
Our Commitment to Trust & Safety - mikecaron
http://blog.airbnb.com/our-commitment-to-trust-and-safety
======
wheels
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 silicon valley hotshot
works against you.

Having a PR shot to pull out of the drawer that looks older, more serious and
decidedly less hip would do well when people are worried.

(As for the actual content of the story: well done.)

Edit: Rational or otherwise, people read a lot from a face. Heck, it's obvious
that Airbnb gets that since it's part of their trust system. Since trust is a
big part of what makes Airbnb tick, I think it'd be worth the time to craft a
profile shot that inspires such. This may even be an inflection point in
Airbnb's history where it's transitioning from the couchsurfing-but-with-money
branding to I'm-trusting-these-guys-to-keep-my-home-safe.

Edit 2: So as a bit of redux, I'm genuinely surprised that this was the most
upvoted comment, since it's a minor issue relative to the good that's going
down (and specifically, insurance is something that I was personally rooting
for since that's what'd kept me from listing a room there prior to this whole
shebang.). As for the photo, I think it's actually kind of an interestingly
shot, but I don't think it's the one you want plastered all over the interwebs
in a crisis scenario.

~~~
gobongo
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.

~~~
friendstock
It was my impression too that the photo could be appropriate.

EDIT: I've edited my comment to make it more constructive. Brian, I think you
are doing a great job with AirBNB and handling this situation. Please take
these comments as constructive criticism regarding the photo (in this
particular situation).

~~~
brianchesky
:(

~~~
temphn
Yo man: f these haters. Even the well meaning ones with their rubbernecking
advice, even the fellow YC alums who don't understand that when a man has just
been through hell and back that the _last_ thing he needs is more people
piling on with "constructive criticism" in an open forum. A lot of people
tried to kill you just now, with a few like Melinda Byerley openly admitting
that this was just an opportunity to express their envy and hatred.

[http://techcrunch.com/2011/07/31/another-airbnb-victim-
tells...](http://techcrunch.com/2011/07/31/another-airbnb-victim-tells-his-
story-there-were-meth-pipes-
everywhere/?fb_comment_id=fbc_10150268193548512_19794824_10150268212763512)

For PR reasons you need to smile, even as JimmyL critiques the sincerity of
your orthodontics. Smile on the outside and ask them in a chipper tone how you
can be of service, but in the end, seriously, f __* em. There's an insane
amount of implementation work to do to get this 24/7 support and insurance
program operational. F __* em all and just plow. Pot of gold at the end of the
rainbow. And your real customers and fans will thank you for it.

~~~
friendstock
Point taken. For the record, I'm a big fan of AirBNB and have used it multiple
times.

------
edw519
Bravo. This looks like an excellent next step. Not necessarily the ultimate
scalar, but it's nice to see the vector pointing in the right direction.

As was one of the many outspoken people in one of the earlier threads, I hope
I speak for a lot of my fellow hn'ers when I say that we call 'em as we see
'em, for better or worse. Not necessarily in judgement, but as part of a
community living through monumental changes of all kinds. Believe it or not,
Brian, many of us really are on your side.

Like many other "new age" business models, I'm afraid I still don't really
understand this one and it's prospects for the future. But it's safe to say
you've just taken one giant step on that bumpy road to sustainability.

Two of the most important things I expect from any business is to always tell
the truth and to always do the right thing. It matters less how long you take
to get there than the fact that you actually do.

Looking forward to seeing how this plays out. Often being down, then up again
makes you stronger than if you never went through the tough times in the first
place.

~~~
mquiche
Agree with you on this step... They've still got challenges ahead, but this
direction seems right.

There's a pretty good (if a bit dramatic) analysis of other things that they
might want to do at [http://blog.agrawals.org/2011/08/01/airbnb-ransack-
response-...](http://blog.agrawals.org/2011/08/01/airbnb-ransack-response-not-
enough/).

------
JimmyL
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 as a blog post under his own name -
so what should make the reader think this (or any future posts) are actually
him, and not more spin? It seems like it's muddling the authenticity of the
message a bit.

