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Before booking, AirBnB does not allow you swap personal information, primarily so you can't go outside their system to make your arrangements. There are both financial and community-building reasons for this.

Once the payment has been made (well before the guest arrives), the host gets access to all of the private information of the guest. I believe they could chose to rescind the offer of hospitality at this point -- they haven't received the money, so if they are uncomfortable with the individual, they can still do something about it.

I know this is an emotional issue, but their response was hardly "blantantly inconsistent ... marketing drivel."

Can you elaborate though on the exact timing of the exchange? EJ's story makes it sound insufficient:

"Thus by the time this reservation was confirmed and I was given Dj’s email address and phone number, I was on a plane heading East, and he/she was armed with my welcoming instructions on where to pick up the keys to my apartment."

For the rest of it, I'm not saying that the response is inconsistent. I'm saying that keeping information private is inconsistent with safety (which is what EJ's argument was). This is especially true (and concerning) when they say that keeping information private is a safety feature, but it seems everyone thinks its a driven by financial motivation.

It's slightly frustrating when someone says "we do this for safety", but the reality is they do it for money and it reduces safety.

Can you elaborate though on the exact timing of the exchange? EJ's story makes it sound insufficient:

I used to work for an AirBnb clone wannabe, so I can't speak for the exact site itself, but the way ours operated was that you could cancel the booking at any point after it was confirmed- if you do it very shortly before arrival there were financial penalties to doing so.

Of course, if someone sends through a booking for tomorrow, or tonight, you're unlikely to have the time to sufficiently vet them. Perhaps people should be able to say "I need [x] days notice for bookings".

At least on AirBNB you can always decline a (potential) booking, so if you always want [x] days, you can simply always decline if the booking is that soon.

"Before booking, AirBnB does not allow you swap personal information, primarily so you can't go outside their system to make your arrangements."

That would be a selfish act then. (But from a business point of view an understandable one.)

But on the other hand, I'm not sure what we would expect them to do? There simply isn't a way they can guarantee you don't get a nutter.

It's a gamble that you choose, you may win, you may lose.

I for one would not rent anything other than a steel box with a blow up matress on the floor that cost less that the rent I was charging.

But on the other hand I'd love to visit some of the places they have available. I'd treat those locations with the upmost of respect, but would be mindful of the fact any number of camera's could be filming me.

AirBnB is a fantastic idea, if people were not people.

How ironic given that they built the business on spamming craigslist and circumventing users' requests to not be solicited.

They did not build the business this way. That was something done years ago by a single contractor without their knowledge, and it had an insignificant effect on their growth.

Edit: Actually it sounds like it was several contractors (http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2011/06/07/1-billion-1-br-amazin...)

Personally, I give Airbnb the benefit of the doubt. No question. I think very highly of the company and the founders.

However, when I read your comment, it bothered me (specifically the bit about the rogue contractor). It gave me the exact same feeling as seeing Rupert Murdoch on the stand saying something to the effect of - "No, I do not take responsibility for my companies wrong-doings, it was a rogue employee.."

The only time I've really learned from a mistake as an entrepreneur is when I've had to look at myself and take 100% responsibility. 100%.

Who hired that employee or contractor? Who hired the people who hired the contractor? Why were they hired? Who put the hiring processes in place? Why did your systems not weed this behavior out as soon as it started? In every organization, there is only one answer to that question - the leader.

An entrepreneur must be ultimately accountable while they are being relentlessly resourceful. I feel it is so important to communicate this message to our current and future leaders - both for the sake of their ability to grow, and for the sake of the lives of those they touch.

Thank you for coming forth with a statement on this. I don't remember seeing one from you when this issue first cropped up, which really didn't look good. A lot of people referenced your "founders should push the envelope" phrase in your absence to explain it, which in my opinion made it look even worse. I value your word a lot more than I do theirs since they don't have a known reputation (with me). Culpable or not, that incident still left a bad taste in my mouth.

I didn't know what happened when it first cropped up. I didn't hear the details till later.

The solution to that is for AirBNB to offer a compelling value, so that people don't feel the need to bypass them. They can do this by vetting properties, background checks, offering insurance, etc.

Let's say for a moment that AirBnB let you exchange private info prior to booking. You've then released you're information to a stranger who could do what they want with it. I've never rented with AirBnB, but sites like Homeaway do not restrict the passage of contact information, so I had to give my credit card information to a complete stranger. By bypassing AirBnB, youve no one on your side to protect your credit information and address from relative strangers. at least here, they were able to assist the investigation because of the payment and personal identification info the no doubtedly used to help the police actually catch the guy. yeah, it benefits AirBnB to maintain control of their revenue, but it is also a safeguard for all users.

I'm not sure where credit card information comes from, but there's a middle ground to the two extremes (AirBnB's where nothing is shared and yours where everything is). AirBnB can still process the payment while providing the other private information people need to truly verify potential occupants.

No one's asking for credit card details, they are asking for emails, telephones and other basic contact information.

Right, but even if you exchanged your name and email or even phone number, how is that going to lead you to believe who the person "really" is? Now, more than ever, it's so easy to hide behind fake digital personas, so why does exchanging basic information mean that youre somehow safer? Because of Facebook? Or Twitter? Is a thief really going to broadcast their intentions over the internet and if you get their information sooner, you can find out before you become a victim? Why does it matter about when you get the information? How would having this information sooner protect her from this situation? Not to mention that you cant always predict what people are going to do. AIrBnB is a community that is supposed to be built on trust and I cant imagine that this is the norm with them. Shit happens, and it's terrible, but sometimes you just can't prevent it. I'd imagine that the company will come up with some sort of verification process soon to help add security, but there's only so much they can do.

Not only are 1) and 2) inconsistent, but rejecting a booking negatively impacts your search-rankings and they warn you loudly about it. I've certainly been in the situation where I wanted to decline a booking, but the search ranking penalty made me re-consider.

I mean, if you get a sketchy feeling about someone you're talking to, I feel like it may be worth the risk of a few points. It's not like everyone is a bad guy.

I don't get it though. I made a reservation through AirBNB, and while you can't explicitly exchange emails or phone numbers, there are many, MANY ways by which this can be circumvented ("I am <firstname>.n at the Googol's email service", or "you can check me out as 'shr1k' on Twittr")

Since I was the potential tenant, I went out of my way to ensure that the landlord could check me out in whatever manner possible before coming to a conclusion one way or another. Wouldn't it be reasonable to assume the landlord would want this too?