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Airbnb Nightmare: No End In Sight

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Re: Airbnb Nightmare: No End In Sight

#81

Post by danilocampos »

Confusion wrote: post #62
danilocampos wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It gets worse. "Note: a second co-founder did email me for the first time around 2am yesterday, suggesting we meet for coffee as he 'would enjoy meeting' me. He made no inquiry into my current emotional state, my safety or my well being." Speechless. The lack of compassion for another human being here is staggering. Utterly oblivious — or indifferent. How does this happen to people?

Well, isn't that what he would probably talk about over coffee? We don't know how the conversation went. He may have said something like: We're very sorry about what's happened to you and seek to resolve it. Let's have coffee as soon as possible to see what we have to do to resolve the situation for you. Would that justify the criticism that he should have asked about how she was at that moment, when it would seem fr…

"he 'would enjoy meeting' me"

I don't think she really gives a damn in her current state what this guy would "enjoy" doing, is really the point here.

Re: Airbnb Nightmare: No End In Sight

#82

Post by spazmaster »

redthrowaway wrote: post #50
spazmaster wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's one: http://www.businessinsider.com/airbnb-not-safe-the-renter-st... and it showed up on the first page when i searched for AirBnB on Google. And there's a Techcrunch post on the bottom of the first page as well.

That's from a couple days ago. I somehow doubt future stories will paint airbnb in such a positive light.

True it's from two days ago. But the title is 'AIRBNB HORROR' (yes in all caps). I wouldn't want that showing on a Google's first results page when googling my companies name.

Re: Airbnb Nightmare: No End In Sight

#83

Post by danilocampos »

jrockway wrote: post #59
danilocampos wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It gets worse. "Note: a second co-founder did email me for the first time around 2am yesterday, suggesting we meet for coffee as he 'would enjoy meeting' me. He made no inquiry into my current emotional state, my safety or my well being." Speechless. The lack of compassion for another human being here is staggering. Utterly oblivious — or indifferent. How does this happen to people?

Writing well is extremely hard. It could be that the "second co-founder" is bad at writing rather than oblivious or indifferent. He did want to meet her in person, perhaps to lend assistance, after all. If he was oblivious, this is probably not the action he would have taken.

> Writing well is extremely hard.

Please.

Writing like Michael Chabon or Aaron Sorkin is hard. Having some basic compassion in how you interact with people is not. This email didn't need to win any awards — it just needed to have some minimum level of sensitivity. As I said in a cousin:

"he 'would enjoy meeting' me"

I don't think she really gives a damn in her current state what this guy would "enjoy" doing, is really the point here.

Re: Airbnb Nightmare: No End In Sight

#84

Post by Confusion »

danilocampos wrote: post #81
Confusion wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, isn't that what he would probably talk about over coffee? We don't know how the conversation went. He may have said something like: We're very sorry about what's happened to you and seek to resolve it. Let's have coffee as soon as possible to see what we have to do to resolve the situation for you. Would that justify the criticism that he should have asked about how she was at that moment, when it would seem fr…

"he 'would enjoy meeting' me" I don't think she really gives a damn in her current state what this guy would "enjoy" doing, is really the point here.

Apart from jrockway's explanation: it may also be the way she currently construes and represents the email and is not a literal quote. Given 'her current state', you can't really trust her to be an honest judge of peoples' intentions. Nor should you fault her for that, but that doesn't mean her statements can be taken at face value.

Re: Airbnb Nightmare: No End In Sight

#85

Post by danilocampos »

Confusion wrote: post #84
danilocampos wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"he 'would enjoy meeting' me" I don't think she really gives a damn in her current state what this guy would "enjoy" doing, is really the point here.

Apart from jrockway's explanation: it may also be the way she currently construes and represents the email and is not a literal quote. Given 'her current state', you can't really trust her to be an honest judge of peoples' intentions. Nor should you fault her for that, but that doesn't mean her statements can be taken at face value.

EJ has demonstrated a keen grasp of English language, punctuation and rhetoric. I think regardless of her state communication is clearly her strong suit.

What I'm saying is that I'd bet good money she knows what quotation marks mean.

