9 ms·

'I've never seen anything like it': Airbnb renters leave Calgary home trashed

94 points by rpledge 11y ago

aaron695 11y ago
Are we not past the immaturity of having to post the fact someone trashed a house, but OMG it was on Airbnb? Continuing this level of immaturity, it seems to mostly be just mess that a simple mop and bucket could fix. But I guess to the immature having to clean for a few hours is a news worthy horror. Yes a couch or three might be total write offs for the immature, where as a good steam clean from the non lazy might fix some of them, but Airbnb will replace them anyway. The 'what's wrong with people' should really be directed to the people who watch these style of stories.
- Retric 11y ago
  I don't think the homeowner is going to be stuck with the bill. But, that kind of dammage can easily end up with some prison time. It depends on the house, but doing $50,000 to $75,000 worth of damage to a 'normal' house without fire or flooding takes some effort and is a little more than just a few couches. Sure, you could also do that much dammage by chipping the wrong cup, but and assuming a normal house I suspect the party was actively trying to trash the place.
- hvs 11y ago
  You keep using that word, I do not think it means what you think it means.
- jamiesonbecker 11y ago
  It might be a bit ironic that you focus on the immaturity of the host and/or journalist.
- beedogs 11y ago
  The blind defense of this horrible company on HN continues to astound me.
- grayclhn 11y ago
  I think you'll find that, once other services exist that can trash your house, we'll complain about them too.
slacka 11y ago
Key takeaway here: "The couple posted to Instagram saying that they were "thankful" to Airbnb for providing coverage under its Host Guarantee, which offers up to $ 1 million in insurance "in the rare event of guest damages which are not resolved directly with the guest."
- gcb0 11y ago
  For each case like that, i bet there are 1000 where someone just steal a stereo or leave the room dirtier than you can imagine that airbnb does not reimburse the owner. and that the police will just ignore since it is not over the threshold of monetary damage that is there so they don't have to care about poor people like you.
  - deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]
  - themartorana 11y ago
    Do you have any evidence of that? Links, etc.? I've never heard of anything like that.
    - gcb0 11y ago
      http://www.airbnbhell.com/ http://www.airbnbhell.com/
  - mikeash 11y ago
    Unless there's some evidence of this happening, this is pure conjecture and adds nothing to the discussion.
    - gcb0 11y ago
      The airbnb team is strong in this thread. http://www.airbnbhell.com/ http://www.airbnbhell.com/ there are several sites like the above. most of the real complaints are cleaning fees that airbnb promises to cover in case of abuse and they never do. Also, several analysis from insurance companies saying that the $1mm "host guarantee" is a marketing ploy and not that most of the insurance business loss is on small things, and that only covering the big bust is a fake way to not have insurance losses. but you will have to search those for yourself edit: ok, i've searched for you http://www.tnooz.com/article/homeaway-thinks-1m-airbnb-host-guarantee-is-as-empty-as-a-vacant-apartment/ http://www.tnooz.com/article/homeaway-thinks-1m-airbnb-host-...
ericabiz 11y ago
As an Airbnb host (we rent out our master bedroom suite), I can safely say Airbnb is not what it used to be. It's just like any community online, really. Airbnb started out as a tight-knit, mostly Bay-Area-techie demographic. As a host in Austin, where many techies visit, do job interviews, or hang out for a few weeks, I enjoyed meeting interesting people who were in the same (or similar) community as I was--startups/entrepreneurs. I met people who had shared connections with me on Facebook and people who became good friends. Fortunately for Airbnb's valuation, but unfortunately for hosts, the demographic has dramatically changed over the past few months to a year. With Airbnb becoming a "household name" of sorts, with a multi-billion-dollar valuation, people have started booking on Airbnb who are not of the caliber (to put it nicely) of the original close-knit community that made the site so neat. I get it. Communities, as they grow and become mainstream, tend to attract more not-so-great people. It's inevitable. It's just, as a host, it stinks. Airbnb is going to have to get even better with quality control. (One step, as I've made clear in emails to their support team, is to get really firm on their guideline of not letting people book for other people. It is a trust and safety issue--the person booking the Airbnb should be the person staying in the house, PERIOD.) I wrote more about my personal experience a few weeks ago on Facebook [1]. I didn't mention some of the particular bad experiences we've had with guests in the post, because I don't want to embarrass anyone publicly, but let's just say...we have had some really negative, uncomfortable experiences with multiple guests in the past couple months. That's after having over 100 positive experiences, but the percentage of positive vs. negative experiences has taken a dramatic negative turn lately. My experiences are not as horrific as the above article--probably in part because we are here when we rent out our master bedroom. However, this definitely is a trend/issue that Airbnb is going to continue to struggle with. I hope their customer service team takes these incidents seriously and continues to make it safer for hosts and guests of the service. [1]: https://www.facebook.com/ericabiz/posts/10152926663453305 https://www.facebook.com/ericabiz/posts/10152926663453305
