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Comment by chimeracoder | Hacker News Reader

Possibly, yes. But since there are so many other potentially fishy aspects of the story, let's spend our time focusing on those instead of this one.

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Huh? "Fishy"? Please stop talking like that. Neither Airbnb nor "EJ" owes us the complete objective retelling of exactly what has transpired between them. When "EJ" doesn't recount absolutely every fact that isn't completely favorable to her cause of action, that doesn't make her a crook. She isn't on trial, and you aren't a jury.

But the result is that Airbnb is taking a PR beating. So if EJ is intentionally misconstruing the facts (or Airbnb for that matter) it is important and relevant.

Look, I'm not saying they [Airbnb] are doing everything right. But at the same time, the renters have got to take on some responsibility for handing out their keys to strangers; yes that's what you're doing, is that a surprise?

This isn't all on EJ or all on Airbnb. Clearly the responsibility goes both ways, but while neither side is absolved of responsibility, EJ must back off on laying the blame on Airbnb so intensely and without remorse. Previously she stated they offered "emotionally and financially" support and were extremely helpful, only now there's veritable lynch mob has she backtracked on those statements.

Still I think Airbnb has a lot to answer for: their statements have been inconsistent.

The notion that "EJ" is in any way responsible for Airbnb's PR is one of the toxic premises leading to the "team Airbnb" vs. "team EJ" nonsense populating these threads. It leads directly to the notion that anything said about "EJ"'s case that isn't 100% favorable to "EJ" implies that she's dishonest.

She "backtracked" once the co-founder started talking to her about taking down her blog or changing it to put a positive spin on things. Before that she was only talking to the CS reps/CS manager, who were offering support (emotional mostly it seems) & asking how she was doing, etc.

No, it wasn't when the inquisition came, it was in response to the airbnb post. We've gone through this already, llambda. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2823714.

And as I've said, ulisesroche, that is one side of the story. No more likely to be true or accurate than the other based on the available facts. In your own words: we've been through this. How long is it going to take for you to admit we just don't know the full story? What will persuade you that it's possible EJ has reframed the situation just as it's possible Airbnb has done so as well? Your insistence on standing up for one side is really where you've gone wrong here. I maintain that neither side is at fault. It's tiresome to see this become a debate over "he said, she said" hearsay evidence.

I'm correcting you, that's all. How can you say you're neutral and then present only one side?

Well, Troy provided pictures but probably EJ's nearly-identical story must be false.

Right?

>But at the same time, the renters have got to take on some responsibility for handing out their keys to strangers; yes that's what you're doing, is that a surprise?

It's a good point but if AirBnb can't take measures to mitigate these horror scenarios and all the onus is on renters, then they can kiss their stratospheric valuation goodbye. Who's going to want to participate in this service with even a 0.01% chance that they will sustain $1000s in damages? The risk wouldn't be worth it.

Much like Ebay took measures against cheaters, AirBnb should create measures in case of nightmare renters (valid ID, credit card, etc).

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