I'd think it's pretty high as well.
Personally, I can't see the appeal apart from price. I'd take a hotel every time.
Am I the only one worried about rape/murder/theft with something like this as well? Maybe I am :/
Personally, I can't see the appeal apart from price. I'd take a hotel every time.
Am I the only one worried about rape/murder/theft with something like this as well? Maybe I am :/
I've used it quite a bit and have had nothing but good experiences, but I'm rather selective about where I want to stay. That said, I do think there is a problem with not wanting to leave negative feedback for fear of retaliation, and it certainly is going to be one of the biggest problems as they grow.
For reference I've stayed at maybe a dozen places in the last 9 months, mostly in SF, SD, and NoCal.
Random people scare me. Maybe I just assume the worst in random people. How many airbnb rooms have spycams installed in the showers? I'd bet it's more than in hotel rooms :/
It's just the same reason I wouldn't hitch-hike or go in an unlicensed taxi.
Additionally, if the hotel is a big chain, there's a certain standard of service you can pretty much be sure of across hotels.
So IMHO, people working for a company who are trained and employed to serve the public, are quite different to 'random people'.
Some references to well-known cases:
http://www.google.de/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=1&ve...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Shipman
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lainz_Angels_of_Death
Todespfleger von Sonthofen - http://www.crimezzz.net/serialkillers/L/LETTER_stephan.php http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephan_Letter
Ever heard of Mechthild Bach? Can't find an English link right now.
Everyone's trained not to do bad things (it's called education), HR departments are not able to screen out killers, thiefs, rapists etc. In the end, people working in a hotel are a random selection, too. So whoever downvoted me, please reconsider.
If I'm going traveling to some strange dangerous place, a trained employee is going to be safer than a random person off the street.
I expect you were downvoted because you decided to interpret my comments as "trained employees never do anything wrong", rather than what I actually said, "trained employees are safer for you than random people".
It is called prison.
I'm by no means saying it happens all the time, but I can see the incentive to use airbnb as a way to lure victims.
Or maybe that's a difference between close friends and acquaintances--and many people have a lot of acquaintances for Facebook friends, so I can see it working out.
A feature that finds out the "shortest chain" friend that rents out an apartment in your destination city would be interesting. But you need a social graph for that.