- mcmenon 11y ago
  Can't you vet the people that stay with you? Do you find the ratings process unreliable?
  - 11y ago
linkregister 11y ago
It should be really easy for Airbnb (which insured the house under its TOS) to recoup the damages from the renters, of whom it has all pertinent information to track them down. Though the article is sensationalized linkbait, unnecessarily showing pictures of the damage, the story is an affirmation of Airbnb's good business practice of mitigating risk to the owners.
- hluska 11y ago
  Does Airbnb pay you well?? I mean, a police officer in CALGARY said that he had never seen anything like that. Note - Calgary is right in the middle of a highly prosperous oil patch and nobody can wreck a home quite like rig workers.
  - quadrature 11y ago
    Well he isn't wrong, Airbnb asks for Government ID when you rent a place and they have your credit card information.
    - hluska 11y ago
      That's true...and if you saw the video, Constable Horvath said they had found the renter and were attempting to question him. My (pithy) question about whether Airbnb paid him well was in response to this: "Though the article is sensationalized linkbait, unnecessarily showing pictures of the damage, the story is an affirmation of Airbnb's good business practice of mitigating risk to the owners." That's a little over the top...especially considering they did an estimated $50k damage to floors and furnishings.
    - bdcravens 11y ago
      Pretty sure the credit card doesn't have a limit of $75,000. There's plenty of identifying information, but it's still a matter of civil litigation.
  - linkregister 11y ago
    Does it advance the discussion by accusing me of being on the payroll of Airbnb? Of course the action performed by the renters is egregious. What about that is newsworthy? The fact it's in Canada? Airbnb has a good insurance policy for owners. The news story buries the lede. Isn't it HN policy to point it out when posted stories do this?
greggman 11y ago
I've had the opposite issue which is as a renter which is out of 6 AirBnB rentals 5 of them had issues, 4 of them the host lied on their listing and several I didn't rent lied on their listings as well but I got smart enough to confirm before. #1 was "parking on premises". Having a car I wanted a space. One place I show up and "here's the space but it's often blocked so you'll have to park somewhere else". Another I show up. "Host, sorry I'm in Europe and my car is in the space so you'll have to park somewhere else". Have had similar experiences confirming. "It says on your listing parking on premises. Is that true?" "Yes, parking on the street is easy although if here on a weekday you won't have a permit so you'll have to park 3 blocks away". "What part of on premises don't you get???" And no, the reviews didn't mention it. I assume because others didn't have car or didn't notice they paid for "parking on premises". Another place claimed WiFi but it turned out he was stealing wifi from a neighbor and it only worked if you sat on their sofa. He said if it didn't work there was free wifi in the lobby of the building. Yet another said their place was a 1 bedroom, not a studio but it was actually a studio with just a wardrobe separating the bed from the rest. What's the difference? Whether or not there's a door between me and the refrigerator who's noise keeps me awake. I wouldn't have rented the place had the listing been correct. So, yea, no more AirBnB for me
- digitalzombie 11y ago
  There's no rating system in AirBnB? >___>
  - Nate75Sanders 11y ago
    There is, but the problem is that not every amenity listed is something that all customers would want, thus they won't knock a host for it being incorrect. For example, I stayed at a place in Germany that said they had a washer and dryer. Indeed there was a washer and I thought it might be one of those all-in-one units (washer and dryer), but it was just a washer. I asked the host about the dryer and she said she didn't have one. I pointed out that she listed one on the AirBnB site under amenities. The problem here? Language barrier. She thought "dryer" meant hair dryer, which she had. It sorta screwed up my trip because I did a multi-city stay and that was the place I decided to do laundry and forewent laundry facilities and the previous and next places when I planned everything out beforehand. And as grandparent here alludes to: people have wildly different ideas about what a particular amenity is. "Wifi, but only when you're sitting on the couch" isn't up to snuff for me. It may be that most people who stayed at that place were not in the apartment much and only checked email occasionally. It may be that I need to use the internet for a couple of hours each day to deal with work or some other commitment. What I've found is that you need to find out which amenities are REALLY important to you for each place you stay and send messages to the people ahead of time to make sure the really important stuff is what you'd expect and not "just true enough that I can probably check this box for the amenity".
