I scraped 1.94M Airbnb photos for opium dens, pet cameos, and messy kitchens

A developer went full internet detective, scanning 1.94 million Airbnb photos and thousands of guest reviews to hunt for everything from pet cameos to supposedly sketchy interiors. On paper, it sounds like a weirdly irresistible data project: public listings, public reviews, lots of number-crunching, and a parade of bizarre findings. But the real show started in the comments, where readers basically yelled, "Wait, is this research... or an ad?"

That became the main event. Multiple commenters were instantly suspicious of the giant Burla branding, calling the whole thing content marketing dressed up as quirky analysis. One person bluntly said it was "plain and simple" promotion, while another dragged in Inside Airbnb's guidelines and asked whether scraping all this data crossed a line. Others went even further, tossing around the L-word: lawsuit. Not exactly the cozy vacation vibe Airbnb usually aims for.

Then came the methodology meltdown. Readers were especially annoyed by labels like "drug-den vibes," saying the project seemed to confuse dim lighting, clutter, or plain old poverty with criminality. One commenter was horrified that the site treated miserable or unsafe guest experiences as the "funniest" reviews, asking the obvious question: where, exactly, is the joke? So yes, people were fascinated by the strange findings — but the bigger entertainment was watching the community roast the project for being tacky, shaky, and maybe a little too pleased with itself.