Re: Airbnb Nightmare: No End In Sight

#86

Post by _delirium »

hammerdr wrote: post #53
_delirium wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would guess there's some of (3), but I'm surprised that a company with their level of funding, in a market with this kind of potential risk, didn't already have someone on staff with expertise in handling such a contingency. I can accept that the founders aren't experts in what to do in such an event, but surely someone hireable is. Maybe it's encouraging from one perspective, because it shows that even big startup…

Part of the reason I intrinsically trust start ups over BigCos is because they do not have such teams. Instead, I would expect the start up to be more personal, hands on, response and human . AirBNB, as much as I love them, seems to be falling flat on its face in this regard.

I tend to have the same view, yeah. I think there are situations where less bureaucracy in that regard can actually produce a more paralyzed response, though, depending on the personalities of all involved. For example, if you have a legal team but not a crisis-management team, the founders can be receiving far too cautious advice, and a not-legally-knowledgeable founder might not feel confident ignoring it. A good crisis-management advisor would instead give advice that balances legal risks with some sort of assessment of which of the legal risks are worth taking, while the legal department is more likely to tell you to avoid anything risky.

Re: Airbnb Nightmare: No End In Sight

#87

Post by snikolov »

funthree wrote: post #14

A summary: As of today, July 28, I have received no confirmation from either the San Francisco Police Department or the District Attorney that any culprit is in custody for my case. I received a personal call from one of the co-founders of Airbnb. We had a lengthy conversation, in which he indicated having knowledge of the (previously mentioned) person who had been apprehended by the police, but that he could not dis…

The notion that she is somehow out to get AirBnB or "hell bent on revenge" is ridiculous. She saw the facts being misrepresented by AirBnB for their own benefit, and she wanted to set the record straight. If someone is skewing facts about their interactions with you in a public forum to make themselves look good, wouldn't you be a little bothered?

Re: Airbnb Nightmare: No End In Sight

#88

Post by urschrei »

hooande wrote: post #73
alnayyir wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't like to be vulgar, particularly on HN, but it really needs to be asked. Is anyone here really all that surprised Chesky is a douche?

Brian Chesky is not a douche. Whatever he did regarding this situation, he did with one billion dollars worth of pressure on him. If he made some kind of mistake, then it was much more likely due to the pressure of the moment than a flaw in his character. He's actually one of the few truly good people that I've ever met. When I read the other day that he had reached out to the woman with support and money, I figured…

he did with one billion dollars worth of pressure on him The amount of money at stake is not an excuse. Sorry.

[…] and are willing to do whatever is necessary to make it go away. It's not going to go away, and he and ABnB have massively compounded the problem by wanting to "make it go away", instead of dealing with it in a humane and sensitive manner.

Re: Airbnb Nightmare: No End In Sight

#89

Post by urbanjunkie »

funthree wrote: post #14

A summary: As of today, July 28, I have received no confirmation from either the San Francisco Police Department or the District Attorney that any culprit is in custody for my case. I received a personal call from one of the co-founders of Airbnb. We had a lengthy conversation, in which he indicated having knowledge of the (previously mentioned) person who had been apprehended by the police, but that he could not dis…

Be happy you don't get raped. If you do, we'd enjoy having a coffee with you.

This should absolutely be AirBnB's marketing pitch.

Re: Airbnb Nightmare: No End In Sight

#90

Post by carbonica »

funthree wrote: post #14

A summary: As of today, July 28, I have received no confirmation from either the San Francisco Police Department or the District Attorney that any culprit is in custody for my case. I received a personal call from one of the co-founders of Airbnb. We had a lengthy conversation, in which he indicated having knowledge of the (previously mentioned) person who had been apprehended by the police, but that he could not dis…

> This is what insurance in our society is for. Get some.

No homeowner's insurance will cover an Airbnb rental. Hell, finding a lease which permits an Airbnb rental would be tough, let alone finding someone to insure an apartment where strangers show up and pay you for it. You must know this, because it's been discussed to death all over this issue.

> Your next stay at Airbnb may very well be a scene out of the movie Hostel. It is just as likely however that it may happen at the next apartment you rent, the next hotel you stay at, or the next ski lodge.

This logic is incredibly faulty. This is the same as saying "you might get ripped off meeting a stranger on craigslist. It is just as likely however that it may happen at a Best Buy." The structure of airbnb lends itself toward antisocial behavior far, far more than a hotel. That kind of comparison is just deceitful.

In fact, to turn your "point" around, I find it more likely you're an airbnb employee/pg fanboy shilling than EJ being out to destroy airbnb. You've demonstrated complete disregard for logic and facts to defend airbnb in this situation. She's just told a story.

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