ekianjo 11y ago
> "I mean, this is our home. This is our sanctuary," Mark said. Then don't rent it to people you don't know. Duh.
- wpietri 11y ago
  There are few kinds of HN comment I hate more than the superior-by-dint-of-hindsight putdown.
  - ekianjo 11y ago
    It's not hindsight. When you play with fire you obviously end up being burnt once in a while. It's just common sense. And you should not play with fire with things you REALLY care for, like your home.
    - wpietri 11y ago
      Please. Your comment only has any punch because you made it on one of the rare negative outcomes. And you could have made it after any similarly rare disaster. Their home could have been trashed after letting a friend stay. After having a cleaner come by. After a plumber. After they left the door unlocked. After somebody broke in when they went away on vacation. And you could have said, "Well duh, what were you thinking leaving your house unoccupied." Life is risk. Running around and acting smart after the negative outcomes is boring and easy. It's the same game played by the vast number of people who explain why a startup could never work after the startup has already failed.
      - ekianjo 11y ago
        Life is risk indeed, and by allowing strangers into your place without any supervision, you are significantly increasing the risk that something wrong can happen, don't you think ? EDIT: Oh, and the startup comparison is silly, most people who run startups don't even put their own home at stake in case everything fails.
        11y ago
kazinator 11y ago
Anyone notice the irony? Okay, a few days ago it was, "I'm gonna rent this out for some extra money". Now the vocabulary has amusingly changed to "our sanctuary". I somehow don't associate the word with FOR RENT signs. A sanctuary is literally a sacred place. That precludes it being a marketplace. (At least according to an obvious Western/Christian interpretation of "sacred place", pretty much in effect since old J. C. cleansed that temple of the traders and money changers.)
- interpol_p 11y ago
  Sometimes you don't know how much you value your sanctuary until you've lost it.
- beedogs 11y ago
  I sure do love me some victim-blaming.
  - FeepingCreature 11y ago
    Victims can be dumb. This is because everybody can be dumb. If you're dumb, you need to get told so you become less dumb. This is a terrible thing that happened, but shielding the people at risk of terrible things from all possibilities to learn how to avoid terrible things is not doing them favors.
beachstartup 11y ago
i used airbnb once for a trip to europe, and one of the hosts cancelled on me the night before, causing me to scramble to find a hotel that was wildly overpriced. the next airbnb in the other city was run by a couple of weirdos who i didn't feel comfortable interacting with. i'm never using it again - seriously, what is the advantage here? given the very real risk that someone can cancel on you, or simply make you feel creeped out, why would i choose this over reliable commercial accommodations when traveling thousands of miles? cheap hotels are just fine, and they don't cancel reservations on a whim.
- ljk 11y ago
  > other city was run by a couple of weirdos who i didn't feel comfortable interacting with. you can also pick to rent the whole unit to avoid interacting with the host. but yeah, imo airbnb is hit-or-miss now
  - beachstartup 11y ago
    it was the whole place, i'm not going to stay with a stranger - i'm a grown-ass man. they still had to give me the key and show me the place, etc. i also foolishly accepted their offer to drive me from the airport for some more money.
    - ljk 11y ago
      I feel your pain. There are definitely some weird people that look nothing like their airbnb profile photo
- jpatokal 11y ago
  Airbnb is great when traveling with a larger group (family, colleagues of the kind you'd want to share a house with, etc). There are plenty of cities where cheap apartment hotels that do short-term bookings basically don't exist, often for legal reasons. (I'm looking at you, Singapore and Tokyo.) When traveling with young kids, meaning you need a kitchen, a washing machine and more space than the average Japanese business hotel, Airbnb has been a lifesaver.
ojbyrne 11y ago
