Spot on observation. So, it is idiotic for the competitors to hit on AirBnB, since that is the biggest company in their budding niche and if that falls, well, nothing will remain. They should all try to minimize the damage to their biz model.
EDIT: Let me elaborate: Firms compete among themselves in a given field and all's fair in this competition. However, when the whole industry is threatened, you should gather forces, or else not to try to make your competitor look bad, because that will rub on you. Well-known example is the tobacco industry (their PR is relatively unified). If the consumer's trust in the whole industry is shaken (as in AirBnB) then it doesn't matter you are better than your competitors in this or that regard, people don't care.
I think roomorama.com's idea to increase vetting is a good start (along with black-list sharing, as nasty as that sounds to me)... but it's only a start.
It doesn't, for example, deal with stolen identity. A recently stolen card+ID would bypass all of those protections, and easily lead to a quick buck for meth-lab operations (which is what EJ's situation sounds like it was).
You're right, it is a step in the right direction but bad guys can still find a way through. This is true for many different scenarios, e.g. applies to car rentals, too, you can rent on a stolen license and wreck it.
What AirBnB and others should do is to gather statistical analysis on how often such things occur, what's the cost, etc. and make this widely known.
In fact this could be additional revenue for AirBnB: offer different levels of protection for $N extra (a la car rental companies, they love to sell you protection, or Best Buy, where the employees pester you continuously about protection.) When life gives you lemons, lick them, i.e. don;t run away, embrace the difficulty.
In the end bad things will always happen but you have to know that the company you use will protect you when it happens. No protection, no business.
Has anyone elaborated on the meth-lab scenario? I'd like to hear the economics on that. Wouldn't it be a lot of effort, planning, and personal risk for the bad guys to book the room through airbnb and then just trash it seemingly maliciously like they did?
If this really was a case of some kind of mobile meth-lab operation, shouldn't we expect a number of other cases like this going on with airbnb rentals?
I suspect one of the reasons that airbnb was slow to reimburse EJ is that details are so bizarre on the surface. I think the hotel industry conspiracy theories are absurd. But I am curious to find out what was really go on in that apartment for a week whatever it was.
My parents' rental house which got used as a methlab when the original tenants left without notice (and apparently left it open). Some of the imagery seemed familiar.
Conspiracy theories aside, I'm sure most folks familiar with airbnb were wondering when this moment would occur, and what the response would be.
That's only if you have a lot of investment pressure to take over the space and make a killing at it. If you're taking a much smaller long-term and slow growth approach with your own / angel coin then you're in a much better position to weather the storm, and yes you should take advantage of this situation imo.
EDIT: Let me elaborate: Firms compete among themselves in a given field and all's fair in this competition. However, when the whole industry is threatened, you should gather forces, or else not to try to make your competitor look bad, because that will rub on you. Well-known example is the tobacco industry (their PR is relatively unified). If the consumer's trust in the whole industry is shaken (as in AirBnB) then it doesn't matter you are better than your competitors in this or that regard, people don't care.