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Hey everyone - we were shocked when we heard about this unsettling event. We have been working closely with the authorities, and we want to reassure our communi

Hey everyone - we were shocked when we heard about this unsettling event. We have been working closely with the authorities, and we want to reassure our community that, with the help of our security infrastructure, we were able to assist the police in their investigation, and we understand from authorities that a suspect is now in custody. We've created a marketplace built on trust, transparency and authenticity within our community, and we hold the safety of our community members as our highest priority. We will continue to work with our users to stamp out those who would put that community at risk in any way. The vast majority of our community members genuinely respect and protect each other, but we urge users to be careful and discerning with each other and to hold others accountable through reviews, flagging and our customer service channel. Our hearts go out to our host and we will continue to work with her and with the authorities to make this right.

vladd 15y ago
Hey brian, - what's your side of the story on being unreachable 14 hours after the event? - did you offer AirBnB credit or compensation to the victim to stay elsewhere during this?
- abrimo 15y ago
  To be fair I doubt the victim would be comfortable receiving airbnb credit or using the service again. If this happened to me and I was offered credit, I would feel insulted.
- jeffool 15y ago
  Purely pulling this out of my ass, but I'm hoping whoever took his initial call(s) just severely misunderstood the situation. Maybe people have had trashy guests or items broken and became irate over them, and that's what this person thought was happening. I hope. I don't know the company's "side of the story", and would be surprised if it was ever really discussed in any way aside from steps taken to remedy this situation... But as this suggests, they apparently need, above their "urgent" number, a "Bat-Phone" for severe cases.
  - sjs 15y ago
    That doesn't matter. They are obligated to investigate each and every phone call to their fullest extent. Only if the same person called repeatedly could they even begin to think about the "boy who cried wolf" excuse.
    - jeffool 15y ago
      Sure, I just mean to say that a person calling the urgent line because someone may have accidentally pocketed a key and the homeowner is concerned, is reasonable. That should be investigated. But the guy calling with a police report on his entire place being completely trashed? The calls for the support staff to have a Bat-Phone to someone at a very high level, if not the top.
      - sjs 15y ago
        Oh I see, that's even better.
- zacharypinter 15y ago
  This doesn't specifically answer your question, but the post does seem to mention that financial compensation from AirBNB was offered: "They have offered to help me recover emotionally and financially, and are working with SFPD to track down these criminals."
  - forgotAgain 15y ago
    TechCrunch is reporting I spoke to Airbnb about EJ’s situation. They won’t reimburse her for damages, they say, and they do not insure against losses. They are helping police track down the person who did this, but their help ends there. http://techcrunch.com/2011/07/27/the-moment-of-truth-for-airbnb-as-users-home-is-utterly-trashed/ http://techcrunch.com/2011/07/27/the-moment-of-truth-for-air...
    - chailatte 15y ago
      I love that the entire investment community is gaga over this company. So they sold a fad product (cereal) at the right time to make a little bit of money. Just tells me they have no moral integrity (which explains the craigslist email spamming). So they struggled to make rent in SF a while. Who told them to stay in an expensive city with no savings? That's bad financial planning, and they could've bootstrapped their startup in Austin. Oh, and they made a startup that is illegal in many parts of US, and manage to dupe investors to give them hundreds of millions. Now they won't even give financial help to a girl whose life they help tear to shreds. Sounds like upstanding company/fellows to me.
      - blackguardx 15y ago
        How is cereal a fad product? What's wrong with catering to fads?
      - elizabeth-iii 15y ago
        My opinion is that the service is questionable. The fact that there is no way to contact a person until they accept your credit card. My friend paid for the stay, contacted a person via website, the person replied yes and asked to call him to make arrangements. Ended up, that nobody realized that nobody can see contact information. The day was waisted. So when my friend wanted to delete profile from airbnb, it is not allowed. So all we could do was telling about the horrible experience. They do not have detailed terms and conditions on the site, and all what a person should be aware of. I guess that they really do not care about customers. Like I heard from other people, this is like a typical startup from silicon valley, a new bubble. I guess we need to look at that in a positive way. So they just need to get enough money to get a lot of advertisement. Nothing will kill a horrible product faster that a good advertisement.