It's a testament to Airbnb's PR that the people quoted here don't know about previous issues like: http://gawker.com/man-unwittingly-rents-out-apartment-on-airbnb-for-xxx-1544961941 http://gawker.com/man-unwittingly-rents-out-apartment-on-air... http://www.businessinsider.com/airbnb-host-cant-get-squatter-to-leave-2014-7 http://www.businessinsider.com/airbnb-host-cant-get-squatter...
- matthewrhoden1 11y ago
  It really get's my blood boiling seeing that second post. I can't believe that people like that exist. I've actually had something similar happen me, except I wasn't doing an Air BnB listing. I got a roommate who turned out to be a dead beat and actually knew all these laws. I made a huge mistake not getting our agreements in writing. I never expected to meet someone so spineless. Anyways, I had a new found appreciation for these kinds of laws after that mess.
- furyg3 11y ago
  The guy in the second situation is a huge asshole, but it is also very naive to think that you can simply rent out your propery to someone (especially on a long-term basis) and you do not somehow enter a landlord/tenant relationship. Most people know someone who rents out property, and have heard horror stories like this. Laws and eviction processes tend to error on the side of the tenant for good reasons. So it's the responsibility of the landlord to know the rules and the risks. Just because the match was made with AirBnB doesn't suddenly absolve you of risk or responsibilities. This is not to 'blame the victim', the renter seems like an asshole. For a long time I rented out my house to many roommates, and I've had some bad ones where lawyers needed to be involved. It's often hard to spot an asshole upfront and sometimes impossible to spot a sociopath, no matter how good your interview process (or AirBnB rating system) is. And life circumstances can turn a friendly renter into an evil one. But I knew the risks... namely that in CA it can take 6+ months after a problem occurs to get someone evicted, and your chances of getting paid for that period are very low.
beedogs 11y ago
Another Airbnb host learns the hard way that being an Airbnb host is a sucker bet. It's the meatspace equivalent of running a Tor exit node.
xkcd-sucks 11y ago
I'm honestly quite surprised that renting AirBNBs for partying/selling drugs hasn't become more popular. I certainly would have done it as a teenager-- Chip in $5 per person, get a weekend party house that isn't owned by your parents. Get the kid with a beard and the voluptuous church girl to meet the hosts if necessary.
- venomsnake 11y ago
  Absolutely no idea why do you get downvoted ... that would have been my first idea as a teen too.
- onewaystreet 11y ago
  Maybe it is more popular but most teens aren't stupid enough to trash the place so it is never reported.
- fragsworth 11y ago
  You can do this with hotels too, but you don't see that happening. Not really sure why.
  - richardbrevig 11y ago
    People party in hotel rooms all the time. It's just part of the standard operations of the hotel to deal with them so they never become a big deal.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
Devthrowaway80 11y ago
New business idea: people engaging in risky commercial enterprises (like, say, renting a valuable property on AirBNB) could pay into a central fund, which would cover damages in rare but nasty circumstances like this. The amount they pay could be proportional to their expected loss, plus an extra fee to cover administration. That way you could pay a predictable amount per month and you'd be covered in the event of a disaster like this. Silicon Valley, it's time to disrupt commerce - get on it!
- FeepingCreature 11y ago
  https://www.airbnb.com/guarantee https://www.airbnb.com/guarantee oh look [edit] > The couple posted to Instagram saying that they were "thankful" to Airbnb for providing coverage under its Host Guarantee, which offers up to $ 1 million in insurance "in the rare event of guest damages which are not resolved directly with the guest."
- readme 11y ago
  So, your new idea is insurance?
  - woah 11y ago
    I think the idea is sarcasm
williwu 11y ago
I just had an awful experience with Airbnb a month ago. I rented an apartment in Maui for two nights. We arrived really late in the night. When we were in the apartment, we found out that it wasn't cleaned. Used bed sheets were on the floor and still on some beds, tables were dirty. The host obviously forgot to clean it. I contact the host, but couldn't get hold of him, since he's in another time zone. I called Airbnb and send them pictures of the place, and asked what to do. The Airbnb support guy basically told us that the apartment was clean enough to stay for the night, and we have to resolve the issue with the host ourselves. That was the first time I have talked to Airbnb support, and the experience was just awful. We ended up staying at hotel for that night on our own dime, but the host was kind enough afterwards to refund the booking fee.
c0pypas1e 11y ago
(Gasp) you mean requiring pictures of the host & pictures of the potential renter is not a cure all? Why, I never....

