AirCover by Airbnb • Hacker News Board

Re: AirCover by Airbnb

#21

Post by rootsudo » Wed, Nov 10, 2021, 4:41 AM UTC

resonantjacket5 wrote: post #14

googlge6X wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I rent an Airbnb in Miami but fly back to uk after a hangover style party. Good luck sueing me, even if you did most people don't have a 10,000usd never mind a 1m, then enforcement and collection.how does that open and shut?

You'd have a hard time re-entering the usa after automatically losing the case by not showing up at the courthouse and not paying the bill. But in any case the scenario of leaving the country is not unique to airbnb and exists for rental cars, other loans, and basically any activity involving borrowing something

Not really. no time to re-enter, they will not enforce this upon entry. It is not criminal, it is civil.

It is not criminal yet to not show up in a civil case.

Re: AirCover by Airbnb

#22

Post by numair » Wed, Nov 10, 2021, 4:50 AM UTC

rootsudo wrote: post #18

Wow, the astroturfing in this thread already is happening. 0. This is nothing new, airbnb always had a free "guarantee" they just rebranded it basically from what I see to a trademarkable name. 1. Umbrella policy is better than airbnb. Umbrella policy will go after all parties including airbnb on your behalf. 2. Airbnb has a history of ignoring or mitigating damages unless you get famous on social media - this includ…

There was a weird ad-post for You.com earlier, which I mistakenly thought was organic... And now this. HN needs a bit more transparency or it’s going to lose a few of us.

Re: AirCover by Airbnb

#23

Post by blondie9x » Wed, Nov 10, 2021, 4:52 AM UTC

This is nothing new from Airbnb. Just a new name and a newly updated webpage. Also checkboxes help. But yeah nothing new.

Re: AirCover by Airbnb

#24

Post by yaitsyaboi » Wed, Nov 10, 2021, 4:55 AM UTC

xyst wrote: post #10

crehn wrote: post #3

So what would happen in practice if I completely trashed an Airbnb for $1M's worth?

Straight to jail. Assets seized by insurance underwriter.

Is this a joke? It's unclear to me, a person without much understanding of the law. Aren't debtors prisons illegal?

Re: AirCover by Airbnb

#25

Post by stickfigure » Wed, Nov 10, 2021, 4:58 AM UTC

yaitsyaboi wrote: post #24

xyst wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Straight to jail. Assets seized by insurance underwriter.

Is this a joke? It's unclear to me, a person without much understanding of the law. Aren't debtors prisons illegal?

Vandalism is a criminal offense, and >$400 damage is a felony here in California.

Re: AirCover by Airbnb

#26

Post by asdfasgasdgasdg » Wed, Nov 10, 2021, 5:01 AM UTC

rootsudo wrote: post #19

xyst wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Straight to jail. Assets seized by insurance underwriter.

Not even true, at best a civil case after months and you must provide service to the defendant or defendant attorney - depending on who booked and who stayed can be different and will not proceed normally. tl;dr mostly nothing if they don't value their airbnb account.

At least in New York:

"A person is guilty of criminal mischief in the second degree when with intent to damage property of another person, and having no right to do so nor any reasonable ground to believe that he has such right, he damages property of another person in an amount exceeding one thousand five hundred dollars.

Criminal mischief in the second degree is a class D felony."

https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/laws/PEN/145.10

Class D non-violent felonies are worth up to seven years in prison, likely varying widely depending on the circumstances.

I guess most states probably have similar statutes on the books. Whether you could get a prosecutor to charge it probably depends on the exact circumstances. I reckon you could find cases of people being charged on much less than $1M in intentional damage, though.

Re: AirCover by Airbnb

#27

Post by FuckedCompany » Wed, Nov 10, 2021, 5:01 AM UTC

numair wrote: post #22

rootsudo wrote: post #18

Wow, the astroturfing in this thread already is happening. 0. This is nothing new, airbnb always had a free "guarantee" they just rebranded it basically from what I see to a trademarkable name. 1. Umbrella policy is better than airbnb. Umbrella policy will go after all parties including airbnb on your behalf. 2. Airbnb has a history of ignoring or mitigating damages unless you get famous on social media - this includ…

There was a weird ad-post for You.com earlier, which I mistakenly thought was organic... And now this. HN needs a bit more transparency or it’s going to lose a few of us.

HN has already lost a lot of quality posters over the last 10 years. It’s a drop in the bucket as more and more new registrations happen anyway.

For the savvy reader: the best kind of astroturfing on a tech site involves nerdsniping. Make a small obvious error and you’ll get people trampling over each other to correct you. Never underestimate how smug stooges can pay off. Keep an eye out for these kinds of posts (see Twitter blue thread).

Re: AirCover by Airbnb

#28

Post by Gigachad » Wed, Nov 10, 2021, 5:02 AM UTC

xapata wrote: post #17

gennarro wrote: post #2

Perhaps a dumb question but who was handling the insurance before this? Homeowners does not cover rentals, correct? So you needed rental insurance? I’ve always seen airbnb to be too risky to do with your primary residence, which seems to greatly diminish from the efficiency of the service (and of home ownership)

AirBnB did. I forget the exact terms, but a while back someone's house got trashed and it hit the news. AirBnB announced they'd cover the damage to her house and started an insurance policy.

If you check the airbnb hosts subreddit, there are endless stories of hosts being ghosted by support after a guest trashed the place.

Re: AirCover by Airbnb

#29

Post by jffry » Wed, Nov 10, 2021, 5:02 AM UTC

numair wrote: post #22

rootsudo wrote: post #18

Wow, the astroturfing in this thread already is happening. 0. This is nothing new, airbnb always had a free "guarantee" they just rebranded it basically from what I see to a trademarkable name. 1. Umbrella policy is better than airbnb. Umbrella policy will go after all parties including airbnb on your behalf. 2. Airbnb has a history of ignoring or mitigating damages unless you get famous on social media - this includ…

There was a weird ad-post for You.com earlier, which I mistakenly thought was organic... And now this. HN needs a bit more transparency or it’s going to lose a few of us.

I sort of glossed over that thread earlier but oh my goodness that was a trainwreck, I'm glad you mentioned it and I went back to have a look

Re: AirCover by Airbnb

#30

Post by sideshownz » Wed, Nov 10, 2021, 5:04 AM UTC

"While AirCover protects you while you’re hosting an Airbnb stay or Experience, it is not a substitute for personal insurance"

This is a key point. As a host here in NZ, its basically useless as I still have to have commercial insurance. Aircover only covers you for the period of time that you have someone staying in your property. As soon as they have gone, you have no insurance. So if you have a house listed on Airbnb and someone breaks in and burns it down between bookings, you're not covered.