Airbnb Nightmare: No End In Sight • Hacker News Board

Re: Airbnb Nightmare: No End In Sight

#461

Post by protomyth » Sat, Jul 30, 2011, 4:15 AM UTC

pseudonym wrote: post #49

moonlighter wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Once the mainstream press is going to pick this up (probably a WHEN, not IF the way it's going), they might not have another round of funding to give a shit about in the first place.

It's depressing, because AirBnB is a solid idea, if they can work some of the minor (ha!) kinks, like this, out of the system. But after falling flat on their face like this, I wouldn't be surprised to see the idea of "social housing" go the same way as the Zeppelin did after the Hindenberg. It's going to be forever tied to every homeowner's worst nightmare.

The problem is that this is AirBnB's 2nd to worst case scenario and it doesn't look like it is going to turn out well for them or that they gamed the possible problem scenarios out before hand and created a set of responses. No one died, so there is no "AirBnB Killer" in the headlines, but it might make the host side a little more scarce.

Hysteria and PR can both overcome facts. Heck, look at the people in the articles comments quoting the McDonald's coffee incident and believing the "common wisdom" it was a lawsuit happy lady. McDonald's PR did a heck of a job on that one given how absolutely, positively wrong they were and how bad their behavior and actions were.

I just cannot believe they didn't think this might be a consequence of the scaling of their service. It happens to every community based service as soon as it gets out of the initial, early adopter group. Startups need to take the time to figure out how to deal with "bad actors" in their business model, particularly when the potential damage is high and of a new type.

Re: Airbnb Nightmare: No End In Sight

#462

Post by protomyth » Sat, Jul 30, 2011, 4:35 AM UTC

vnchr wrote: post #21

Just be a good company and take care of the customer. This isn't rocket science. Hire someone who is her personal assistant through the process until the process is over, help as much as possible. Concerns for setting a cost-inefficient precedent? BS. Not helping her has become the real cost-inefficient precedent set in this case. I had no idea this had been going on for a month now. This is a shame. Take care of you…

I would change personal assistant to agency. People in these type of situations tend to not deal as well with being assigned a person. A single person in an agency is fine as the office and desk lends to creditability and doesn't give the "another person invading my space" problem.

Re: Airbnb Nightmare: No End In Sight

#463

Post by mkramlich » Sat, Jul 30, 2011, 4:48 AM UTC

edw519 wrote: post #141

Airbnb & YC, just fix this please: 1. Get a new place for EJ. Furnish it fully. Pay for everything. 2. Help her restore her virtual identity. Use any resources at your considerable disposal. 3. Help her find her irreplaceable stuff. A few private detectives and a small team of scouters can make more progress in 2 weeks that the SFPD can make in a lifetime. Publish pictures of her grandmother's jewelry to enlist a gia…

And what happens the next time?

And the time after that?

Will AirBNB be legally/financially responsible every time some guest trashes a host's place? Shouldn't the guest be responsible? Does the former line of thinking scale?

I find the whole issue a bit of comic opera because I remember the first time I learned of AirBnB's business model I realized this kind of thing could and would happen. And now it has. Shocking! Not.

Re: Airbnb Nightmare: No End In Sight

#464

Post by abrimo » Sat, Jul 30, 2011, 5:19 AM UTC

pg wrote: post #392

YuriNiyazov wrote: post #357

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Now that this has happened, how (if at all) would you revise this comment about Arrington: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2719086

This is the worst thing I personally have seen him do. So he is not looking quite so good to me now. On the other hand, I still don't believe he's deeply evil. His big weakness is the length he'll go to to get information out of people. I think he crossed the line in this case. But I still don't think he's a bad person.

Is this the worst thing you've seen him do because it personally affects you?

All the times that you said he was just being harsh, I'm sure the people who were impacted thought he crossed the line as well.

Re: Airbnb Nightmare: No End In Sight

#465

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Jul 30, 2011, 5:43 AM UTC

mapgrep wrote: post #441

tjic wrote: post #422

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> you should be condemning Airbnb's pathetically slow response (which you do not dispute) Yes, he does dispute it. Read his post.

