I think that's absurd. Would you say the same thing about Craigslist?
> The fact that they don't know the identity of the parties is openly misrepresented by their materials which indicate that the transaction is safe and intentionally try to distract the customer with jokes about the difficulty of moving grand pianos
That's not how I read it at all. They don't claim to know the identity of the other party; they claim that the transaction is safe. Which, it appears, it is. If they've had 2 million nights booked, that's maybe a quarter of a million bookings, and (they claim) this is the first time anything like this has happened. That's pretty safe!
I read the joke about the grand piano as an admission that the only thing that's preventing people from using Airbnb to rob people is that robbing people is generally hard and unprofitable.
I've ripped on them for asking her to take down the blog -that was a huge d-bag move. But, it's not their jobs to be this woman's counselor. I imagine if I was in a similar position I would rely on family & friends. Not a company & their investors. I mean, after they cut a check (which doesn't sound like it's happened) how often are they supposed to call and ask how she's doing?
I'm not one of those who feels that Airbnb has to compensate her for everything or even anything.
BUT, I do think Airbnb needed to do more to inform potential users about the risks involved. No, I'm not talking about a microsite or bolding fine print on their terms of use... I'm talking about messaging along the process.
As I said in another part of this thread, Craigslist does a good job of messaging on the search results page and on the actual posts itself by displaying links on how to avoid being scammed.
On an eBay product page, there is a large buyers protection module and additional text near the product description like "Seller assumes all responsibility for this listing."
While some people aren't going to read them, they at least help set expectations.
Separating the two is what causes situations like this.
They technically have no obligation to pay in the case of any damage.
For them, the best possible course of action was to bury this case. However, now that it's come into the public light they're torn between (a) trying to re-iterate to everyone that they do not have liability and (b) trying to look good by doing the "Right Thing".
As a business owner, I feel for them. As a human being, I feel for her. I too am torn, and think that there is going to be no satisfactory resolution to this situation. Someone is not going to come away 'whole', and most likely it will be AirBNB.