Airbnb Guests Trashed This Guy's $2.5 Million Condo

adamjernst 12 years ago |

"Out of 86 guests, I've only had problems with 15 guests."

"only"? n.b.: If your business model is renting out luxury condos to people on the Internet, you're going to have a bad time. People will use them for parties.

coryl 12 years ago | |

So Las Vegas Hotels have a bad business model?

There are ways to deal with potential issues, ie. security deposits

bdcravens 12 years ago | | |

Las Vegas hotels are staffed around the clock, owned by large companies with paid staff. In the event of damages or unruly behavior, they can kick someone out or have them arrested in short order. AirBnB listings tend be owned by individuals or families, and are often rented when those owners are absent. I can't imagine a security deposit in such a situation of less than 10% of the property's value.

nahcub 12 years ago |

Does anyone know where the liability falls for Airbnb rentals? Is it on the owner or the rental agency (Airbnb)? If it falls on the owner, Airbnb should make this clear, and owners should be sure to have insurance in order to protect themselves.

pedalpete 12 years ago | |

AirBnb has an insurance policy on each rental made to through the site. I believe it is up to $1 million.

However, they obviously don't want to use the insurance regularly, as that will likely mean an increase in the rates they pay.

Both sides of this story could very well be true. He could have been a bad host AND a guest may have done a lot of damage to his apartment. BUT, if he's had problems with 15 guests, I'm sure that each time their is an issue, AirBnb tracks what owners are most problematic, and after this incident, they decided to sever ties.

It is possible AirBnb has an unspoken rule that if they spend x amount on a host with a specified period of time, they cancel the hosts account. 17% of guests doing damage to your apartment seems like quite a lot to me.

mathattack 12 years ago |

If you have a $2.5 million condo, what are you doing using Airbnb?

Terretta 12 years ago | |

Renting it, as opposed to just listing it.

mathattack 12 years ago | | |

Seems like it's not worth the liability - much more to lose.

eruditely 12 years ago | | |

I mean if the data we are using for this conclusion is one news story of when everything goes bad then sure your conclusion is valid.

"Using the media to determine how well the world is doing is like using an emergency room for an image of health." - Nassim Nicholas Taleb

jason_slack 12 years ago |

This is one of those times where there are 2 sides to every story and the truth lays somewhere in the middle. Interesting read though.

aa0 12 years ago | |

That's actually a common logical fallacy that is often used to deceive observers. The truth stands alone, just like the cheese.

jgunaratne 12 years ago |

How does a web developer afford a $2.5 million dollar condo and several other luxury condos?

veritas213 12 years ago |

i smell scammer

AsymetricCom 12 years ago |

Why is this on the front page? I really couldn't care less about some boring civil issue.