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Airbnb - Vacation Rentals Horror Story
AIRBNB: NOTE TO READERS: On Monday, Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky
issued an apology and announced several measures aimed at protecting
hosts and guests.
UPDATE, Aug. 1: A second Airbnb victim has come forward, telling
TechCrunch's Michael Arrington that his Oakland apartment was rented
three months ago by a drug addict with a stolen identity who "did
thousands of dollars of bizarre damage to my rented home and left it
littered with meth pipes." In an e-mail last Thursday, Airbnb said that
another account - that of San Francisco blogger "EJ," who wrote about
being vandalized by an Airbnb client in June - was "our first major incident
in over 2 million nights."
Also, the Santa Clara County sheriff's office and district attorney's office
confirmed Monday that the suspect in the San Francisco Airbnb case, Faith
Clifton, remains in jail in Santa Clara County. She has pleaded no contest
to three felony counts involving stolen credit cards and possession of a
forged driver's license, and sentencing is set for Aug. 5.
did thousands of dollars of bizarre damage to my rented home and left it
littered with meth pipes
ORIGINAL POST:
When a San Francisco blogger named "EJ" wrote a riveting account of how
she returned from a week-long business trip last month to find that her
home had been ransacked and trashed by a paying guest she'd connected
with through the online rental agency Airbnb, the high-flying travel start-up
addressed the ensuing blowback by insisting it was focusing its attentions
on the victim and on ways to prevent a similar incident.
Then, late Thursday, "EJ" followed her initial post with a devastating
rebuttal of Airbnb's claims. She accused one of the company's co-founders
of noting the "potentially negative impact" her blog could have on his
company's growth and current round of funding (Airbnb announced this
week that it had received $112 million, and is now valued at an estimated
$1.3 billion). She wrote that the unnamed co-founder asked her to "shut
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down the blog altogether or limit its access," and suggested she "update
the blog with a 'twist' of good news so as to 'complete[s] the story.'"
Airbnb officials declined USA TODAY's requests for an interview. But in an
e-mailed statement Friday, the company said it was "shocked and
disturbed to hear about this unfortunate situation and since that moment
have done everything in our power to assist EJ. We have offered
assistance with accommodation, transportation and financial support to
help EJ find some sense of security in light of such tragic circumstances."
Complicating the chilling tale: Despite Airbnb's statement that "we have
confirmed with the (San Francisco police department) that they have a
female suspect in custody that they are investigating for vandalism and
theft," spokesmen for the police department and sheriff's office said Friday
that while 19-year-old San Francisco resident Faith Clifton had been
arrested on charges of fraud, possession of methamphetamine and stolen
property on June 28 and that Airbnb had assisted in their investigation, she
was no longer in San Francisco custody and they could not confirm
whether she had been released or transferred to a nearby county where
she faced a warrant for related charges. A spokeswoman for the San
Francisco district attorney said the office will determine Monday whether to
proceed with Clifton's case.
Meanwhile, I communicated by email and by phone late Friday with a
woman who said she was "EJ," a corporate events planner who later asked
me not to be identified by name because of her continuing fears that other
suspects may still be at large and because of the online furor surrounding
her experience. (She also said she was speaking to the San Francisco
Chronicle, and I confirmed portions of her information with the San
Francisco police department.)
She said she was "growing a very thick skin" because of accusations that
she was part of a plot by the hotel industry to discredit Airbnb, and because
of criticism that she courted disaster by opening her rented apartment to
strangers. She also told me she had been contacted by Airbnb on Friday,
after her second blog post, but that the company had not provided
compensation for her ordeal.
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"Obviously, the financial damages have been significant, but it has come
down to a matter of principle and how I feel they disregarded me and my
situation," she said. "I still hurt, and I don't know how you make that right."
As the news of her burglary spread, so did efforts to reassure customers of
Airbnb and similar, increasingly popular online services that help individuals
or property management companies rent out space to paying guests who
want a more personal and economical alternative to a hotel.
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,
announced that it would be doubling the size of its customer service staff
(42 people at the time of the incident and 88 currently), offering insurance
to hosts and creating a "Trust and Safety" department, among other
measures.
Jia En Teo, co-founder of a competing rental agency, Roomorama, noted
that its own safeguards include ID checks on potential guests and hosts,
and said her company was spearheading a new initiative to send out
collaborative alerts "whenever we come across fraudulent patterns."
But, said travel technology consultant Robert Cole, "the challenge is the
structural model" as a reservation service in a fragmented market. And,
Cole added, "the hotel industry isn't disappointed to see these kinds of
concerns raised about a business that is potentially disruptive to their own.
As painful as it is to this sector of the lodging industry, it's positive that
these issues are being raised early."
Read more visit: http://www.zoomtrans.com/airbnb-vacation-
rentals-horror-story/n.30

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