- mkramlich 15y ago
  I think it's presumptious to assume AirBnB owes anybody anything. The renter knew (or should have known, if not retarded) the risk she/they were taking. And AirBnB cannot literally be responsible for every single human being's action who is a party to their service. The person that, allegedly, trashed/robbed the place is clearly the person who did something evil and illegal. Blame the perpetrator, not a middleman or scapegoat.
  - demallien 15y ago
    You know, the problem is that unless AirBnB is willing to pick up the tab on this sort of thing, they dramatically increase the risk associated with using their service. Regardless of their legal responsibility, I would think that it was in their best interest to pay up in this type of situation. For example, a guarantee of say $10,000 for any damages (which AirBnB can then try and recoup from the perpetrator) would go a long way to making people feel more secure about renting out their apartment. That, along with a warning to store personal documents off-site, would reduce this type of event to being more of a nuisance than absolutely destroying someone. I would even think that that $10k limit could be waived in exceptional cases like this one.
sylvinus 15y ago
Thanks for taking care of it, also good to know they got a suspect. What can you say on the 24/7 "urgent" line, which sounds like an important feature even for cases less dramatic than this one?
- robjohnson 15y ago
  This seems to be the crux of the issue right here. When I heard the airbnb business model, this type of situation was the first thing that came to my mind. Airbnb absolutely does provide an incredible service, but these types of issues need to be solved. A 24/7 line should be step 1.
  - tjic 15y ago
    > When I heard the airbnb business model, this type of situation was the first thing that came to my mind Same here. Great model, glad it works for some people, but the only price I'd take to rent out my house - with my personal items in it - is the price of replacing my house and personal items.
    - IgorPartola 15y ago
      <meta>Too bad I have to post this instead of just showing my approval of these comments by upvoting them</meta> Exactly. No insurance will cover this type of transaction if the informally renting out your place is illegal in your locale. On top of that, you have to worry about your own safety. 99.999% of the time you'll be fine, but taking that risk is a very personal choice.
rdl 15y ago
It's a lot easier to do routine stuff well than to deal with unique situations like this. AirBnB has done the latter, and has proven again that they're a great organization with excellent customer service. Congratulations and best of luck with resolving everything successfully.
- aribnbsucks 15y ago
  i call bullsh1t on that.. havent seen airbnb do anything about this 'unique situation' that isn't contradicted at every turn...
  - gruseom 15y ago
    A novelty account? Just to join the schadenfreude pile-on? How cowardly.
    - careless 15y ago
      I am both a client and host with Airbnb and know from whence I speak. Airbnb offers a really great service, and the guys who founded it are genuine. Many learning experiences are painful, as was this one. Missteps are inevitable as a company grows. It's unfortunate what happened, and their response could have been more immediate. I think they will make steps to adjust and and protect their most important commodity, their hosts.
antihero 15y ago
Have you considered doing more to confirm the identity of someone?
chegra 15y ago
What I would like to see and would think would be a great win for AIRBNB, publicity-wise, is an offer to restore this person's stuff.
- teyc 15y ago
  The difference between a hotel and a home is that while a hotel may be trashed occasionally by the drunk rockstar, there is nothing sentimental in the hotel room. Screening is not going to stop someone pathological from unleashing wanton destruction. Even ordinary renting out houses usually require some kind of bond to be placed to deter and filter out riff raffs. I wonder if AirBnB would ever do this because it increases the transaction costs dramatically. On the other hand, it is a nice cash "float".
  - joezydeco 15y ago
    Screening won't help, but a credit card imprint sure goes a long way.
robtoo 15y ago
We've created a marketplace built on trust, transparency and authenticity Not if this quote from the linked article is true, you haven't... airbnb.com tightly controls the communication between host and traveler, disallowing the exchange of personal contact information until the point in which a reservation is already confirmed and paid for.
- bhickey 15y ago
  This information is correct.
- mseebach 15y ago
  No? It's built on. Controlling the communication is about avoiding "20% discount if you pay me in cash up front" scams, and yes, about protecting AirBnBs revenue stream. It's a trade-off: This process enhances trust since you know your host doesn't get your money until you've checked in and found everything to be in order - and the host knows that the money is held and that he won't have to deal with late or no payment. I don't get this focus on the personal contact issue. What exactly could the victim gain from having exchanged personal contact information prior to the booking, that he was unable to do after he got the contact information? He admits he didn't even catch that the guest misspelled his own name?
