Let it go. They did the right thing, maybe they were doing it all along, maybe they did it under pressure, it does not matter.
What matters is that EJ (and others) will be compensated and AirBNB will live to fight another day in a much stronger and more real-world grounded fashion. Maybe their margins won't be quite as high but that's what usually happens when you underestimate the cost of doing business.
Winners all around, future hosts and guests of AirBNB included.
Note that this does not take care of any emotional issues but it will certainly help with the practical part of it, and I don't think a party like AirBNB could help with those anyway beyond doing their very best to minimize the hurt from such an event.
> "What matters is that EJ will be compensated and AirBNB will live to fight another day"
That's what we're not sure about. EJ, a renter herself, likely didn't have the right to rent out her unit. The blog post says "We will extend this program to EJ...", not "We'll take care of EJ." She still has to qualify through whatever insurance company airbnb is working with. It's going to be an even worse PR disaster when the insurance company says "No."
I think it would be a fair bet that AirBNB will not risk that and will budget out-of-pocket.
Also, I don't see how an insurance company would ever agree to pay out on past cases so my guess is that they'll be paying for all of those out of pocket.
Going forward from Aug. 15th it looks like they'll have a deal in place and in the meantime things are 'murky'. The blog post leaves enough room for AirBNB to assume complete responsibility and/or work together with an insurer, but from the point of an AirBNB host that will likely make very little difference.
i emailed with brian and they are paying all of these out of pocket, even going forward. no insurance company involved. now that opens up a whole other can of worms...
What matters is that EJ (and others) will be compensated and AirBNB will live to fight another day in a much stronger and more real-world grounded fashion. Maybe their margins won't be quite as high but that's what usually happens when you underestimate the cost of doing business.
Winners all around, future hosts and guests of AirBNB included.
Note that this does not take care of any emotional issues but it will certainly help with the practical part of it, and I don't think a party like AirBNB could help with those anyway beyond doing their very best to minimize the hurt from such an event.