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

Lan1
Level 10
El Cerrito, CA

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

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!

周蘭
837 Replies 837
Susan17
Level 10
Dublin, Ireland

Full CNBC video of Brian Chesky speaking yesterday at the New York Times Dealbook conference, about the new "safety measures" to be introduced in the wake of the Orinda tragedies

 

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/11/06/watch-airbnb-co-founder-and-ceo-brian-chesky-speak-live.html

 

 

 

 

Denis227
Level 10
La Boissière-École, FR

@Susan17

 

I had never seen him before. My first impression as a former recruiter : I wouldn't hire this guy in my company.

 

His agitation,  nervosity , his  motor tics ( did you see how his mouth gets  distorted at times  ) , constantly looking down to his feet,   twisting his feet under the chair. Gestures that betray the speaker...... 

 

He is not a good liar.   He knows he has got to lie and this is clearly not his favorite exercise. 

 

It's a pity the interviewer did not catch the incoherence of his speech when he says " we will check 100 % of rentals before the end of next year " and immediately after " everything on the site will be verified" 

 

As if the rentals represented the totality of what could  be verified, as if the guests did not need to be verified.

 

 

Denis227
Level 10
La Boissière-École, FR

I  have a question regarding this "neighbour  hotline" which Chesky wants to create. I  don't understand the efficiency of the  idea. 

 

Suppose someone is throwing an illegal party at your home in your absence. Your neighbour cannot know thru which platform those  party goers have rented your house.   

 

So why would your neighbour call  AirBnb,  and not Homeaway , Booking.com   or other rental plateforms, assuming he knows that he can get help from any of these  ? This is just crazy to me. 

 

Is AirBnb really  in such a dominant position in the USA  that 100 % of illegal parties are thrown in AirBnb houses, making it sensible for anyone in the US  to call AirBnb for every suspicion of an illegal party  ?  

 

In France, AirBnb has a significant share of the party houses market.   But it is far from being a  monopoly .  I live 50 miles outside Paris and my party house is rented every week end without AirBnb.  Several sites in France  are advertising party houses. 

 

So my neighbour has absolutely no idea whatsoever of the rental platforms I'm using to rent  the property ( and he couldn't care less).  Therefore I can assure you that , as far as France is concerned  , Chesky's move  is pure and absolute NONSENSE. 

 

 

 

 

@Susan17 Many times I have imagined the kinds of meetings taking place at Airbnb Corporate (at various levels) in which they discussed how to make it easier and easier for guests to be able to book at the expense of proper GUEST (not HOST) vetting. We KNOW these discussions happened. We saw the results of those discussions via policy changes and our decreasing ability to vet and screen potential guests. But in this video, all we hear is that HOSTS and THEIR LISTINGS need better vetting. Say what? It was THE GUEST that lied to the Orinda homeowner. "Explain, Spock!"

 

So, this is the solution? Guests will now double as under-cover investigators vetting our listings? Guests can complain that the listing had a different chair and bedspread and move to another similar or even upgraded Airbnb OR get a 100% refund? 

 

I thought it was bad before, but this is now not just nuts. It is BEYOND nuts.

Laura_C
Ex Airbnb
Ex Airbnb
Redwood City, CA

Hi everyone, 

@Mark116@Jude9 , @Sean443@Rebecca181,  @Sarah977@Inna22@Lan1@Susan17@Branka-and-Silvia0@David6 , @Ute42 , @Denis227@Susan1028 , @Helen3 , @Helen427 

 

I wanted to quickly follow up on @Helen427  question about whether we’re reaching out to hosts and the community in Orinda. Below is the email that we sent to them today. You’ll notice that we mention an improved set of standards for guests, aimed at better preventing these issues and supporting hosts if they do. We will share more details on this change (and several other things we’re working on for hosts) shortly.

 

I’m also in Austin today meeting with some of our longest-tenured Superhosts there to get more host feedback and perspectives to inform our plans. I’ll update this thread again with some of the details from that conversation.

 

MargaretEmailScreenshot_Pixelated.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

--------------------

Lead, Airbnb Core Hosts & Community

Here's my Community Spotlight!

What are your favorite notes from your guests?

 

.

Hi @Laura_C ,

 

thank You for posting this.

 

The the City of Orinda had invited airbnb to attend the City Council Meeting. On tuesday morning I asked You if airbnb plans to send a representative. You wrote back: „I'll find out for You – stay tuned“ but I didn't hear anything. So I assume nobody went there.

 

I'm sorry to bring this up again, but somewhen we must start to judge airbnb on their actions, and not on their promises. You didn't keep Your promise to get back to me.

 

 

My apologies Ute! It’s been a super busy week as you can imagine and I’m trying to respond to lots of hosts around the world. Sorry to miss the ball on this one. I did hear back from the team - unfortunately we didn’t have a rep there, but as Margaret mentioned in her note we have been deeply engaged with the local council and police in supporting them as much as we can. 

 

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Lead, Airbnb Core Hosts & Community

Here's my Community Spotlight!

What are your favorite notes from your guests?

 

@Laura_C  What does "unfortunately we didn't have a rep there" mean?  Airbnb obviously made a conscious decision not to appear there.

Hosts attended the meeting, but Airbnb chose not to be there to support them or face the community there. 

