The difference between Airbnb and VRBO is that VRBO is mainly a rental listing site. It's pretty clear to both the house owner and the renter. However, Airbnb presents itself as a service where they actually process payment for you and broker the rental transaction. It streamlines the process but also gives the impression that Airbnb is more than just a rental listing site. I think that's why this incident is more problematic for Airbnb. If this happened at a VRBO house, I don't think the publicity and implications would be as serious. It's kind of like Craigslist vs Ebay. Ebay brokers the transaction and thus carries more responsibility if people are scammed or harmed in transactions. Thus, Ebay gives buyers some automatic buyer protection. However, Craigslist doesn't broker the transaction. They merely allow people to post. Thus they have lower exposure of responsibility. Airbnb is more along the lines of Ebay.
This is my suggestion to the Airbnb CEO... "Dear EJ, We really messed up and I'm truly sorry. I'm sorry for trying to cover up the incident and asking you to edit your blog post. I'm sorry that we didn't attend enough to your personal well-being and recovery after the incident. We should have done more, and for that I'm truly sorry. I hope you can forgive me and my company. Though it's late in coming, we'd like to give you some real help to help you get back on your feet. First, we will pay for all damaged property and compensate you for your inconvenience and lost work time. Just tally the damaged items and their worth. For your inconvenience and lost work time we would like to give 3 months salary compensation (just let us know your monthly salary and we'll times that by three and send you a check). Second, we will pay your rent for any place you find for the next year (rent limit is $10,000/month). Please find a good, safe place. Third, we will provide you with a full-time assistant for the next two months. You can find your own assistant and we will pay them directly, or we can find you one. The assistant can help you with any of your needs, including but not limited to helping you find your lost items, new housing, research, etc. Fourth, I have authorized our customer service manager, XXX, to be your official point of contact in our company and make sure you are well-attended to. Her phone number is, 999-999-999 and her email is [email protected] . Again, I deeply apologize for my actions and my company's. Regards, ..."
According to the founders, Airbnb has offered to cover her losses all along, from the very beginning. If that's true, and in fact she rejected the help and rejected meeting with the founders as she claims she did, then Airbnb did everything it could do in its power to help. Airbnb has nothing to apologize for if all of that is true.
As much as I sympathize with the unlucky and unfortunate circumstances of the victim, the ultimate responsibility lies on the renters. This is going to happen again as Airbnb grows bigger and more people join the site; it's inevitable, just as there exists crime in people's homes now. If you're planning to rent out your apartment for a week, you really should meet the rentee in person, take steps to secure your own possessions from possible theft in advance, and secure the proper insurance (whether that's obtained through a future Airbnb offering or privately through an insurance company). When you rent a hotel room, they typically provide a safe lock because the same risk of getting your possessions stolen exists; this is no different.
I'm not trying to be dismissive of the victim, it really sucks this happened to EJ and the Airbnb team has been very open to offering help from what I've noticed lately. Fortunately, justice was served to the perpetrator, which is the important part. What EJ needs to do now is press charges and sue Faith Clinton for emotional damage and theft. I don't know how much the press will pursue this, and who knows how much it will affect Airbnb's reputation. I have a feeling this will blow over and I think Airbnb has made it clear they're willing to help as long as EJ will accept it; it wouldn't affect my own willingness to rent personally because I know after 2 million nights you're probably bound to have a few lunatics. Interestingly, someone in the previous threads accurately predicted it was a meth tweaker who fit the profile of the ransacking.
Rushing to judgement much? I am sorry but if the OP wants to convince me that airbnb tried to censor them and not merely make a case for a more fair account, I want to see the original communication. I don't want to see the summation of it by someone who is clearly not an independent party.
I can easily see airbnb having major disagreements over some of the blog post. I can also see them not going public with those differences despite taking the hits that may come as a result. Of course even if they did go public, there'd be a good chunk of people attacking them for violating a user's privacy. On the other hand, if the user goes public and published the original emails as I challenge her to do, we will get a much clear view into what is going on. Until them, I remain undecided and refuse to form an opinion.
They already offered to pay for a new apartment and new furniture as well as anything else she needed to assist her in recovery[1][2]...this story is really getting old.
[1] http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2822721 "Airbnb has been offering to fix it, from the very beginning. From the beginning they offered to pay to get her a new place and new stuff, and do whatever else she wanted."
[2] http://ejroundtheworld.blogspot.com/2011_06_01_archive.html "I would be remiss if I didn’t pause here to emphasize that the customer service team at airbnb.com has been wonderful, giving this crime their full attention. They have called often, expressing empathy, support, and genuine concern for my welfare. They have offered to help me recover emotionally and financially, and are working with SFPD to track down these criminals."
