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Violated: A traveler’s lost faith, a difficult lesson learned

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Re: Violated: A traveler’s lost faith, a difficult lesson learned

#41

Post by stevejalim »

rdl wrote: post #28
stevejalim wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep, when I was burgled, alongside a MacBook, watch and my freakin' backups, which were on a separate drive on a nearby bookcase , they also took some bath soap and a bottle of dessert wine that my gf and I brought back from France specially. I hope they choked on the wine. That said, I also had they keys to brand new Audi on the kitchen counter (I used to be a car journalist and it was a press test car) and they com…

From someone who had building burn down: back up to offsite locations, ideally off-state, ideally off-continent, over the Internet, and CHECK YOUR RESTORE PROCEDURE PERIODICALLY. A wifi backup to a time capsule hidden up in the rafters (digital rat line!) isn't going to help you if crackheads break in...and then burn your place down with an errant crackpipe. (also, envy on the car journalism; being an equipment revie…

Yeah, offsite is the way to go, I think. We're due to get fibre broadband here in December, and that's when the whole lot will go up to S3 monthly if not weekly.

That said, I guess I'm talking about ~2TB of stuff (work data and personal data) -- wasn't there a thread somewhere that discussed the various options? I'm in the UK, rather than the US, and would rather keep my data in the EU

Re: Violated: A traveler’s lost faith, a difficult lesson learned

#43

Post by vladd »

dlss wrote: post #37
vladd wrote: post #27

AirBnB can be used without issues if you own a property and you're willing to operate it like a hotel: you're present on the premises to check in the guests, you have a room or a reception-like place from where you can monitor the situation, and you're able to inspect the place when they leave. Operating a property remotely via AirBnB implies all sorts of risks, which makes me think that it might be an unsustainable…

Um, this is incorrect. Hotels are vandalized all the time... having a "reception-like place from where you can monitor the situation", and "inspect[ing] the place when they leave" doesn't prevent people from trashing your room/apt. It sounds like the person who trashed the OP's apartment /enjoyed/ trashing it -- it didn't sound like someone inconsiderate, or in a hurry; it sounded like someone who deliberately and kn…

I've said "to prevent and offset". It's about managing the event (offsetting the bad cases when prevention fails). Having a reception area allows you to have their signature on the contract, to validate their identity (name, nationality, passport) based on the photo ID and how they look in real life and to have on record a lot of validated information about them (which will sure help with police and insurance in case something bad happens).

Re: Violated: A traveler’s lost faith, a difficult lesson learned

#44

Post by danenania »

What happened to this person is awful and it´s understandable that she/he is very emotional at this point, but I don´t think the lesson is you can´t ever trust people, or that the AirBnB model is flawed. It´s more like: hope for the best, plan for the worst. There is always going to be some black swan risk even if AirBnB does do more vetting. There´s no reason for example to leave valuables anywhere in the residence while strangers are there. You can´t be 100% protected unless you´re willing to get insurance, which probably doesn´t make sense for the occasional provider, but you can at least remove the low hanging fruit risk-wise. Perhaps AirBnB should take a more active role in educating its providers on basic precautions.

Re: Violated: A traveler’s lost faith, a difficult lesson learned

#45

Post by JacobAldridge »

tonystubblebine wrote: post #3
jackwagon wrote: post #2

"They found my coupons for Bed Bath & Beyond and used the discount, along with my Mastercard, to shop online." Are you kidding me? Seriously.

My home was burglarized once and among all the serious stuff that they took they also took: tortillas, salsa, ground beef, and cheddar cheese. I still can't believe that.

First time I got robbed, they took my CD player, moved my stack of CDs, but left them all there! Way to insult my music tastes.

They also stole my dinner suit. Which I had bought the week before, worn to a party, soaked with my dance sweat, and not yet cleaned. Insurance repaid me the full value of the suit, so essentially I got a "free suit rental" out of the experience.

(Plus the cost of new bars on all my windows. And the experience six months later of, presumably, interrupting the same guy trying to climb in my bathroom window at dinner time. Thankfully he never returned after that.)

Re: Violated: A traveler’s lost faith, a difficult lesson learned

#46

Post by [deleted] »

Ixiaus wrote: post #35
timsally wrote: post #19

After someone has copies of your passport, birth certificate, social security card, etc, what do you even do? Isn't your identity compromised forever?

