J. Kb sent me this:
Airbnb has a secretive team to keep disaster stays out of the press and gives staff blank checks to help rape victims and pay to clean up dismembered human remains, according to a report.
The short-term property rental company, which went public in December, has spent an estimated $50 million every year on payouts to hosts and guests when things go wrong, according to Bloomberg Businessweek which interviewed several former members of the secretive safety team.
Most of you guys know I worked Hotel Security for several years and the last thing I am going to do is pontificate how regular hotels are safer than some short term rentals without any basic set of security procedures.
Hotel chains have security for one reason alone: Lower number of lawsuits and/or lower amounts to be paid off. The unspoken truth working hotel security is we were there as evidence of “Reasonable Effort” so the company would not be take to the cleaners when the inevitable lawsuit landed at their feet. To put it in other terms. I wasn’t working for your safety but for the Company’s bottom line. This is why I still do not trust hotels to provide me safety when I go on a trip and I add measures of my own.
What happens when you do not have an structural corporation with firm assets and standards for safety?
The unidentified Australian woman, who was 29 at the time, and a group of friends had rented a first-floor apartment on West 37th Street, close to Times Square.
The group had picked up the keys for the apartment from a bodega close by without having to show any identification, Bloomberg reported.
They went to a party together, but the 29-year-old returned back to the property alone – ahead of her friends.
The suspect, 24-year-old Junior Lee, was allegedly already inside the apartment hiding in the bathroom when she returned.
He raped her at knifepoint.
Lee then returned later that night when police were there and was arrested and charged with predatory sexual assault.
Police said he had a set of keys to the apartment on his person at the time.
Hotel keycards do provide for a measure of security from the random predator or average thief. They are generated at the moment of your check in and the lock will reprogram itself to that particular key card the first time you use it. Old keys will be invalidated if they are not expired by the time you check in. If procedures are followed and you are also a bit safety conscious, easy access to your room is difficult which makes ambushes also difficult. And hotels only deal with one door for entrance while an Airbnb being a normal domicile may have several entry/access points which can be accessed.
Locks you do not have control of or not are changed are just a juicy invitation for crimes to be committed. An enterprising criminal or gang can spend some money renting several locations for one night, get the keys, make copies and then go back at their leisure when another guests are occupying the places. Hell, if they are smart, they will wait for you to leave before coming in and check your belongings in peace and decide if you are worth robbing or raping, maybe do nothing but copy your personal information, making copies of the keys of your house for later burglary or grave bodily harm.
Be paranoid: It pays.
Scammers have been known to use Airbnbs as ‘drop points’ for packages, as well. Granted, they also use hotels.