants have no photos. Now, Airbnb does not allow me to edit my own guidebook, to add any of the high-quality, professional photos I have of those locations/restaurants/beaches. Instead, the listings either have no photos, or include some random, mediocre quality photos.
To make matters worse, a lot of these photos are wrong, such as a photo supposedly of Achivadolimni beach, which is actually the settlement of Areti, several kilometers away across the bay of Milos; The listing for Sarakiniko, the famous "moonscape" of Milos with the luminous, white rocks, features photos of another Sarakiniko, a beach 11 km. away from Parga in Western Mainland Greece, 600 km. away.
Sometimes the listing itself is wrong. Sykia Chalkidikis, it says, with no photos whatsoever, a location that has nothing to do with Milos. There is a beautiful cave of Sykia on the Southwest of Milos, the cave with the collapsed dome, definitely worth visiting. But Airbnb lists Sykia Chalkidikis, which is in... Chalkidiki, a peninsula in Northern Greece, another 600 km. away.
When reporting a listing, feedback such as "it is the wrong photo or location" is not an option!
This fiasco wouldn't have been all that bad if Airbnb at the very least, allowed me to edit the nonsense published on these guidebooks, and let me upload my high-quality professional photos instead of the random, mediocre, wrong, or blank ones. But they do not allow me to do that! Instead, they publish these monstrosities, and put my name on them, as if I am responsible for that garbage.
That's what makes Airbnb far worse that TripAdvisor.
Airbnb on the other hand, publishes these so-called guidebooks that are full of misinformation, missing information, wrong photos, wrong locations on the map, all supposedly compiled by me! There are currently two such guidebooks about Milos on Airbnb under my name:
Guidebook for Andreas
Andreas' guidebook
Perhaps I clicked somewhere on the Airbnb site once, giving them the OK to publish guidebooks in my name, based on texts I've sent throughout the years to my guests. I honestly have no recollection of that, but the end result is that my own name is signed under each one of these monstrosities! And to add insult to injury, they do not allow me, the expert, to edit or add to them!
Examples:
Venus de Milo, the famous statue of Aphrodite (Venus), the Goddess of Love and Beauty, was discovered in my native island of Milos. The original is housed at the Louvre Museum in Paris, France, since 1820, with an exact replica of it at the Archaeological Museum in Plaka, Milos. Not according to Airbnb, excuse me, "my" Airbnb guidebook. According to the Airbnb map in "my" Airbnb guidebook, Venus de Milo is located a few thousand miles away... in Southern California!
Several listings of sights, beaches or restaurants have no photos. Now, Airbnb does not allow me to edit my own guidebook, to add any of the high-quality, professional photos I have of those locations/restaurants/beaches. Instead, the listings either have no photos, or include some random, mediocre quality photos.
To make matters worse, a lot of these photos are wrong, such as a photo supposedly of Achivadolimni beach, which is actually the settlement of Areti, several kilometers away across the bay of Milos; The listing for Sarakiniko, the famous "moonscape" of Milos with the luminous, white rocks, features photos of another Sarakiniko, a beach 11 km. away from Parga in Western Mainland Greece, 600 km. away.
Sometimes the listing itself is wrong. Sykia Chalkidikis, it says, with no photos whatsoever, a location that has nothing to do with Milos. There is a beautiful cave of Sykia on the Southwest of Milos, the cave with the collapsed dome, definitely worth visiting. But Airbnb lists Sykia Chalkidikis, which is in... Chalkidiki, a peninsula in Northern Greece, another 600 km. away.
When reporting a listing, feedback such as "it is the wrong photo or location" is not an option!
This fiasco wouldn't have been all that bad if Airbnb at the very least, allowed me to edit the nonsense published on these guidebooks, and let me upload my high-quality professional photos instead of the random, mediocre, wrong, or blank ones. But they do not allow me to do that! Instead, they publish these monstrosities, and put my name on them, as if I am responsible for that garbage.
That's what makes Airbnb far worse that TripAdvisor.
