If that AirBnb co-founder really asked her to tone down her post because it would mess with future financing, that's just sad. Talk about inappropriate timing and priorities
It's all about money and greed. Sad indeedy.
Airbnb Victim Speaks Again: Homeless, Scared And Angry
81–90 of 144 posts
Re: Airbnb Victim Speaks Again: Homeless, Scared And Angry
#82[deleted]
Re: Airbnb Victim Speaks Again: Homeless, Scared And Angry
#83Earlier quoted context omitted.
(Disclaimer: I'm not saying that she's lying, and I see no element that makes me believe that she lies. I don't even see any concrete element pointing to a conspiracy, I'm merely pondering how credible it might be). > what would EJ gain by lying? AirBnB has the potential to become very disruptive for the whole hostel industry. This means that there are people, some of them with deep pockets, some of them less than ho…
There's only one problem with your thought process: even if the "thugs" were sent by the big bad hotel industry, they have no influence over the way that AirBnB responds to the incident. If they would have handled it in a responsible, savvy way this would be a non-story, or maybe even a big PR win. The "devious" plan only works if AirBnB bungles the ball, which they have done. They have no one to blame for that but t…
I never discussed the appropriateness of AirBnB's response, neither to defend nor to accuse them.
I only said that if one wants to destroy them in possibly illegal ways, making such an event occur looks like an excellent move.
Bonus point, from the attacker's point of view, if AirBnB reacts inappropriately of course. But even if they had been faultless, people would still have remembered this story every time they considered renting their home. Notice that the focus is on the emotional harm rather than the financial one, i.e. the one AirBnB cannot fix even if they want to.
Re: Airbnb Victim Speaks Again: Homeless, Scared And Angry
#84Wow. I love AirBnB, and I hate to say it, but that was a completely boneheaded move. There is absolutely no doubt that EJ is very public on this issue. If it's true that AirBnB tried to cover up the problem, then why? Did the founders think that EJ wouldn't turn around and say that they're asking her to remove the post? Handling this situation should be a top priority for AirBnB. There's the potential that the mainst…
It isn't disappointing, it is predictable. AirBnB has skirted the rules from day one, when they launched by spamming Craiglist. AirBnB brokers a service that is illegal in many jurisdictions, and they go out of their way to mask the serious risks their users (both renters and owners) are taking. And when the obvious happens, their response is self-serving.
Actually that was apparently not sanctioned, rather the work of some contractors acting off their own back.[1]
Re: Airbnb Victim Speaks Again: Homeless, Scared And Angry
#85Earlier quoted context omitted.
It isn't disappointing, it is predictable. AirBnB has skirted the rules from day one, when they launched by spamming Craiglist. AirBnB brokers a service that is illegal in many jurisdictions, and they go out of their way to mask the serious risks their users (both renters and owners) are taking. And when the obvious happens, their response is self-serving.
Actually that was apparently not sanctioned, rather the work of some contractors acting off their own back.[1] [1]: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2815183
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Re: Airbnb Victim Speaks Again: Homeless, Scared And Angry
#86This article on TC adds nothing at all. Original blog post: http://ejroundtheworld.blogspot.com/2011/07/airbnb-nightmare... HN submission of that blog post for discussion: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2820615 ======== ADDED IN EDIT: Clearly this is contentious - it went up to two points, now as I write this it's down to zero, and who knows where it will go next. Yes, I agree, sometimes TechCrunch adds informat…
The real news here is "TechCrunch isn't sleeping on the AirBnB/EJ story", especially given that EJ's followup post is still on the front page.
The important details are in the news cycle itself:
1) EJ post tops the HN front page
2) HuffPo-owned TechCrunch reblogs it
3) TC posts a defense from an AirBnB cofounder
4) EJ posts a "still no help from AirBnB" followup
5) TC reblogs that as well in an attempt to cover both sides of the story
Re: Airbnb Victim Speaks Again: Homeless, Scared And Angry
#87I'm using airbnb in Berlin right now. Two days ago I received a knock on my door. Turns out it was the real owner of the apartment and he had the Paperwork to prove it. Fortunately he was nice enough to let us stay without compensation. When I went to the airbnb website to try and call them all I got was a web message box. I filled out a message and sent it on its way but that's a pretty lousy system. Luckily for me…
Exactly. Based on EJ's description of AirBnB customer service, and the 2,000,000 bookings the founders cited earlier today, we'd be fools to think this was the first time someone broke the law using AirBnB -- I'm guessing the others just gave up on support after being ignored, and focused on talking to the police. The real black eye here is the kind of support EJ received before she wrote her blog post -- most people…
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Re: Airbnb Victim Speaks Again: Homeless, Scared And Angry
#88If that AirBnb co-founder really asked her to tone down her post because it would mess with future financing, that's just sad. Talk about inappropriate timing and priorities
It's all about money and greed. Sad indeedy.
Airbnb is a business. And honestly their behavior is exactly what I would expect from them: dont admit any liability, offer words of consolement.
Re: Airbnb Victim Speaks Again: Homeless, Scared And Angry
#89How does this work legally? Is it still burglary when the people were allowed in the house? Of course taking things that do not below to you is theft. But going through someones documents, is that illegal?
Not a lawyer and I don't know anything about San Francisco laws, but I'm a former police dispatcher and I've worked in the insurance industry.
Burglary is usually just breaking and entering plus some other crime. Breaking (the legal term) doesn't actually require anything be literally broken to gain entry (i.e. theft or duplication of keys and lockpicking still qualify), and you can still "break" into rooms of a home you've been invited into in some jurisdictions; so if you were not explicitly permitted into an area and a reasonable attempt to prevent you from entering was made (closed door, locks, gates, etc), it's breaking. Not all jurisdictions require a theft to occur for burglary to have been committed, there's a multitude of crimes that might qualify: kidnapping, assault, battery, rape, arson, theft, vandalism, and others might all be valid secondary crimes that would create a burglary and some places don't even require that, the mere act of breaking and entering is sufficient.
Going through someone's document may not be criminal, but copying the documents is probably criminal identity theft and that in tandem with them being in a locked away closet would probably add burglary to the charges even though the host had invited the guests into the house. From the original post's description of events, there'd still be felony vandalism and felony theft too, although if she actually reported to the police that she had essentially sublet her apartment through AirBnB, she's most certainly exempt from making insurance claims that would make her whole again.
Re: Airbnb Victim Speaks Again: Homeless, Scared And Angry
#90Earlier quoted context omitted.
Just to clarify, since it took your second comment to get me to this understanding - Someone who was not the real owner of the apartment (presumably thief/criminal) put the place up on AirBnB. You unknowingly rented the place from this person, and during your stay, the real owner showed up and asked what you were doing in his house?
that is correct. The person who put up the listing claims to be friends with the tenant. The tenant has not paid rent in 4 months and his contract explicitly forbids subletting. So I am staying in this apartment illegally. Luckily, the owner is nice enough to let us stay for the remainder of our time without compensation. I have no idea how common this situation is but this is only our 6th time using airbnb and if th…
Berlin resident here. I agree that it's a tough problem to solve and would make verification of hosts (maybe prohibitively) expensive. You'd have to check that the person listing the place is a) actually the tenant, b) is in good standing with the landlord, c) has permission to sublet (without pre-approval of individual subletters by the landlord).
In practice, most Berlin landlords won't ever notice their flat being occasionally sublet to tourists by the tenant, but they will probably not be too happy when they notice.