Airbnb and security camera disclosure • Hacker News Board

Re: Airbnb and security camera disclosure

#291

Post by extra88 » Wed, Jan 16, 2019, 10:38 PM UTC

philip1209 wrote: post #171

munchbunny wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's almost as if AirBnB's hosts and guests are bearing the externalities that should be priced into the transaction on both sides... For hosts, property damage, etc. is a matter of when, not if, and for those things you get insurance. But as far as I know that's not a standard thing for hosts. Pricing in hidden hosting costs would make hosting look less profitable up front, then AirBnB's market would shrink. For gue…

As a short-term tenant who isn't eligible for property insurance, there is no way for me insure against losses. I spent considerable time trying to get a policy after our burglary, and it wasn't possible. In my opinion, providing this insurance should be handled by the marketplace. The problem is that Airbnb stays are similar to airline flight delays - the cost of a problem can result in many times more costs than ju…

> As a short-term tenant who isn't eligible for property insurance, there is no way for me insure against losses.

Why couldn't you get travel insurance that could cover accommodation costs and replacement costs due to theft?

Re: Airbnb and security camera disclosure

#292

Post by throw2016 » Wed, Jan 16, 2019, 10:47 PM UTC

matz1 wrote: post #94

throw2016 wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's because you don't really care about privacy. If it were something else 'you cared about' you would be saying something completely different and wondering why others don't share your concern. These things are generational and accumulated wisdom about privacy, surveillance and their cascading consequences into other aspects of society including sleepwalking into a police state are well known. For those on the ot…

You can choose to care about privacy, but then you have to accept that there will be cost associated with it, you have to worry all the time about every single thing to do. It mentally taxing and the cost is just going to be higher and higher. >These things are generational and accumulated wisdom about privacy, surveillance and their cascading consequences into other aspects of society including sleepwalking into a p…

On the contrary with surveillance there is a 'chilling effect' and people will be constantly wary and not speak their mind. These societal experiences have already happened, are heavily documented and thus we do not have to speculate, we know.

The only reason you don't live in a police state and in a democracy is because someone 'cared' about it. Its perfectly valid not to care about these things but its quite another to try to make a virtue out of personal passivity or indifference.

Since there is no reference to 'static' in the original comment that is a meaningless straw man, its like telling people fighting against surveillance, anti-democratic or fascist forces not to bother as 'change is inevitable'.

Re: Airbnb and security camera disclosure

#293

Post by crooked-v » Wed, Jan 16, 2019, 10:49 PM UTC

MatekCopatek wrote: post #247

munchbunny wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's almost as if AirBnB's hosts and guests are bearing the externalities that should be priced into the transaction on both sides... For hosts, property damage, etc. is a matter of when, not if, and for those things you get insurance. But as far as I know that's not a standard thing for hosts. Pricing in hidden hosting costs would make hosting look less profitable up front, then AirBnB's market would shrink. For gue…

I feel like what you described is the main reason for the profitability of most "sharing economy" services. Uber is also advertised as a little side gig you can do when your car is not being used while the real goal is to have a taxi service that isn't subject to the same legislation and unloads more cost on the driver.

I think Uber is a weird edge case in this comparison because of how fundamentally awful traditional taxi services are in many places.

Re: Airbnb and security camera disclosure

#294

Post by mynegation » Wed, Jan 16, 2019, 10:50 PM UTC

I actually prefer the hotels to Airbnbs. If price difference is not drastic - hotel. If employer pays - most definitely the hotel! I prefer to have maybe cookie-cutter but more or less reliable set of things and services available and not figure out what to find where, what to do, what not to do, read the goddamn house rules, look for the key under the rug, text some random people where are they with the key, do you have parking, do you not, etc.

Re: Airbnb and security camera disclosure

#295

Post by speby » Wed, Jan 16, 2019, 10:51 PM UTC

rickyc091 wrote: post #176

philip1209 wrote: post #120

I've lived in Airbnbs full-time for about 18 months while traveling, and Airbnb has lost my trust repeatedly in terms of reliability, safety, and user-friendliness. - Host listing quality has gone consistently downhill. Now, it's many slumlords just trying to make a quick buck rather than support the original community idea or provide a great stay. - Airbnb support response times are horribly slow. They hide their ph…

I'll add to this as well. I've had two incidents over the past year. 1. I rented a place and was told that I could check-in whenever. When I got there, the key wasn't available and I wasn't able to contact the host. I was essentially just standing around for three hours waiting for Airbnb to respond. Apparently, you can contact them, but it's extremely difficult to call them if you're international unless you want to…

>I rented a place and was told that I could check-in whenever. When I got there, the key wasn't available and I wasn't able to contact the host.

