RE: AirBnB Horror Story

seems like they just added this:

"So much so, that starting August 15th, when hosts book reservations through Airbnb their personal property will be covered for loss or damage due to vandalism or theft caused by an Airbnb guest up to $50,000 with our Airbnb Guarantee. Terms will apply to the program and may vary (e.g. by country). This program will also apply retroactively to any hosts who may have reported such property damage prior to August 1, 2011."

Damage control mode.

One AirBnB home owner claimed his home was trashed and left with meth pipes everywhere. Meth pipes must have some kind of value, so it seems odd to me that the renters would have left any in the house, let alone a lot of them.

Some people likely have a case for damages incurred. Other people claiming issues have stories which seem unlikely. They are likely just trying to jump on the law suit bandwagon to make a fast buck.

likely stories wrote:

One AirBnB home owner claimed his home was trashed and left with meth pipes everywhere. Meth pipes must have some kind of value, so it seems odd to me that the renters would have left any in the house, let alone a lot of them.

I can't tell if you're trolling or not...

if you're not, you are woefully ignorant of the real world, and not fit to interact with other humans.

Meth pipes are cheap and disposable. They're they condom wrappers of the drug trade.

Thorpedo wrote: I can't tell if you're trolling or not...

if you're not, you are woefully ignorant of the real world, and not fit to interact with other humans.

Meth pipes are cheap and disposable. They're they condom wrappers of the drug trade.

I am not a meth user, or a user of any type of illegal drug. You know more about meth and meth pipes than I know or care to know. It's obviously an expertise of yours; prices or meth pipes and other such illegal things.

You are also exceptionally rude.

Ignorance is Bliss wrote: I found this tool called Google that you can use to figure out how ignorant you are.

Pipes are cheap. $5 a pop that you can use multiple times.

And you do you assume I would spend the time to look up the price of meth pipes.

If meth pipes are so cheap then it would very easy to fake damage to a home.

likely stories wrote:

I am not a meth user, or a user of any type of illegal drug. You know more about meth and meth pipes than I know or care to know. It's obviously an expertise of yours; prices or meth pipes and other such illegal things.

Like I said, you obviously know little about reality.

And even if you didn't, you could sit around and say: "Hey, lots of poor people do meth. Where would they get the money for expensive meth pipes?"

Or you could just f'ing google it like anyone with half a brain would do.

But instead you post nonsense and contribute nothing to the conversation. Am I rude? Yes. Am I correct? Yes.

By the way, more trouble for AirBnB:

"Some customers in San Francisco and other destination cities who use the online service to temporarily rent out their homes appear to be violating the law...

...city rent control laws and planning regulations technically prohibit residents from doing this. The Planning Department defines a property that's leased for less than 30 days as a hotel, which is subject to restrictions, permits, fees and taxes that are largely ignored in these cases."

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/08/03/BUR41KIB6A.DTL&tsp=1

I don't understand why everybody is giving "likely stories" a hard time. He speculated that the meth pipes must have some sort of value and that even if they were cheap they would add up if there were lots of them. I am not going to Google it, but I'll trust that the $5 price that "Ignorance is Bliss" gave is true. The homeowner said meth pipes were left "everywhere". I'm going to guess that is about 10-20 pipes. At $5 a piece that is $50-$100 in drug paraphernalia. That is a lot of money to an addict. People who drink alcohol get upset when half a beer is left behind (aka a floater or wounded soldier). When people smoke weed they always try and get every spec of it out of the corners of the bag. When people snort coke they make sure no powder is left behind. They even wipe the remaining resin on their gums.

$50-$100 in drug paraphernalia is a lot of money to a meth head.

That sucks. I've always been a little surprised that people are willing to let strangers use their apartment while they're away. I feel weird doing that with some of my best friends.

Still, it isn't AirBnB's fault. You open yourself up to strangers, you can expect strange shit to go down.

2 more wrote:

Man, they are used. You cannot use them forever. The ones they left behind were prolly the ones they couldn't use no more.

I've been around the block but never got involved with meth and don't know how many times pipes can be used. "Ignorance is Bliss" said they could be used multiple times. Twice? 5x? 10x? Whatever. They probably were unusable if they were left behind but I was just surprised with the amount of crap "likely stories" took for a reasonable speculation.