As in "one month ago police issues a statement that a person had been detained". Since then "EJ" claims that this person has not been charged.
This article came out today, after EJs post. The article is based on a police report over a month old. So what prompted its writing? Was it EJs post? If so, why no effort on the part of the journalist to investigate if the individual in the police report was charged (or even any mention of the allegation that she has not).
Or was it just a reprint of an AirBNB PR statement...
"Later on that evening, officers say they arrested Faith Clifton, a 19-year-old white female of San Francisco. Faith has been booked into San Francisco County Jail on possession of stolen property, methamphetamine and fraud charges."
That sounds like someone was arrested and charged to me.
I'm sure that she was. The question is, were those charges related to EJs apartment? EJ claims not. That the police made a statement that someone was charged for something, is most emphatically not a statement that someone was charged for the crimes committed against EJ.
That this over-one-month-old, ambiguous statement is the best that AirBNB has to offer, is pretty damning and leads me to believe EJ, not AirBNB. That AirBNB keeps sending it out lends credence to EJs belief that AirBNB doesn't give a shit and is just PR-ing the whole thing.
Either way, this "journalist" did nothing but reprint a PR blurb with zero fact checking or even awareness that there is another side to this story.
But it's unclear what her involvement in this is. Was she one of the perpetrators (and if there was more than one, as EJ suspects, where are the others?), or was she someone who received stolen property from them? Hard to say at this point...
airbnb needs some Tom Peters Wow tactics. If they had jumped on this thing as dave1619 suggests in this thread http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2824374
And as others, including edw519, suggests in the main thread http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2821280, imagine the blog post ej would have written and it would have turned this shite into gold.
From Airbnb's comment: and have confirmed with the SFPD that they have a female suspect in custody that they are investigating for vandalism and theft
Sorry.. Color me jaded, but why the mention that the suspect is female? PR maneuvering to plant the suggestion that this wasn't all that big a deal, cause after all.. it was a girl?
Just saying. I don't get it.
[Edit: Downvotes certainly welcome, but I'm assuming downvoters are the ones who might have an answer to what was very much a real question.. I'd really like to know, please. Why include the gender of the suspect? Why include any details in a tiny blurb where the only relevant point I can see is that someone was arrested, and why is the gender more important than the person's age, height, race, or say... criminal record or charges?]
Because EJ's 2nd post cast doubt on the currency and accuracy of AirBnb's original statement about a suspect, it's only natural that they add more (but not all) details. That's a way to signal that they are in fact talking about a specific, current, still-in-custody suspect.
Kudos to AllThingsD for getting an actual police statement, with more details and more hints methamphetamine abuse was involved.
As far as choosing gender as the extra detail to mention? Some might find that detail comforting, as it could indicate less risk of further victim harassment, while others will find it offensive. AirBnb is in a no-win situation at this point; all possible choices will cause some subset of the commentariat lynch mob to raise objections with tone or substance.
Spend some time watching Cops and you'll learn that mentioning (often arbitrary) demographics with suspect arrest is common. They likely just wrote what sfpd told them on one occasion and your blowing up into a conspiracy is your personal problem, not airbnb's.
Since when has the gender of an arrestee not been made public? Often times we make these records public as a way to protect the individual who has been taken into custody by the government.
OK these stories are starting to get a bit tiresome.
Such a random and twisted act is not the norm, nor is it indicative of any aspect of airbnb's business. It's just as likely one would have this happen in a hotel (to their travel belongings) via a crazy housekeeping staff member.
Airbnb is a Y Combinator company, so that is a big reason why this story is generating a lot of interest on Hacker News. It's quite on-topic for this particular community.
I'm aware that it's a YC company, but I still don't see why such a random event counts as a data point... Sometimes weird and twisted stuff happens... it doesn't mean anything.
That "it" happened doesn't "mean anything". I think what you mean is that when bad shit happens to a person, it doesn't mean that person is bad. But even if that is what you mean, that it happened does "mean" something to EJ. It also most definitely "means" something to AirBNB. I don't know what yet. I suspect that the internet is so fickle, and that even if the cost/benefit analysis demonstrated that AirBNB is a universally bad idea, that people would still do it because they perceive less risk in events they choose [1]. Equally, the whole thing could just be overblown because its news.
"People underestimate risks they willingly take and overestimate risks in situations they can’t control. When people voluntarily take a risk, they tend to underestimate it. When they have no choice but to take the risk, they tend to overestimate it."
Of course the event itself doesn't mean anything. It's how Airbnb handled it that means something. IMO, the fact that Airbnb said the word "funding" to the victim is pretty damning.