This. This happened to me one time and from there on, I will not bother with it again. My time and my travel logistics plus standing around with luggage or whatever else, is worth paying for a proper hotel to never have to deal with that ever again.

Re: Airbnb and security camera disclosure

#296

Post by OldSchoolJohnny » Wed, Jan 16, 2019, 11:01 PM UTC

Klathmon wrote: post #284

zemo wrote: post #270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

dunno if they still do it, but this was normal practice at Etsy when I was an engineer there (2013-2015). Every so often (once a quarter maybe?) I had to spend a day answering support tickets. We discovered (and fixed) a lot of bugs that way.

As a lead developer on some projects, I've explicitly asked to jump into the weeds and handle support. You can learn SO MUCH about your application just by handling a bit of support. You learn UX issues, you learn what tooling the support people are missing that would allow them to do their job (a simple "send a screenshot to support" button in our app saved our support reps HOURS spending time trying to get customer…

I can't imagine a company not mining the info from support for exactly these kind of improvements as a standard operating procedure; it's a gold mine of information, anyone ignoring it doesn't really care about the quality of their product.

Re: Airbnb and security camera disclosure

#297

Post by somada141 » Wed, Jan 16, 2019, 11:03 PM UTC

I'm about to embark on a nomadic trip so I will be depending on AirBnBs and hotels a lot. Can I just ask: If the host has not disclosed security/surveillance but such equipment is present am I allowed to run de-auth attacks against the cameras so I can 'disable' them temporarily?

Re: Airbnb and security camera disclosure

#298

Post by fabioma » Wed, Jan 16, 2019, 11:06 PM UTC

I had been having great experiences until I got this place in NYC that when I just got in, the host started sending me messages on I could and couldn't do.

He told me to get rid of the shoes because I was hurting the floor, that I shouldn't leave heavy stuff on the sofa because it was brand new (my bag was on it). For a moment I thought that maybe he told this to everyone and then I found the camera. It was a 1 bedroom so the camera gave him a full view of the whole apartment. I covered the camera and decided not to communicate Airbnb because it was only for a week and I would be barely in the apartment during the day (it's NYC!). He gave me a great review but I decided to go back to hotels ever since.

Re: Airbnb and security camera disclosure

#299

Post by alexhutcheson » Wed, Jan 16, 2019, 11:08 PM UTC

baby wrote: post #189

amerkhalid wrote: post #159

I never understood appeal of AirBnB. We used to travel a lot and thought AirBnB would be cheaper to equivalent hotels but it usually is about same or more expensive but with less amenities. For example: * There is no room service. You can order delivery but room service has certain charms especially at 2AM. * In hotels, you come back to a clean room at the day's end. * There is cleaning fee for many AirBnB. With hote…

That makes no sense to me. Airbnb has changed travelling for these reasons: * It is cheaper for the location * It has a kitchen * It feels like a home I don't understand these kind of comments. Can you remember any of the hotel room you've been in the previous years? I can't. Can you remember any of the airbnb you've stayed at? I remember every one of them. There is a true home feeling to them.

The kitchen always ends up being less useful than I imagine it will be because it's so unpredictable what basic ingredients will be there. Many are pretty bare-bones, and by the time I buy cooking spray or oil, salt & pepper, basic condiments, etc. I have spent more than I would have by going out to eat. They're great for longer stays, but for a long weekend trip I almost never do anything more complicated than breakfast cereal or a freezer pizza.

Re: Airbnb and security camera disclosure

#300

Post by danols » Wed, Jan 16, 2019, 11:10 PM UTC

rickyc091 wrote: post #176

philip1209 wrote: post #120

I've lived in Airbnbs full-time for about 18 months while traveling, and Airbnb has lost my trust repeatedly in terms of reliability, safety, and user-friendliness. - Host listing quality has gone consistently downhill. Now, it's many slumlords just trying to make a quick buck rather than support the original community idea or provide a great stay. - Airbnb support response times are horribly slow. They hide their ph…

I'll add to this as well. I've had two incidents over the past year. 1. I rented a place and was told that I could check-in whenever. When I got there, the key wasn't available and I wasn't able to contact the host. I was essentially just standing around for three hours waiting for Airbnb to respond. Apparently, you can contact them, but it's extremely difficult to call them if you're international unless you want to…

The place you booked did not have electricity and you did not get a refund for the prepaid week? I almost find that hard to believe. There must be something I don't understand here.