Not really. Often copies or stolen birth certificates, SS cards, and passports are sold to forgers that can use them to make fake passports and identities. So it isn't to necessarily impersonate you (although it can be used for that). You can get a new SS number, and you can get a new passport which makes the old ones null - but as far as a birth certificate goes - I'm not too privy on the security features of those…

[deleted]

Re: Violated: A traveler’s lost faith, a difficult lesson learned

#47

Post by danilocampos »

cookiecaper wrote: post #12

I hate that the author broke out the short skirt rape thing. I don't think someone that leaves their house to strangers while they go out of town for a week is quite as innocent as a rape victim that was targeted for lack of modesty.

> a rape victim that was targeted for lack of modesty.

That's not really how it works.

Re: Violated: A traveler’s lost faith, a difficult lesson learned

#48

Post by rdl »

stevejalim wrote: post #41
rdl wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From someone who had building burn down: back up to offsite locations, ideally off-state, ideally off-continent, over the Internet, and CHECK YOUR RESTORE PROCEDURE PERIODICALLY. A wifi backup to a time capsule hidden up in the rafters (digital rat line!) isn't going to help you if crackheads break in...and then burn your place down with an errant crackpipe. (also, envy on the car journalism; being an equipment revie…

Yeah, offsite is the way to go, I think. We're due to get fibre broadband here in December, and that's when the whole lot will go up to S3 monthly if not weekly. That said, I guess I'm talking about ~2TB of stuff (work data and personal data) -- wasn't there a thread somewhere that discussed the various options? I'm in the UK, rather than the US, and would rather keep my data in the EU

Encrypt locally (tarsnap, crashplan, etc.) and who cares really where the data goes (except for availability/reliability)?

Re: Violated: A traveler’s lost faith, a difficult lesson learned

#49

Post by barkingcat »

dlss wrote: post #37
vladd wrote: post #27

AirBnB can be used without issues if you own a property and you're willing to operate it like a hotel: you're present on the premises to check in the guests, you have a room or a reception-like place from where you can monitor the situation, and you're able to inspect the place when they leave. Operating a property remotely via AirBnB implies all sorts of risks, which makes me think that it might be an unsustainable…

Um, this is incorrect. Hotels are vandalized all the time... having a "reception-like place from where you can monitor the situation", and "inspect[ing] the place when they leave" doesn't prevent people from trashing your room/apt. It sounds like the person who trashed the OP's apartment /enjoyed/ trashing it -- it didn't sound like someone inconsiderate, or in a hurry; it sounded like someone who deliberately and kn…

But if you have their passport and secured their credit card info, you can report them to the police, and perhaps keep them from leaving the country if the place was trashed totally (ie burned down the building maliciously)

Re: Violated: A traveler’s lost faith, a difficult lesson learned

#50

Post by dlss »

vladd wrote: post #43
dlss wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Um, this is incorrect. Hotels are vandalized all the time... having a "reception-like place from where you can monitor the situation", and "inspect[ing] the place when they leave" doesn't prevent people from trashing your room/apt. It sounds like the person who trashed the OP's apartment /enjoyed/ trashing it -- it didn't sound like someone inconsiderate, or in a hurry; it sounded like someone who deliberately and kn…

I've said "to prevent and offset". It's about managing the event (offsetting the bad cases when prevention fails). Having a reception area allows you to have their signature on the contract, to validate their identity (name, nationality, passport) based on the photo ID and how they look in real life and to have on record a lot of validated information about them (which will sure help with police and insurance in case…

You said "can be used without issues".

I agree identity validation, and being there to hear loud noises/odd behavior makes it harder / less fun for an attacker -- but this is not what allows hotels to operate effectively. Some percentage of hotel registrations surely occur with stolen passports, etc. Hotels rather build this cost into their business model in a manner similar to an insurance company.

Because hotels rent so many rooms at a time, they can treat these costs in the same way that your car insurance company treats accident risk -- something that is always happening that can be offset in real time by honest people using the hotel as per the contract.

Letting people into your home does not have that risk-sharing property -- it's insuring a single driver instead of tens of thousands -- you open yourself up to a very real risk of losing a lot of money.

(Not to mention that hotels are not personally attached to the rental rooms).

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