  - ry0ohki 15y ago
    If someone comes from Craigslist, you can at least Google for their name, try to find a Facebook page, etc... BEFORE they enter your house. At best, the way it is for the author, she could have done some checking, but at that point the freak is already in her house.
    - mseebach 15y ago
      No, after the booking is completed, still well before keys are handed over, personal contact information is made available. Sure, it's inconvenient if you have to turn someone down after researching them but after they paid, but that's hardly the issue here.
hammock 15y ago
Emotionally devastating story, but it seems like there is an easy solution to this. Have AirBnb contract include an insurance policy (superseding the homeowners insurance) for the time of rental. Also, have Airbnb keep credit card info on hand and hold guest responsible for any damage. Pretty standard business practices.
- marquis 15y ago
  I've had terrible experiences while travelling extensively and staying semi-permanently where landlords do anything they can to keep your deposit, especially when you don't speak the language so well. I'd not be comfortable having a stranger be able to claim I made some kind of damage, and it become some kind of paypal-like black-hole of unwarranted claims. Ultimately reading this, I feel so sorry for the host, as a random, rare victim of a dehumanizing crime. It could have happened on craigslist, or via a friend-of-a-friend. Not to say that AirBnB doesn't need to address this, but holding a large amount in escrow like a car rental deposit would be offputting to me (with car rentals there is clear evidence, and you do a full inspection beforehand, though I'm sure it's possible to get burned on this).
- ajays 15y ago
  But an insurance policy would further cut into their revenue stream. A credit card number doesn't help much when you're dealing with anti-social elements (they'll just use a stolen one).
  - atourgates 15y ago
    I would imagine that homeowners being terrified of having their homes trashed by guests would also cut into their revenue stream, and, if the "97% of airbnb guests are wonderful people" bit is true, the premiums should be fairly negligible. At the very least, it should be an option for property owners to purchase. Even if you do have homeowners / renters insurance, I wouldn't be surprised if most policies have exclusions for operating your home as a rental.
  - jeffdavis 15y ago
    "But an insurance policy would further cut into their revenue stream." If the value of the service is so low, and the risk so high, that it's essentially uninsurable, then perhaps that's a sign that it's a bad business model.
damonpace 15y ago
Airbnb has done a great job so far, but I think there needs to be some more effort put into validating the renters information. There are several ways to do this via online identities, credit cards, etc. The other option I would definitely add is a specialized rental insurance of some kind. An additional $10/night across all rentals should help pay for situations like this along with the basic broken item situations that I know you deal with. Let the homeowners decide if they want to charge/pay that fee. Then it is in their hands if they choose not to.
abaldwin 15y ago
Airbnb's review system sucks! Why are there no dates on any of the reviews? What determines the order of the reviews? In my experience, I've seen more recent negative reviews get pushed below older positive reviews. Why are we not allowed to sort the reviews by date or rating like on any other reasonable review system? This is the opposite of 'transparent'.
TeMPOraL 15y ago
Hmm? http://ejroundtheworld.blogspot.com/2011/07/airbnb-nightmare-no-end-in-sight.html http://ejroundtheworld.blogspot.com/2011/07/airbnb-nightmare... (Discussion: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2820615 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2820615)
Freeman77 15y ago
Although there have been negative PR effects for Airbnb due to this incident, it appears that they have benefited as well, by wisely using the lesson learned to improve their business by adding essential insurance and pre-deal inter-member communications services, among other things. The future value of that benefit to a start-up company most likely far exceeds the damages suffered by this host, assuming the PR issue can be positively resolved. There was no similar benefit for the host, unless you count the lesson learned that they should avoid the sort of activity your business is built around. So here's a suggestion: acknowledge publicly that this incident exposed ways in which the service could be improved and offer to make this one host whole as compensation for that value. Solves everybody's problems in one fell swoop without accepting blame for something that isn't Airbnb's fault (and more importantly without resorting to blaming the victim - not the host's fault either). I'll bet it would cost far less than the usual media blitz companies commonly use to repair their images after incidents such is this. Consider it a good investment in the company's future.

