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Our Commitment to Trust & Safety

blog.airbnb.com

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Re: Our Commitment to Trust & Safety

#71

Post by jacquesm »

JimmyL wrote: post #28

Two 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…

Let it go. They did the right thing, maybe they were doing it all along, maybe they did it under pressure, it does not matter.

What matters is that EJ (and others) will be compensated and AirBNB will live to fight another day in a much stronger and more real-world grounded fashion. Maybe their margins won't be quite as high but that's what usually happens when you underestimate the cost of doing business.

Winners all around, future hosts and guests of AirBNB included.

Note that this does not take care of any emotional issues but it will certainly help with the practical part of it, and I don't think a party like AirBNB could help with those anyway beyond doing their very best to minimize the hurt from such an event.

Re: Our Commitment to Trust & Safety

#72

Post by mikemoka »

pavel_lishin wrote: post #25
mikemoka wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder too.. They are proposing a worldwide guarantee, how could they verify each claim?..By partnerships with insurance companies all over the world?

Presumably by not paying out except in the case of a successful police investigation.

Yes this kind of thing is hardly sustainable, I think it may just be a smart PR move and they'll hugely downsize it or cancel it in the next months, after the storm has passed.

Re: Our Commitment to Trust & Safety

#73

Post by danvideo »

lyudmil wrote: post #51

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. Che…

Second that. Words are empty, but this sounds like real action... insurance (especially retroactive) + 24 help + more overall support service - all that hits the nail on the head of the problem. This was the response people (or at least ME) were waiting for.

Good luck Airbnb.

Re: Our Commitment to Trust & Safety

#74

Post by tptacek »

cosgroveb wrote: post #9

A $50,000 guarantee seems a bit low. Condos in OK neighborhoods here in Chicago start at around 200K so theoretically a lot more than 50K in damage could be done.

$50,000 is on the low side for a freestanding house (house fires are in the high tens of thousands of dollars), but seems totally reasonable for an apartment.

You wonder how much of the concern about the specifics of this announcement really reflect the typical HNer's lack of comfort with the Airbnb model, period. Remember, lots of people on HN would never be comfortable renting their place out period. And that's fine; those people aren't Airbnb customers right now. Plenty of people obviously do find the transaction palatable.

Similarly, terrible incidents like this happen without the fancy Rails app to facilitate them. Ask around for subletting horror stories. How often do we as a community freak out over the concept of subletting? A giant slice of all renters have to consider doing that any time they need to get out of a lease.

Re: Our Commitment to Trust & Safety

#75

Post by tptacek »

JimmyL wrote: post #65
yid wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Could I then sue the insurance company as well, for helping my tenant break the conditions of their lease? The decision to break the conditions of the lease was solely your tenant's decision. Any sane insurance company will either verify the tenant's ability to rent out their place, or will void the contract if they discover later that the tenant did not have the legal right to rent out their place. Most likely, if…

I agree - but isn't this then a huge out for Airbnb, in terms of reducing the number of people that will actually be covered under this? NY has its well-known laws that make most Airbnb listing contrary to State law, and in my lease (for example) it specifically says that I can't rent it out to people without the landlord's permission - which I think is similar to most boilerplate leases. Given that, would all the da…

It seems silly to the point of trollish to argue that the $50k guarantee Airbnb announced in a post about EJ's incident would have been designed to exclude EJ. Give it a rest.

Re: Our Commitment to Trust & Safety

#76

Post by larrys »

"for loss or damage due to vandalism or theft caused by an Airbnb guest up to $50,000"

As others have mentioned no exact details have been listed anywhere.

For the vandalism they will most certainly require that obviously a police report be filed. Notice that "damage" is not covered though. Only vandalism.

Theft is trickier. The actual policy might say that they will pay if your homeowners/renters policy doesn't pay. Or there may be deductibles. And once again they will require a police report to document the theft.

Typically the problem with any insurance in this situation is proving that something is actually stolen as opposed to just missing.

I think that without seeing the actual coverage you can't really draw any conclusions.

By the way if you rent your apartment you should always have renters insurance anyway. It isn't that expensive and it would cover damage (less a deductible) even if you had a party and a friend damaged something - in other words a simple accident. Or if the tub overflowed by accident and damaged the carpeting.

Re: Our Commitment to Trust & Safety

#78

Post by drgath »

jacquesm wrote: post #71
JimmyL wrote: post #28

Two 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…

Let it go. They did the right thing, maybe they were doing it all along, maybe they did it under pressure, it does not matter. What matters is that EJ (and others) will be compensated and AirBNB will live to fight another day in a much stronger and more real-world grounded fashion. Maybe their margins won't be quite as high but that's what usually happens when you underestimate the cost of doing business. Winners all…

> "What matters is that EJ will be compensated and AirBNB will live to fight another day"

That's what we're not sure about. EJ, a renter herself, likely didn't have the right to rent out her unit. The blog post says "We will extend this program to EJ...", not "We'll take care of EJ." She still has to qualify through whatever insurance company airbnb is working with. It's going to be an even worse PR disaster when the insurance company says "No."

Re: Our Commitment to Trust & Safety

#79

Post by citadrianne »

aresant wrote: post #46

Extrapolating but I bet that language "$50,000 Airbnb Guarantee" allows them (airbnb) to buy "claims" insurance thus subverting the inherent issues around offering renters insurance to their market. Brilliant move!

Why would they offer renter's insurance? It's just a few days at a time.

Re: Our Commitment to Trust & Safety

#80

Post by tptacek »

mikemoka wrote: post #72
pavel_lishin wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Presumably by not paying out except in the case of a successful police investigation.

Yes this kind of thing is hardly sustainable, I think it may just be a smart PR move and they'll hugely downsize it or cancel it in the next months, after the storm has passed.

What? Why is this hard to sustain? This is a non sequitor reply.
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