94 points by rpledge 11y ago

Are we not past the immaturity of having to post the fact someone trashed a house, but OMG it was on Airbnb? Continuing this level of immaturity, it seems to mostly be just mess that a simple mop and bucket could fix. But I guess to the immature having to clean for a few hours is a news worthy horror. Yes a couch or three might be total write offs for the immature, where as a good steam clean from the non lazy might fix some of them, but Airbnb will replace them anyway. The 'what's wrong with people' should really be directed to the people who watch these style of stories.

Retric 11y ago
I don't think the homeowner is going to be stuck with the bill. But, that kind of dammage can easily end up with some prison time. It depends on the house, but doing $50,000 to $75,000 worth of damage to a 'normal' house without fire or flooding takes some effort and is a little more than just a few couches. Sure, you could also do that much dammage by chipping the wrong cup, but and assuming a normal house I suspect the party was actively trying to trash the place.
hvs 11y ago
You keep using that word, I do not think it means what you think it means.
jamiesonbecker 11y ago
It might be a bit ironic that you focus on the immaturity of the host and/or journalist.
beedogs 11y ago
The blind defense of this horrible company on HN continues to astound me.
grayclhn 11y ago
I think you'll find that, once other services exist that can trash your house, we'll complain about them too.

slacka 11y ago

Key takeaway here: "The couple posted to Instagram saying that they were "thankful" to Airbnb for providing coverage under its Host Guarantee, which offers up to $ 1 million in insurance "in the rare event of guest damages which are not resolved directly with the guest."

gcb0 11y ago
For each case like that, i bet there are 1000 where someone just steal a stereo or leave the room dirtier than you can imagine that airbnb does not reimburse the owner. and that the police will just ignore since it is not over the threshold of monetary damage that is there so they don't have to care about poor people like you.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
- themartorana 11y ago
  Do you have any evidence of that? Links, etc.? I've never heard of anything like that.
  - gcb0 11y ago
    http://www.airbnbhell.com/ http://www.airbnbhell.com/
- mikeash 11y ago
  Unless there's some evidence of this happening, this is pure conjecture and adds nothing to the discussion.
  - gcb0 11y ago
    The airbnb team is strong in this thread. http://www.airbnbhell.com/ http://www.airbnbhell.com/ there are several sites like the above. most of the real complaints are cleaning fees that airbnb promises to cover in case of abuse and they never do. Also, several analysis from insurance companies saying that the $1mm "host guarantee" is a marketing ploy and not that most of the insurance business loss is on small things, and that only covering the big bust is a fake way to not have insurance losses. but you will have to search those for yourself edit: ok, i've searched for you http://www.tnooz.com/article/homeaway-thinks-1m-airbnb-host-guarantee-is-as-empty-as-a-vacant-apartment/ http://www.tnooz.com/article/homeaway-thinks-1m-airbnb-host-...

ericabiz 11y ago

As an Airbnb host (we rent out our master bedroom suite), I can safely say Airbnb is not what it used to be. It's just like any community online, really. Airbnb started out as a tight-knit, mostly Bay-Area-techie demographic. As a host in Austin, where many techies visit, do job interviews, or hang out for a few weeks, I enjoyed meeting interesting people who were in the same (or similar) community as I was--startups/entrepreneurs. I met people who had shared connections with me on Facebook and people who became good friends. Fortunately for Airbnb's valuation, but unfortunately for hosts, the demographic has dramatically changed over the past few months to a year. With Airbnb becoming a "household name" of sorts, with a multi-billion-dollar valuation, people have started booking on Airbnb who are not of the caliber (to put it nicely) of the original close-knit community that made the site so neat. I get it. Communities, as they grow and become mainstream, tend to attract more not-so-great people. It's inevitable. It's just, as a host, it stinks. Airbnb is going to have to get even better with quality control. (One step, as I've made clear in emails to their support team, is to get really firm on their guideline of not letting people book for other people. It is a trust and safety issue--the person booking the Airbnb should be the person staying in the house, PERIOD.) I wrote more about my personal experience a few weeks ago on Facebook [1]. I didn't mention some of the particular bad experiences we've had with guests in the post, because I don't want to embarrass anyone publicly, but let's just say...we have had some really negative, uncomfortable experiences with multiple guests in the past couple months. That's after having over 100 positive experiences, but the percentage of positive vs. negative experiences has taken a dramatic negative turn lately. My experiences are not as horrific as the above article--probably in part because we are here when we rent out our master bedroom. However, this definitely is a trend/issue that Airbnb is going to continue to struggle with. I hope their customer service team takes these incidents seriously and continues to make it safer for hosts and guests of the service. [1]: https://www.facebook.com/ericabiz/posts/10152926663453305 https://www.facebook.com/ericabiz/posts/10152926663453305

