Another Airbnb Victim Tells His Story: “There Were Meth Pipes Everywhere”

Re:Another Airbnb Victim Tells His Story: “There Were Meth P... by benatkin on Sunday July 31, 2011 @04:59PM (#2829572)

Just in case anyone's curious, CouchSurfing has been around a bit longer than AirBnb and they have their own safety tips and tools: http://www.couchsurfing.org/safety.html

Here's the AirBnb page about safety: http://www.airbnb.com/home/safety

CouchSurfing is similar in that it's about strangers staying at people's places. The biggest difference is that people let others stay at their houses for free. Usually both parties do it for the experience. Many people think it's fun to meet travelers. I knew someone who traveled to Asia and couch-surfed.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Another Airbnb Victim Tells His Story: “There Were Meth P... by notJim on Sunday July 31, 2011 @05:10PM (#2829612)

That AirBnb page was added like a week or two ago in response to the EJ affair.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Another Airbnb Victim Tells His Story: “There Were Meth P... by benatkin on Sunday July 31, 2011 @05:55PM (#2829752)

Wow, good to know. I confirmed it with archive.org. I don't need to know if Michael Arrington or EJ are telling the truth or not. This is enough for me to not trust AirBnb. With that kind of popularity they should educate potential guests/hosts about safety issues. I'm glad they're doing it now but it's too late for me. (I used AirBnb three times last year but each time I tried to get to know the hosts through a phone call beforehand and was ready to cancel if it didn't feel right.)

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Another Airbnb Victim Tells His Story: “There Were Meth P... by alsocasey on Sunday July 31, 2011 @08:07PM (#2830096)

Not only that, they mention renters/home-owners insurance... but typical renters/home-owners insurance wouldn't cover you in the case of subletting, would it?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Another Airbnb Victim Tells His Story: “There Were Meth P... by pnathan on Sunday July 31, 2011 @05:40PM (#2829708)

I'm given to understand that couchsurfing usually occurs when the host is present, which IMO is a risk-mitigating behavior.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Another Airbnb Victim Tells His Story: “There Were Meth P... by Uchikoma on Monday August 01, 2011 @05:08AM (#2831335)

I think this is more complex:

a.) It reduces the risk that something happens (e.g. burglary) b.) It increases the impact if something happens (e.g. armed robbery, murder, rape)

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Another Airbnb Victim Tells His Story: “There Were Meth P... by Mz on Sunday July 31, 2011 @05:44PM (#2829719)

I have not really been following any of this all that closely (though it's been impossible to miss entirely on HN), but my general understanding is that AirBnB originally was going to do a paid version of that and then, for some reason, decided it would be okay for people to not be present.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Another Airbnb Victim Tells His Story: “There Were Meth P... by philwelch on Sunday July 31, 2011 @05:58PM (#2829766)

The host was physically present at both of my Airbnb stays.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Another Airbnb Victim Tells His Story: “There Were Meth P... by Mz on Sunday July 31, 2011 @06:04PM (#2829776)

They can be but are not required to be. That is the distinction I am trying to make: My understanding is that the initial policy was the host was required to be present and then they changed it. And it seems to me the stories we are seeing here are cases where the host was not present.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Another Airbnb Victim Tells His Story: “There Were Meth P... by jamesteow on Monday August 01, 2011 @12:05AM (#2830662)

The difference is that CouchSurfing has a giant button on the homepage that says, "is this safe?" that links to the safety page. It's also linked from the main nav.

Airbnb has the safety page linked from the footer.

Guess which one is going to get more clicks.

[ Parent | on HN ]