"In working with the San Francisco Police Department, we are happy to say a
suspect is now in custody."

Haven't they been saying this for a while, and each time they do, it turns out
that when someone tries to verify it with SFPD, the suspect isn't in custody
(because they've been extradited to another community)?

As for the potential for fraud, that doesn't concern me that much. If they're
doing a blanket insurance policy like this, then they're contracting it out to
a legit insurance company - who will presumably have adjusters and claims
people who will investigate every claim, the same as other forms of consumer
insurance (like you get on your rental car).

I'm also interested in the legalities of this insurance - particularly in
places where short-term rentals to strangers are illegal/contrary to bylaw/in
violation of the occupant's lease. You'd think that insurance companies would
have a problem selling a policy to cover the side-effects of a prohibited
activity; that all Airbnb hosts would have to sign a line that certifies under
penalty of perjury that they're legally allowed to host a place on Airbnb,
which most can't.

If I was a landlord who had a tenant who put their place on Airbnb, and which
then got trashed, I'd make the tenant fix it up (which they'd pay for,
presumably, from the insurance), and probably try and sue the tenant for
violating the terms of their lease. Could I then sue the insurance company as
well, for helping my tenant break the conditions of their lease?

~~~
temphn
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 shortcoming, but who knows the great 
      enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a 
      worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the 
      triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he 
      fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his 
      place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who 
      knew neither victory nor defeat.
    
                                           -- Teddy Roosevelt
    

Great to know that the potential for fraud "doesn't concern you that much".
You'll post your comment and they'll still be here with the responsibility of
running the company, without the ability to airily handwave away the issue.

Great to know also that you're interested in the legalities of the insurance.
I guess they should have included citations to case law in a blog post.

    
    
      > it turns out that when someone tries to verify it with 
      SFPD, the suspect isn't in custody (because they've been 
      extradited to another community)?
    

And how exactly is that under their control?

Some people are never satisfied. You appear to be one of them.

~~~
JimmyL
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 the top of
my head was based off EJ's post on 28 July. A few searches reveal that the day
after that post went up, the SFPD announced they had arrested someone.

~~~
veyron
"Airbnb will clearly get an insurance company to run this program white-label"
<\-- its not known if they can get an insurance policy for such a disparate
group of people at a price that allows them to run with a profit

------
lyudmil
Giving credit where credit is due, I think Mr. Chesky and Airbnb have done a
good job here. Corporations aren't intrinsically ethical (by law) but start-
ups are small enough that they can (a) afford to act human and (b) be held
accountable by their customers in meaningful ways. This is why people like
Airbnb and why they (myself included) were disappointed in the way the
situation was handled. I loved reading Mr. Chesky's response and although this
clearly changes things for Airbnb as a business, they are now a company I care
to see succeed.

~~~
fleitz
Corporations must follow the ethical standard set by the law just as any other
legal entity. Corporations actually have more stringent ethics than other
legal entities such as persons. A person does not have any fiduciary duty to
others unlike a corporation which is incorporated with a set of documents
explaining it ethics and responsibilities to other parties (such as
shareholders). As a person under the law I can act completely in my own best
interest (negligence, power of attorney, and other corner cases excluded) and
there is no ethical problem whereas when a corporation puts it's own interests
ahead of those of its shareholders it is acting unethically.

~~~
lyudmil
I'm not sure we agree on the definition of "ethics".

Ethics, the way I understand the term, isn't a set of rules enforced by law.
It's true that some laws are informed by our shared moral values, but in
general law and ethics are independent. There is no legal punishment for
acting like an asshole, but in human society you more often than not pay a
price for it. There is no such onus on corporations and in fact the "business
ethics" we govern our corporations by can easily be put at odds with what you
and I would consider ethical behavior (see Ford Pinto [1]). As you point out,
companies are responsible to their shareholders, but their stakeholders are a
different (perhaps partially overlapping) set of people to which the
corporation doesn't have to answer. It is in that sense that I said companies
aren't intrinsically moral.

[1]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Pinto#Allegations_and_laws...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Pinto#Allegations_and_lawsuits)

------
mikeklaas
Will this submission have it's title changed to the original post ("Our
Commitment to Trust & Safety"), as was done for the original submission of
EJ's blog post?

EDIT: Here's to consistency! Title has been (presumably mod-) edited.

