If you only live in your condo part-time, you can imagine that the roommate who is there the rest of the time might get up to some hijinks while you’re away. But you probably didn’t think he would list your room on Airbnb without mentioning it.
This is what happened to a man who splits his time between California and Chicago, and who recently came back from the West Coast to find that two random people sleeping in his bed and drinking his booze.
“Your imagination goes crazy. What’s been going on?” The man, who owns the two-bedroom condo and sublets a room to another guy, tells CBS Chicago. “It could be everything from orgies to to drugs.”
Suspecting that his roommate had listed the room online, the homeowner looked on the Airbnb site and found his condo was indeed available for rent. The roommate had even used some of the owner’s personal photos of the condo for the listing.
Not surprisingly, that roommate has been given the heave-ho, while the homeowner looks for answers from Airbnb about how something like this could happen.
Unfortunately for him, the online rental platform is distancing itself from the bad roommate’s actions.
“Airbnb does not own, operate, manage or control accommodations, nor do we verify private contract terms or arbitrate complaints from third parties,” reads a statement from the company.
One could certainly see Airbnb’s side, as the company positions itself as just a listing service for people to publicize spaces available for guests. Services like Craigslist have long made similar claims that they are merely platforms through which third parties conduct business.
But you can also see how this “not our problem” stance would be incredibly frustrating to victims like this homeowner, who just wants to know how someone could list a room on Airbnb without showing that he owns the condo.
The only reason I’d contact Airbnb is to let them know to take down the listing, then I’d get around to suing the roommate. Airbnb has no conspiratory culpability. The article mentions also Craigslist’s similar stance, which is a contrast to Uber’s. I believe that Uber has crossed several boundaries while continuing to claim that drivers are not employees. Their position of a licensed driver carrying a defensive weapon, for instance, crosses the line. My car? My rules. I also hold to the same position with regard to choice of client that may have a dog. If I’m allergic, don’t want to spend the extra time to get my car clean enough in the event that another passenger may be allergic, or if I just plain don’t like dogs then I’m not letting one in my car. If Uber wants to implement a system where I as a driver can indicate that personal choice, then it makes things easier. If they extend that information to the potential passengers, then that makes the transparency even more useful, I can indicate who I am bringing and what I am bringing (luggage, wheelchair, children, dogs, etc.) and the app will only show drivers who want to pick me up. Easy peasy.
Bringing everything back to Airbnb, they’ve adopted the appropriate laissez faire position which limits quite a bit of their liability. If something gets through their screening process, then they’re on the hook for damages.
I have a problem with a service that makes money off the back of these listings not having some sort of vetting system in place to verify the accommodations it’s listing are legitimate. Public records will list the owner of a piece of property. If the name doesn’t match the person listing the room, perhaps that should send up a red flag to the service and force them to check to make sure the person listing the room is legally entitled to do so? Perhaps require a copy of a lease agreement that allows for subletting or receive written authorization from the deeded owner authorizing the person to list the room. I get why Craigslist has no culpability….it’s a free service that people post ads to. I have a harder time understanding how AirBNB, who takes a 3% Host Service Fee and 6-12% Guest Service Fee off each booking, can just say “Hey, not our problem” in situations such as these and get away with it. They need to insulate themselves from this crap, otherwise I could see more municipalities coming down harder on the legalities of their service.