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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

#131

Post by caf »

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…

...and perhaps most importantly of all, a witness who can stand up in court and say "Yes, that is the person to whom I gave the keys to room 314".

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

#132

Post by Omnipresent »

jv22222 wrote: post #109

This could resolved if airbnb insisted on a refundable deposit of $500-$1000 per visit.

500 to 1000 is not bad of a seed funding for a thief. I think better security measure would be to provide some sort of valid state or federal or national identifications. Any decent hotel requires this so why not AirBnB?

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

#133

Post by danenania »

carbonica wrote: post #115
danenania wrote: post #44

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…

> There´s no reason for example to leave valuables anywhere in the residence while strangers are there. So you're saying AirBnB should advocate against rentals while you're away? Or are you saying, if you want to rent while you're gone for a week, that you should get a week's worth of self-storage (which I've never heard of, but might exist in a city), move all your important belongings to the self-storage unit, and…

That or drop them with a friend or relative. Why is that so onerous?

I think people should use AirBnB however they see fit, but understand the risks in doing so and take whatever precautions are realistic to lessen them.

This situation would still suck, but not be nearly as bad/scary/expensive if the victim hadn't left cash, credit cards, expensive electronics, legal documents etc. in the apartment. I'm just recommending easy steps to lower the potential downside and increase the overall EV of being an AirBnB provider given that this sort of nightmare is a slight but real possibility.

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

#134

Post by xentronium »

ffffruit wrote: post #55

Is there anything stopping the renter from taking extra precautions? Like for example photocopy the tenants passport? I am finding it hard to believe that somebody would drop off the keys to his own apartment to a total stranger, regardless of any guarantees the site does, without even wanting to briefly meet them.

> Like for example photocopy the tenants passport?

Doesn't AirBnB do that? If no, then why?!

Disclaimer: never used the service.

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

#135

Post by bhickey »

robtoo wrote: post #128
brianchesky wrote: post #87

Hey 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…

We've created a marketplace built on trust, transparency and authenticity Not if this quote from the linked article is true, you haven't... airbnb.com tightly controls the communication between host and traveler, disallowing the exchange of personal contact information until the point in which a reservation is already confirmed and paid for.

This information is correct.

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

#136

Post by M1573RMU74710N »

antihero wrote: post #112
M1573RMU74710N wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is a difficult situation...on the one. hand you can't blame victims for crimes. That responsibility lies 100% with the criminals. On the other hand, in some cases someone is negligent in taking some easy precautions; and it's hard not to comment on it. I think that's important too. As others have noted this sort of thing is inevitable, and I think it's productive to talk about ways to possibly mitigate it. AirBnB…

So essentially - it's never a victim's fault, but it does make sense to protect oneself.

I'd say so.

Also, I somewhat agree with the grand-parent that the way the woman in the article compares telling a woman to not wear a skirt in order to avoid rape with talking/thinking about ways she might have avoided the ordeal is not an entirely accurate comparison...though considering what she's been through if I were talking to her personally I probably wouldn't press the point. She's already learned her lesson, the discussion is only worthwhile to have for observers.

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

#137

Post by caf »

Omnipresent wrote: post #121

victim is correct, this was bound to happen to someone and as the service goes popularity, there will be more victims in the future. AirBnB should have other security measures in place like providing driver license #, ssn, etc. so that identity of the person renting the place is assured. With all the recent funding leading to great PR, bad elements will start coming in. Site is no longer bound to the nice educated cu…

How do you verify that the drivers license, ssn etc are genuine, and not simply stolen as the credit card numbers are?

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

#139

Post by nzoschke »

prawn wrote: post #67

Looks 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…

To me this sounds like the work of meth addicts (I have another post on the thread about this), but I do share your general suspicions.

All of a sudden AirBnB seems like a tough brand to keep clean -- at any time a host or guest (or frankly anyone) can either do something crazy or fabricate a story about doing something crazy.

I have very few tools at my disposal to verify these claims as a passive observer, so the net result is to trust the AirBnB system less.

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

#140

Post by joezydeco »

teyc wrote: post #122
chegra wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What I would like to see and would think would be a great win for AIRBNB, publicity-wise, is an offer to restore this person's stuff.

The difference between a hotel and a home is that while a hotel may be trashed occasionally by the drunk rockstar, there is nothing sentimental in the hotel room. Screening is not going to stop someone pathological from unleashing wanton destruction. Even ordinary renting out houses usually require some kind of bond to be placed to deter and filter out riff raffs. I wonder if AirBnB would ever do this because it incr…

Screening won't help, but a credit card imprint sure goes a long way.
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