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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

#211

Post by jmm »

Call me insensitive, but I think the drama here is overblown. Renting out your room to strangers comes with risks. Theft is an obvious one. Could have been a one or two paragraph post, but maybe this is part of the catharsis in getting over a robbery.

And now call me a cynic, but I kind of have the feeling that the the public drama of this complaint is a way of getting the sweetest customer service response ever from AirBnB. Like, new gear, near apartment, moving costs, all of it. Almost like a cooked up insurance claim... if it's not that, AirBnB will probably experience that kind of scam at some point.

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

#212

Post by kenjackson »

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

I tried to use Carbonite. Nice UI, simple service. But with Comcast it was going to take about 3 months to back up 400GB -- and that was with leaving my laptop on 24/7.

To this day I'm not sure if it was Comcast or Carbonite that made the uploads so slow, but I've since had to rethink my offsite back up plans. Would love suggestions.

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

#213

Post by dlss »

m__ wrote: post #205
dlss wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At the very least requiring theft/fire/vandalism insurance for people renting out their home. Also interesting: limiting vacation rentals to accredited investors. (edit: and requiring places like AirBnB to verify those requirements before you can list with them)

Why don't you start a business that offers competitive insurance packages to people who want to use airBnB (and similar products) instead of demanding a law that obviously would have a lot of unwanted side effects on people who _do_ know about the risks they are taking by entering this business? Protective laws have very high hidden costs. These costs are hard to quantify and routinely are neglected when discussing p…

Are you against requiring car insurance to drive? (another situation with a small chance of a large loss that most people can't afford)

If yes, please explain why. If not, please tell me what's different here. I'm genuinely confused why you said what you said.

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

#214

Post by ryanklee »

levigross wrote: post #164
edw519 wrote: post #147

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…

IMHO 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. means don't use AirBnB

If the implication is don't use AirBnB, then the implication is also: never leave your own home and never let anyone in, which is paranoid and absurd.

You might object that what you say applies only to strangers and not to those you trust, but then you would be forgetting that everyone you trust was once a stranger.

Simply walking down the street is a testament to one's notion that in general humans are good and that that goodness is worthwhile enough to risk the occasional social or even physical injustice.

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

#215

Post by matdwyer »

I just was quoted in a national article here in Canada (the Globe & Mail) that talked about using AirBNB... I've passed this story along to the author who is going to see about a followup.

This wont stop me from using AirBNB as a guest, but I was never comfortable with renting my own home anyway.

edit - if AirBNB kept a drivers license scan on file to confirm the credit card was the users, that would be helpful. I know that is difficult with privacy laws, etc, but when I check into a hotel I always have to show my ID to make sure it has my name on it....

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

#216

Post by Shenglong »

rkalla wrote: post #196
Shenglong wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're very optimistic. While I don't agree that people are essentially good, I envy your ability to see the world that way.

I was sitting here mulling over why you wouldn't think that people are essentially good and it dawns on me that a lot of people are scared and likely have behaviors that suggest they aren't good (e.g. drive by someone with a flat tire in the rain because they are scared it's a robbery setup for passer-bys) I think if you just look at your day to day interactions, most people are decent. I doubt many people are trying…

Hey, don't get my wrong! I'm probably one of the most cheerful and happy people you'll ever meet in real life. I'm always smiling and enthusiastic with everything I do. And you're right - people tend to (usually) treat me the same way. Everything is beautiful on the surface, and that's just about never where I have a problem.

I've been betrayed by a lot of people I trusted, and I've had to do some things (not for my own good) that I'm not proud of myself. I'm in the process of blogging it (http://shenglong.posterous.com/a-prelude-to-eternity), but unfortunately, it's very long and I've only had time to finish the prelude. In the end, I've seen what people are capable of when they think they can't be held accountable, and that's the primary driver of my cynicism.

Regardless, I still treat every person I meet with respect. It's just, in the back of my head, I'm cautious about what could happen.

Edit: I don't know if I can post links like this. If not, let me know and I'll edit it out. It's for reference, not for publicity.

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

#217

Post by m__ »

m__ wrote: post #205
dlss wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At the very least requiring theft/fire/vandalism insurance for people renting out their home. Also interesting: limiting vacation rentals to accredited investors. (edit: and requiring places like AirBnB to verify those requirements before you can list with them)

Why don't you start a business that offers competitive insurance packages to people who want to use airBnB (and similar products) instead of demanding a law that obviously would have a lot of unwanted side effects on people who _do_ know about the risks they are taking by entering this business? Protective laws have very high hidden costs. These costs are hard to quantify and routinely are neglected when discussing p…

Car insurance is different, because it also covers damages you inflict on others and other people's property.

I am speaking out against mandatory insurance of your own property. Yes, there will be cases where people are underinsured. But mandatory insurance would make some people overinsured. There is a long argument to be made for balancing this tradeoff, but in short: Owners are in a better position to judge whether they should insure their property than lawmakers and thus it should be up to them (again: as long as their property doesn't have a high probability of damaging other people; in such cases mandatory insurance might be reasonable).

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

#218

Post by stumm »

dlss wrote: post #213
m__ wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why don't you start a business that offers competitive insurance packages to people who want to use airBnB (and similar products) instead of demanding a law that obviously would have a lot of unwanted side effects on people who _do_ know about the risks they are taking by entering this business? Protective laws have very high hidden costs. These costs are hard to quantify and routinely are neglected when discussing p…

Are you against requiring car insurance to drive? (another situation with a small chance of a large loss that most people can't afford) If yes, please explain why. If not, please tell me what's different here. I'm genuinely confused why you said what you said.

Usually the only insurance you're required to have is for damage you do to others, not your own car. You're allowed screw yourself over.

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

#219

Post by prostoalex »

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…

AirBnB already has a host rating system, but because of no set level of expectations pretty much everybody gets 5 stars. Hotels are easier to rate in that regard, and people have no qualms leaving lower ratings if they don't see extra towels, have to sit in uncomfortable chairs, or are charged $14.99 for wireless Internet.

Guest rating system is even harder, as unless you're hardcore traveler, your use of AirBnB might be limited to once or twice a year. This would also penalize any new user to the service.

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

#220

Post by veyron »

dlss wrote: post #165
michaeldhopkins wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I hope this happens soon. The risk/reward trade-offs don't seem to be understood by most AirBnB landlords (99.99% chance of earning $100, 0.01% chance of losing $50k+). Even though this is strongly positive expected value, for a family that can't afford to lose $50k this is a game of russian roulette. My heart goes out to the author of this; I hope the person who did this to her is put in jail, and the system (AirBnB…

That split seems wrong. There seems to be no deterrent to the type of behavior the author experienced, so it would seem that everyone with an inkling will try to steal the renter's identity. I'd estimate that population to be 1-3% of people, which implies the expected value is strongly negative
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