Renting to strangers is like having sex without protection. Period.
You should see what happens when you rent to friends, or worse: family.
What would happen in such a case? You sound like you have experience with it. They stay forever?
Another Airbnb Victim Tells His Story: “There Were Meth Pipes Everywhere”
191–200 of 254 posts
Re: Another Airbnb Victim Tells His Story: “There Were Meth Pipes Everywhere”
#192There are a few glaring, obvious questions to which I have not seen any answers so far - or maybe I have missed them: Why was it difficult for Airbnb to immediately have the person that trashed the place arrested? Don't they have the person's identity - address, credit card information, phone number, IP address? Don't they run a basic credit check when a person signs up to rent a unit listed on the site? Or at least…
I've been wondering this as well, and I didn't see it mentioned in any post thus far. It seems like the most obvious step to do; if police can get the CC number from AirBnB, that should be enough to resolve the SSN. Assuming the info isn't stolen, the criminal is going to have a problem.
I'm not an AirBnB user, so maybe I'm missing something.
Re: Another Airbnb Victim Tells His Story: “There Were Meth Pipes Everywhere”
#193Earlier quoted context omitted.
No, and neither did this guy, Troy, who also called airbnb. I don't think its a good idea to counter with more speculation.
I'm going to go ahead and assume that EJ has at least as much legal representation as I'd have any time I ended a lease with a significant security deposit, and if you don't think that's reasonable, I don't care; I simply think you're wrong. The world will nonetheless continue turning on its axis.
I would immediately have a lawyer involved as well, but then I can't imagine finding myself in EJ's position to begin with, i.e. renting my home out to a complete stranger without even a background check. I think we're dealing with a rather different mind set here, and not the "lawyer up" type.
Re: Another Airbnb Victim Tells His Story: “There Were Meth Pipes Everywhere”
#194There are a few glaring, obvious questions to which I have not seen any answers so far - or maybe I have missed them: Why was it difficult for Airbnb to immediately have the person that trashed the place arrested? Don't they have the person's identity - address, credit card information, phone number, IP address? Don't they run a basic credit check when a person signs up to rent a unit listed on the site? Or at least…
Slightly off-topic, but what's with Americans and thinking it is acceptable to run credit checks for everything? Credit history is not an indicator of whether you are deserving of sleeping somewhere for a night. Maybe a criminal record check.
Re: Another Airbnb Victim Tells His Story: “There Were Meth Pipes Everywhere”
#195As much as some people might view this as "sometimes things go wrong", which is basically true, that's not the whole story. The story here is that people are doing things that in most jurisdictions are illegal. AirBnB is profiting off this. Do something illegal and you can't insure against any negative consequences. The whole EJ situation is a potential inflection point. Without knowing the full facts (which no one s…
It's simple for EJ to come clean by positing a copy of the communication between airbnb and her.
Re: Another Airbnb Victim Tells His Story: “There Were Meth Pipes Everywhere”
#196I'm starting to think that much like Quora, AirBnB worked because of the nature of its early members and that the model simply doesn't scale.
I think it depends on the type of rental. Vacation rentals or rentals where the owner is present can work, but it's extremely risky to hand a stranger the keys to your home and disappear, hoping they won't steal anything or trash the place. It's great that AirBnB's early adopters were largely trustworthy enough to let that practice persist for a while, but it won't survive mainstream popularity.
If you're present, there is a chance you get murdered.
Re: Another Airbnb Victim Tells His Story: “There Were Meth Pipes Everywhere”
#197Earlier quoted context omitted.
So, it was meant to be a joke. Sadly, it wasn't a funny joke. And it adds nothing to the conversation. Hence, downvotes. HN observers often assume we don't have a sense of humor around here. Actually, I've seen a number of funny comments upvoted, and have done so many times myself. It's closer to the truth to say that most people aren't nearly as funny as they think they are.
The other problem is that it is interchangeable with many other jokes of the same flavor, ie, they were buying Facebook private shares, getting into the LinkedIn IPO, et cetera. This is a tip off that even if it's funny it might not be relevant. See also the South Park critique of Family Guy. Saying they were doubling down buying shares in Hilton and Motel 6 would at least have been marginally on topic. But still a b…
"supporting their meth addiction" might have worked
Re: Another Airbnb Victim Tells His Story: “There Were Meth Pipes Everywhere”
#198As much as some people might view this as "sometimes things go wrong", which is basically true, that's not the whole story. The story here is that people are doing things that in most jurisdictions are illegal. AirBnB is profiting off this. Do something illegal and you can't insure against any negative consequences. The whole EJ situation is a potential inflection point. Without knowing the full facts (which no one s…
[deleted]
Re: Another Airbnb Victim Tells His Story: “There Were Meth Pipes Everywhere”
#199Creepy for guests: One could book AirBNB space and then reoffer it on AirBNB (is this possible?) or craigslist. So when you arrive, there is a "host" which is not the real one.
Re: Another Airbnb Victim Tells His Story: “There Were Meth Pipes Everywhere”
#200Seriously, fuck this guy. AirBNB simply facilitates finding people. AirBNB doesn't owe these people a single cent. In fact these AirBNB "victims" should apologize for their self-centered whining. Don't want any risk? Then don't let anyone into your house, dumbass. Don't blame random companies just because you're a fucking idiot.