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There are a few glaring, obvious questions to which I have not seen any answers so far - or maybe I have missed them: Why was it difficult for Airbnb to immedi

There are a few glaring, obvious questions to which I have not seen any answers so far - or maybe I have missed them: Why was it difficult for Airbnb to immediately have the person that trashed the place arrested? Don't they have the person's identity - address, credit card information, phone number, IP address? Don't they run a basic credit check when a person signs up to rent a unit listed on the site? Or at least do some basic identity verification? Or was this person using a stolen identity? Or does Airbnb require that the entire responsibility for this rests on the person renting the place?

usaar333 15y ago
I've been wondering this as well, and I didn't see it mentioned in any post thus far. It seems like the most obvious step to do; if police can get the CC number from AirBnB, that should be enough to resolve the SSN. Assuming the info isn't stolen, the criminal is going to have a problem. I'm not an AirBnB user, so maybe I'm missing something.
- Uchikoma 15y ago
  EJ said she has suspicion they were identity thefts. So they booked with a stolen identity probably.
lawnchair_larry 15y ago
Slightly off-topic, but what's with Americans and thinking it is acceptable to run credit checks for everything? Credit history is not an indicator of whether you are deserving of sleeping somewhere for a night. Maybe a criminal record check.
- philwelch 15y ago
  Credit checks are great for verifying that someone pays their bills, which is an important part of commercial transactions. It also indicates responsibility and the ability to fulfill obligations.
  - lawnchair_larry 15y ago
    No, actually it doesn't at all. And frankly, it is none of your business. It's important for giving certain types of loans, not for doing pre-paid transactions like renting a room for a night. Credit information should be need-to-know, and you should be respectful of others' privacy (and perhaps more cautious of your own). You're nuts if you think I am giving you 7 years of address history, all my credit accounts, my spouse's accounts, and how much is on my mortgages, just so I can rent your guest house for a weekend vacation. You can verify that you're able to put a reasonable deposit on my credit card, and that I'm not a criminal, and that's all you need. I've actually been a landlord for about 3 years, and I don't even do credit checks on a 12 month lease. I've never had to keep a dollar of anyone's damage deposit.
    - philwelch 15y ago
      That's all well and good, and it's a fair question where to balance privacy with enabling someone to make a decision, but you can't seriously claim that a credit check doesn't impart useful information about someone.

usaar333 15y ago

I've been wondering this as well, and I didn't see it mentioned in any post thus far. It seems like the most obvious step to do; if police can get the CC number from AirBnB, that should be enough to resolve the SSN. Assuming the info isn't stolen, the criminal is going to have a problem. I'm not an AirBnB user, so maybe I'm missing something.

Uchikoma 15y ago
EJ said she has suspicion they were identity thefts. So they booked with a stolen identity probably.

lawnchair_larry 15y ago

Slightly off-topic, but what's with Americans and thinking it is acceptable to run credit checks for everything? Credit history is not an indicator of whether you are deserving of sleeping somewhere for a night. Maybe a criminal record check.

philwelch 15y ago
Credit checks are great for verifying that someone pays their bills, which is an important part of commercial transactions. It also indicates responsibility and the ability to fulfill obligations.
- lawnchair_larry 15y ago
  No, actually it doesn't at all. And frankly, it is none of your business. It's important for giving certain types of loans, not for doing pre-paid transactions like renting a room for a night. Credit information should be need-to-know, and you should be respectful of others' privacy (and perhaps more cautious of your own). You're nuts if you think I am giving you 7 years of address history, all my credit accounts, my spouse's accounts, and how much is on my mortgages, just so I can rent your guest house for a weekend vacation. You can verify that you're able to put a reasonable deposit on my credit card, and that I'm not a criminal, and that's all you need. I've actually been a landlord for about 3 years, and I don't even do credit checks on a 12 month lease. I've never had to keep a dollar of anyone's damage deposit.
  - philwelch 15y ago
    That's all well and good, and it's a fair question where to balance privacy with enabling someone to make a decision, but you can't seriously claim that a credit check doesn't impart useful information about someone.