
Airbnb Taps Facebook, Lets You Crash With Friends Of Friends - pg
http://mashable.com/2011/05/10/airbnb-social-connections/
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JacobAldridge
When eBay sold Skype (the first time), a lot of the commentary was along the
lines of 'of course they never integrated it - get two people talking and the
first thing they will do is agree to sell at a reduced price to avoid the eBay
commission'.

So when the OP says "It makes us wonder why the startup didn’t release the
feature sooner" my immediate thought is: if I knew a friend of a friend had a
spare room available, I'd be communicating through Facebook to arrange it for
cheaper (or, if they're good enough friends, free) rather than through Airbnb.

Now, the connection for Airbnb isn't as direct as with eBay - I would need to
go through the friend, and that adds time and drama. Maybe the Airbnb team are
confident that that extra hassle will outweigh any sly users of the system; or
maybe they're just super confident that adding social validation to their
potentially risky business [1] will drive customers in droves, so a few sly
users really don't matter [2].

[1] Potentially risky in that paying to sleep in someone's spare room (or even
a private apartment) is a riskier travel proposition than paying to stay at
the Hilton, or even a reputable Hostel.

[2] And, to be fair, they're probably the users you don't want anyway.

~~~
meterplech
I hadn't thought of this angle. I will say that when I stay with a friend
(early 20s) it's typical to bring beer/food and buy the other person dinner/a
meal already. I think some people could circumvent the system- but many will
be happy to avoid the etiquette questions and just pay a friend-of-friend.

~~~
andrewcooke
this doesn't change much with age :o)

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meterplech
I think this is the killer feature for Airbnb. I have loved the idea of the
service, but haven't used it because of the slight creepiness worry (perhaps
unfounded, but I think common). I know I'd feel comfortable staying with
friends-of-friends though. I bet this is a huge draw for many news users for
Airbnb.

~~~
alanthonyc
Speaking from personal experience, you are exactly right.

I used the service a while back just to test it out. I ended up at at place
that was technically perfectly fine, but there were a few things that made me
cancel and book another place - for a pretty hefty fee.

Again - technically there wasn't anything wrong with it. I haven't submitted a
review because I don't know how to do it without being indiscreet.

Friends of friends is a great solution to this.

~~~
phlux
go on...

What did you find -- HN is perfectly discreet.

~~~
rudiger
I'd argue the opposite; I've found it to be very positive to travel and host
with AirBnB and CouchSurfing when it comes to, ahem, the opposite sex. Friend-
of-a-friend might get awkward, but then again, that's never stopped us either.

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minalecs
as a side note I would feel like a jerk charging a friend of a friend to stay
(like $60 a night), especially if the friend in common asked me as a favor.

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stretchwithme
That actually makes a lot of sense. It leverages your own judgement about your
friend's judgement and provides potential social consequences for bad
behavior.

But the nature of your friendships is poorly captured by Facebook. You can't
really tell if people have been friends for 20 years or 20 minutes. Or if
they've never met or made a baby together.

There ought to be a simple way to quantify both the "trustedness" of a
relationship. At the very least, there should be a "Trust" button underneath
every friend's profile photo.

With that info, Airbnb could tell you who your trusted friends trust, which is
way more useful.

~~~
patrickod
That all depends on what criteria you use for adding people on Facebook.
Personally I try to keep it to people that I actually know in contrast to
people whom I've met once or twice. No matter what happens you're still
trusting your friends' judgement in character.

~~~
stretchwithme
and what criteria you're friends use. I don't have much of a handle on the
latter.

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euccastro
This will make many people realise that they don't have nearly as many friends
as Facebook would let them believe.

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chuhnk
And there it is. This will infinitely increase the popularity of airbnb and
solidify it as a service that has same credibility as renting from an estate
agent.

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hammock
I always read about the Airbnb hype on the startup blogs but I knew I would
never use it. Now I actually might, if there is an offering in the place I
need to be. Because I can always reach out to my friend and check up on the
host. Maybe even get a deal (bypass airbnb commission)?

This is killer.

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graupel
This is a wonderful integration; never expected so many of my friends-of-
friends to have great places to stay!

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MatthewB
Such a smart idea. Anything to make the airbnb model appear more trustworthy
is worth it. Airbnb's biggest hurdle is the "weirdness" factor of staying with
a total stranger.

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JoeAltmaier
Some of us are never going to be comfortable staying with someone we don't
know, who isn't in the business of putting up folks for the night. Do you pay
them ahead of time? Do you owe them social reciprocation? Should you offer to
go to dinner/pay? Should you spend time with them? Will they expect you to?
Will I fit in the bed (I'm 6'4")? Is there a coffee shop within miles?

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rb2k_
I'd love to have an usable file sharing application that taps into existing
social structures (just like e.g. OneSwarm, but without the process of
manually adding friends)

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gappu
Oodle(<http://www.oodle.com>) has a similar concept. Except Oodle is in a lot
of domains.

Oodle, lets you have a seller profile and lists out all the items for you as
well. You can verify the seller profile through common friends.

