
(Korean)AirBnb: host wasn't intentional (though be attempted to rape his guests) - devdoomari
http://www.insight.co.kr/newsRead.php?ArtNo=114861
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devdoomari
tldr: 1\. Some months ago, a Korean woman was drug-raped by an airbnb host.

2\. Airbnb did not block the host nor did it tell anyone about the host

3\. The host tried to drug-rape his guests again

4\. Japanese police found about 'white powder remains in the cup given by the
host'

5\. Airbnb's 1st reaction: he didn't intend to do it.

6\. Airbnb's 2nd reaction: Japanese police said he's ok

7\. Airbnb's 3rd reaction: We'll educate the host on the matters

8\. Airbnb's 4th reaction: We'll do something about it (...but what?)

I chose HN because I saw some Airbnb founders/employees hanging around, and
I'd expect them to solve these kind of issues. Maybe the Korean / Japanese
Airbnb customer service is not doing their job/etc...?

~~~
stephenr
This is terrible for the users but hardly surprising.

I know it's not a popular opinion but some of the laws setup around service
industries like hotels, taxis, etc, are for the protection of the user from
potentially dangerous providers.

"Ripe for disruption" is just "lots of laws we can ignore"

~~~
JumpCrisscross
> _" Ripe for disruption" is just "lots of laws we can ignore"_

On the whole, I think society probably benefits from this kind of edge
testing. I certainly don't encourage it. And taking on federal or state laws
is a different game (legal and moral liability-wise) from challenging
municipal codes, particularly when people get hurt.

But Uber challenging the taxi industry forced everyone to take out the
rulebook and reconsider what is and isn't truly necessary. Something similar
is happening with hotels. One could argue, with Bitcoin _et al_ , too.

~~~
stephenr
Uber spent more money campaigning to prevent a law requiring background checks
on drivers in one city than it would have cost to do background checks for all
their drivers in the entire country.

These companies can try to claim it's about making things better all they
want. It's clearly just about money to them. I learnt that the hard way trying
to deal with AirBnB.

Tip: companies "doing the right thing" don't charge your credit card _then_
require you to login with Facebook (which I don't have) or upload a video
explaining why I want to rent a house.

~~~
pliftkl
I think that's a slight oversimplification. Uber wasn't fighting doing
background checks in Austin, they were fighting doing background checks the
way the city of Austin wanted them to. But at a more meta-level, what they
were really fighting was a precedent that would create a patchwork of local
regulation on Uber that would make it harder for them to scale.

But yeah, it is ultimately about the money.

~~~
stephenr
A self-imposed background check is essentially no background check.

The differences between Uber's and e.g. Taxi's is laughable, when you read
accounts from actual Uber drivers like [http://valleywag.gawker.com/uber-
driver-heres-how-we-get-aro...](http://valleywag.gawker.com/uber-driver-heres-
how-we-get-around-background-checks-1596982249)

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dmichulke
Is there some cultural component in the (non-) reaction of the Asian Airbnb
"branches" (maybe a rape=dishonor=never admit it) or is it just a plain PR-
disaster avoidance scheme?

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visarga
Does this site disable right-click? Can't translate normally.

~~~
sookcha
yeah it's blocked. try full site translate
[https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&pr...](https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=ko&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.insight.co.kr%2FnewsRead.php%3FArtNo%3D114861&edit-
text=&act=url)

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rhapsodic
Brian Chesky is a horrible person for foisting this on the world. Disruptive,
indeed.

~~~
Powerofmene
We all have the right to our own opinion. I have never used Airbnb but
certainly have lots of friends who have. Some love it and others not so much.
I know people who would lose their home if it were not using Airbnb to rent
out their guest room(s). One man's disaster is another's savior, I guess.

~~~
RodericDay
> I know people who would lose their home if it were not using Airbnb to rent
> out their guest room(s).

I know people who are feeling increased pressure to participate in the Airbnb
game, so as to not get priced-out by people who are doing so!

It's a race to the bottom.

~~~
darawk
It's only a race to the bottom because of artificially constrained housing
_supply_. Housing in cities would be substantially cheaper for everyone if it
weren't for NIMBYism and zoning laws. It's not AirBnB's fault for giving
people the ability to rent their homes.

