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Airbnb Nightmare: No End In Sight

ejroundtheworld.blogspot.com

151–160 of 510 posts

Re: Airbnb Nightmare: No End In Sight

#151
Brian Chesky (Airbnb CEO) here. My heart goes out to our host. My co-founder has contacted her multiple times, as recently as last night, and we have again offered to help her in any way that she needs. We will continue to make ourselves available to her to do whatever she asks of us in this time of need. We have encouraged her to reach us so that we can help her through this, and we are standing by.

Re: Airbnb Nightmare: No End In Sight

#152

tl;dr: Devil's Advocate. This is not going to be very popular, but I'm just going to go on the record and say that this whole story may be a hoax. And I highlight "maybe". What we have here are two blog posts from someone we know nothing about who epitomizes a concentration of fears (woman, home, identity, violation) and manages, in two blog posts over the past seven months to bring about a PR nightmare for AirBnB. I…

Why would AirBnb intentionally suicide?

Re: Airbnb Nightmare: No End In Sight

#153
post #141

Airbnb & YC, just fix this please: 1. Get a new place for EJ. Furnish it fully. Pay for everything. 2. Help her restore her virtual identity. Use any resources at your considerable disposal. 3. Help her find her irreplaceable stuff. A few private detectives and a small team of scouters can make more progress in 2 weeks that the SFPD can make in a lifetime. Publish pictures of her grandmother's jewelry to enlist a gia…

How is this their fault? Your comments make no sense, because someone did not understand the inherent risks of using a service does not make it AirBnB's fault.

"How could this happen? Why did this happen? Despite it not being in New York... I LOVED my apartment nonetheless. It was my own private retreat, my sunny, bright, cozy loft that I would melt into on those rare occasions when I wasn't traveling. The space was simply decorated, minimalist enough to reflect a home life that was all mine, a place that was peaceful, and safe.

How could this happen? She decided to rent out her place - its not like AirBnB put it up on the market.

Thats the difference between a rental property and your home. If its something precious, it should not be entrusted to others.

Re: Airbnb Nightmare: No End In Sight

#154

Airbnb's Terms & Privacy section states that "We are not involved in the actual face-to-face contact between users," have "no control over the conduct of our users or the truth or accuracy of the information that users post," and " do not investigate any user's reputation, conduct, morality, criminal background, or verify the information that any user submits to the Site." It's a business, they're supposed to be mone…

Absolutely and let's assume they don't. If the facts of the case are as stated, then Airbnb acted unethically in my opinion. Since their lack of ethics cannot be punished in a court of law, the author claims her right to smear the company publicly. That's all this post is meant to do and I think that's just.

Re: Airbnb Nightmare: No End In Sight

#156
post #141

Airbnb & YC, just fix this please: 1. Get a new place for EJ. Furnish it fully. Pay for everything. 2. Help her restore her virtual identity. Use any resources at your considerable disposal. 3. Help her find her irreplaceable stuff. A few private detectives and a small team of scouters can make more progress in 2 weeks that the SFPD can make in a lifetime. Publish pictures of her grandmother's jewelry to enlist a gia…

How is this their fault? Your comments make no sense, because someone did not understand the inherent risks of using a service does not make it AirBnB's fault. "How could this happen? Why did this happen? Despite it not being in New York... I LOVED my apartment nonetheless. It was my own private retreat, my sunny, bright, cozy loft that I would melt into on those rare occasions when I wasn't traveling. The space was…

It might not be AirBnB who did this to her apartment, but it's definitly in AirBnB's commerical interest to kill the meme that "If you're happy to accept your place being trashed, then use AirBnB. If you don't want that to happen, don't use AirBnB"

Re: Airbnb Nightmare: No End In Sight

#157
post #141

Airbnb & YC, just fix this please: 1. Get a new place for EJ. Furnish it fully. Pay for everything. 2. Help her restore her virtual identity. Use any resources at your considerable disposal. 3. Help her find her irreplaceable stuff. A few private detectives and a small team of scouters can make more progress in 2 weeks that the SFPD can make in a lifetime. Publish pictures of her grandmother's jewelry to enlist a gia…

Not sure why YC should be getting blamed here? I give them a lot of credit as it appears that hacker news broke this story. If there was anything sinister going on I think they could have just deleted the story.

Airbnb is another matter. Asking the blogger to remove the post sounds like such a bone-headed move that I have trouble believing it is true.

Airbnb has lost all credibility in my book.

Re: Airbnb Nightmare: No End In Sight

#158
post #141

Airbnb & YC, just fix this please: 1. Get a new place for EJ. Furnish it fully. Pay for everything. 2. Help her restore her virtual identity. Use any resources at your considerable disposal. 3. Help her find her irreplaceable stuff. A few private detectives and a small team of scouters can make more progress in 2 weeks that the SFPD can make in a lifetime. Publish pictures of her grandmother's jewelry to enlist a gia…

1. Get a new place for EJ. Furnish it fully. Pay for everything.

They should definitely be doing better, but I think this particular advice is wrong. They can't buy a new house for everyone whose home gets vandalized. And any kind of "policy" would make this incident seem more likely to happen in the future, so no one would use the service. Irrational, but people aren't good at thinking about small odds (about 10 million to one, if Airbnb's numbers are right). Not to mention the rampant fraud that will happen when people destroy their own places to get money from Airbnb.

Re: Airbnb Nightmare: No End In Sight

#159
post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is this their fault? Your comments make no sense, because someone did not understand the inherent risks of using a service does not make it AirBnB's fault. "How could this happen? Why did this happen? Despite it not being in New York... I LOVED my apartment nonetheless. It was my own private retreat, my sunny, bright, cozy loft that I would melt into on those rare occasions when I wasn't traveling. The space was…

It might not be AirBnB who did this to her apartment, but it's definitly in AirBnB's commerical interest to kill the meme that "If you're happy to accept your place being trashed, then use AirBnB. If you don't want that to happen, don't use AirBnB"

Nope, this is something that everyone who rents out their place - on any service - must understand and come to terms with. Never gamble with more than you can afford to lose.

Re: Airbnb Nightmare: No End In Sight

#160
post #157
post #141

Airbnb & YC, just fix this please: 1. Get a new place for EJ. Furnish it fully. Pay for everything. 2. Help her restore her virtual identity. Use any resources at your considerable disposal. 3. Help her find her irreplaceable stuff. A few private detectives and a small team of scouters can make more progress in 2 weeks that the SFPD can make in a lifetime. Publish pictures of her grandmother's jewelry to enlist a gia…

Not sure why YC should be getting blamed here? I give them a lot of credit as it appears that hacker news broke this story. If there was anything sinister going on I think they could have just deleted the story. Airbnb is another matter. Asking the blogger to remove the post sounds like such a bone-headed move that I have trouble believing it is true. Airbnb has lost all credibility in my book.

It was a bit tacky that YC removed AirBnB's name from the title of the original story.
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