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Airbnb Nightmare: No End In Sight

ejroundtheworld.blogspot.com

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Re: Airbnb Nightmare: No End In Sight

#191

Post by jcunningham »

brianchesky wrote: post #186
edw519 wrote: 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…

we are standing by, and we just contacted her again telling her that we will do whatever we can to help.

What does "standing by" mean?

What does "whatever we can" mean?

Why did you say yesterday there is a suspect in custody if the victim claims the suspect was released a month ago?

Do you think it's a problem that we have to parse your words so carefully now?

Re: Airbnb Nightmare: No End In Sight

#192

Post by palebluedot »

ig1 wrote: post #160
tpatke wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It should be noted that when they changed that story title, they were changing it to the actual title of the blog posting. That is pretty standard practice here, to prevent editorializing via the title. Although, I can see how it would come across wrong in this case.

Re: Airbnb Nightmare: No End In Sight

#193

Post by jcunningham »

brianchesky wrote: post #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.

It didn't sound like your heart went out to her.

Sounded more like your lawyer went out to her.

Re: Airbnb Nightmare: No End In Sight

#194

Post by markh »

microcentury wrote: post #173
edw519 wrote: 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…

The way things are right now, maybe this blows over and the AirBnB business model continues just the way it was, with its associated massive valuation. If they help everyone in the way you are suggesting, the model is _definitely_ finished, because you cannot create the expectation that AirBnB will pick up the pieces every time something goes wrong. And the more people use the service, the mores cases like this there…

Agreed AirBnB can't create the expectation of covering the cost of apartments being "trashed" for fear of abuse of the policy. You can be sure that their lawyers are vetting all messages too, for fear of creating a chain of liability, should they start covering the costs.

That said, what about offering a generous bounty? Say $1m in this case for the successful apprehension and prosecution of the guilty party (or parties). This figure would have to be ratcheted down after the initial PR success for fear of people committing such crimes in future with the intent of enriching their friend/relative who turns them in.

Re: Airbnb Nightmare: No End In Sight

#195

Post by dlss »

wheels wrote: post #180
scott_s wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I get exactly what you're saying, but what about point 6? What do you do when this happens again? And I see absolutely no reason why it won't happen again. Let me put it another way: I think this problem kills the business model. What they currently do is not sustainable. They can't swoop in and replace everything for every person who is a victim of a scheme like this with their current model. If that becomes their s…

> And I see absolutely no reason why it won't happen again. It will happen again. And it was clear that it'd happen at some point. And worse will happen. Shit happens, especially at scale. > I think this problem kills the business model. Nah. Let's do a little back-of-the-napkining: • Let's assume that this is the first incidence of such. • Let's assume that Brian's quoted 2 million nights of rentals is accurate. • A…

> Let's assume that Brian's quoted 2 million nights of rentals is accurate.

The reason they haven't done anything is that 1 in 2 million isn't accurate. 1 in 50,000 is probably stretching it. Consider the accidental AirBnB trespassing/squatting reported by another HN reader here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2820644

It's starting to look like AirBnB's business model relies on tricking people into making a bad financial decision[1] and then ignoring and intimidating them when things go bad.

[1] 99.99% chance of gaining $100 with 0.01% chance of losing $50,000 is positive expected value, but if losing $50,000 would bankrupt you it isn't a game you should play.

Re: Airbnb Nightmare: No End In Sight

#196

Post by speckledjim »

bambax wrote: post #74
Zakuzaa wrote: post #12

Now wait for the mainstream media to jump on this.

As they say, there's no such thing as bad publicity . Many more people who have never heard of Airbnb, who can't imagine such a concept possible, will now know it exists.

BS. They will know about it, and know that it carries large risks.

Re: Airbnb Nightmare: No End In Sight

#197

Post by zavulon »

brianchesky wrote: post #186
edw519 wrote: 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…

we are standing by, and we just contacted her again telling her that we will do whatever we can to help.

What happened to paying her for damages? After the initial blog post, you said you'd do it. Then this post by her makes it clear that you didn't, and are not going to. So which one is it?

Re: Airbnb Nightmare: No End In Sight

#198

Post by estel »

palebluedot wrote: post #192
ig1 wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

It should be noted that when they changed that story title, they were changing it to the actual title of the blog posting. That is pretty standard practice here, to prevent editorializing via the title. Although, I can see how it would come across wrong in this case.

The discussion was here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2813118

Re: Airbnb Nightmare: No End In Sight

#199

Post by rjbond3rd »

brianchesky wrote: post #186
edw519 wrote: 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…

we are standing by, and we just contacted her again telling her that we will do whatever we can to help.

For Pete's sake, compensate the woman for her loss already, and get a signed NDA in exchange. This is your chance to show (a) you're not evil, and (b) you can handle the situation.

Re: Airbnb Nightmare: No End In Sight

#200

Post by forgotAgain »

microcentury wrote: post #173
edw519 wrote: 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…

The way things are right now, maybe this blows over and the AirBnB business model continues just the way it was, with its associated massive valuation. If they help everyone in the way you are suggesting, the model is _definitely_ finished, because you cannot create the expectation that AirBnB will pick up the pieces every time something goes wrong. And the more people use the service, the mores cases like this there…

Fuck the model, it's broken.
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