Airbnb Offers Safety Advice To Owners After Alleged Break-In By Bay Area 'Tenant'

BAY AREA, CA – The incident of a Bay Area man, who leased his apartment online as a short-term rental and was reportedly burglarized by the "tenant," drew an advice and safety response from San Francisco-based Airbnb, a worldwide marketer of unique accommodation bookings.

In the criminal case underway in Santa Clara County, the Mountain View resident rented his apartment this month through Airbnb to a 35-year-old man, who reportedly abruptly canceled the reservation, according to police. The man was soon arrested for suspected residential burglary and possession of stolen property from the home -- a crime police call a new "trend" in the Bay Area.

The Mountain View Police Department offered advice to residents who are or may be considering renting out their homes to strangers. And Airbnb weighed in with disgust of the alleged criminal acts.

"Negative experiences are extremely rare as more than 100 million guest arrivals have had safe and positive experiences on Airbnb," said Nick Shapiro, spokesman for the company that handles reservations in more than 34,000 cities and 191 countries. "We have zero tolerance for this kind of behavior and have removed this guest from our platform. We are working with the police on this matter and are supporting the host under our $1 million host guarantee."

The Mountain View PD offered a slew of tips for folks considering renting their homes. (Essential Safety Tips To Know Before Leasing Your Home As Short-Term Vacation Rental.) And Airbnb's Shapiro said he is full agreement with all of them, plus offered additional measures that should be taken before leasing your property.

Safety leasing tips from Airbnb:

Our community is growing quickly because it is built on trust - it is the foundation of our business. We’ve developed a number of key features that help to build this trust, including: First, Airbnb uses sophisticated technologies and behavioral analysis techniques to help prevent potentially troublesome hosts or guests from utilizing the platform in the first place.

Second, we maximize transparency by allowing hosts to require that guests provide a government ID, and we created a program called Verified ID, which connects a person’s offline identification (a driver's license or passport) with another online profile to their Airbnb account, such as Facebook, Google or their LinkedIn account.

Third, we provide ways for hosts and guests to communicate and get to know one another before a trip occurs. Our community builds trust and a track record for users to be able to learn more about each other through publicly available reviews and feedback.

Finally, we have your back in the very unusual event that a problem occurs. If a guest or a host ever have an issue, our 250 person plus global Trust and Safety team is on call 24/7 to help. And we offer Host Protection Insurance and a $1 Million Host Guarantee to help protect eligible hosts and their property.

At the end of the day, we obviously can’t eliminate all the risk in hosting or traveling, nor can we guarantee safety, but we work very hard to help hosts and guests have the ability to make the most informed decisions they can. The safety of the Airbnb community is the single most important thing we work on every day.

Advice and Tips for Hosts:

1. Read the reviews

Curious about what to expect from your guests? Read the reviews from hosts that have come before you. Airbnb’s review system provides in-depth information about guests, graded across four criteria: cleanliness, communication, observance of house rules and overall experience. And keep in mind that unlike some other accommodation sites, Airbnb’s reviews are all authentic: hosts can only leave a review of a guest after the guest has actually stayed there.

2. Only book and get paid through our platform

Airbnb gives you peace of mind by handling all transactions and communication through our secure platform. When communicating with prospective guests, hosts are advised to use our messaging platform. And when paying for a trip, guests book it directly through Airbnb only. That way, your account and your money will be protected.

3. Get to know your guest

Take advantage of the many tools Airbnb offers to get to know your guest. Read their profile thoroughly to learn more about them, including where they went to school, where they work, and what languages they speak.

4. Communicate

This one’s simple: talk to your guest Just like every listing is different, so is every guest. Does your guest have any special requests? Curious about why they chose your listing? Do they need more information on the location? Use our messaging platform to communicate with your guest before and after they book. It’s built into our mobile apps for iOS and Android, as well. And if you ever have issues or questions, communicate with us! We have 24/7 customer service available 24/7 in every timezone

5. Identity Protection

At Airbnb, we take cyber attacks and identity theft very seriously. We advise all hosts to lock up or remove personal documents and to put their mail on hold. There are a number of other simple things our hosts can do to help prevent against these types of attacks and we encourage hosts to take the following steps below to better protect themselves.

1) Lock up or remove personal documents and put your mail on hold

2) Store modems/routers in a secure, locked location

3) Apply the latest updates to your router(s) and modem(s)

4) Practice good password hygiene for your router(s) and modem(s); change default passwords

5) Use the guest network feature available on most new routers/Change the password for the Guest Network on each visit.

--Airbnb photo via Open Grid Scheduler, Flickr/Creative Commons