vladd 15y ago

Hey brian, - what's your side of the story on being unreachable 14 hours after the event? - did you offer AirBnB credit or compensation to the victim to stay elsewhere during this?

abrimo 15y ago
To be fair I doubt the victim would be comfortable receiving airbnb credit or using the service again. If this happened to me and I was offered credit, I would feel insulted.
jeffool 15y ago
Purely pulling this out of my ass, but I'm hoping whoever took his initial call(s) just severely misunderstood the situation. Maybe people have had trashy guests or items broken and became irate over them, and that's what this person thought was happening. I hope. I don't know the company's "side of the story", and would be surprised if it was ever really discussed in any way aside from steps taken to remedy this situation... But as this suggests, they apparently need, above their "urgent" number, a "Bat-Phone" for severe cases.
- sjs 15y ago
  That doesn't matter. They are obligated to investigate each and every phone call to their fullest extent. Only if the same person called repeatedly could they even begin to think about the "boy who cried wolf" excuse.
  - jeffool 15y ago
    Sure, I just mean to say that a person calling the urgent line because someone may have accidentally pocketed a key and the homeowner is concerned, is reasonable. That should be investigated. But the guy calling with a police report on his entire place being completely trashed? The calls for the support staff to have a Bat-Phone to someone at a very high level, if not the top.
    - sjs 15y ago
      Oh I see, that's even better.
zacharypinter 15y ago
This doesn't specifically answer your question, but the post does seem to mention that financial compensation from AirBNB was offered: "They have offered to help me recover emotionally and financially, and are working with SFPD to track down these criminals."
- forgotAgain 15y ago
  TechCrunch is reporting I spoke to Airbnb about EJ’s situation. They won’t reimburse her for damages, they say, and they do not insure against losses. They are helping police track down the person who did this, but their help ends there. http://techcrunch.com/2011/07/27/the-moment-of-truth-for-airbnb-as-users-home-is-utterly-trashed/ http://techcrunch.com/2011/07/27/the-moment-of-truth-for-air...
  - chailatte 15y ago
    I love that the entire investment community is gaga over this company. So they sold a fad product (cereal) at the right time to make a little bit of money. Just tells me they have no moral integrity (which explains the craigslist email spamming). So they struggled to make rent in SF a while. Who told them to stay in an expensive city with no savings? That's bad financial planning, and they could've bootstrapped their startup in Austin. Oh, and they made a startup that is illegal in many parts of US, and manage to dupe investors to give them hundreds of millions. Now they won't even give financial help to a girl whose life they help tear to shreds. Sounds like upstanding company/fellows to me.
    - blackguardx 15y ago
      How is cereal a fad product? What's wrong with catering to fads?
    - elizabeth-iii 15y ago
      My opinion is that the service is questionable. The fact that there is no way to contact a person until they accept your credit card. My friend paid for the stay, contacted a person via website, the person replied yes and asked to call him to make arrangements. Ended up, that nobody realized that nobody can see contact information. The day was waisted. So when my friend wanted to delete profile from airbnb, it is not allowed. So all we could do was telling about the horrible experience. They do not have detailed terms and conditions on the site, and all what a person should be aware of. I guess that they really do not care about customers. Like I heard from other people, this is like a typical startup from silicon valley, a new bubble. I guess we need to look at that in a positive way. So they just need to get enough money to get a lot of advertisement. Nothing will kill a horrible product faster that a good advertisement.
mkramlich 15y ago
I think it's presumptious to assume AirBnB owes anybody anything. The renter knew (or should have known, if not retarded) the risk she/they were taking. And AirBnB cannot literally be responsible for every single human being's action who is a party to their service. The person that, allegedly, trashed/robbed the place is clearly the person who did something evil and illegal. Blame the perpetrator, not a middleman or scapegoat.
- demallien 15y ago
  You know, the problem is that unless AirBnB is willing to pick up the tab on this sort of thing, they dramatically increase the risk associated with using their service. Regardless of their legal responsibility, I would think that it was in their best interest to pay up in this type of situation. For example, a guarantee of say $10,000 for any damages (which AirBnB can then try and recoup from the perpetrator) would go a long way to making people feel more secure about renting out their apartment. That, along with a warning to store personal documents off-site, would reduce this type of event to being more of a nuisance than absolutely destroying someone. I would even think that that $10k limit could be waived in exceptional cases like this one.

