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Airbnb Is Spending Millions of Dollars to Make Nightmares Go Away

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Re: Airbnb Is Spending Millions of Dollars to Make Nightmares Go Away

#171

Post by refurb »

himinlomax wrote: post #162
refurb wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it really that unreasonable to tell someone they can’t be a host until their violent crime charges are resolved?

"Innocent until proven guilty"

AirBnB is not putting these people in prison they just aren’t letting them be hosts.

I mean, would you be cool with letting someone charged with a violent crime work at a daycare until found guilty?

Re: Airbnb Is Spending Millions of Dollars to Make Nightmares Go Away

#172

Post by latchkey »

jjeaff wrote: post #164
latchkey wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure! As for cost... well... it really depends on what you get. I'd say a decent starter is cost of the van + 30-60k for the build out (including labor). AT&T has an unlimited 4G for business plan that is only about $100/month. They accept 'consultant' as a business (I went into a store to simplify the process of setting up the account). Get a mifi (Netgear M1)... it has 2 ports for a mimo antenna. Get an omni direct…

Is it truly unlimited? Or does it slow way down after x gb a month in traffic? I'm having trouble finding a truly unlimited hotspot on att's site right now.

That was my concern too. It appears truly unlimited. They send me threatening emails every once and a while when I do a whole bunch of big downloads, but they don't actually limit things.

I doubt you can find information on the website...

Re: Airbnb Is Spending Millions of Dollars to Make Nightmares Go Away

#173

Post by akdor1154 »

Interesting use of history manipulation on that site - back button takes me first to their landing page of stories before letting me go back to HN. Ideologically it's a bit annoying, but I'm more than a little impressed at 1) the idea (think less of HN and more of sites like this struggling with Facebook/Reddit/Google), and 2) the relatively unobtrusive implementation of it.

Re: Airbnb Is Spending Millions of Dollars to Make Nightmares Go Away

#175

Post by chaostheory »

These scenarios were why a lot of investors missed out of AirBnB. It was a matter of when and not if. The only big surprise to almost everyone was how long it took for this to happen. The rate of occurrence was also surprising. It was low enough that AirBnB could keep up.

Re: Airbnb Is Spending Millions of Dollars to Make Nightmares Go Away

#177

Post by Havoc »

This is why I still largely prefer name brand hotels. Stuff can still go wrong but having a manager to speak to backed by the rep of a major brand that needs to protect its image helps. Airbnb you’d think would be the same but there have been countless of articles like this and all seems well in their rep land anyway

And bizarrely pricing has largely converged anyway. Airbnb and name brand hotel often isn’t that far apart

Re: Airbnb Is Spending Millions of Dollars to Make Nightmares Go Away

#178

Post by bpodgursky »

bingidingi wrote: post #174

This is horrifying. I know we feel like there's nothing we can do and this type of thing is old news, or maybe a risk no matter where you are... but I can't do business with a company that reacts this way.

Do you have a reason to think AirBnB is doing anything less moral than existing hotel or motel chains? I would expect most operators to call the police and hire lawyers to ensure that their liability stays at 0, and not much else.

AirBnB is offering victims sometimes millions of dollars to settle claims, but they cannot force the victims to do anything. It turns out that as individual agents with free agency, the victims sometimes prefer to have millions of dollars.

Re: Airbnb Is Spending Millions of Dollars to Make Nightmares Go Away

#179

Post by shiftpgdn »

Havoc wrote: post #177

This is why I still largely prefer name brand hotels. Stuff can still go wrong but having a manager to speak to backed by the rep of a major brand that needs to protect its image helps. Airbnb you’d think would be the same but there have been countless of articles like this and all seems well in their rep land anyway And bizarrely pricing has largely converged anyway. Airbnb and name brand hotel often isn’t that far…

Rapes, robberies, burglaries and lots of other bad things happen at Hotel chains too. They just have a structured management and PR department to do a better job of keeping it under wraps.

Re: Airbnb Is Spending Millions of Dollars to Make Nightmares Go Away

#180

Post by forgotmysn »

Havoc wrote: post #177

This is why I still largely prefer name brand hotels. Stuff can still go wrong but having a manager to speak to backed by the rep of a major brand that needs to protect its image helps. Airbnb you’d think would be the same but there have been countless of articles like this and all seems well in their rep land anyway And bizarrely pricing has largely converged anyway. Airbnb and name brand hotel often isn’t that far…

i would tend to agree, but depends on scale. It's often easier and cheaper to house 10-15 people at an Airbnb than it is at a brand-name hotel.
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