Giving credit where credit is due, I think Mr. Chesky and Airbnb have done a good job here. Corporations aren't intrinsically ethical (by law) but start-ups are small enough that they can (a) afford to act human and (b) be held accountable by their customers in meaningful ways. This is why people like Airbnb and why they (myself included) were disappointed in the way the situation was handled. I loved reading Mr. Chesky's response and although this clearly changes things for Airbnb as a business, they are now a company I care to see succeed.
Our Commitment to Trust & Safety
51–60 of 177 posts
Re: Our Commitment to Trust & Safety
#52I bet the vandalizer feels pretty smug about himself right now.
Say what? Not sure where you're going with that. You think this whole incident was just to provoke AirBnB into responding?
I'm just saying that somebody that immature is probably happy with himself that he caused such a big mess.
Re: Our Commitment to Trust & Safety
#53Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think it's fantastic that they're implementing this, but it's still rather depressing that it took a month of time and a weekend of bad PR to get them to do it in the first place.
the fact that AirBNB has managed to implement an international insurance/guarantee program in as little as a month is a heroic feat.
They have $112m. They can self-insure for as long as it takes to set it up.
I think they did a great job on this response, except that it took too long. Individual incidents should have been handled as exceptions and handled well, and then this policy developed and announced once they noticed a trend of such exceptions in their CRM (or in weekly support team meetings with the founders)
Re: Our Commitment to Trust & Safety
#54Two things immediately pop out from this: "Earlier this week, I wrote a blog post trying to explain the situation, but it didn’t reflect my true feelings." I'm not sure how I feel about this line (I assume it's referring to his TC post). On one hand, it's nice that he's now 'fessing up with a this-is-how-I-feel post. On the other, it's a pretty clear admission that he's had no problems in the past sending out PR spin…
Ever hear the parable about the man in the arena?
It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points
out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds
could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who
is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and
sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes
up short again and again, because there is no effort
without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great
enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a
worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the
triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he
fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his
place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who
knew neither victory nor defeat.
-- Teddy Roosevelt
Great to know also that you're interested in the legalities of the insurance. I guess they should have included citations to case law in a blog post.
> it turns out that when someone tries to verify it with
SFPD, the suspect isn't in custody (because they've been
extradited to another community)?
Some people are never satisfied. You appear to be one of them.
Re: Our Commitment to Trust & Safety
#55I wonder if this will be killed like http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2834066 ...
A story can't be killed if it has ten comments on it. You were one away. I asked a question that died with 61 points. But knowing that it only takes 10 flags to kill a story, I wouldn't be surprise to know that AirBnB has ten diehard supporters.
Re: Our Commitment to Trust & Safety
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is pretty much exactly what they should be doing. The fact that it took them several weeks to do it is what constitutes a poor response to the crisis. Regardless, it looks like they're doing what they should be doing, and I hope it works out both for them and their customers.
I disagree. Changing your support model to a 24 hour call center in a month is a big, impressive feat. Think of the hiring/training/management/infrastructure challenges. Not to mention the insurance policy, which is international? This is not trivial stuff. It would take most companies several months to even get close to this.
Granted, but this is a PR statement. I have a sneaking suspicion that this is "in the process of beginning to implement" stages, not "We were waiting to have everything fully functional before making a statement about it".
But that said, yes, good on them.
>>It would take most companies several months to even get close to this.
I think that if a company's ability to remain in business was dependent on getting this sort of infrastructure change in place, most would be able to pull it off. Pulling it off well is another question entirely, and I'm going to be interested to see what kind of service they provide in the next couple of months.
Re: Our Commitment to Trust & Safety
#57Its seems that, based on the positive media reaction to this, AirBnB has done everything right from the start:
Everyone is piling on them for screwing up the initial reaction to EJ, by not going far enough in offering to help her. But AirBnB didn't do much to help Troy (from the TechCrunch post) 2 months ago, and that story didn't blow up in to a PR disaster. They simply gave him a few free nights and he was happy.
So, it is impossible to tell if any given customer support issue is a potential "PR-nightmare". If AirBnB had over-reacted and offered Troy thousands of dollars (as was being suggested for EJ), they would have lost out - because Troy was happy with just a few free nights in AirBnB credit. How were they supposed to know that EJ (1) wouldn't be happy with what Troy received (2) Would make a scathing blog post and (3) That blog post would go viral. They couldn't have.
So, if you are a wagering person, it seems like the best course of action is to do exactly what AirBnB did: offering minimal support and grow until something really bad happens. Then come out swinging with a big apology and a big offer of support and restitution.
Since it seems like the media and public are willing to forgive AirBnB (judging by the reaction to today's announcement), this course seems like it may have been optimal compared to over-helping people like Troy.
Put another way: PR distasters are recoverable if you say you are sorry and ask forgiveness. Being too careful upfront and limiting your growth curve is not forgivable.
Re: Our Commitment to Trust & Safety
#58Well done. The 50k guarantee and the 24 hour customer service are great features that needed to be there before, but at least they have them now. I wonder though if there's a bigger problem with how Airbnb views customers. EJ and the other guy shouldn't have faced such coldness from Airbnb. It just shows something is wrong. I hope that this "crisis" will help awake Airbnb to take customer service more seriously. Rather than hiring someone from Ebay, they should hire someone from Zappos to head their customer service. Actually, the whole leadership team from Airbnb should take a trip to Zappos and get some training.
Re: Our Commitment to Trust & Safety
#59For once TechCrunch was able to facilitate a good cause.
There's a hefty chance that AirBnB wouldn't had responded like this if Arrington hadn't been on their back. It's only once TC started to report them rigorously, they started to _understand_ how lame their previous communication been.
Now all Arrington has to bin CatherinaFake-like posts and we have our old TC back on track.
Re: Our Commitment to Trust & Safety
#60Now THAT is a good response. I wonder if it'll be abused though.
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