~~~
tokenadult
_Will this submission have it's title changed to the original post ("Our
Commitment to Trust & Safety")_

Yes, let's stick with the original title. Using original article titles is
preferred according to HN guidelines.

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2823020>

(Report of an exception to this principle)

<http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html>

(The actual text of the guidelines)

After edit: The submission title has been changed to match the original
article title in this thread. I wonder if that will happen in the thread from
last week I linked to in the link shown just above this P.S.

------
mashmac2
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.

~~~
rsbrown
Implementing a 24-hour customer service phone line for their host partners
immediately puts Airbnb head-and-shoulders above eBay and PayPal in the trust
and reliability department.

------
biturd
Anyone else think bringing on a 10 year veteran of eBay support is a bad idea.
I don't know of a single case in which I heard eBay helped the end user in
support.

eBay is probably on the top 5 of worst customer support experiences of any dot
com.

~~~
Duff
I thought the same thing. I cannot think of a company that more flagrantly
demonstrates their disdain for customers every day more than eBay.

~~~
vessenes
Paypal.

~~~
michael_dorfman
Remind me, who are they owned by?

~~~
vessenes
Post-merger, there were some really nice reviews of culture clashes; one I
recall was simply stated as "Ebay believes people are fundamentally good,
Paypal believes they are fundamentally scammers."

Credible, given their histories, I'd say!

------
larrys
"for loss or damage due to vandalism or theft caused by an Airbnb guest up to
$50,000"

As others have mentioned no exact details have been listed anywhere.

For the vandalism they will most certainly require that obviously a police
report be filed. Notice that "damage" is not covered though. Only vandalism.

Theft is trickier. The actual policy might say that they will pay if your
homeowners/renters policy doesn't pay. Or there may be deductibles. And once
again they will require a police report to document the theft.

Typically the problem with any insurance in this situation is proving that
something is actually stolen as opposed to just missing.

I think that without seeing the actual coverage you can't really draw any
conclusions.

By the way if you rent your apartment you should always have renters insurance
anyway. It isn't that expensive and it would cover damage (less a deductible)
even if you had a party and a friend damaged something - in other words a
simple accident. Or if the tub overflowed by accident and damaged the
carpeting.

------
ajays
I've been critical of AirBnB in the past, but I liked the tone of Chesky's
post. If only they had done this on June 29, instead a month later. But: it's
never too late.

I hope this is the penultimate word in this saga (EJ's would be the last word;
and I'm hoping, after this, her blog would be positive and upbeat).

The lesson to be learnt is: if you're in a consumer-facing business, and a
black swan event happens, don't worry about valuations, etc. but worry about
the customer who's affected. Fix the root cause, and the outcome will fix
itself.

------
forgotAgain
It will be obvious over the coming months whether they follow through with
protecting their customers. More than a few people will be looking to get
credit for exposing subsequent failures.

For myself, my expectations are not positive. While definitely an improvement
over past communications I'm not buying the "mom" and "grandfather" routine.
Specifically:

 _Earlier this week, I wrote a blog post trying to explain the situation, but
it didn’t reflect my true feelings._ Then what was the driving influence for
the post?

 _In the last few days we have had a crash course in crisis management._ The
original incident occurred over a month ago. Apparently that wasn't a crisis.
If not, then what was it?

------
mef
Seems like a pretty good response to the situation, especially the host
insurance, 24-hour customer service, and improved guest verification.

For Brian Chesky's sake I hope the SFPD actually have a suspect in custody
this time.

