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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

#141

Post by hammock »

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…

Emotionally devastating story, but it seems like there is an easy solution to this. Have AirBnb contract include an insurance policy (superseding the homeowners insurance) for the time of rental. Also, have Airbnb keep credit card info on hand and hold guest responsible for any damage. Pretty standard business practices.

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

#142

Post by ceejayoz »

Robin_Message wrote: post #91
g123g wrote: post #56

With internet almost run over by all kinds of scam artists, spammers, pedos etc. is there any surprise that such a thing can happen? You have crackers trying their level best to install keyloggers and other tools to read the passwords to your accounts. And in this environment if you hand over the key of your apartment to some complete stranger, I think the writer should also take some blame for his naivety. Just beca…

I know this is a horrible and shocking event, and my thoughts are with the person who has had their life violated, but I feel compelled to comment that you are wrong. The internet is not "almost run over [with] scam artists, spammers, pedos etc." They are visible and use anonymity to do what they do on the internet, certainly, but it is far from overrun. Secondly, is it really too risky to be asleep without a locked…

> Finally, let's not forget that most sexual assaults and rapes [1] are carried out by friends and acquaintances, so limiting your contact to friends of friends is unlikely to make you significantly safer.

I'd imagine that's because those people tend to get let into one's home more than a stranger, which means the stat doesn't help your point much.

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

#144

Post by ja2ke »

Jach wrote: post #52
rdl wrote: post #11

I am non-representatively paranoid, and have always been afraid of this kind of thing when having guests not personally known to me, visitors to "open house" office events, etc. I think there is little actual risk with almost anyone as a guest (most people ARE good, or at least non-malicious, or at least lazy), but this is why the AirBnB reputation system is so key to their value (and why they'll have a strong networ…

It'd be awesomer if AirBnB just replaced all the material things that are replaceable, relocated this person, and in general made them feel happy/safe again. One time only, introduce a better model to prevent/mitigate/insure (as you suggest) for future occurrences.

As long as it doesn't start resulting in people 'burning down the place' for the 'insurance' money.

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

#145

Post by dmm »

speckledjim wrote: post #124
bambax wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same here. I'd be more than willing to use the service as a customer, but as a host? Never. If you're a customer the worst of the worst than can happen is you lose the rental fee and have to find a hotel. As a host, the worst that can happen is this.

No, the worst that could happen is the host is a psycho who wants to murder / rape / take nude pics of you without you knowing. There's a reason hotels exist, and there's a reason why it's a bad idea to hitch-hike, or even worse, stay with people you don't know.

Everything in life carries risks. Trusting strangers is nice. I'd rather live in a world where I can. Then again I live in a place where people leave their cars unlocked.

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

#146

Post by michaeldhopkins »

varunsrin wrote: post #26

I always found AirBnB's model based on a surprising amount of trust - I for one would never be comfortable just handing over they keys to my place to a total stranger. Even if they didn't ransack my place completely, as happened to the unfortunate author - I would be concerned about unintentional damage to my property that I might not discover till too late. Renting out something as private as my primary place of res…

As the service expands, regular people's homes (with unrestorable personal value and charm) will be replaced with commercial properties using airBnB as just another advertising channel. When that happens the fresh appeal will be gone and airBnB will be successful if they have become popular and stable enough that an airBnB listing is mandatory for people in the property management business.

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

#147

Post by edw519 »

I get angry when I realize I will never again be who I've always been before, someone who lived strong and free by the creed that people are essentially good, that if you think optimistically, trust others.

Please don't let them steal this too.

I'm really sorry for your bad experience, but remember:

  - You can still live strong and free.
  - People are still essentially good.
  - You can still think optimistically.
  - You can still trust others.
It's true, you will never be who you've always been. But you can be almost the same person, still optimistic and trusting, just a little less naive. You many not realize it now, but the time will come when you may actually appreciate this as a learning experience.

There are bad people out there and some of them will want to hurt you. You don't have to sacrifice who you really are because of them. You just have to live a little bit differently.

Don't let them take away you really are. Believe it or not, that would be much worse than what they've already done.

Lots of well wishes for your quick recovery.

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

#148

Post by speckledjim »

dmm wrote: post #145
speckledjim wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, the worst that could happen is the host is a psycho who wants to murder / rape / take nude pics of you without you knowing. There's a reason hotels exist, and there's a reason why it's a bad idea to hitch-hike, or even worse, stay with people you don't know.

Everything in life carries risks. Trusting strangers is nice. I'd rather live in a world where I can. Then again I live in a place where people leave their cars unlocked.

Sure, but the whole premise is that you're traveling. Going to unknown territories.

If I'm going traveling, I'm sure as hell in "untrusting" mode since I don't have a clue what the locals are like.

There's strangers as in "local resident I see each day but don't know", and there's strangers as in "I've just traveled to a completely different country and have no clue who this person is"

Wanting to trust everyone and believing majority of people are good is a nice hippy dream. There's some nasty horrible people out there.

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

#150

Post by mseebach »

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.

No? It's built on. Controlling the communication is about avoiding "20% discount if you pay me in cash up front" scams, and yes, about protecting AirBnBs revenue stream.

It's a trade-off: This process enhances trust since you know your host doesn't get your money until you've checked in and found everything to be in order - and the host knows that the money is held and that he won't have to deal with late or no payment.

I don't get this focus on the personal contact issue. What exactly could the victim gain from having exchanged personal contact information prior to the booking, that he was unable to do after he got the contact information? He admits he didn't even catch that the guest misspelled his own name?

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