4 ms·

"""Airbnb, while pointing out that the incident was the first of its kind out of some 2 million stays booked since the company's founding in 2008 ...""" source

by smanek 15y ago

"""Airbnb, while pointing out that the incident was the first of its kind out of some 2 million stays booked since the company's founding in 2008 ...""" source: http://travel.usatoday.com/destinations/dispatches/post/2011/07/plot-thickens-airbnb-renter-horror-story/179250/1 http://travel.usatoday.com/destinations/dispatches/post/2011... Either USAToday misinterpreted/misreported a quote, Airbnb lied to a reporter on the record, or Troy is making up his story. I can't see any other way to reconcile the evidence put forth.

SoftwareMaven 15y ago
The actual quote from AirBnB: With a single booking, one person’s malicious actions victimized our host and undermined what had been – for 2 million nights – a case study demonstrating that people are fundamentally good. Note it implies this is the only incident that has occurred, but they could have had three million incidents and this statement would still technically be true as long as they had two million nights without incidents. Somehow, I doubt USA Today will be thrilled about being manipulated that way...
- michael_dorfman 15y ago
  Somehow, I doubt USA Today will be thrilled about being manipulated that way... Somehow, I doubt USA Today will even notice. They get served up far more egregious statements on a daily basis. And, by the way, the statement is literally true, regardless of the number of prior incidents (within reasonable bounds). They aren't claiming a perfect 2million night streak in the quote-- rather, "a case study demonstrating that people are fundamentally good." If they had had 2000 prior bad incidents, they could easily argue that a 99% problem-free rate demonstrates that "people are fundamentally good."
  - Klinky 15y ago
    This just highlights major flaws with the AirBnB business model. I think a more accurate quote would have been that it's "a case study demonstrating that a niche group of people with shared goals can act in a fundamentally good way", translating that to the general population is where AirBnB will have it's growing pains.
j_baker 15y ago
You know, I just now realized something. When I was hosting with AirBNB, I had some guests who had their car broken into. When I emailed support, they told me this was the first time something like this had happened. It makes me wonder how many other "firsts" they've had.

by smanek 15y ago

SoftwareMaven 15y ago

The actual quote from AirBnB: With a single booking, one person’s malicious actions victimized our host and undermined what had been – for 2 million nights – a case study demonstrating that people are fundamentally good. Note it implies this is the only incident that has occurred, but they could have had three million incidents and this statement would still technically be true as long as they had two million nights without incidents. Somehow, I doubt USA Today will be thrilled about being manipulated that way...

michael_dorfman 15y ago
Somehow, I doubt USA Today will be thrilled about being manipulated that way... Somehow, I doubt USA Today will even notice. They get served up far more egregious statements on a daily basis. And, by the way, the statement is literally true, regardless of the number of prior incidents (within reasonable bounds). They aren't claiming a perfect 2million night streak in the quote-- rather, "a case study demonstrating that people are fundamentally good." If they had had 2000 prior bad incidents, they could easily argue that a 99% problem-free rate demonstrates that "people are fundamentally good."
- Klinky 15y ago
  This just highlights major flaws with the AirBnB business model. I think a more accurate quote would have been that it's "a case study demonstrating that a niche group of people with shared goals can act in a fundamentally good way", translating that to the general population is where AirBnB will have it's growing pains.

j_baker 15y ago

You know, I just now realized something. When I was hosting with AirBNB, I had some guests who had their car broken into. When I emailed support, they told me this was the first time something like this had happened. It makes me wonder how many other "firsts" they've had.