sylvinus 15y ago

Thanks for taking care of it, also good to know they got a suspect. What can you say on the 24/7 "urgent" line, which sounds like an important feature even for cases less dramatic than this one?

robjohnson 15y ago
This seems to be the crux of the issue right here. When I heard the airbnb business model, this type of situation was the first thing that came to my mind. Airbnb absolutely does provide an incredible service, but these types of issues need to be solved. A 24/7 line should be step 1.
- tjic 15y ago
  > When I heard the airbnb business model, this type of situation was the first thing that came to my mind Same here. Great model, glad it works for some people, but the only price I'd take to rent out my house - with my personal items in it - is the price of replacing my house and personal items.
  - IgorPartola 15y ago
    <meta>Too bad I have to post this instead of just showing my approval of these comments by upvoting them</meta> Exactly. No insurance will cover this type of transaction if the informally renting out your place is illegal in your locale. On top of that, you have to worry about your own safety. 99.999% of the time you'll be fine, but taking that risk is a very personal choice.

rdl 15y ago

It's a lot easier to do routine stuff well than to deal with unique situations like this. AirBnB has done the latter, and has proven again that they're a great organization with excellent customer service. Congratulations and best of luck with resolving everything successfully.

aribnbsucks 15y ago
i call bullsh1t on that.. havent seen airbnb do anything about this 'unique situation' that isn't contradicted at every turn...
- gruseom 15y ago
  A novelty account? Just to join the schadenfreude pile-on? How cowardly.
  - careless 15y ago
    I am both a client and host with Airbnb and know from whence I speak. Airbnb offers a really great service, and the guys who founded it are genuine. Many learning experiences are painful, as was this one. Missteps are inevitable as a company grows. It's unfortunate what happened, and their response could have been more immediate. I think they will make steps to adjust and and protect their most important commodity, their hosts.

antihero 15y ago

Have you considered doing more to confirm the identity of someone?

chegra 15y ago

What I would like to see and would think would be a great win for AIRBNB, publicity-wise, is an offer to restore this person's stuff.

teyc 15y ago
The difference between a hotel and a home is that while a hotel may be trashed occasionally by the drunk rockstar, there is nothing sentimental in the hotel room. Screening is not going to stop someone pathological from unleashing wanton destruction. Even ordinary renting out houses usually require some kind of bond to be placed to deter and filter out riff raffs. I wonder if AirBnB would ever do this because it increases the transaction costs dramatically. On the other hand, it is a nice cash "float".
- joezydeco 15y ago
  Screening won't help, but a credit card imprint sure goes a long way.

robtoo 15y ago

We've created a marketplace built on trust, transparency and authenticity Not if this quote from the linked article is true, you haven't... airbnb.com tightly controls the communication between host and traveler, disallowing the exchange of personal contact information until the point in which a reservation is already confirmed and paid for.

bhickey 15y ago
This information is correct.
mseebach 15y ago
No? It's built on. Controlling the communication is about avoiding "20% discount if you pay me in cash up front" scams, and yes, about protecting AirBnBs revenue stream. It's a trade-off: This process enhances trust since you know your host doesn't get your money until you've checked in and found everything to be in order - and the host knows that the money is held and that he won't have to deal with late or no payment. I don't get this focus on the personal contact issue. What exactly could the victim gain from having exchanged personal contact information prior to the booking, that he was unable to do after he got the contact information? He admits he didn't even catch that the guest misspelled his own name?
- ry0ohki 15y ago
  If someone comes from Craigslist, you can at least Google for their name, try to find a Facebook page, etc... BEFORE they enter your house. At best, the way it is for the author, she could have done some checking, but at that point the freak is already in her house.
  - mseebach 15y ago
    No, after the booking is completed, still well before keys are handed over, personal contact information is made available. Sure, it's inconvenient if you have to turn someone down after researching them but after they paid, but that's hardly the issue here.