He really doesn't, though I can see how you might get that impression. In the post you suggest I re-read, Paul is referring to financial assistance, which will reasonably take a period of days to offer. When Paul says "Airbnb has been offering to fix it, from the very beginning," that may well be true. But that statement does not dispute or otherwise speak to the fact that it was hard and time consuming for the custo…

[deleted]

Re: Airbnb Nightmare: No End In Sight

#466

Post by johnx123-up » Sat, Jul 30, 2011, 7:15 AM UTC

pg wrote: post #319

edw519 wrote: post #141

Airbnb & YC, just fix this please: 1. Get a new place for EJ. Furnish it fully. Pay for everything. 2. Help her restore her virtual identity. Use any resources at your considerable disposal. 3. Help her find her irreplaceable stuff. A few private detectives and a small team of scouters can make more progress in 2 weeks that the SFPD can make in a lifetime. Publish pictures of her grandmother's jewelry to enlist a gia…

I've just learned more about this situation, and it turns out Airbnb has been offering to fix it, from the very beginning. From the beginning they offered to pay to get her a new place and new stuff, and do whatever else she wanted. The story Arrington wrote yesterday about Airbnb not offering to help was bullshit. He asked a company spokesman what Airbnb was doing to help her. The spokesman, who'd been told by their…

Remember nice guys can

  1. tell lies
  2. lobby for PR
  3. spam Craiglist
  4. fake listing counts
  5. hide robbery for 5-weeks
  etc

Don't poke your nose, drag journalists and damage YC brand. Just tell that you don't know.

[Edit: formatted]

Re: Airbnb Nightmare: No End In Sight

#467

Post by funthree » Sat, Jul 30, 2011, 7:15 AM UTC

metachris wrote: post #339

funthree wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you just crossed tracks with a criminal known for killing, then raping and torturing their victims. Then YES, you should be very happy that you avoided more terrible things. I thought this was common wisdom among people, but perhaps it is not shared by everyone. EDIT: Look at the bright side of things.

Right, you'd say "Look at the bright side of things, you didn't get murdered" to a women who has just been raped? That's rather low.

I never implied that I'd say anything.

Re: Airbnb Nightmare: No End In Sight

#468

Post by funthree » Sat, Jul 30, 2011, 7:16 AM UTC

estel wrote: post #189

funthree wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would be bothered and I believe I addressed that. But it's like I said. She is now "passing along" the same torment that the perpetrator inflicted upon her onto Airbnb. Setting the record straight is one thing and she has every right to do that. EDIT: Being the little guy is tough and I empathize with that, and I also empathize with the fact that she had something very bad happened to her apartment in by proxy hers…

> EDIT: downvotes for trying to explain myself diligently for you guys, thanks... Perhaps people are just passing along the torment.

You're a troll.

Re: Airbnb Nightmare: No End In Sight

#469

Post by funthree » Sat, Jul 30, 2011, 7:16 AM UTC

urbanjunkie wrote: post #112

funthree wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you just crossed tracks with a criminal known for killing, then raping and torturing their victims. Then YES, you should be very happy that you avoided more terrible things. I thought this was common wisdom among people, but perhaps it is not shared by everyone. EDIT: Look at the bright side of things.

So, given that the woman in question has not crossed tracks with someone known for raping, why should she be happy that she hasn't been raped. Honestly, at this point, why not just admit you're not a particularly empathic person, and other people's problems don't bother you. That would at least be better than this rather facile attempt at backing up an untenable position.

You're a troll.

Re: Airbnb Nightmare: No End In Sight

#470

Post by crag » Sat, Jul 30, 2011, 7:43 AM UTC

pg wrote: post #327

estel wrote: post #325

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does this fit with the linked article, where the lady in question claims her personal liason at the company hadn't even contacted her in a month? How does that possibly match up with "doing everything they could be doing to help this woman" when she herself clearly feels ignored? Edit: I'm not accusing the AirBNB guys of being bad guys: I don't know them. But this doesn't seem to address, and seems somewhat contr…

Brian told me that someone from Airbnb called her just a few hours before she published this most recent post.

Who at Airbnb called her?

That's like saying to me when I walk into the office; "Someone called you about something." It means nothing.

Names. Times. That's the way to handle this. You know, you guys REALLY need good PR people.

Number 1 rule of damage control: Make sure everyone involved (on your side) is on the same sheet of music. Number 2 rule: Never lie. Number 3 rule: Give the victim what they want.