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Airbnb Host Robbed, Apartment Ransacked

by Max Eddy | 12:20 pm, July 30th, 2011

A month ago, a woman blogging under the name “EJ” wrote about her horrifying experience renting out her San Francisco apartment through the online Airbnb service. Over the course of a week in June, her apartment was systematically robbed, ransacked, and vandalized by EJ’s renter, leaving her with a broken home and a profound sense of violation. Her story was picked up by Hacker News earlier this week and by the San Francisco Chronicle, which helped bring this chilling story to light.

Airbnb, an online service that matches shot-term renters with apartment and home owners, has posted their own response to the story. The post by company CEO Brian Chesky expresses the company’s shock at the events, a desire to “make things right” with EJ, and a call for caution amongst users. But EJ, who initially described Airbnb’s customer service staff as helpful and understanding, has since soured towards the company. In a new blog post, she says that one of Airbnb’s cofounders pressured her to shut down the blog or at least give the story a good-news ending.

While the story has stirred up controversy around the web, the fact remains that a normal and trusting person has experienced a brutal loss. The San Francisco police have issued a statement saying that an arrest has been made in connection with the crime, but whether this is the end of the road in terms of a criminal investigation remains unclear. Whether or not EJ will receive any restitution from Airbnb, which raised over $100 million in its last round of funding, also remains unclear. In a telling statement concluding her most recent blog post, EJ advises anyone wishing to help her through donations to “keep the money and use it to book yourself into a nice, safe hotel room the next time you travel. You’ll be glad you did.”

(Techcrunch via Techmeme, All Things D)

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_TBDIIIOGWXGOBLQ57FGJTUYYLI logan

    She’s a drama queen looking for a handout for being stupid.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_Z4CJFSWSF6NJQ2QO56FEBHKHJM K

    I completely agree.  We (and I’m not excluding myself) seem to have forgotten in society that there is almost always a payoff:risk relationship.  Leaving town for a week and not opening your home to someone: low risk but low payoff.  Someone you’ve never met wants to rent your apartment while you’re out of town for a week at a fantastic price?  High payoff but also high risk.

    It’s terrible this person’s home was ransacked but I would definitely not want the police to make this a top priority.  

  • BILL1243

    Both of you are idiots.  This lady used AirBnB as a way to rent out her place, and from what I read, it was her own place, not a rented apartment.  Her renters demolished her apartment, and AirBnB’s response was to try and sweep it under the rug.   AirBnB’s whole business model is in matching renters with owners.  The fact that 1% of the people are bad and do things like this doesn’t give you the right to bash this lady.  Think about if it happened to you!
     
    I am truly sorry for this lady.
     
    But as bad as this is, the real issue is about to hit the fan…. the fact that AirBnB is operating a sham operation.   They are acting as agents in the renting of places that are operating illegally.  Yes, even that lady was illegal.  Their listings are breaking so many local laws that it is hard to count them all.   Zoning laws, transient tax laws, business license laws.  They are also usually violating their Deeds of Trust on their mortgage.  And quite frankly, they are in violation of their insurance contracts too.  Chances are this lady will not be able to collect on her insurance.

  • Michaelxyz

    Bill 1243 is lost.  Airbnb is not a “sham operation”.  It is a real operation that really exists and operates in in a legal legal and with what is purports to be. 

    And their listing are not breaking “so many local laws that it is hard to count them”. The only reason it is hard for Bill1243 to count them is he is making it up.  Bill1243 assumes that zoning laws, business license law and “transient tax laws” (whatever they are???) are being broken, but fails to say specifically what laws he is talking about and how they are being broken.  There are many places where you can rent out rooms in your house without breaking zoning laws, and without needing a business license.  

    And why does he assume that the hosts on Airbnb do not have business licenses? Moreover, if these laws are being broken, they are being broken by the hosts, and not by Airbnb.  He also assumes that the hosts all have mortgages, and that using Airbnb is a violation of “their Deeds of Trust on their mortgage”, which is an absurd statement that doesn’t even make sense.  I had a mortgage for many years that did not prohibit me from renting out all or part of the property. The mortgage laws differ from state to state, which is a rudimentary legal  concept that Bill1243 doesn’t seem to grasp.  

    Bill 1243 sounds like the kind of authoritarian busy-body know-it-all that warn people about the dire legal ramifications of removing the tags on pillows that say ‘It is a violation of law to remove this tag” (which of course is referring to the removal of the tag before it is sold by the store).  

  • Coisa

    Michaelxyz: nice try, airbnb honcho.


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