airbnb 'so called' crisis

[Adam Black]

This from SOS.

You know I'm a big airbnb fan but it bugs me that it's a crisis becuase they may have lost some brownie points or brand reputation - WRONG

It's not a crisis for airbnb its a mistake or series of them. It's a crisis for the people who get personally affected, everything else is just money!

Having said that, I'm very happy to see that there bringing in an insurance policy.

KeyWifi is also creating a very special type of insurance and it seems to me along with credit checking, reputation sourcing and payment insurance is an importnat part of the product support mix for -2- companies.

Your thoughts folks

Begin forwarded message:

These days, there are sites where you can borrow/lend/share anything, thanks to the zaarlys, loosecubes, zipcars, and yes, airbnb’s of the world and they’re all useful and much-needed services. Craigslist has been around forever – but a Craigslist Killer? Pedophiles on myspace? I'm shocked, shocked to find gambling at Rick's! Not everyone is trust-worthy and the same hold for online as IRL. We have no idea how safeguards can be put in place (either), but when/why did caution and caveat emptor go the way of the dialup modems? Remember: Ted Bundy was not a bad looking guy, either (http://bit.ly/OCgzJ). Just wanted to flag the potential liability to entrepreneurs on the list who may be venturing into these still uncharted waters. Yes, a suspect was arrested (http://cnet.co/oDeC5v) and mashable offers several lessons all entrepreneurs should learn from Airbnb’s mistakes (Startup Crisis Control: 6 Painful Lessons from Airbnb:http://on.mash.to/rkek4E). As the mashable piece states, “this is not just a painful learning moment for Airbnb, but for all entrepreneurs who may experience a crisis of this magnitude at some point in their startup careers.“ So, hey, let’s be careful out there. For a recap of the whole saga: http://bit.ly/oiTjid Onward and forward.

[Jennifer Lackey]

I think it's considered a crisis because we're dealing with a new type of business model. When things go terribly wrong for the first time - it often feels and seems like a crisis.

I can't help but thinking if this were 20 years ago - a high powered PR firm would have likely stepped-in and handled this, and more than likely we wouldn't have heard much about it. Never before have end-users or consumers (sorry if that word offends folks) have had such a powerful voice. All we had was Ralph Nader, pen, paper, stamps and a phone. The silver lining of this example shows that the voice of the airbnb community had a major impact on the way Airbnb will do business moving forward.

We all know that since technology has created a paradigm shift for media - new businesses are obviously doing things differently and mistakes will indeed be made along the way - but what I'm glad to see is that Airbnb is learning, showing accountability and most importantly taking action - the insurance policy is clearly a must - or at least should be an opt-in and opt-out option and customers should be fully aware of the potential risks. If Airbnb continues to do right and they continue to have the strong track record of positive experiences - I'd like to think in time they will be just fine and this will be a great case study for future learning in business.

The question I keep asking though: didn't they already do background checks on folks before? If they didn't - why not?

--
Jenn Lackey
Community Development Manager
KeyWifi, llc

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[cameron tonkinwise]

It seems there are two issues: the one is the

reputation currency within AirBnB (perhaps

dealt with via insurance initiative; but the other 

is how they reacted given that they are mid-

investment ramp-up, which was apparently

woeful:

http://techcrunch.com/2011/07/30/humbug/

If journalists were credible (I just saw that they

are currently 40th, sex-workers being 39th),

I'd ask one to investigate if the perp was in the 

pay of Hilton, etc...

Cameron