hammock 15y ago

Emotionally devastating story, but it seems like there is an easy solution to this. Have AirBnb contract include an insurance policy (superseding the homeowners insurance) for the time of rental. Also, have Airbnb keep credit card info on hand and hold guest responsible for any damage. Pretty standard business practices.

marquis 15y ago
I've had terrible experiences while travelling extensively and staying semi-permanently where landlords do anything they can to keep your deposit, especially when you don't speak the language so well. I'd not be comfortable having a stranger be able to claim I made some kind of damage, and it become some kind of paypal-like black-hole of unwarranted claims. Ultimately reading this, I feel so sorry for the host, as a random, rare victim of a dehumanizing crime. It could have happened on craigslist, or via a friend-of-a-friend. Not to say that AirBnB doesn't need to address this, but holding a large amount in escrow like a car rental deposit would be offputting to me (with car rentals there is clear evidence, and you do a full inspection beforehand, though I'm sure it's possible to get burned on this).
ajays 15y ago
But an insurance policy would further cut into their revenue stream. A credit card number doesn't help much when you're dealing with anti-social elements (they'll just use a stolen one).
- atourgates 15y ago
  I would imagine that homeowners being terrified of having their homes trashed by guests would also cut into their revenue stream, and, if the "97% of airbnb guests are wonderful people" bit is true, the premiums should be fairly negligible. At the very least, it should be an option for property owners to purchase. Even if you do have homeowners / renters insurance, I wouldn't be surprised if most policies have exclusions for operating your home as a rental.
- jeffdavis 15y ago
  "But an insurance policy would further cut into their revenue stream." If the value of the service is so low, and the risk so high, that it's essentially uninsurable, then perhaps that's a sign that it's a bad business model.

damonpace 15y ago

Airbnb has done a great job so far, but I think there needs to be some more effort put into validating the renters information. There are several ways to do this via online identities, credit cards, etc. The other option I would definitely add is a specialized rental insurance of some kind. An additional $10/night across all rentals should help pay for situations like this along with the basic broken item situations that I know you deal with. Let the homeowners decide if they want to charge/pay that fee. Then it is in their hands if they choose not to.

abaldwin 15y ago

Airbnb's review system sucks! Why are there no dates on any of the reviews? What determines the order of the reviews? In my experience, I've seen more recent negative reviews get pushed below older positive reviews. Why are we not allowed to sort the reviews by date or rating like on any other reasonable review system? This is the opposite of 'transparent'.

TeMPOraL 15y ago

Hmm? http://ejroundtheworld.blogspot.com/2011/07/airbnb-nightmare-no-end-in-sight.html http://ejroundtheworld.blogspot.com/2011/07/airbnb-nightmare... (Discussion: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2820615 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2820615)

Freeman77 15y ago

Although there have been negative PR effects for Airbnb due to this incident, it appears that they have benefited as well, by wisely using the lesson learned to improve their business by adding essential insurance and pre-deal inter-member communications services, among other things. The future value of that benefit to a start-up company most likely far exceeds the damages suffered by this host, assuming the PR issue can be positively resolved. There was no similar benefit for the host, unless you count the lesson learned that they should avoid the sort of activity your business is built around. So here's a suggestion: acknowledge publicly that this incident exposed ways in which the service could be improved and offer to make this one host whole as compensation for that value. Solves everybody's problems in one fell swoop without accepting blame for something that isn't Airbnb's fault (and more importantly without resorting to blaming the victim - not the host's fault either). I'll bet it would cost far less than the usual media blitz companies commonly use to repair their images after incidents such is this. Consider it a good investment in the company's future.