~~~
brianchesky
[http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-
bin/blogs/techchron/detail?entry_i...](http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-
bin/blogs/techchron/detail?entry_id=94288)

~~~
mef
Great news, thanks for the link. From the article:

On 06/28/11 the SFPD through investigative leads conducted a search of a
premise in Belmont, CA. Two people were detained, but released pending further
investigation. The search yielded some of the items that were taken in the
theft.

Later on that night through investigative leads, SFPD officers made an arrest
of Faith Clifton, female, white, 19 years of age of San Francisco. Faith was
booked into San Francisco County Jail that night on possession of stolen
property, methamphetamine, fraud charges and outstanding warrant out of
Milpitas, CA.

SFPD has been in contact with the victim and have been in contact with the
website company, who has provided as much information as possible in this
matter.

------
sid6376
It's amazing that someone would admit that they f __*ed up with such humility.
I hope people are as quick to appreciate AirBnB as they were to criticise
them.

------
swombat
I wonder if this will be killed like
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2834066> ...

~~~
llambda
Those articles were killed because they essentially added nothing new to a
tired plethora of similar or same articles.

~~~
scarmig
The point of that article was more that this had hit CNN than any new
information about the event itself. Pretty meta, but not unreasonable.

~~~
swombat
Worth noting that my original title said just that ("Airbnb horror" story hits
CNN) - and that this was corrected by a mod or automated process within a
minute of posting... but not instantly.

And from <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2834426> I hear that EJ's story
was also retitled to be less enticing.

Sounds like some nice double-standard going on here, considering this one
maintains its title. I'm sure it will be blamed on "the gremlins in the
automated system"... funny how they seem to favour YC startups in the middle
of a big funding round.

~~~
statictype
Even if it is because they favored YC startups - so what? This message board
is run by the founder of YC and isn't meant for posting sensational articles
whenever one of their companies gets caught in the spotlight.

------
gojomo
Is it just me or do they say they'll be covering losses after August 15th, and
before August 1, but not August 1 through 15?

~~~
_delirium
It looks like it's the _report_ that has to be by August 1, i.e. they'll only
cover past damage that has already been reported, before this announcement.
Probably to cap their otherwise potentially unlimited liability for people
"discovering" past damage after this policy was announced, while still
expeditiously resolving any currently-open complaints. Then, starting August
15, they'll have a normal, forward-looking insurance program in place.

~~~
frossie
_they'll only cover past damage that has already been reported_

I thought they said it was the first time it happened?

Anyway, better late than never.

------
billclerico
though he humbly suggests the opposite, this is a great example of how to deal
with a crisis

~~~
pseudonym
I think it's fantastic that they're implementing this, but it's still rather
depressing that it took a month of time and a weekend of bad PR to get them to
do it in the first place.

~~~
billclerico
the fact that AirBNB has managed to implement an international
insurance/guarantee program in as little as a month is a heroic feat.

~~~
pseudonym
To be fair, they've _said they'll implement it_ , not that _it's implemented
already_. The truth of this will be shown when someone who isn't EJ and isn't
riding on the crest of a wave of internet pitchforks tries to collect.

~~~
billclerico
it's going into effect in 15 days. that's pretty good.

------
aculver
"Like Airbnb, the world works on the idea that people are good, and we’re in
this together."

Seriously? I usually just roll my eyes when I hear this sort of feel good,
warm-fuzzy cheerleading. But seriously, wake up! The reason they're in this
mess is because they lacked preparation for the reality that people have an
incredible capacity for bad. This is a false premise on which to rent out your
most private, personal space.

------
extension
_and why you should always uphold your values and trust your instincts_

Just out of curiosity, why didn't you?

------
OpenAmazing
Its seems that, based on the positive media reaction to this, AirBnB has done
everything right from the start:

Everyone is piling on them for screwing up the initial reaction to EJ, by not
going far enough in offering to help her. But AirBnB didn't do much to help
Troy (from the TechCrunch post) 2 months ago, and that story didn't blow up in
to a PR disaster. They simply gave him a few free nights and he was happy.

So, it is impossible to tell if any given customer support issue is a
potential "PR-nightmare". If AirBnB had over-reacted and offered Troy
thousands of dollars (as was being suggested for EJ), they would have lost out
- because Troy was happy with just a few free nights in AirBnB credit. How
were they supposed to know that EJ (1) wouldn't be happy with what Troy
received (2) Would make a scathing blog post and (3) That blog post would go
viral. They couldn't have.

So, if you are a wagering person, it seems like the best course of action is
to do exactly what AirBnB did: offering minimal support and grow until
something really bad happens. Then come out swinging with a big apology and a
big offer of support and restitution.

Since it seems like the media and public are willing to forgive AirBnB
(judging by the reaction to today's announcement), this course seems like it
may have been optimal compared to over-helping people like Troy.

Put another way: PR distasters are recoverable if you say you are sorry and
ask forgiveness. Being too careful upfront and limiting your growth curve is
not forgivable.