I started a thread about airbnb well before this incident, and I did look at their website. From what I can tell, airbnb is like a "classed-up craigslist" for shared accommodations.

Letting strangers stay in your home or apartment or staying in some stranger's home or apartment is just plain fkn crazy.

MAYEROFF wrote:

I started a thread about airbnb well before this incident, and I did look at their website. From what I can tell, airbnb is like a "classed-up craigslist" for shared accommodations.

Letting strangers stay in your home or apartment or staying in some stranger's home or apartment is just plain fkn crazy.

Ideas are born for this kinda stuff in places like NYC. You rent out your apartment for a few days before the marathon and make a killing. Then someone thinks, "wow, i bet people would love to rent out their apartments all the time." Only in big cities are people constantly trying to finds ways to chip away at the cost of living. Outside NYC, San Fran, this concept is not only loopy but incredibly dangerous. In NYC and San Fran it is not loopy, but it is still incredibly dangerous. But when your rent for a 1 bdroom is between 2-4k a month, you already ignore common sense.

I'm still a big fan of Airbnb. I've used it multiple times, and it's always been amazing. They've booked millions of nights of stay, so it isn't surprising there have been a couple of bad incidences. Life sucks. Crappy things happen. Planes crash. Building catch on fire. No need to freak out over an edge case. You can mock Airbnb all you want, but I'll go ahead and make fun of you for paying 2-3x more for a room in a hotel that is far worse than mine.

Thorpedo wrote:

By the way, more trouble for AirBnB:

"Some customers in San Francisco and other destination cities who use the online service to temporarily rent out their homes appear to be violating the law...

...city rent control laws and planning regulations technically prohibit residents from doing this. The Planning Department defines a property that's leased for less than 30 days as a hotel, which is subject to restrictions, permits, fees and taxes that are largely ignored in these cases."

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/08/03/BUR41KIB6A.DTL&tsp=1

Jeez dude, get it right while hopping on the 'trash BnB bandwagon.' Uh, nothing new here for most large cities in the United States of America. Not trouble for BnB, trouble for the people renting out rooms if they don't report the income properly on their taxes.

latently homosexual teenager wrote:

Jeez dude, get it right while hopping on the 'trash BnB bandwagon.' Uh, nothing new here for most large cities in the United States of America. Not trouble for BnB, trouble for the people renting out rooms if they don't report the income properly on their taxes.

First of all, I didn't write the article. It appeared in a San Francisco newspaper. I didn't come up with the idea myself.

Second, you can't see how this would affect AirBnB's business? I'm hoping you aren't involved in running a business yourself. If the government starts regulating this further, it will scare away more and more potential people willing to put their apt up. Less people = less choices = less money for AirBnB.

Third, you can't imagine that the local hotels/REAL BnB aren't going to take this to their local politicians to help put a stop to it. After all, they're losing customers to someone who is skirting taxes and regulations. And while AirBnB has a couple hundred mil in VC money, I assure you that the large hotels can make quick work of that either in court or through well placed campaign contributions.

Fourth, this sort of thing raises people's awareness of the issues? Hey, I don't want the IRS or the state div of taxation snooping around. Or, hey, maybe my homeowners/renters insurance isn't going to cover me if I rent my place out to strangers over the internet.

What seemed like a good business model maybe isn't a very good business model after all.

Many Men wrote:

I'm still a big fan of Airbnb. I've used it multiple times, and it's always been amazing. They've booked millions of nights of stay, so it isn't surprising there have been a couple of bad incidences. Life sucks. Crappy things happen. Planes crash. Building catch on fire. No need to freak out over an edge case. You can mock Airbnb all you want, but I'll go ahead and make fun of you for paying 2-3x more for a room in a hotel that is far worse than mine.

I think the risk for you staying at a strangers house is lower than the risk of renting your place out to possible hooligans.

I might rent out a room but then set it up with lots of hidden cameras in the the bathroom, and then sell the footage to adult websites.

Could that blog be any more dramatic?

It's only a matter of time before someone is raped or dies as a result of airbnb. I don't know of any craigslist murders, but I know there have been people raped.

As much as I love caffeine, I would shut down my energy drink company immediately if anyone were injured by it.