No wonder he had issues contacting support - they just recently fire a whole bunch of people.
Oh? Where did you see that?
An Airbnb Thanksgiving Burglary
41–50 of 67 posts
Re: An Airbnb Thanksgiving Burglary
#42That's an awful lot of kit to take along on a climbing trip, and then to leave behind some of the useful bits in the accommodation.
Re: An Airbnb Thanksgiving Burglary
#43> I would like to end the story with some action items like: “Next time, when I rent a place, I will do XXX.” Nothing reasonable comes to my mind.
Checking to make sure the locks work seems like a reasonable and already recommended step. How one goes immediately to some AI thing and misses 20 more realistic steps in-between is a bit perplexing to me. Second more reasonable step, keep valuables secured or in your possession.
I'm more paranoid than most with no real reason to be. I take a few moments to look around when staying in a hotel or airbnb. I turn the flashlight on to look for any hidden lenses in smoke detectors and vents etc, identify and disable things that could be used to listen in like smart speakers and tv's. I'm not looking to be some super secure safe room but a few minutes prevents most petty maliciousness or "opportunities". I'm more distrustful of Airbnb's than hotels.
Re: An Airbnb Thanksgiving Burglary
#44Imagine your thought would be more like: "huh what made a fellow human go so far to steal from an AirBnB rental in Las Vegas on Thanksgiving? We should make sure that education and social support are so strong that this is not an issue. But hey, its just easier to try to solve it the other way around right? You can develop your face detection and human beeing tracking skynet from your nice SF home with your nice gear…
> "huh what made a fellow human go so far to steal from an AirBnB rental in Las Vegas on Thanksgiving?
You seem to imply desperation, lack of perspective etc., but given that what they stole is worth several months' of wages for many people, maybe it was just greed, and the person doesn't need help, they need proper incentives. And by incentives, I mean getting caught and thrown in jail.
Re: An Airbnb Thanksgiving Burglary
#45No wonder he had issues contacting support - they just recently fire a whole bunch of people.
Oh? Where did you see that?
https://news.airbnb.com/a-message-from-co-founder-and-ceo-br...
25% of people in May. The virus hit them as well, even though they don’t have that much costs compared to hotels. They only have the website, two apps and all the support people. No properties to manage, pay taxes on, etc
Re: An Airbnb Thanksgiving Burglary
#46It’s unfortunate, and Airbnb makes enough in service fee that they should be faster to help on these cases. Once I was in SF and my Airbnb cancelled on me right at check-in time. I was tired, had luggages, I just went to the hilton and checked-in. It was really hard and I had to argue but Airbnb ended up reimbursing me. Still, I’m scared about the next time I’ll run in troubles with Airbnb. I find it more and more ex…
>Still, I’m scared about the next time I’ll run in troubles with Airbnb. I've had good experiences with https://vrbo.com But as with anything else, YMMV.
I use vrbo.com, as I will never ever give my ID to an online platform to "scan" and "verify".
Regardless of statements of "But we delete it after" and "it's safe", time has shown me, again and again, that these statements cannot be made reliably, no matter how much the company desires it.
Even if the platform is 100% safe, patched, security is iron-clad, you still have rogue employees stealing and re-selling IDs. It's a game which cannot be played safely.
So, VRBO it's been for me. And that said? It's overall been a reasonably good experience. They do have this:
https://help.vrbo.com/articles/What-is-the-Book-with-Confide...
And, I've used it once to fight a minor issue. A renter decided they wanted me to sign a 'rental agreement' after I booked, paid, and was 24 hours out from arrival.
Nope. VRBO quashed that. Their statement was "If you cannot get in when you arrive, and the renter cannot be reached/won't allow you in, call us. We'll relocate you / fix it."
Problem went away.
I also have had no issue getting in touch with VRBO, with a human being, whenever required. 5 minute wait is typical.
Of course, I have absolutely no idea about how things are now, during/post pandemic. Lay offs? Confusion? Less revenue? I really do not know.
So it could all be different now... sadly.
Re: An Airbnb Thanksgiving Burglary
#47Earlier quoted context omitted.
Oh? Where did you see that?
https://news.airbnb.com/a-message-from-co-founder-and-ceo-br... 25% of people in May. The virus hit them as well, even though they don’t have that much costs compared to hotels. They only have the website, two apps and all the support people. No properties to manage, pay taxes on, etc
I see, thanks.
I like the way they made provision for everyone to get some equity, and 12 months healthcare, and keep their work laptops.
Re: An Airbnb Thanksgiving Burglary
#48Imagine your thought would be more like: "huh what made a fellow human go so far to steal from an AirBnB rental in Las Vegas on Thanksgiving? We should make sure that education and social support are so strong that this is not an issue. But hey, its just easier to try to solve it the other way around right? You can develop your face detection and human beeing tracking skynet from your nice SF home with your nice gear…
> "huh what made a fellow human go so far to steal from an AirBnB rental in Las Vegas on Thanksgiving? You seem to imply desperation, lack of perspective etc., but given that what they stole is worth several months' of wages for many people, maybe it was just greed, and the person doesn't need help, they need proper incentives. And by incentives, I mean getting caught and thrown in jail.
Fencing proceeds are generally 5-10% of expected sale value. That's a few hundred dollars at most, if you accept the OP's dubious "brand new" valuation of all possessions. $100-300 is gone the same night if the thief's hooked on meth or heroin, which in Nevada is almost certain.
Re: An Airbnb Thanksgiving Burglary
#49Not meaning to suggest he "asked for it", but there's a reason hotels have safes and secure storage services. Burglaries happen all the time. Even if all the windows are locked, burglaries can happen in all sorts of ways, particularly in free-standing houses. I don't like leaving my laptop or other valuables in my own home. I keep my devices with me when I can, and avoid owning items that burglars would want to steal…
> I've known of people working in the industry, casually making fraudulent claims on devices just because they felt like an upgrade.
Can you explain this part in more detail?
Re: An Airbnb Thanksgiving Burglary
#50> Vladimir Iglovikov. PhD in Physics. Veteran of Russian Spetsnaz. Kaggle Grandmaster.
> When I sit in front of the computer in San Francisco, the only thing that comes to my mind is to build a Face Recognition system and check the burglar’s face in it. Something similar to Clearview. Machine Learning is my expertise; creating such a system is straightforward but will take some time. Tempting. Thinking about it.
Two considerations, after reading this story.
1) It's not a good idea to mess with an ex-Spetsnaz. Plus a PhD in Physics! I wouldn't want to be the burglar. Your days are numbered.
2) I would hire this guy in a heartbeat. Wouldn't even do a single interview.