~~~
techiferous
"may have been optimal"

I follow your reasoning, but this approach is optimized for Airbnb alone. The
trick is to find an approach that maximizes both Airbnb's business goals and
the happiness of the customers.

~~~
OpenAmazing
True. I should have prefaced with "from a business standpoint".

~~~
techiferous
I would word it "from a self-interested standpoint", which is hopefully
different than "from a business standpoint". I prefer to live in a world where
businesses aren't laser-focused on just their own interests.

Ideally, a CEO would try to align all of the goals of the parties relating to
the business so that the dynamic is synergistic, not win-lose.

------
dave1619
Well done. The 50k guarantee and the 24 hour customer service are great
features that needed to be there before, but at least they have them now. I
wonder though if there's a bigger problem with how Airbnb views customers. EJ
and the other guy shouldn't have faced such coldness from Airbnb. It just
shows something is wrong. I hope that this "crisis" will help awake Airbnb to
take customer service more seriously. Rather than hiring someone from Ebay,
they should hire someone from Zappos to head their customer service. Actually,
the whole leadership team from Airbnb should take a trip to Zappos and get
some training.

------
kadjar
I wonder how they're now going to prevent fraud.

~~~
mikemoka
I wonder too.. They are proposing a worldwide guarantee, how could they verify
each claim?..By partnerships with insurance companies all over the world?

~~~
pavel_lishin
Presumably by not paying out except in the case of a successful police
investigation.

~~~
mikemoka
Yes this kind of thing is hardly sustainable, I think it may just be a smart
PR move and they'll hugely downsize it or cancel it in the next months, after
the storm has passed.

~~~
tptacek
What? Why is this hard to sustain? This is a non sequitor reply.

------
MichaelApproved
No mention of a deductible in the 50k coverage. Is that an oversight or are
they actually going to cover minor damages like a broken plate.

------
bugsy
Awesome response and the right thing to do for everyone's sake.

------
rdl
I'm impressed. This goes beyond what was reasonable to expect, and goes a long
way toward resolving the issue.

It's interesting that 1-15 August is now the only uncovered period. They
should also let everyone cancel all reservations during that window without
penalty, if they'd like.

~~~
nikhilpandit
I think the phrasing makes it look like the 1st to 15th August period is
uncovered, but it actually is covered. See:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2834589>

------
joshfraser
They look to ebay for guidance on customer support. Everything is beginning to
make sense now!

------
rapcal
I thought the post started well with the "we screwed up" tone. It sounded
personal and felt sincere. However, along the way it shifted 180 degrees to a
very cold business-centric approach.

Nonetheless, I think Airbnb is finally starting to have a clue on how to
properly handle this crisis.

But what intrigued me the most in this whole thing was Michael Arrington's
position on TechCrunch. He set this thing on fire, giving it a very aggressive
kind of coverage. I wonder: will he now invest on Airbnb, as they're now
supposedly going through another funding round? And if so, how much less will
he have to pay for the same equity compared to 1 month ago? I'd like a little
disclosure on that...

------
farrel
"Terms will apply to the program and may vary (e.g. by country)."

What are the T&C's I can't find them?