How unforgivably rude. How cowardly. This is how Mr. Chesky has his hosts' backs?

"...we're gonna make sure we can stand behind every single listing and every single host."

Stand behind- as in leave the hosts to face the community while the company cowers hidden behind them. 

And to add inexcusable insult to injury... the first sentence of Margaret Richardson's missive.. 

 

"Our thoughts are with the Orinda community and anyone impacted by last week's tragedy"

 

Respect, compassion and common decency dictate that the very first words in that communication - and all similar communications related to this catastrophic event - should be/ have been... "Our thoughts and heartfelt condolences are with the families and friends of the 5 young victims who lost their lives in this terrible tragedy" 

 

Acknowledge and recognise the tragic loss and utter devastation of the loved ones of the young victims. Anything less is reprehensible. 

@Susan17 And Brian could barely wait for the blood to get cleaned up before doing an interview which barely touches on the shooting and instead focuses on money. How crass.

Helen3
Level 10
Bristol, United Kingdom

I couldn't agree more @Susan17  this tragedy is first and foremost about the young people who died, were injured and whose families and friends will be forever affected by what happened. This should be the focus for Airbnb and others involved in learning lessons from what happened.

 

 

Rowena29
Level 10
Australia

Hi @Laura_R 

Thanks for posting this.

I'm not sure if anything will change practically, pragmatically, realistically, but I have to say your post has calmed me fears a little. I dont' post all that much but i read a lot.  I have been reading all of the statements made by aribnb and news sources with increasing alarm - nearly everything I read seemed to be insinuating  that  poor HOST behaviour was the root cause and  the focus of the change  Yours is the first post I have read that seems to be more balanced.  I am sufficiently cynical to wonder if anything will actually change for the better but at least this is an acknowledgement that guests can also be a significant contributing factor to problems on the platform.   I personally have not had any really terrible issues, but I am definitely poised to leave the platform and move to long term rental - at least the laws covering this give me some protection and security

The best of luck in Austin. I sure it will be very emotionally charged. I do hope that company manages to move in a direction that is equitable and fair and holds both guests and hosts accountable in a more reasonable way.

Regards

Thanks for your note @Rowena29 . Really appreciate you adding your voice here. I think some of the confusion has been around responding to the Vice article (which has bad host behavior) at the same time as the Orinda incident (which was bad guest behavior). Still - we need to get clearer, and as I mentioned somewhere else on this thread I’m actively working on some improved communications (and real changes) for our global host community.  

 

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Lead, Airbnb Core Hosts & Community

Here's my Community Spotlight!

What are your favorite notes from your guests?

 

Denis227
Level 10
La Boissière-École, FR


@Rowena29  a écrit :

Hi @Laura_R 

Thanks for posting this.

I'm not sure if anything will change practically, pragmatically, realistically, ............... 

I am sufficiently cynical to wonder if anything will actually change for the better

 

 

@Rowena29 

This has nothing to do with cynicism. Don't berate yourself ! This has to do with clarity of mind, opening your eyes and ears, listening carefully, analysing the situation and its evolution throughout the years.  

 

Watch and listen carefully  to Brian Chesky's video above and it will be clear to your that  the company's name should have been ................... Hot Air  ( BnB ) ...................

 

 

David6
Level 10
London, United Kingdom

@Mark116, @Jude9 , @Sean443, @Rebecca181@Sarah977, @Inna22, @Lan1, @Susan17, @Branka-and-Silvia0, @Laura_R , @Ute42 , @Denis227, @Susan1028 , @Helen3 , @Helen427 

 

Thank you for posting @Laura_R  . I’ve read several reports regarding this tragic incident. There are various versions of events. But in several articles it appears the host:

 

  1. Had strict ‘No Parties’ in house rules
  2. Was ‘tricked’ into accepting the booking by the guest who lied about the real intentions
  3. The host was notified of problems,  and called for law enforcement (police) support. 

 

 

*Disclaimer*. I also read reports that the host 

was aware that problematic parties had occurred in the listing before. 

 

 

As a host. This is exactly what happened to me when an unauthorised  ‘party’ took place in my listing. Totally prohibited by my ‘house rules.’ Thankfully no fatalities occurred. Just £££ damage. 

 

So I’m really struggling with this latest ‘get rid of abusive guest & host conduct.’  Surely the blame is not being cast on the host!? As Airbnb addreses this SPECIFIC incident? It’s does not mention the VICE expose!! It is so crass to  address two totally different issues. This is about DEATHS on Airbnb’s watch! 

 

*You  @Laura_R , of course have all the facts. I’m just going on press reports. * could be totally misinformed. As there is lots of #fakenews around. 

 

What I REALLY want to read: 

 

‘Airbnb accepts we need to make some radical changes. This is horrendous. People have died. This was a  terrible & tragic incident. Our thoughts are with the victims & their families & friends.

 

The local community have been left in shock. Our dedicated hosts are looking for reassurance. Guests need to feel secure when they are making a booking. 

 

Airbnb are determined to do everything we can to ensure an incident like this never occurs again. We will  be reviewing all our policies and we will pledge to do everything in our power to protect our community of guests and hosts.’

 

AIRBNB!!!!!!!!! Not the guests! And most definitely NOT the host!