It seems to me that what AirBnB should do is just this: 1. Announce they are instituting a (possibly optional) insurance policy. At most, there should be a

It seems to me that what AirBnB should do is just this: 1. Announce they are instituting a (possibly optional) insurance policy. At most, there should be a checkbox when I rent my place out that says 'insure it' and if I check it they take the cost of insurance out of what I'd get paid otherwise. If insurance is cheap enough (I don't know what 'cheap enough' is) they can simply make it mandatory. (The decision to self-insure or use an external insurance agency is not germane to this discussion... that's something they need to figure out internally.) 2. Offer this person some sum (say, 5x what insurance would have paid) for her silence. Now, I'm sure they are working on 2. but I think #1 is actually more important, because many of us are not going to be willing to do this negotiation in public to get compensation... so insurance is better all around. The people renting out the houses know they can get paid with minimal hassle, and AirBnB knows exactly how much it is going to cost ahead of time. If you can find an insurance company that insures hotels, they might also be able to help with risk mitigation efforts. I really think that instituting some sort of insurance policy is a good way for AirBnB to accept responsibility for the problem, and a realistic "and this is what we are doing to mitigate the problem going forward"