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I find this bit particularly damning: "During this call and in messages thereafter, he requested that I shut down the blog altogether or limit its access, and a

I find this bit particularly damning: "During this call and in messages thereafter, he requested that I shut down the blog altogether or limit its access, and a few weeks later, suggested that I update the blog with a “twist" of good news so as to “complete[s] the story”. Seems like we are all still waiting for the "good news" ending to this tale.

freddealmeida 15y ago
I'm more disappointed with airbnb screwing this up than that there are bad people using the site. They should have dropped everything to fix this. I wonder what pg thinks about this.
- kooshball 15y ago
  I'm curious to hear if PG even knew about this before it blew up.
  - Joakal 15y ago
    That's pretty unfair to PG since he's not involved in AirBnB's support.
- palish 15y ago
  I doubt Airbnb cares what pg thinks. I'm just guessing, but it seems likely Airbnb see themselves as "underdogs, displacing the hotel industry". The fact that they care so much how EJ phrased her post after her home was completely destroyed (look around you right now --- imagine all of that being gone and never coming back) indicates they have an ego to match. So no, pg can't help them, and no one else can either. It's up to them to fix or break their billion-dollar company.
  - pseudonym 15y ago
    It's obvious that AirBnB only cares about attempting to spin it. I'm more curious if pg is going to work "how (not) to handle a PR crisis" into the YCombinator syllabus.
pseudonym 15y ago
I don't know what they're smoking over there, honestly. Cut off all contact through their CS to the victim, and then have a cofounder want to "meet them for coffee"? After asking her to take down the blog or give it a positive-twist ending? I don't know what they're expecting but I'm hard-pressed to think of what they could do worse, short of joking about it on twitter. Edit: Holy god, I didn't realize the actual timeframe of this was five weeks. AirBnB is going to have to crucify someone for a "bad judgement call" in terms of the sudden Customer Service cutoff if they want to have any positive spin coming off of this, I think. Also, props to this brave lady for the point-by-point shutdown of their PR statement. I don't know many people who would have the guts to stand up to a company, especially after what she's been through, both from the original incident and AirBnB's response after her initial blog post.
- gojomo 15y ago
  What you're calling a 'sudden Customer Service cutoff' is actually when (from victim's account) communication switched to being with a cofounder. That's escalation and unification, and it's not fair to portray a direct open line to the boss as a 'cutoff'. (That the victim portrays it that way suggests they may have had better rapport with the original CS liason. Perhaps that person included more social/emotional niceties in more frequent communications. Not everyone is as good at the sort of 'inquiry into my current emotional state' that this victim might find comforting.)
  - _delirium 15y ago
    Yeah, I think that's structurally the correct response (escalate her directly to the founders), but unless the cofounder is actually good at that kind of thing (apparently not), they probably should've additionally assigned someone who is good at it as a contact person to check up on her situation / provide assistance / etc. Heck, if the original CS rep had good rapport, maybe the right response would be to keep him/her as the main contact person, but escalate the CS rep into more of a personal representative of the founders, with more authority to provide assistance, and a direct line to keep them updated. Of course, that's a guess with hindsight.
  - deleted 15y ago
gojomo 15y ago
This is the paraphrased account from a hurt and angry person. It may accurately portray how the victim felt, but not the intended emphasis of the speaker. Beware making any 'damning' conclusions.

freddealmeida 15y ago

I'm more disappointed with airbnb screwing this up than that there are bad people using the site. They should have dropped everything to fix this. I wonder what pg thinks about this.

kooshball 15y ago
I'm curious to hear if PG even knew about this before it blew up.
- Joakal 15y ago
  That's pretty unfair to PG since he's not involved in AirBnB's support.
palish 15y ago
I doubt Airbnb cares what pg thinks. I'm just guessing, but it seems likely Airbnb see themselves as "underdogs, displacing the hotel industry". The fact that they care so much how EJ phrased her post after her home was completely destroyed (look around you right now --- imagine all of that being gone and never coming back) indicates they have an ego to match. So no, pg can't help them, and no one else can either. It's up to them to fix or break their billion-dollar company.
- pseudonym 15y ago
  It's obvious that AirBnB only cares about attempting to spin it. I'm more curious if pg is going to work "how (not) to handle a PR crisis" into the YCombinator syllabus.

pseudonym 15y ago

I don't know what they're smoking over there, honestly. Cut off all contact through their CS to the victim, and then have a cofounder want to "meet them for coffee"? After asking her to take down the blog or give it a positive-twist ending? I don't know what they're expecting but I'm hard-pressed to think of what they could do worse, short of joking about it on twitter. Edit: Holy god, I didn't realize the actual timeframe of this was five weeks. AirBnB is going to have to crucify someone for a "bad judgement call" in terms of the sudden Customer Service cutoff if they want to have any positive spin coming off of this, I think. Also, props to this brave lady for the point-by-point shutdown of their PR statement. I don't know many people who would have the guts to stand up to a company, especially after what she's been through, both from the original incident and AirBnB's response after her initial blog post.

gojomo 15y ago
What you're calling a 'sudden Customer Service cutoff' is actually when (from victim's account) communication switched to being with a cofounder. That's escalation and unification, and it's not fair to portray a direct open line to the boss as a 'cutoff'. (That the victim portrays it that way suggests they may have had better rapport with the original CS liason. Perhaps that person included more social/emotional niceties in more frequent communications. Not everyone is as good at the sort of 'inquiry into my current emotional state' that this victim might find comforting.)
- _delirium 15y ago
  Yeah, I think that's structurally the correct response (escalate her directly to the founders), but unless the cofounder is actually good at that kind of thing (apparently not), they probably should've additionally assigned someone who is good at it as a contact person to check up on her situation / provide assistance / etc. Heck, if the original CS rep had good rapport, maybe the right response would be to keep him/her as the main contact person, but escalate the CS rep into more of a personal representative of the founders, with more authority to provide assistance, and a direct line to keep them updated. Of course, that's a guess with hindsight.
- deleted 15y ago

gojomo 15y ago

This is the paraphrased account from a hurt and angry person. It may accurately portray how the victim felt, but not the intended emphasis of the speaker. Beware making any 'damning' conclusions.