Our Commitment to Trust & Safety • Hacker News Board

Re: Our Commitment to Trust & Safety

#151

Post by rockya » Tue, Aug 02, 2011, 4:45 AM UTC

jacquesm wrote: post #83

drgath wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "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…

I think it would be a fair bet that AirBNB will not risk that and will budget out-of-pocket. Also, I don't see how an insurance company would ever agree to pay out on past cases so my guess is that they'll be paying for all of those out of pocket. Going forward from Aug. 15th it looks like they'll have a deal in place and in the meantime things are 'murky'. The blog post leaves enough room for AirBNB to assume comple…

i emailed with brian and they are paying all of these out of pocket, even going forward. no insurance company involved. now that opens up a whole other can of worms...

Re: Our Commitment to Trust & Safety

#152

Post by rockya » Tue, Aug 02, 2011, 4:47 AM UTC

JimmyL wrote: post #84

temphn wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 shortcomi…

The potential for fraud doesn't concern me because Airbnb will clearly get an insurance company to run this program white-label, and they have whole departments designed to find and fight fraud. Based on the profits in the sector, it seems like they do a pretty good job of it. As for the veracity of their line about someone being in custody with the SFPD, I stand corrected - my mistake. The last stuff that came to th…

they aren't using an insurance company, they are paying for it out of pocket.

Re: Our Commitment to Trust & Safety

#153

Post by nimblegorilla » Tue, Aug 02, 2011, 4:47 AM UTC

gobongo wrote: post #103

wheels wrote: post #98

So, this is a totally superficial comment, but here we go. Brian, as part of all of this crisis stuff, I think it's time to have a new profile picture taken. One where you don't look so, how should I say... 20. From rough calculation, I'm only a couple years older, but one thing that's stood out for me visually in all of this is that ... well, let's just say that it's one of those times where looking like the young s…

IMO the problem isn't that he looks 20, but rather that he looks pretty douchey in that photo. Looking young isn't so bad in this context, but looking like you just stepped off of the set of one of those MTV 'reality' shows is. I'm fairly certain this is going to get me down-voted through the floor, but please at least view the picture in question prior to down-voting me for saying this.

I don't think he looks like a douche, but I thought that picture was a stock photo of someone who was supposed to represent the criminal who started the whole mess.

Re: Our Commitment to Trust & Safety

#154

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Aug 02, 2011, 4:55 AM UTC

alohahacker wrote: post #137

wheels wrote: post #98

So, this is a totally superficial comment, but here we go. Brian, as part of all of this crisis stuff, I think it's time to have a new profile picture taken. One where you don't look so, how should I say... 20. From rough calculation, I'm only a couple years older, but one thing that's stood out for me visually in all of this is that ... well, let's just say that it's one of those times where looking like the young s…

this is so true. i was thinking the exact thing especially in all his pics on techcrunch. perception is everything and all those pics give the reader a different image for sure. more cocky, im the man kind of image. its just that the pics dont seem right for the situation. on a side note...i think hes a good looking dude (no homo of course lol)

[deleted]

Re: Our Commitment to Trust & Safety

#155

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Aug 02, 2011, 4:58 AM UTC

Duff wrote: post #134

shoota wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yet a renter will still be held responsible by the owners of the building if anything outside of their possessions is destroyed.

Only if they are negligent or worse. Landlords carry insurance on the structure. Tenants are responsible for contents of their apartment. Hopefully if you rent and use Airbnb, you have a renter's insurance policy with high liability limits.

[deleted]

Re: Our Commitment to Trust & Safety

#156

Post by rockya » Tue, Aug 02, 2011, 5:01 AM UTC

billclerico wrote: post #93

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.

in the event of someone owning a condo or house, damages to the structure would probably be covered by homeowners insurance

renting out your house for money gives the insurance company an out because your homeowners policy is for personal use. see http://blog.agrawals.org/2011/08/01/answers-on-insurance-air...

Re: Our Commitment to Trust & Safety

#157

Post by erikpukinskis » Tue, Aug 02, 2011, 5:06 AM UTC

Cushman wrote: post #82

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…

Why do you suppose this is an insurance policy and not a cash guarantee? They never use the word. It's a flat $50,000 everywhere, with terms and conditions to vary by area, and to apply retroactively — does that really sound like insurance? I know you're gonna say fraud, but why do you think they've doubled the size of their customer support team in the last month? These guys aren't dumb, they knew this was coming. T…

Agreed. I don't see what the benefit of insurance would be. Insurance only makes sense in one case: when "the big one" will send you under water.

In this case, they're liable to get a few claims per year (or month, or whatever). If they wanted insurance, they'd have to pay all of that PLUS some, spread out into a monthly payment. Doesn't make any sense.

If they had an open-ended policy that covered emotional damages or somesuch, maybe they would need insurance.

Re: Our Commitment to Trust & Safety

#158

Post by erikpukinskis » Tue, Aug 02, 2011, 5:09 AM UTC

alohahacker wrote: post #137

wheels wrote: post #98

So, this is a totally superficial comment, but here we go. Brian, as part of all of this crisis stuff, I think it's time to have a new profile picture taken. One where you don't look so, how should I say... 20. From rough calculation, I'm only a couple years older, but one thing that's stood out for me visually in all of this is that ... well, let's just say that it's one of those times where looking like the young s…

this is so true. i was thinking the exact thing especially in all his pics on techcrunch. perception is everything and all those pics give the reader a different image for sure. more cocky, im the man kind of image. its just that the pics dont seem right for the situation. on a side note...i think hes a good looking dude (no homo of course lol)

Please don't say "no homo". It's really offensive.

Re: Our Commitment to Trust & Safety

#159

Post by azov » Tue, Aug 02, 2011, 6:25 AM UTC

So, AirBnb did the right thing (which they would have to implement sooner or later anyway) and got tons of free publicity in process. Not bad after all :) Congrats, Brian, and good luck to your venture!

Re: Our Commitment to Trust & Safety

#160

Post by forensic » Tue, Aug 02, 2011, 6:35 AM UTC

mashmac2 wrote: post #4

Well, this certainly drags AirBnb into the eBay and PayPal sized fraud prevention industry... and I wonder how this will affect the vibe of the website. Certainly, AirBnB will survive this ordeal, and gain more name recognition from this event. Hopefully it doesn't do things like kill their profit margins or harm the ease of renting through AirBnb.

It's not the same level of challenge as eBay and Paypal. Are Nigerians going to buy houses in SF so they can pretend to have them robbed?

eBay and Paypal's #1 way of avoiding fraud is by validating physical addresses. AirBnB has this built in. Something tells me their insurance policy doesn't apply to shacks in Nigeria.