
Comedian Furious After Airbnb Rents His Apartment To "XXX Freak Fest" Orgy - yahelc
http://gothamist.com/2014/03/16/comedian_claims_airbnb_rented_his_a.php
======
danso
So what's the deal here...is Airbnb going to keep forking over money for
everyone who violates the terms of service, not to mention the state law? Is
this covered by Airbnb's insurer, or is Airbnb paying this out of pocket
because it turned into a social media blowup and it's worth eating the loss?

There's just something about this comedian's indignant attitude that is a real
turn off...the way he carefully worded his original post to make it sound like
the orgy actually took place, omitting the details that made it clear he
prevented the party. And his laughable claim of "this is a family
building"...yes, I'm sure the families really appreciate you renting out your
apartment to total strangers with no vetting. I wouldn't be surprised if some
of this was a setup to provide material for his next comic routine.

~~~
mpyne
> There's just something about this comedian's indignant attitude that is a
> real turn off...the way he carefully worded his original post to make it
> sound like the orgy actually took place, omitting the details that made it
> clear he prevented the party.

Where was it mentioned he'd prevented the party? It sounded instead like he
showed up right in the middle of it.

~~~
danso
Gawker really should get he reporting credit for this, as they actually
verified the details and Gothamist does a sloppy job of ripping off their work

[http://gawker.com/man-unwittingly-rents-out-apartment-on-
air...](http://gawker.com/man-unwittingly-rents-out-apartment-on-airbnb-for-
xxx-1544961941?utm_campaign=socialflow_gawker_twitter&utm_source=gawker_twitter&utm_medium=socialflow)

According to Teman, he handed the keys over to David late Friday afternoon.
Then, he left his suitcase with his doorman and went to dinner before planning
to head out of New York. When Teman returned to his building to retrieve his
bag, he saw David in the lobby and overheard him telling others that "they're
shutting us down."

Teman asked what was being "shut down," which he said brought a look of
mortified recognition over David's face. Concerned and suspicious, Teman went
back upstairs to his apartment, where he attempted to figure out what was
going on. He opened his computer and Googled the Gmail address and phone
number David had provided him during their correspondence on Airbnb. The
search of the phone number brought up this tweet from February that advertised
a "BBW Panty Raid Party" in New York.

...

Really, this is (yet another) story about the power of social media in our
everyday lives, just with a twist of BBW orgy. Had Teman Googled David's phone
number before handing over the keys, he probably would have cancelled the
agreement and saved everyone the trouble. If David's number wasn't plastered
across Twitter, he and whomever wanted to pay $20 to enter his party could
have fucked all over Teman's apartment in peace.

Instead, Teman ended up stuck in New York and displaced from his apartment.
David did not get to throw his Freak Fest. They both have spent the past 48
hours entangled with lawyers and policemen. What a weekend it could have been.

~~~
mpyne
OK, thanks. I see that Teman is claiming damages for things not related to the
party itself then, but for David allegedly damaging his apartment prior to the
party.

------
howeyc
Person rents out apartment to an individual who ended up lying to him. Is
furious at AirBNB service for some reason.

Does this logic work with other middleman services as well?

Some examples:

* Buy high priced item from (high ranked, but does it really matter?) individual on Ebay, turns out to be fake. Complain that this is Ebay's fault.

* Make some kind of deal on Craigslist. Deal falls through. Claim all the fault of Craigslist.

~~~
timr
It's pretty remarkable how the tone here has changed in three years' time. The
first ransack-gate led to all sorts of calls for AirBnB to compensate the
victim [1]. This time around, people seem to be blaming the guy who rented out
the apartment [2].

Aside from the shift in time and the "orgy" angle, the situations are
identical. Either HN has dramatically changed, or the collective attitude
toward this kind of thing has shifted to a decidedly anti-host (or pro-
company?) sentiment. Interesting.

[1]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2813956](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2813956)

[2] More commentary here:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7407796](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7407796)

~~~
true_religion
I'd say its neither.

People react to a story based on the total context, not entirely on the facts.
In the previous story, (if I remember correctly), it was presented as an
ordinary individual who had their place ransacked and now was afraid to live
there. There was an outpouring of support due to the individual being so
sympathetic and the case being delivered in such a desperate tone.

In this case the guy comes of (true or not) as entitled and antagonistic.

\----

That said, a careful reading of the situations shows its not factually
indentical.

The previous case was a home-owner. AirBnB now protects people who own the
property from damage caused when leasing.

This case is a renter, who was essentially running a hotel room out of his
apartment--an act against his lease, and perhaps even illegal in his area.

~~~
timr
You're "remembering" facts to justify your bias. Here's the original blog post
from ransackgate:

[http://ejroundtheworld.blogspot.com/2011/06/violated-
travele...](http://ejroundtheworld.blogspot.com/2011/06/violated-travelers-
lost-faith-difficult.html)

She never said anything about being an owner. As far as I can tell, she was a
renter. Certainly, nobody knew if she rented or bought at the time the post
hit HN.

Basically, what you're saying is that you don't like the guy's tone, so you
think he doesn't deserve sympathy. Glad you don't work for AirBnB customer
support.

~~~
true_religion
Well I'm only refering to the articles linked to previously in this thread. In
that article, they said that it was her 'house' as opposed to an apartment or
the like. So I presumed she was a home owner, or at the very least a house is
not a subdivision of a larger building.

> Glad you don't work for AirBnB customer support.

To be honest, I don't think he deserves sympathy since I don't know the full
story (i.e. what exactly was damaged). But were I customer support, I'd be
happy to hold his hand and have a cry with him because well.... that's the job
of customer support.

------
bdcravens
Already discussed a couple of days ago:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7407796](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7407796)

This article does however get into the followup between "victim" and AirBnB.

------
mysteriousllama
It's really horrible that happened to this guy. It's not really AirBNB's fault
but I am happy to hear they are helping him out regardless.

Letting someone into your _home_ should be a rather big deal. Just because
some website vouches for a person doesn't mean you shouldn't do some checking
up of your own.

It's sort of like Craigslist. Beware and assess the risks carefully!

------
maerF0x0
I find this hilarious. But only because it wasnt my place. I checked the URL
twice to see if it was the onion. The comedian should have joined in.

------
kilroy123
This should have NSFW in the title.

~~~
hnriot
the "XXX Freak Fest Orgy" didn't clue you in??

~~~
kilroy123
Didn't think there would be pics of anything sexual.

~~~
CocaKoala
the "XXX Freak Fest Orgy" didn't clue you in??

------
Houshalter
The comments on that article are terrible. People really hate the guy.

