

It's Not AirBnB's Fault - D-mo
http://dmongan.tumblr.com/post/8232787041/its-not-airbnbs-fault

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fossuser
While people can argue if AirBnB shares any blame (since they do make it more
difficult to research the person in order to prevent people from making the
deal outside of their fee), whether or not it is actually their fault is
really irrelevant.

It was inevitable that there was going to be a robbery or murder or some other
major event that would cause a big stir for the company and challenge their
response. To me the obvious thing in this case seemed to be to immediately
contact the person, take care of all financial losses (to the excess in order
to show they're taking the issue seriously) and then to use this case as a
reminder to the community to be aware of potential dangers inherent in renting
out your home and that while they can't take financial responsibility for
damages in the future, they're willing to make things right in this case since
it was a learning experience for everyone.

It would have been a reasonable response that would have made them look good.
Instead they look desperate, political and selfish. It will hurt them more
than it should.

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Krylez
Agreed. The initial reports indicated that AirBnB was being very helpful. It
looks like they backed off after the story went public. They should have taken
it as an opportunity to do something good with everyone watching.

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fossuser
I think had they done that, it could have actually made people really
comfortable with the risk involved with using AirBnB. I wonder why they backed
off. It also seems that something like having people submit scans of their
drivers license or other form of ID would help prevent these kinds of
problems.

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pedalpete
I don't think anybody is 'blaming' airBnB for the incident. However, when you
facilitate a transaction, there is an expectation that you are working to the
satisfaction of both parties involved. If you give your credit card to a
merchant and they ring up extra charges, it isn't the credit card companies
'fault', but you both want them to know about the issue and expect them to
take care of it for you.

I think in the end this is a huge opportunity for AirBnB. They are getting
tons of press that they otherwise wouldn't get, and in this case their is no
such thing as bad PR (I don't believe that to always be the case).

As more people are likely to be renters than rentees, this might for a short
time limit the availability of accommodation, if renters are concerned about
their property. But more renters will become aware of AirBnB and in the not
too distant future people will remember something about a renter who's
property got damaged and it was a big deal. That memory may actually be a good
thing! The details will be forgotten, but it may be remembered that something
happened and AirBnB had to take care of it.

As a home owner, if you are looking to rent out your place and your options
are 1) a site you haven't heard of 2) a site that gained world-wide exposure
when there was an incident regarding damage to a persons property, wouldn't
you be inclined to go with the one that people are paying attention to?

Rock stars trash a lot of hotel rooms, nobody blames or avoids the hotels.

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werg
It's not their fault that this happened. But it is their business. So if this
turns off customers, because they fumble this rather expectable occurence,
then yeah - that is their fault. If you run your own business there just are
no excuses. That's the flip-side to not having to put up with a lot of BS.

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mentat
It's usually appropriate to call females women instead of girls when they are
of age to be renting out their houses. It sets the wrong tone to use this word
and makes our community look sexist, which has been an ongoing problem.

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geekam
I can use a custom stylesheet on my end but I wish this web page had better
choice of font color so that there was some contrast.