~~~
JimmyL
They should be interesting to read, since the current statment - "personal
property will be covered for loss or damage due to vandalism or theft caused
by an Airbnb guest" - offers a whole lot of wiggle-room.

For example, what about non-personal property? If I live in a rental
apartment, put it on Airbnb, it gets trashed, and my landlord says I have to
fix it up...will the policy cover that? It's damage, but it's not damage to
the personal property of the person connected to Airbnb.

------
aresant
Extrapolating but I bet that language "$50,000 Airbnb Guarantee" allows them
(airbnb) to buy "claims" insurance thus subverting the inherent issues around
offering renters insurance to their market.

Brilliant move!

~~~
citadrianne
Why would they offer renter's insurance? It's just a few days at a time.

------
cosgroveb
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.

~~~
drgath
As a home owner and someone who has used airbnb, trust me, $50k will more than
cover everything in pretty much every place airbnb rents out.

Just because someplace costs $200k doesn't mean it costs $200k to rebuild from
the ground up (a lot is in property, structure, etc...). Realistically, you'd
really have to try hard to do $50k+ damage to a typical airbnb property
without the cops being called as it is happening.

~~~
ScottWhigham
"Just because someplace costs $200k doesn't mean it costs $200k to rebuild
from the ground up "

In Dallas (where I live), a structure usually costs much more to tear down and
rebuild new than it is currently worth. For example, you might get a mortgage
on a $250,000 10yo house here yet your insurance will be for $375,000 for that
reason.

~~~
drgath
True. I was just thinking of typical airbnb apartment rentals, where the
property owner only owns the "walls-in" portion of the unit.

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

~~~
Duff
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.

~~~
Robin_Message
I'm not saying they are, but I'm sure if the structure was destroyed by a sub-
letter there is a good chance the landlord's insurer _would_ allege the tenant
was negligent.

------
suprgeek
This is an excellent start. Great way to come out and clearly state "We
screwed-up earlier but are now doing the right thing".

Please consider adding 2 requirements: 1) Any renter should provide an actual
photo 2) Valid Credit card that will have a hold of x dollars till the rental
completes These might cut down on the Tweaker type incidents.

------
waterlesscloud
Glad they did this, though I expect it to be quite thorny in practice.

For example, what about cases where they can positively identify the renter
who was responsible?

That's bound to be the vast majority of incidents.

Are they going to pay out in those cases?

Or leave it to the owner to pursue in court themselves?

This is a good solid step, but it's only one piece of a comprehensive policy.

------
bane
Well done. I'm sure it's been a difficult learning process, but this was most
definitely the kind of humble, unconditional apology, followed by a set of
hard action items that I wish more businesses followed.

It tales big people to acknowledge a screw up, apologize for it, and work hard
to make it right.

------
nhangen
This certainly increases your professionalism in the eyes of the users, but
I'm amazed by how quickly companies can implement things of this scale. I
can't wait for the day when I can open my own 24 hour hotline :)

Good on ya mate.

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azov
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!

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citricsquid
Now THAT is a good response. I wonder if it'll be abused though.

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guildchatter
I think this is a great response to what happened.

I hope EJ's third blog post is more positive.

=]

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joejohnson
The author of the blog post has a creepy picture at the top of the post. I
would change that to something less scary...

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tzury
Brian, I am deeply impressed, that is a brave and decent step which leaves all
happy competitors far beyond (the competitors should try harder now,
techcrunch is not going to help their marketing).

You are a great CEO and deserve to direct a Billion Dollar company, no doubt.

I just can't wait for my trip to the USA to use AirBNB accommodation (as an HN
reader I have decided long ago that in the next trip to US I will not stay in
hotels but book with AirBNB)

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neebz
For once TechCrunch was able to facilitate a good cause.