mcmenon 11y ago
Can't you vet the people that stay with you? Do you find the ratings process unreliable?
- 11y ago

linkregister 11y ago

It should be really easy for Airbnb (which insured the house under its TOS) to recoup the damages from the renters, of whom it has all pertinent information to track them down. Though the article is sensationalized linkbait, unnecessarily showing pictures of the damage, the story is an affirmation of Airbnb's good business practice of mitigating risk to the owners.

hluska 11y ago
Does Airbnb pay you well?? I mean, a police officer in CALGARY said that he had never seen anything like that. Note - Calgary is right in the middle of a highly prosperous oil patch and nobody can wreck a home quite like rig workers.
- quadrature 11y ago
  Well he isn't wrong, Airbnb asks for Government ID when you rent a place and they have your credit card information.
  - hluska 11y ago
    That's true...and if you saw the video, Constable Horvath said they had found the renter and were attempting to question him. My (pithy) question about whether Airbnb paid him well was in response to this: "Though the article is sensationalized linkbait, unnecessarily showing pictures of the damage, the story is an affirmation of Airbnb's good business practice of mitigating risk to the owners." That's a little over the top...especially considering they did an estimated $50k damage to floors and furnishings.
  - bdcravens 11y ago
    Pretty sure the credit card doesn't have a limit of $75,000. There's plenty of identifying information, but it's still a matter of civil litigation.
- linkregister 11y ago
  Does it advance the discussion by accusing me of being on the payroll of Airbnb? Of course the action performed by the renters is egregious. What about that is newsworthy? The fact it's in Canada? Airbnb has a good insurance policy for owners. The news story buries the lede. Isn't it HN policy to point it out when posted stories do this?

greggman 11y ago

I've had the opposite issue which is as a renter which is out of 6 AirBnB rentals 5 of them had issues, 4 of them the host lied on their listing and several I didn't rent lied on their listings as well but I got smart enough to confirm before. #1 was "parking on premises". Having a car I wanted a space. One place I show up and "here's the space but it's often blocked so you'll have to park somewhere else". Another I show up. "Host, sorry I'm in Europe and my car is in the space so you'll have to park somewhere else". Have had similar experiences confirming. "It says on your listing parking on premises. Is that true?" "Yes, parking on the street is easy although if here on a weekday you won't have a permit so you'll have to park 3 blocks away". "What part of on premises don't you get???" And no, the reviews didn't mention it. I assume because others didn't have car or didn't notice they paid for "parking on premises". Another place claimed WiFi but it turned out he was stealing wifi from a neighbor and it only worked if you sat on their sofa. He said if it didn't work there was free wifi in the lobby of the building. Yet another said their place was a 1 bedroom, not a studio but it was actually a studio with just a wardrobe separating the bed from the rest. What's the difference? Whether or not there's a door between me and the refrigerator who's noise keeps me awake. I wouldn't have rented the place had the listing been correct. So, yea, no more AirBnB for me

digitalzombie 11y ago
There's no rating system in AirBnB? >___>
- Nate75Sanders 11y ago
  There is, but the problem is that not every amenity listed is something that all customers would want, thus they won't knock a host for it being incorrect. For example, I stayed at a place in Germany that said they had a washer and dryer. Indeed there was a washer and I thought it might be one of those all-in-one units (washer and dryer), but it was just a washer. I asked the host about the dryer and she said she didn't have one. I pointed out that she listed one on the AirBnB site under amenities. The problem here? Language barrier. She thought "dryer" meant hair dryer, which she had. It sorta screwed up my trip because I did a multi-city stay and that was the place I decided to do laundry and forewent laundry facilities and the previous and next places when I planned everything out beforehand. And as grandparent here alludes to: people have wildly different ideas about what a particular amenity is. "Wifi, but only when you're sitting on the couch" isn't up to snuff for me. It may be that most people who stayed at that place were not in the apartment much and only checked email occasionally. It may be that I need to use the internet for a couple of hours each day to deal with work or some other commitment. What I've found is that you need to find out which amenities are REALLY important to you for each place you stay and send messages to the people ahead of time to make sure the really important stuff is what you'd expect and not "just true enough that I can probably check this box for the amenity".

