airbnblogo

The CEO of Airbnb, Brian Chesky, has posted a new blog entry today which apologizes for the recent incident with a host in San Francisco who had their place trashed by a Airbnb guest.  It also establishes a new $50K guarantee to protect hosts from similar incidents in the future.

Airbnb Guarantee

Starting August 15th, when hosts book reservations through Airbnb their personal property will be covered for loss or damage due to vandalism or theft caused by an Airbnb guest up to $50,000 with our Airbnb Guarantee. Terms will apply to the program and may vary (e.g. by country). This program will also apply retroactively to any hosts who may have reported such property damage prior to August 1, 2011.

24-Hour Customer Hotline

Beginning next week, we will have operators and customer support staff ready to provide around the clock phone and email support for anything big or small.

2x Customer Support Team

Since last month we have more than doubled our Customer Support team from forty-two to eighty-eight people, and will be bringing on a 10-year veteran from eBay as our Director of Customer Support next week.

Dedicated Trust & Safety Department

Airbnb now has an in-house task force devoted to the manual review of suspicious activity. This team will also build new security features based on community feedback.

Contact the CEO

If you can’t get a hold of anyone or if you just want to contact me, email brian.chesky@airbnb.com.

Pretty bold step but also a necessary one because Airbnb really damaged their reputation by their lack of response to this incident when it occurred.  Good on them for choosing to make a bold statement to try and get back some of the momentum they lost and to help protect the safety of their hosts in the future.