Welcome back vacation warriors!

You picked a great time to be away last week. Outside of tech, there was really only one story to pay attention to: Washington continuing to fiddle while the deficit burned. High drama was not limited to the political sphere, however. It was drama and not Apple, Google or Facebook dominating the tech world last week. Here’s an update of what happened while you were… Off the grid!

The Airbnb Experience From Hell! ^[1]

This was the big tech story that had everyone talking last week. An anonymous California woman, believed to be an event planner of some sort, blogged a riveting first-hand account of what happened when she rented out her San Francisco apartment through Airbnb.

Airbnb, for those of you unfamiliar with this company, is an apartment matchmaker for travelers who would like to make a few extra bucks renting out their homes while they are away—and sublet them to other road warriors and tourists who might prefer the home touch over the hotel touch. For the most part, these are matches made in heaven, and Airbnb is growing like a weed.

Last week’s avalanche of stories over this, however, could potentially have the effect of one big dose of Roundup on Airbnb (sticking with that “weed” analogy).

The anonymous woman described coming home and finding that the renters had absolutely decimated her home; destroyed her belongings, trashed her apartment, stolen irreplaceable family heirlooms, violated her most intimate personal belongings (her panty drawer, for example), broke into her private files taking her most sensitive personal identity information and vandalized the property itself. She describes being left traumatized and unable to continue leaving there, while now fearing for her life after such a malicious attack.

Since her original posting, there have been rumors, speculation, blame-the-victim public floggings all over social media, along with outcries for compassion and justice on her behalf. I told you, drama was the big headline last week!

Here are the big nuggets from the fall-out:

1. The woman and Airbnb have since told conflicting stories of just how long it took Airbnb to respond to the crisis. There’s been much debate between the two of them, with the court of public opinion chiming in as to Airbnb’s liability for vetting the renters and what it should now be doing to assist this woman.

 

2. Other Airbnb customers are now coming forward with their horror stories; the latest from an Oakland, California, man who rented out his home through Airbnb and returned to find his home similarly trashed with meth pipes everywhere.

 

3. Conspiracy theory No. 1: the whole thing is a hoax and the woman who broke the story is not a real person. I’m not sure why Airbnb would go along with that. But, there you go.

 

4. Conspiracy theory No. 2: the whole thing is a hoax perpetrated by the hotel industry (Insert evil “bwa-ha-ha” laugh here. Really? I don’t think Marriot and the Holiday Inn are that desperate.)

 

5. Conspiracy theory No. 3: the woman who reported the story is a nut and it’s all bogus (We won’t know until she comes forward. Stay tuned. It’s only a matter of time.

 

6. Airbnb fallout: It remains to be seen. But, this will definitely hurt the company for a while. Whether this story is proven true or false, it has to be spooking potential customers. Additionally, every major news outlet is now heavily scrutinizing what exactly Airbnb offers and how well it works. There is renewed speculation that Airbnb sprinkles attractive fake listings throughout their site to make their offerings look more robust, as well as scrape other listings from Craigslist. There’s no proof of this. But in a world where perception is reality, that has to be small comfort for the brass at Airbnb.

 

7. Cautionary tales for the rest of us: If your company sells products and services exclusively online and its all automated, how long does it take a customer to get a human being on the phone from your staff in the event of a disaster? Is it easy to find contact information to live people on your staff from your website? Bad PR begets more bad PR. Do you have a crisis-management plan? If not, then get one.

 

In other news, last week it was reported that the Apple iPhone 5 will be available in September. Scratch that; it’s going to be October sometime.

Welcome back to the grid!