ekianjo 11y ago

> "I mean, this is our home. This is our sanctuary," Mark said. Then don't rent it to people you don't know. Duh.

wpietri 11y ago
There are few kinds of HN comment I hate more than the superior-by-dint-of-hindsight putdown.
- ekianjo 11y ago
  It's not hindsight. When you play with fire you obviously end up being burnt once in a while. It's just common sense. And you should not play with fire with things you REALLY care for, like your home.
  - wpietri 11y ago
    Please. Your comment only has any punch because you made it on one of the rare negative outcomes. And you could have made it after any similarly rare disaster. Their home could have been trashed after letting a friend stay. After having a cleaner come by. After a plumber. After they left the door unlocked. After somebody broke in when they went away on vacation. And you could have said, "Well duh, what were you thinking leaving your house unoccupied." Life is risk. Running around and acting smart after the negative outcomes is boring and easy. It's the same game played by the vast number of people who explain why a startup could never work after the startup has already failed.
    - ekianjo 11y ago
      Life is risk indeed, and by allowing strangers into your place without any supervision, you are significantly increasing the risk that something wrong can happen, don't you think ? EDIT: Oh, and the startup comparison is silly, most people who run startups don't even put their own home at stake in case everything fails.
      - 11y ago

kazinator 11y ago

Anyone notice the irony? Okay, a few days ago it was, "I'm gonna rent this out for some extra money". Now the vocabulary has amusingly changed to "our sanctuary". I somehow don't associate the word with FOR RENT signs. A sanctuary is literally a sacred place. That precludes it being a marketplace. (At least according to an obvious Western/Christian interpretation of "sacred place", pretty much in effect since old J. C. cleansed that temple of the traders and money changers.)

interpol_p 11y ago
Sometimes you don't know how much you value your sanctuary until you've lost it.
beedogs 11y ago
I sure do love me some victim-blaming.
- FeepingCreature 11y ago
  Victims can be dumb. This is because everybody can be dumb. If you're dumb, you need to get told so you become less dumb. This is a terrible thing that happened, but shielding the people at risk of terrible things from all possibilities to learn how to avoid terrible things is not doing them favors.

beachstartup 11y ago

i used airbnb once for a trip to europe, and one of the hosts cancelled on me the night before, causing me to scramble to find a hotel that was wildly overpriced. the next airbnb in the other city was run by a couple of weirdos who i didn't feel comfortable interacting with. i'm never using it again - seriously, what is the advantage here? given the very real risk that someone can cancel on you, or simply make you feel creeped out, why would i choose this over reliable commercial accommodations when traveling thousands of miles? cheap hotels are just fine, and they don't cancel reservations on a whim.

ljk 11y ago
> other city was run by a couple of weirdos who i didn't feel comfortable interacting with. you can also pick to rent the whole unit to avoid interacting with the host. but yeah, imo airbnb is hit-or-miss now
- beachstartup 11y ago
  it was the whole place, i'm not going to stay with a stranger - i'm a grown-ass man. they still had to give me the key and show me the place, etc. i also foolishly accepted their offer to drive me from the airport for some more money.
  - ljk 11y ago
    I feel your pain. There are definitely some weird people that look nothing like their airbnb profile photo
jpatokal 11y ago
Airbnb is great when traveling with a larger group (family, colleagues of the kind you'd want to share a house with, etc). There are plenty of cities where cheap apartment hotels that do short-term bookings basically don't exist, often for legal reasons. (I'm looking at you, Singapore and Tokyo.) When traveling with young kids, meaning you need a kitchen, a washing machine and more space than the average Japanese business hotel, Airbnb has been a lifesaver.

