Simon J.

I tried three times with different photos to go with my post, but none worked. The problem is it didn't even tell you what's required (or not), and you didn't know anything is wrong till seeing your post with a broken photo sign. Un-install is the only way to handle this junk.

Quora deserves a zero star, for it is very biased on many issues esp. Political ones, like its widespread one-sided pro-China stance by repeating Beijing propaganda, such as that Hong Kong pro-democratic movements are actually gangsters disturbing law and order, which is a thorough lie fabricated by the dictatorship regime which actually combined force with real gangsters and dictator's gangster-like police using brutal force against millions of students and citizens, who are simply demanding democratic voting rights and continuous rule of a western style independent legal system away from the long reach claws of the dictatorship regime.

I'm from China, know its evil political system well & how the dictatorship uses every opportunity to brainwash and mislead Chinese population to be its puppets. So I wrote a short answer explaining why there's almost no support in China for Hong Kong democratic movements. Quora quickly banned that answer, and dismissed my appeal in the same prompt manner.

It becomes clear to me that Quora is most likely controlled by foreign (read "Chinese dictatorship") influences, as it drools on Chinese hot money. It's certainly a good idea to stay away from this kind of propaganda website. Will delete my account and put the site on my blacklist forever.

Curious, shouldn't anyone from FBI looking to this? Has Quora registered itself according to the Foreign Agents Registration Act?

Not saying Airbnb is prefect, but comparing to other major vacation / short term rental websites, Airbnb is way better.

We have used Airbnb the longest period of time and get most guests from here. The best of all is with least amount of trouble. And even when there's a problem we could always solve it with help from Airbnb smoothly and professionally. Plus, there has never been any payment issue. As a result, we are very confident using Airbnb to rent our properties. We are not afraid to enable Instant Booking features. We also offer our best prices here thanks to the basically worry-free business relationship with Airbnb.

Why are bookings/guests from Airbnb the best? Our guess is because Airbnb handles everything from the beginning to the end with a proven system. Starting with verifying guests picture matching their ID, so to prevent potential online fraud. Their customer service representatives, at least the ones we talked with so far, speak perfect English, are professional and a pleasure to deal with. Plus, Airbnb provides $1M Host Protection Insurance coverage for owners/hosts, which certainly provides extra peace of mind.

VRBO / HomeAway - Charges Highest Fees, Full of Frauds & Totally Irresponsible.

Comparing to other major vacation / short term rental websites, VRBO / HomeAway is simply a shame. It charges the highest fees (9% on average comparing to 3% charged by Airbnb), but provides no service or protection at all. Does that highest fee mean its service is the best? On the contrary, its the worst. According to VRBO / HomeAway, it is just a Craigslist and won't be responsible for anything at all.
It is so easy for any fraudster to cheat owner / host and live at your vacation properties for free. You can get a chargeback months down the road from a cheating guest, claiming whatever ridiculous excuse. Whenever you get that, VRBO / HomeAway washes their hands & walks away, for theyre just a Craigslist. So go ahead & ask the Yapstone / HolidayRentPayment to do something, for theyre the ones charging extra fees every time to handle the fund processing.
Well, dont bother. You WILL lose every dollar and more, for you have to pay Yapstone extra processing fees to fight the chargeback. Yapstone / HolidayRentPayment will happily pocket that extra fee from you, but won't do anything at all.
We just went through such a process at the end of 2017, from a VISA chargeback claimed by a Portuguese speaking lady named Joanie Bordeleau (female, dark skin but not totally black, in early 20s in 2017, about 160cm / 5'3"), who turned out to be not only a lying & cheating fraudster but also a prostitute working mainly in Laval / Montreal area, based on private investigation with solid proof. The following is the exact process we went through with Yapstone / HolidayRentPayment, and see with your own eyes how unprofessional, incompetent & ridiculous that company is.
1. Got email from Yapstone regarding the chargeback
2. We emailed evidences and documents on the next day to Yapstone to fight the fraudulent chargeback, totally following instructions on Yapstones email
3. We then called Yapstone and confirmed they received our response
4. We also received email from Yapstone confirming they received our response
5. Weeks down the road, just days before the evidence sending deadline, we received another email from Yapstone, claiming they haven't received any evidence from us so there's nothing they can do unless we do that right away. Ridiculously, in that same email, you can see their previous confirmation that they received our evidence and documents
6. We emailed evidences and documents, again for the 2nd time, to Yapstone right away
7. We again received email from Yapstone confirming they received our documents, and they will submit your chargeback dispute documents to the card issuing bank
8. About a week after the deadline, we received another email from Yapstone, saying Please be informed as we did not receive a response before the expiration date provided in our initial e-mail, this case has now been closed per regulatory guidelines. Unfortunately, we have no further chargeback rights to pursue on your behalf. And right in that same email, you can see their previous two confirmations, yes TWICE, that they received our evidence and documents
If the first time mess up was due to Yapstones unprofessionalism & incompetence, the 2nd time exact same mess up cant be explained by any logic. The only explanation left is Yapstone purposely designs its system to not give owner / host any chance to win back any chargeback. Instead, it happily helps any fraudster to cheat money out of honest owner/hosts pocket, for it can shamelessly make extra in processing fees.
We did a brief Google search and it proves our suspicion. Many other owners/hosts went through the same process of being cheated by fraudulent chargebacks. The loss is anywhere from a few hundred dollars to a few thousand, or even in one case $15,000 on a luxury vacation property. Sadly in all those cases, not a single owner/host ever got anything back from the fraudsters. Thanks to VRBO / HomeAway & its payment handling partner Yapstone aka HolidayRentPayments astonishingly irresponsible operations.