There's a hefty chance that AirBnB wouldn't had responded like this if
Arrington hadn't been on their back. It's only once TC started to report them
rigorously, they started to _understand_ how lame their previous communication
been.

Now all Arrington has to bin CatherinaFake-like posts and we have our old TC
back on track.

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tunaslut
would have been nice if you actually linked to EJs blog.

other than that sounds like you are doing the right thing.

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OoTheNigerian
Good response. Though a bit late and seems reactive, far better than never.

I guess we have all learned lessons from this.

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caffeine5150
They’ve certainly got on track with this (although the photo struck me too as
hitting the wrong chord). But stepping back to look at the opportunity airbnb
presents as a business, I’m not so sure there are security measures that could
be satisfying to enough people to make this a massive company – assuming that
their core business continues to involve people renting their primary
residence. In engaging in any activity, people approach it with an unconscious
calculus that is something like: the perceived benefits vs. the perceived
financial, emotional, physical, etc. risks less any offsetting measures to
mitigate these risks. Of course, for any activity, the math comes out
differently for different people and often has less to do with actual risks
than perceived risks and fears. Thus, fear of flying is fairly common despite
low risk of harm – mainly because a bad result is so horrifying and likely
lethal and the fact that not being in the drivers’ seat stokes our fear.
Conversely, driving is probably by far the most dangerous thing we do and the
risks are often underappreciated, but the benefits are not just huge – it’s
almost a mandatory activity. Plus, being the driver can give us a (false)
sense that we can avoid risk and while we can vividly picture going down in
flames in a plane, we can easily not appreciate that driving into a wall at
just 30mph is like jumping off a three story building in terms of impact
against the dashboard. Because of the nationalization of the media and access
to the internet, I now hear about child abductions that I would never have
heard of in the ‘50’s. Thus, my perceived risk of that happening to my kids
has grown (almost certainly way out of proportion to the actual risk) and so I
don’t/won’t do things that my parents did to me such as booting me out into
the neighborhood to play on my own at a young age. Applying this construct to
Airbnb’s present model, I don’t think I see a billion dollar company here. I
would think that the benefit is not huge when weighed against the negatives
and risks. Sure, I might make a few hundred dollars or get a cheap place to
stay, but as space provider I’m asking myself: will they steal something?
Trash the place? Do I want a stranger using my toilet? Will they clean that
toilet after they use it? Do I want to clean that toilet after they’ve used it
because I don't trust that they did? Where exactly is my backup toothbrush in
relation to them when they’re using my toilet? Did they copy my key to
burglarize me later when they’re long forgotten me as a model airbnb tenant?
As tenant, I’m wondering: how clean is this place? Are there hidden cameras
watching me as I change, etc.? The list goes on and on and note that few of
these have to do with monetary losses, and some of them are negatives that
could exist with perfectly nice tenants/landlords. So with this model I see
relatively low reward with a kind of vivid and extensive set of potential
negatives ranging from toilet hygiene to what EJ experienced to worse. Plus,
the perceived likelihood of some of the dramatically bad outcomes goes way up
with each EJ story that comes out and amplifies potential users’ concerns even
if the likelihood, like crashing on a commercial flight, is actually very low.
Certainly, they’ve proven that there is a subset of people who like the
risk/reward math for using airbnb, but I personally don’t see the huge growth
potential and valuation that their capital raises would imply (again, assuming
no major shifts in their business model).

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suivix
So they're turning into an insurance company? Will they have auditors?

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avjinder
Instead it should be: Our Commitment to Rape and Thievery.

------
fascinated
moral hazard

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davidjhall
I'm guessing a call from certain interested investors put Brian on the right
course as he mangled this over the past few weeks. A good lesson for us all
going forward on what to put in place first.

------
natural219
I bet the vandalizer feels pretty smug about himself right now.

~~~
golden_apples
Say what? Not sure where you're going with that. You think this whole incident
was just to provoke AirBnB into responding?

~~~
natural219
I'm just saying that somebody that immature is probably happy with himself
that he caused such a big mess.

