Buy the woman a new home, what ever she wants, furnish it as she wants and pay her a largish sum of money to compensate for those things that cannot be replaced.
Get insurance to cover the renters in future cases of theft or damage, and there will be future events.
Get a company that conducts background checks on applicants that wish to rent through their service. Anonymize the result and get the renter's approval before the transaction can proceed.
It's called hotel industry.
And if you think the way EJ feels is not similar to what a rape victim feels, you probably haven't talked to one before.
It would also show the world that Airbnb is taking the blame for this. It isn't their fault. They are just as much a victim as this women. Victims shouldn't be paying for other victims.
"Get insurance to cover the renters in future cases of theft or damage, and there will be future events."
This will most likely increase the service fees substantially..maybe beyond what people are willing to pay.
"Get a company that conducts background checks on applicants that wish to rent through their service. Anonymize the result and get the renter's approval before the transaction can proceed."
This is probably the best suggestion.
A month or two ago, someone was visiting SoCal (San Diego) and needed some help - I was about to offer him a place to stay at my house, for free. But I had to think about things a little. It's unfortunate. I wanted to be kind, and help someone out. The problem: I have a large family - comprise d of boys and girls - teenagers at that. Would my charitable acts backfire on me? Not sure. Maybe, maybe not. Ultimately, I didn't make the offer. It wasn't a SAFE decision for me or my family. It would have been irresponsible, even though it would have been a nice gesture.
I would NEVER, NEVER, NEVER, NEVER offer up my primary residence to a complete stranger - NEVER! I didn't do it when I would be "present" and I definitely wouldn't do it when I was an absentee. No way. It's IRRESPONSIBLE. A secondary residence? Maybe! Of course! Maybe they vomit on my couch, or piss on the carpet. No problem - that's, sadly, somewhat expected of "renters" --- but to provide a complete stranger to your primary residence, with all your private material, documents, property and what not in place, is just NAIVE! I'm sickened by what I have read, and I think AirBnb has no "social" or "business" obligation in this matter. In fact, I'm wondering where my mental wiring has gone wrong to have such a strong feeling. WHY on EARTH is everyone siding with this person? Because of her gender? Because she's a good writer? No? No... they've handled the whole thing, publicly, wrong. This is a great lesson for them - but they are NOT AT FAULT - not in my opinion! But, that's just my opinion, and clearly not that of the masses.
I've been wondering the same thing. I read through her initial blog post. She talks about renting out her place through Craigslist on multiple occasions (without any problems). This is extremely risky and I wonder if her place was vandalized through craigslist, would people be calling for them to pay for her house?
When the "Craiglist killer" was in the news, I would be curious to see if the responses here on HN were similar (that Craigslist is to blame for the murders).
If I hired a developer from HN and they ended up stealing my source code/IP, should I blame Paul Graham?
Emotions play a lot into it. Her entire post plays into our emotions and gets people to feel sorry for her. Politicians and marketers use this same technique, and I don't like it.
At the very end, she does admit that it is her fault. But not without a few passive-aggressive jabs about the assumption that because she had paid a service fee that somehow Airbnb had pre-screened the applicant. I'm not sure why anyone would make this assumption.
I think because the criminals are not here, and people need someone to blame, airbnb is the next best thing (having the deepest pockets in the situation helps too).
Everyone just needs to take a step back, look at the situation, and take out emotions for a second...they often cloud judgement.
Who knows.