Hosts Be Aware You can easily lose hundreds or even thousands with Flipkey / Tripadvisor

Want to list your home for short term rental on tripadvisor / flipkey? Youd better read this, based on our personal experiences. It happens time and again.

No matter what cancellation policy you have, or how confirmed a booking is, any picky or even shady guest can come in, spend nights, use all your facilities and leave without paying. The only dirty trick needed to pull, is to send an unfounded complaint saying property is not as expected, and tripadvisor / flipkey would hold back all rents a host entitled to, disregarding any cancellation policy, rental rules & facts.

Below are real events in detail.

We have been a host for years. What we offer is a private suite with its own separate entrance at our backyard garden side. It has its own kitchenette, bath, bedrooms & laundry. Our family lives upstairs.

We listed my suite on multiple websites, and get 5 star reviews from many guests. The first sentence of the property description says... private suite, in a 3-storey house...

Also we always send a greeting email to confirmed guests, saying... pathway will lead you to the walkout level entrance door, just ring the door bell & I will greet you there. In case Im away from home (or too late), Ill give you the code for a key lockbox...

It should be crystal clear to any sane person that - what we offer is a private suite on walkout level & we live upstairs.

In the afternoon of June 30,2017, a group who booked from tripadvisor arrived. We greeted them, chatted, led them into the suite & gave them the key. Later on, they asked if they can use the laundry detergent etc. in their in-suite laundry. While were telling them of course, we could see them cooking in the kitchen. Later, they asked us to show how to set up the sofa bed in the living room. We happily showed them & called it a day.

The next morning, we received an email from tripadvisor saying... the guest informing us that the property is not as their expectation, the guest has informed us that the property rented is the basement and they were not informed that the property would be shared...

Right away we tried to contact the guests, by texting to their mobile # and through tripadvisors own message system. We told them they should know thats what we offered from the beginning, based on clear descriptions & emails. And there is nothing shared, for they have totally separated entrance & every room to their own. We dont even live on same levels, and dont have to see each other at all if thats what they want. We also asked if they wanted to continue their stay or not. If not, please inform & release the dates ASAP, for its peak tourism season (Canada Day) & new guests may book any time. And we told them if someone else took any of those days once they release, well be glad to refund corresponding days rent to them even though they long passed cancellation/refund deadline.

No reply was ever received from the guests.

So all the days were still shown as booked by those guests, and couldnt be released to any potential new guest.

At the end of rent, we went down to do cleaning. Almost everything was used kitchen, living room, bedrooms, bathrooms, towels, soap, toilet paper, washer & dryer... A side note, even though we clearly state and put sign on entrance saying no outdoor shoes please, multiple dirty shoeprints were on living room & bathroom floors.

But guess what, tripadvisor / flipkey not only refused to release the fund that we totally entitled to, but also tried very hard to trick / coerce us to refund those picky or even shady guests, simply due to their unfounded complaint of property is not as expected.

Our loss can be more than $1,000, for all those peak season days hold, booked, lived & not paid. Plus, it makes us feel really bad, for the tripadvisor / flipkey didnt help us at according to the policies, rules and facts. Instead, theyre obviously more interested in helping those picky or even shady deadbeats to bilk from us honest hosts.

And this is not a single isolated case.

So hosts be aware list with tripadvisor / flipkey and this can happen to you any time for any trip. Well have to raise rates on tripadvisor / flipkey, to cover this kind of situations. We dont have any similar things with guests booked from VRBO, HomeAway and Airbnb, through which we have more bookings.