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Makes me think— Who says someone else has to insure Airbnb? Let's say they add an invisible $1 insurance fee to each booking, that goes into a fund to pay inter
by Cushman 15y ago
Makes me think— Who says someone else has to insure Airbnb? Let's say they add an invisible $1 insurance fee to each booking, that goes into a fund to pay interim damages only when an actual crime is committed.
Cases like this are so rare, and although the damage is horrific to one person the dollar amount is trivial on the scale Airbnb operates. Seems like a perfect case for a shared risk pool that actually works rather than insurance.
Then they could peg the cost of the insurance fee at a realistic share of your risk, and the theoretical cost of someone trashing the place would be built into the cost of the room.
- alex_c 15y agoThis opens Airbnb up to the risk of significant insurance fraud. Insurance companies have the infrastructure to deal with it, but Airbnb doesn't - and presumably doesn't want to build it.
- MichaelApproved 15y agoIf the premiums were juicy enough, an existing insurance company could cobrand with them to offer it. They can also limit their liability with a cap on the damages covered.
- djb_hackernews 15y agoThis is precisely what insurance companies are for. Airbnb gets insured, it's customers file claims with Airbnbs insurer when things go sour. Insurance fraud is no joke and it takes a hell of a lot of stupidness to attempt it.
- alex_c 15y agoThe problem is, as other commenters have pointed out, the activity facilitated by Airbnb is illegal in an increasing number of states. I'm sure that complicates insurance.
- Cushman 15y agoTheir attack surface is way, way lower, though. Airbnb would only be insuring the contract between two parties that Airbnb knows, so they're lightyears ahead of homeowner's insurance when it comes to recovering money from a claim. Fraud would mean the owner having an accomplice renter who destroyed something, Airbnb compensating the owner, and then being unable to track down the accomplice for redress. That's only a problem if a significant number of renters are able to use Airbnb without Airbnb having any way to track them down. And if that's the case, they already have a problem.
- alex_c 15y agoAn accomplice renter - or destruction or property - isn't necessary. The owner can just claim theft, at which point it's their word against the renter - "They stole my HDTV!" "There was no HDTV to start with!" At that point Airbnb is put in an impossible situation - they either pay for what may be fraud, or they refuse to compensate what may be actual theft.
- natural219 15y agoSimply integrate this with a rating or flagging feature. Make it strict -- one 'dispute', such as this, and you're on watch. Two in a short time frame and you're banned. etc. They can afford to pay for a couple of HDTVs so a couple of smart guys can profit off the service, and the legitimate users can keep on legitimately using.
- Cushman 15y agoI don't get it. They require you to file a police report, just like insurance companies do. In fact, since they know the identity of the renter, they can require that the renter's name appears in the police report, and Airbnb can call the police station themselves to follow up with more information. A claim against the fund necessarily means pressing criminal charges against another individual. So as the owner, it's my word against the renter with the cops involved. They're going to figure it out eventually. Maybe I'd be able to float a few grand for a while before it caught up with me, but surely there are easier ways for me to turn false testimony to my advantage than screwing over the web site that's earning me money?