Airbnb trashed rental policies revisited after

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Would you like a holiday home?

No way! This story says it all.

Yes. Most people are honest, and the extra money does not hurt.

By Harriet Baskas, msnbc.com contribution

Looking for a cheap place to stay in San Francisco? Forget about the place of EJ's.

Until last month, an apartment of a woman identified as EJ was one of the more than 100,000 entries on Airbnb.com, an online rental agency that pairs of travelers who need a place to stay with people a place to rent . Tenants list of available free space, and the company takes a 3 percent cut from bookings.

Through Airbnb, a user named DJ Pattrson rented apartment for one week – and discarded the place.

EJ described the mess on her blog.

"With one week to live in my apartment, Dj and friends had more than enough time to search through literally everything, to rifle through every document, every photo, every drawer, every storage container and each item of clothing I own, essentially turning my world inside out, and leaving a disgusting mess. "

"The kitchen was a disaster – the sink piled high with dirty dishes, pots and pans burnt and ruined. Comet Cleanser was dumped everywhere, the sink, wooden furniture, my lovely new bed frame, my desk, my printer … all topped with bleach powder. The death-like smell coming from the bathroom was scary (and still is) and the sink was caked with a crusty yellow dust. "

Ash from the fire – DJ had not bothered to open the flue – covers everything, cash, credit cards, clothing and valuables were missing.

The story first came to light on Wednesday, two days after airbnb had announced that the $ 112 million in funding received from a venture capital firm.

After calling the police, EJ Airbnb called the customer service line and e-mail from the company, but got no response until she contacted a friend who did freelance work for the company.

EJ notes that Airbnb was supportive after learning of the incident. "They are often called, expressing empathy, support and genuine concern for my welfare. They have offered to help me recover emotionally and financially, and working with SFPD to track these criminals," she wrote in her blog.

"While we are truly shocked and saddened by this incident, we were relieved we place systems to be able to help with the investigation and the authorities now have a suspect in custody," said Airbnb msnbc.com in an e-mail. "We are now focusing our attention on how a problem like this happening again."

In a guest post on Techcrunch, Airbnb.com CEO Brian Chesky outlined some of his company's efforts to improve security. They include doubling the customer support staff, experimenting with VoIP and video chat to improve communication between guest and host, and beefing up tools to verify user profiles.

Chesky also said that incidents such as EJ's rare. "With a single booking, a person malicious actions affected our host and undermined what was – for 2 million overnight stays -. A case study showing that people are basically good"

Yet the incident is shocking enough to get the latest story lampooned by Next Media Animation, who has previously posted videos about extramarital affairs Tiger Woods, Steven Slater is leaving a JetBlue plane and read many news stories.

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Submited at Friday, July 29th, 2011 at 10:00 am on News by samantha
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