<story><title>Airbnb Victim Speaks Again: Homeless, Scared And Angry</title><url>http://techcrunch.com/2011/07/29/airbnb-victim-speaks-again-homeless-scared-and-angry/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>bignoggins</author><text>I&apos;m using airbnb in Berlin right now. Two days ago I received a knock on my door. Turns out it was the real owner of the apartment and he had the Paperwork to prove it. Fortunately he was nice enough to let us stay without compensation. When I went to the airbnb website to try and call them all I got was a web message box. I filled out a message and sent it on its way but that&apos;s a pretty lousy system. Luckily for me my situation is nowhere as bad as ej but airbnb really needs a 24 hour hotline. I&apos;ve had many good experiences but all it takes is that one time.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>dlss</author><text>Exactly.&lt;p&gt;Based on EJ&apos;s description of AirBnB customer service, and the &lt;i&gt;2,000,000&lt;/i&gt; bookings the founders cited earlier today, we&apos;d be fools to think this was the first time someone broke the law using AirBnB -- I&apos;m guessing the others just gave up on support after being ignored, and focused on talking to the police.&lt;p&gt;The real black eye here is the kind of support EJ received &lt;i&gt;before&lt;/i&gt; she wrote her blog post -- most people can&apos;t write that well and don&apos;t have readers who will submit the story to HN.</text></comment>
<story><title>Airbnb Victim Speaks Again: Homeless, Scared And Angry</title><url>http://techcrunch.com/2011/07/29/airbnb-victim-speaks-again-homeless-scared-and-angry/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>bignoggins</author><text>I&apos;m using airbnb in Berlin right now. Two days ago I received a knock on my door. Turns out it was the real owner of the apartment and he had the Paperwork to prove it. Fortunately he was nice enough to let us stay without compensation. When I went to the airbnb website to try and call them all I got was a web message box. I filled out a message and sent it on its way but that&apos;s a pretty lousy system. Luckily for me my situation is nowhere as bad as ej but airbnb really needs a 24 hour hotline. I&apos;ve had many good experiences but all it takes is that one time.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>shadowflit</author><text>Just to clarify, since it took your second comment to get me to this understanding -&lt;p&gt;Someone who was not the real owner of the apartment (presumably thief/criminal) put the place up on AirBnB. You unknowingly rented the place from this person, and during your stay, the real owner showed up and asked what you were doing in his house?</text></comment>