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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

#221

Post by elliottcarlson »

eric-hu wrote: post #107
rdl wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

one word explains all of this: methamphetamine. (and I say this as someone who believes in drug decriminalization or legalization)

I'm generally for (soft) drug decriminalization, too, but I don't have much experience with meth heads :) Would someone upped on meth be able to conduct himself well via email, sending polite thank-you's?

Yes - my experience with meth heads is that they can be perfectly normal in their interactions, but once high on meth they can be aggressive, obsessive compulsive and destructive. Granted, this can't only be blamed on meth (or drugs in general) - the person was obviously sober at some point during this trip - or at least sober enough to know what they were doing. This all seems like a planned out event to have fun with a couple of 8-balls and have a fun couple of days without worrying about what happened to the apartment in the end.

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

#223

Post by inmygarage »

I wouldn't be surprised if this was organized and executed by an AirBnB competitor.

It is just too malicious and meticulously done to constitute a random crime (do I watch too many crime shows? maybe.) AirBnB just closed a gigantic $100m round and they are doing phenomenally well, and here comes someone who makes "everyone's worst fears" about lending out their apartment to a stranger come true.

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

#224

Post by lsb »

inmygarage wrote: post #223

I wouldn't be surprised if this was organized and executed by an AirBnB competitor. It is just too malicious and meticulously done to constitute a random crime (do I watch too many crime shows? maybe.) AirBnB just closed a gigantic $100m round and they are doing phenomenally well, and here comes someone who makes "everyone's worst fears" about lending out their apartment to a stranger come true.

Are the stakes high enough that you'll pay someone who doesn't snitch to screw with your competitor? If you ever get found out, your brand's mostly sunk.

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

#225

Post by timr »

moe wrote: post #193
wheels wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suspect home owner's insurance would not cover this since they would probably see it as an unlicensed rental. I've thought for a while that Airbnb will need to develop an insurance system. I'm sure that lesser incidents of property destruction / theft are far more commonplace (carpet stains, cigarette burns, appliances damaged, "borrowing" something that doesn't get returned) and I've thought dealing with such is g…

$50k? I'd be more worried about a guest setting the house on fire, by accident or not. Fire-damage can easily clock in north of $500k. Good luck explaining the AirBnB concept to your insurance company after a stranger turns out to be "not available anymore" (stolen CC, etc.).

A thousand times, yes. You'd be insane not to carry at least a half million dollars in coverage for fire loss in a city like San Francisco. I think my own rental insurance covers something like $1M, and they explicitly don't cover losses incurred to property that I'm renting to others. That's another class of insurance -- much more expensive, because the risks are so much higher.

I think you have to be incredibly naive to rent out your personal apartment on AirBnB. The downside risk is virtually unbounded (and lest you think I'm exaggerating: what happens if a tweaker AirBnB renter burns down your building, and your neighbors die in the fire? Hello, civil judgment.)

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

#226

Post by lutorm »

DrStalker wrote: post #97

Does AirBnB offer any help with insurance? I know my home & contents insurance wouldn't cover any of this: I'd need to get (expensive) commerical insurance or some sort, and I'm guessing most AirBnB hosts don't have that. The idea of renting out my place with no recourse to insurance if it is destroyed is far too insane to contemplate for me.

Given the exposure, I would expect AirBnB to have liability insurance up the wazoo. It seems likely they would lose a lawsuit in this case, and even with just partial liability it could be very expensive.

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

#227

Post by prostoalex »

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…

Rental property insurance is not a brand new idea.

Probably not worth to be codified as a law, after all, some may choose to bypass it, but other than that there are plenty of companies selling it (vacation properties and rentals existed long before AirBnB), and AirBnB could benefit from linking to those vendors.

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

#228

Post by dlss »

m__ wrote: post #217
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…

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 whethe…

It's very easy for younger smart people to be anarcho-capitalists (which I take it you are), but IMHO becomes progressively harder as you age.

The basic problem is that a "people know what's best for themselves" policy screws over dumb people for the simple reason that they don't.

Car insurance is a very interesting thing to legislate, because although the expected value of buying insurance is slightly negative, when you factor in the economies of scale on dealing with someone else's car getting repaired (figuring out if a bill is over market, handling multiple bills, tracking any medical expenses, etc), purchasing car insurance is strongly positive EV.

I think landlord insurance is similar.

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

Landlord insurance of course also covers this (if your property catches fire while you're renting it out, you may very well be legally responsible, if a previous renter breaks in and steals the new renters belongings you are probably legally responsible, etc).

Regardless, it seems based on what you said that you might be in favor of requiring renters to buy insurance. Is this correct?

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

#230

Post by 18pfsmt »

Shenglong wrote: post #216
rkalla wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I hope you continue your blogging, as it seems like quite an interesting story. It sucks you've been betrayed so many times by those you trust, but I hope you don't lose faith in your fellow humans.

It truly saddens me to know people don't believe in the innate goodness of fellow human beings.

Having said that, I have an overdeveloped sense of vengeance, and I do not trust the law to protect me suitably. I wish I were better at the approach taken by Gandhi, but I have not internalized his wisdom yet, though I recognize it (so that gives me hope).

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