Craigslist blocking Airbnb.com
http://i.imgur.com/ILEyc.jpg
While updating our ads today, this is what appeared on the screen. We can't submit an ad that contains airbnb.com. No explanation why.
Perhaps it has something to do with last year's infamous "Craigslist Airbnb scandal"?
http://davegooden.com/2011/05/how-airbnb-became-a-billion-do...
I think craigslist is notorious for this. I remember they recently blocked my favorite posting app, Bazaar, and all they did was host the images you posted from your phone. This was the simplest most user friendly app to post to craigslist with. So basically craigslist blocked any ad that had an image hosted by Bazaar. Killing Bazaar was a huge disservice to me as I stopped posting as many things to CL and a huge disservice to their community.
These guys are doing a disservice to the American public. Imagine how much more used stuff could be sold on craigslist if their interface and experience was better. One statistic is smartphones, which can resell for as much as $200 after two years of use, yet most people leave them in their drawer. If a platform existed where selling and buying was easier, then people that are too busy to use craigslist would have an alternative to give new life to the stuff that is just sitting in their drawer. More people could own higher quality products instead of buying the cheaper new crap as an alternative. We consume way too much new crap. I bet there are >10 million used iphones sitting in drawers, while cost conscious consumer resort to buying the Motorola Triumph as that is all they can afford for $200. I know a lot of people love craigslist, but it is time for something better. It is time to create an efficient and "beautiful" consumer to consumer marketplace that everyone wants to use. Craigslist is huge, but it serves only a fraction of the potential customer base. I would bet more people would use it if some of its fundamental flaws were fixed.
End of rant... Let me know if you agree. I am actually doing something about this and am always open to input and help...
I don't understand - why should they allow AirBnB postings in the first place? When someone comes to Craigslist, I think the assumption is that you'll be doing business on Craigslist and not through a third party site like AirBnB. Why should they allow another company to take advantage of their audience if they don't want to?
I think it's bc they found out about how airbnb used robots, scrapers and fake gmail accounts to scrub Craigslist and spam people listing their apt.
Try using an URL shortener such as http://bit.ly
Its too bad that nobody has figured out how to move onto a better version of Craigslist. Their real estate listings in particular are a major source of pain for New Yorkers, and they even charge for postings there. Craigslist's lack of any customer support opens a black hole for any account issues you may be having.
I'm guessing they got blocked because of the automated "Post to Craigslist" feature on AirBnb that pushes an AirBnb user through various screens on Craigslist, filling in information automatically, and all the user has to do is hit "Submit" at the end.
CL is openly against anything that isn't a human individual expressing their energy by posting ads to another human individual via manually entering text into a mid-90s HTML interface. Anything else is too much like capitalism, man.
Ha. I see they've gotten around it temporarily by changing the link to airbedandbreakfast.com, as in this ad:
I think this is likely an automatic ban for an unusual non-dictionary word/phrase, probably just another automatic tool in their arsenal against spammers. I don't think Craigslist has it in for AirBNB specifically.
Image as link: http://i.imgur.com/ILEyc.jpg
I hope this submission gets noticed. Craigslist is the absolute best way to advertise Airbnb listings. Without it, we're kinda sunk, and it could have a big impact on Airbnb's bottom line.
