Mass Shooting in Airbnb house in Orinda last night, 4 dead

[Lan1]

Breaking news:  4 dead, many injured in  an Airbnb party house in Orinda CA last night ( 10/31). The house is just few steps away from my second residence in the same street. About 10:00pm, My daughter and I were driving back to our residence, noticed that the street were full of cars. After a while, we heard police helicopters and ambulances arriving ....Neighboor next door told us there was a mass shooting in the Airbnb house few steps away.

The head of Airbnb trust and safety announced that  they will conduct serious investigation, according to the news.

My dear fellow host, I have been posting  many times regarding my concerns to Airbnb unsafe booking process.  My own house has been targeted several times for huge parties/criminal activities, but it couldn’t get enough attention from Airbnb trust and safety 

department.

 Please protect yourself and be safe!

[Sarah977]

@Rebecca181  Check out @Jimi17's post on this thread: https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosting/Problems-with-Airbnb-and-resolution-center-no-help-at-al...

Second page, three-quarters of the way down.

[Jennifer1421]

@Sarah977 @Rebecca181 

I have just read about Jimi's experience (Hendrix reference not intended). I'm gobsmacked. I mean, the note the guests left SHOULD be the clincher in terms of having the claim processed, and is certainly indicative of the guest's "devil may care" attitude toward respect for someone else's property.

Disgusting.

[Sarah977]

@Jennifer1421  It's not even "devil may care"- that note indicates that there was an intention to damage the property and that they were proud of having accomplished that, it's not just a matter of illegally throwing a party that got out of hand. 

[Rebecca181]

@Sarah977 - Just confirms my theory that there are people out there who want to give a big "f@#$ you" to Airbnb (and it's hosts) specifically. And they know they can get away with it. 

[Susan17]

@Sarah977 @Jennifer1421 @Rebecca181 

And another one.. 

Shooter sought by Ottawa police after 1 killed, 3 injured at downtown Airbnb

Police are hunting for a suspect after a man was killed and three others — including a 15-year-old boy — were seriously injured in a Wednesday morning shooting at a downtown Ottawa home listed on Airbnb.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/gilmour-street-shooting-ottawa-1.5418686

[Jennifer1421]

When will it end????

Interesting to note that Airbnb has "deactivated listings associated with the address where the shooting took place." Certainly raises questions about the host. On the other hand, it also raises questions about whether it's appropriate to punish a host for the criminal actions of a guest. So hard to know what the situation here was. Sure wish the company was transparent in ANY way about its policies.

[Susan17]

Every time you post a quote from a news article relating to Airbnb, @Jennifer1421, it's always exactly the same words and phrases that immediately jumped out at me too, when I initially read the same pieces.. 🙂

[Rebecca181]

@Susan17 Sadly, I think this is becoming a 'thing'. 

[Susan17]

It's been a "thing" for a long time, @Rebecca181 - it's just that up until now, nobody (hosts included) wanted to believe that these shocking incidents do happen - with alarming regularity - at Airbnb rentals. Another dirty little secret that the company has managed to keep buried for far too long. 

It's all starting to come out in the wash now, though.. and not before time. 

[John1574]

-

@Jennifer1421  @Susan17 

Screening guests still remains, in my humble opinion, the most important aspect of running an Airbnb as a host.

Most of the horrendous stories I have read, that have resulted in shootings and mayhem, have been caused by hosts not screening or really caring about their guests: whether due to indifference, greed or naivety, is not always clear to me.

Clearly some people go into the Airbnb business simply as a way, as they see it, of making easy money.

But without a doubt, it is nefarious guests who wreak this havoc on our business.

Until Airbnb put safeguards in place to protect hosts from nefarious guests this will continue to happen.

The potential of this happening should be disclosed to people who are signing up as a host and there should be guidelines for how to screen your guests because ultimately it's up to the host.

But for Airbnb to assure people that they, airbnb, have adequately screened their guests, borders on fraudulent business behavior.

Airbnb had best get their business together before issuing their IPO.

We all want to succeed, and Airbnb should be listening to hosts above all others in order to get to the root of their problems: missing payouts, and nefarious guests.

That would be a good place to start.

-

[Emilia42]

@John1574 What are your tips for proper screening?

[John1574]

-

@Emilia42 

I just wrote a very long response to your question and I'm sorry but it went up into the ether. There seems to be some ongoing glitch with the platform today. I will try to gather my wits after that and try it again later. Sorry.

[Susan17]

@John1574 

Screening is, of course, a top priority. In grossly over-saturated markets however - ie most Airbnb markets nowadays - any host who doesn't have Instant Booking switched on, is going to be dead in the water. (There's a slight chance that they may get away with not using IB if they're in a prime city-centre location, but otherwise, no) It's a sick Catch-22. 

[Rebecca181]

@Susan17 Airbnb encourages hosts to not screen or vet via their policies, plain and simple. Therefore, any disastrous event at an Airbnb is ultimately one they created.

[Susan17]

That's absolutely true too, of course @Rebecca181. But what can we expect with the farcical set-up the company has? The following is a recent review on Glassdoor from a member of the Crisis Control Team, of Airbnb's Trust and Safety dept. Gives a pretty clear insight into what the company is doing (or not doing) to "protect" us all... 

I worked at Airbnb full-time for more than 3 years

Pros

- The office, the Fantastic colleagues, the absence of micro management (for now), absence of competition, the food

Cons

- A team structure completely exploded and that was submitted to multiple useless changes over the last 3 years due to a total absence of vision at the head. -

-The leads that were already there have no experience or clue about what should be done, or is urgent or is necessary on a day to day basis to help the specialists solve urgent and sometimes life threatening urgency (background of experience include PayPal, eBay, various CS centered cies...).

-The leadership is making an agenda that is not acting like a role model for the rest of the team (start at 10am and end at 4 or 5pm), they are jetlagged from the rest of the team, their day to day stress and reality.

- Inexperience is also reflected by their incomplete capability to get rid of a backlog or triage queues or suggest urgent improvement of work flows and processes.

-It is unclear if this incapacity is at least brought to the awareness of this leadership. If they are aware and are doing nothing, this is quite serious.

- It appears that the team is on a state of depression. We have seriously the best people in this team, incredibly experienced, resourceful and leadership treat them like kids. Projects or tasks are given in an arbitrary manner. Politics are strong. Favoritism is king. If you want to progress you have to wave and smile. If you are criticizing, still in a constructive manner, you will be seen as a disrupter and you will be impacted negatively (career progress stopped)

- Since almost a year a transformation/reorganization was planned. No clear communication, time-line, or update. The usual blur illustrated with cute images in internal newsletter. Lately, they decided to change the spirit animal of the team (very primary school) going from wolf to elephant. For the occasion we were invited to a pre-recorded meeting in which real people had elephant costumes (zoo style). They gave a useless coins with the face of an elephant on them. They spent money on that.

-All the agents did not see an increase in the salary for more than 2 years. Knowing the cost of living in Dublin, the absurd rents and underpaid agents are facing dramatic situations.

-The higher and intermediate management do not see it and the team is bleeding its workforce. We are spending our time to train people that we know will leave before their 6th month or first year.

- It is unclear of the reorganization will change a thing, particularly when the Crisis Response Team will be merged in the new Community Support team (aka customer service erzatz). No new job specs defined and 60% will change... How? No new communication... Silence is disturbing

Advice to Management

Just communicate, grow up and start to provide hope for your team. Maybe they will start to believe.