ojbyrne 11y ago

It's a testament to Airbnb's PR that the people quoted here don't know about previous issues like: http://gawker.com/man-unwittingly-rents-out-apartment-on-airbnb-for-xxx-1544961941 http://gawker.com/man-unwittingly-rents-out-apartment-on-air... http://www.businessinsider.com/airbnb-host-cant-get-squatter-to-leave-2014-7 http://www.businessinsider.com/airbnb-host-cant-get-squatter...

matthewrhoden1 11y ago
It really get's my blood boiling seeing that second post. I can't believe that people like that exist. I've actually had something similar happen me, except I wasn't doing an Air BnB listing. I got a roommate who turned out to be a dead beat and actually knew all these laws. I made a huge mistake not getting our agreements in writing. I never expected to meet someone so spineless. Anyways, I had a new found appreciation for these kinds of laws after that mess.
furyg3 11y ago
The guy in the second situation is a huge asshole, but it is also very naive to think that you can simply rent out your propery to someone (especially on a long-term basis) and you do not somehow enter a landlord/tenant relationship. Most people know someone who rents out property, and have heard horror stories like this. Laws and eviction processes tend to error on the side of the tenant for good reasons. So it's the responsibility of the landlord to know the rules and the risks. Just because the match was made with AirBnB doesn't suddenly absolve you of risk or responsibilities. This is not to 'blame the victim', the renter seems like an asshole. For a long time I rented out my house to many roommates, and I've had some bad ones where lawyers needed to be involved. It's often hard to spot an asshole upfront and sometimes impossible to spot a sociopath, no matter how good your interview process (or AirBnB rating system) is. And life circumstances can turn a friendly renter into an evil one. But I knew the risks... namely that in CA it can take 6+ months after a problem occurs to get someone evicted, and your chances of getting paid for that period are very low.

beedogs 11y ago

Another Airbnb host learns the hard way that being an Airbnb host is a sucker bet. It's the meatspace equivalent of running a Tor exit node.

xkcd-sucks 11y ago

I'm honestly quite surprised that renting AirBNBs for partying/selling drugs hasn't become more popular. I certainly would have done it as a teenager-- Chip in $5 per person, get a weekend party house that isn't owned by your parents. Get the kid with a beard and the voluptuous church girl to meet the hosts if necessary.

venomsnake 11y ago
Absolutely no idea why do you get downvoted ... that would have been my first idea as a teen too.
onewaystreet 11y ago
Maybe it is more popular but most teens aren't stupid enough to trash the place so it is never reported.
fragsworth 11y ago
You can do this with hotels too, but you don't see that happening. Not really sure why.
- richardbrevig 11y ago
  People party in hotel rooms all the time. It's just part of the standard operations of the hotel to deal with them so they never become a big deal.

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

Devthrowaway80 11y ago

New business idea: people engaging in risky commercial enterprises (like, say, renting a valuable property on AirBNB) could pay into a central fund, which would cover damages in rare but nasty circumstances like this. The amount they pay could be proportional to their expected loss, plus an extra fee to cover administration. That way you could pay a predictable amount per month and you'd be covered in the event of a disaster like this. Silicon Valley, it's time to disrupt commerce - get on it!

FeepingCreature 11y ago
https://www.airbnb.com/guarantee https://www.airbnb.com/guarantee oh look [edit] > The couple posted to Instagram saying that they were "thankful" to Airbnb for providing coverage under its Host Guarantee, which offers up to $ 1 million in insurance "in the rare event of guest damages which are not resolved directly with the guest."
readme 11y ago
So, your new idea is insurance?
- woah 11y ago
  I think the idea is sarcasm

williwu 11y ago

I just had an awful experience with Airbnb a month ago. I rented an apartment in Maui for two nights. We arrived really late in the night. When we were in the apartment, we found out that it wasn't cleaned. Used bed sheets were on the floor and still on some beds, tables were dirty. The host obviously forgot to clean it. I contact the host, but couldn't get hold of him, since he's in another time zone. I called Airbnb and send them pictures of the place, and asked what to do. The Airbnb support guy basically told us that the apartment was clean enough to stay for the night, and we have to resolve the issue with the host ourselves. That was the first time I have talked to Airbnb support, and the experience was just awful. We ended up staying at hotel for that night on our own dime, but the host was kind enough afterwards to refund the booking fee.

c0pypas1e 11y ago

(Gasp) you mean requiring pictures of the host & pictures of the potential renter is not a cure all? Why, I never....