It sounds like AirBnB need to educate first-time users more..
It obviously is not for those people who have property that cannot remove personal items from said property before doing a earn-my-trust AirBnB person trial run..
Violated: A traveler’s lost faith, a difficult lesson learned
81–90 of 399 posts
Re: Violated: A traveler’s lost faith, a difficult lesson learned
#82Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'd expect they used a stolen card (or a stolen card number, more likely). There's almost no way anyone could be stupid enough to do that with their own card.
Probably a stolen card from their last airbnb rental/trash/steal creditcards.
Or a prepaid debit card (do those work with airbnb)?
The interesting thing will be the gmail account's IP history. I suspect SFPD will get the IP history and I hope this DJ Pattrson logged in from an identifiable location (or that the phone number, presumably a prepaid, is linkable to location and identity somehow).
SFPD is one of the better police forces to have to work with on this; I'd sure rather be dealing with them than Oakland or various other East Bay police forces. You might also want to involve REACT (http://www.reacttf.org/), the Silicon Valley (incl SF) high tech crime task force. They'll be good at tracking someone down through online identity, compared to local police.
I wonder if AirBnB has offered the host/victim some AirBnB credit to stay elsewhere while her place is being de-trashed.
Re: Violated: A traveler’s lost faith, a difficult lesson learned
#83People are naive, so are businesses.
Re: Violated: A traveler’s lost faith, a difficult lesson learned
#84Earlier 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 actually feel a lot more comfortable "harshly using" (not really vandalizing, but making full use of) a hotel than someone's airbnb, couchsurfing, or friendly couchsurfing arrangement -- because it's an impersonal commercial space, I'll use all the water I want, leave wet towels all over, etc., whereas at airbnb I feel like I should be even more polite and neat than I would be in my own home.
Interesting point -- I wonder if people who enjoy breaking things are more likely to use AirBnB, since they're destroying something that really matters to someone.
Re: Violated: A traveler’s lost faith, a difficult lesson learned
#85Earlier quoted context omitted.
Innocent? Careless != guilty.
Right, but it's bad taste to equate a short skirt with letting someone you've never met live in your house completely unattended for a week. Most people have the sense to understand that that is a dangerous idea. I don't endorse either ransacking or rape, and I recognize that there was a crime that was committed here and that the victim is still a victim. But I think comparing that to comments that a woman "deserved"…
The linked-to OP did not talk of deserving to be raped. You have inverted her point.
Re: Violated: A traveler’s lost faith, a difficult lesson learned
#86Earlier quoted context omitted.
Innocent? Careless != guilty.
Right, but it's bad taste to equate a short skirt with letting someone you've never met live in your house completely unattended for a week. Most people have the sense to understand that that is a dangerous idea. I don't endorse either ransacking or rape, and I recognize that there was a crime that was committed here and that the victim is still a victim. But I think comparing that to comments that a woman "deserved"…
I only criticized your choice of words: "I don't think someone that leaves their house [...] is quite as _innocent_ [...]" implies that this somehow makes them guilty.
I believe that both the homeowner and the figurative rape victim are equally innocent.
Re: Violated: A traveler’s lost faith, a difficult lesson learned
#87Hey everyone - we were shocked when we heard about this unsettling event. We have been working closely with the authorities, and we want to reassure our community that, with the help of our security infrastructure, we were able to assist the police in their investigation, and we understand from authorities that a suspect is now in custody.
We've created a marketplace built on trust, transparency and authenticity within our community, and we hold the safety of our community members as our highest priority. We will continue to work with our users to stamp out those who would put that community at risk in any way. The vast majority of our community members genuinely respect and protect each other, but we urge users to be careful and discerning with each other and to hold others accountable through reviews, flagging and our customer service channel. Our hearts go out to our host and we will continue to work with her and with the authorities to make this right.
Re: Violated: A traveler’s lost faith, a difficult lesson learned
#88Wow.. that's terrible! I really enjoyed all my couchsurfing and airbnb experiences so far, they resulted in the best travels i ever had.. it's sad to see such a thing happen, and i hope the criminaly will be catched and punished.
Still, i am looking forward for my next airbnb trip, it's a great way to travel!
Re: Violated: A traveler’s lost faith, a difficult lesson learned
#89Hey everyone - we were shocked when we heard about this unsettling event. We have been working closely with the authorities, and we want to reassure our community that, with the help of our security infrastructure, we were able to assist the police in their investigation, and we understand from authorities that a suspect is now in custody. We've created a marketplace built on trust, transparency and authenticity with…
Hey brian,
- what's your side of the story on being unreachable 14 hours after the event?
- did you offer AirBnB credit or compensation to the victim to stay elsewhere during this?
Re: Violated: A traveler’s lost faith, a difficult lesson learned
#90Looks like a couple of reporters have already hit the comments area looking for more info for a story. It goes far, far beyond a basic theft or incident of vandalism and could easily blow up internationally and do a great deal of damage to the AirBnB brand. I don't know the blogger in any way at all, but have to admit that my first thought was to wonder if this might've been arranged by a competing industry or servic…
I don't think what you're suggesting is that paranoid. There has to have been some motive. Perhaps it was just somebody seeking revenge, either against the person whos flat it was, or against AirBnB.
I presume AirBnB got some money from the person making the booking, so you're probably right that they went in with some plan having had to pay up front (?) for the opportunity.
I'd also be curious (but not enough to look into it further!) to know whether the lister made it clear in their profile that they would not be meeting the renter in person.
Could be a mixture of theft and then opportunistic/drug-fueled mischief. Backtracking, I wonder if someone put a group up to it, or suggested that AirBnB listers could be soft targets - opportunity for the thieves and also for someone putting them up to it.
Short of having the blog post taken down, even if a follow-up is added to the top of the post, this will be very damaging for AirBnB. I've used the site a few times successfully (though ended up thinking it was often more trouble than just using a cheap hotel) so hate to see this happen.