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The Moment Of Truth For Airbnb As User’s Home Is Utterly Trashed

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Re: The Moment Of Truth For Airbnb As User’s Home Is Utterly Trashed

#151

Post by AndyJPartridge »

djb_hackernews wrote: post #62
tc wrote: post #21

> I spoke to Airbnb about EJ’s situation. They won’t reimburse her for damages This is bad news. They're going to backtrack on this. The sooner they do it, the better for them politically. I understand the problems of setting a precedent. And there really is no getting around the fact that the hosts do have the final responsibility for screening travelers (and travelers for screening hosts). But rightly or wrongly, t…

I would imagine this would be a situation that homeowners insurance is for. But I bet homeowners insurance won't cover damage caused by running your home as a hotel. If not, then Airbnb should have some sort of insurance for these situations. Can't have all of the upside and none of the downside. Not to mention if this happens a few more times, Airbnb's business model will be legislated away.

In the UK one needs specific landlord insurance for this situation.

I expect that unless you rented out your space a lot in a given policy year, it may render it unprofitable to do so.

Re: The Moment Of Truth For Airbnb As User’s Home Is Utterly Trashed

#153

Post by dhbanes »

What about this from her own blog post?

> I would be remiss if I didn’t pause here to emphasize that the customer service team at airbnb.com has been wonderful, giving this crime their full attention. They have called often, expressing empathy, support, and genuine concern for my welfare. They have offered to help me recover emotionally and financially...

(http://ejroundtheworld.blogspot.com/2011/06/violated-travele...)

edit:formatting

Re: The Moment Of Truth For Airbnb As User’s Home Is Utterly Trashed

#154

Post by romey »

danilocampos wrote: post #118
prostoalex wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are databases for convicted felons and molesters, but other than that, how exactly do you ensure someone is not a "sociopath willfully destroying someone's home and stealing their identity"? Even if AirBnb had a way to check this guy out, it's quite possible he doesn't habitually destroy homes and steal people's identities.

> There are databases for convicted felons and molesters, but other than that, how exactly do you ensure someone is not a "sociopath willfully destroying someone's home and stealing their identity"? Dunno. That's going to be Airbnb's problem to solve if they want to enjoy ongoing business. That's their job if they want to be the "Ebay of spaces."

Actually, it isn't. Airbnb job isn't to guarantee the sanity of its renters to homeowners. They merely provide the interface for that interaction. I've been burned on ebay deals before (none of this magnitude, of course), but I don't place the responsibility solely on ebay for all of those -- in a few cases it was because I was trading with someone who was in another country, or had a low seller rating, etc. In situations like these, where you are putting your faith in a complete stranger, it is up to you to do your research and protect yourself. Sure, I think that there should be more on airbnb about the risks homeowners are taking on (as in, craigslist style), but to say that recognizing their limited responsibility in this incident would be "villainous" seem overly sentimental to me

Re: The Moment Of Truth For Airbnb As User’s Home Is Utterly Trashed

#155

Post by losvedir »

dxbydt wrote: post #142
wheels wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I understand the problems of setting a precedent. I don't, actually. If the financial industry has taught us one thing, it's that you can insure anything . Let's assume that this is a very rare occurrence and that the total cost of making this right (say, tops $100k?) can be amortized over the profit being generated. I have a hard time understanding how it'd be rocket surgery to get something in place to handle these…

Such an insurance would probably be pretty much impossible. If you get a legit HTBRAI ( house trashed by random asshole insurance ), you've automatically created a market where these HTBRAIs are priced, bought and sold. That means you are essentially gaming burglary. eg. if I buy 100 HTBRAIs in some dicey neighborhood and there's an incident, my contracts automatically go up in value. That's a huge incentive for crim…

It's an interesting point, but I don't see why it would be any different from any of the usual insurances (car, house, etc). A market based on life insurance policies which then incentivizes assassinations is a chilling thought, and strikes me as analogous to your scenario, but I don't think such a thing happens, right?

Re: The Moment Of Truth For Airbnb As User’s Home Is Utterly Trashed

#156

Post by PedroCandeias »

The news and the hotel lobbies are going to be all over this. VCs are probably tapping their fingers on the table.

Like others said already, If I were Brian, I'd have lunch with EJ, like, today. Whatever solution they find financially, Brian can't let ABnB's cool image turn all corporate and aloof by leaving this one to the lawyers and bean counters.

Re: The Moment Of Truth For Airbnb As User’s Home Is Utterly Trashed

#157

Post by pg »

watty wrote: post #5

Lets see if YC changes this title too...

Here's an algorithm you can use to predict that for all submissions. If the link here has the post's original title, we won't. If it doesn't, we'll replace it with the original title.

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2814665

Re: The Moment Of Truth For Airbnb As User’s Home Is Utterly Trashed

#158

Post by [deleted] »

pg wrote: post #146

Before you all rush to judgment again, notice the update at the end of the article: "Update: I spoke with Brian Chesky. He says the company has offered “to assist financially, find new housing for the host, and anything else she can think of to make her life easier.” He says they intend to “go above and beyond” to make the situation right for her."

[deleted]

Re: The Moment Of Truth For Airbnb As User’s Home Is Utterly Trashed

#159

Post by [deleted] »

danilocampos wrote: post #20

"I spoke to Airbnb about EJ’s situation. They won’t reimburse her for damages, they say, and they do not insure against losses. They are helping police track down the person who did this, but their help ends there." ... Fuck. That. I don't care what the long-term implications are, I don't care about precedent, I don't care about policy, I don't care about cost . If my business does this to someone I make it right . E…

[deleted]
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