Creative Business Models (inside the sharing economy)

By Larry Chiang

Make extra money documenting “damages” and then asking exorbitant fees from your Airbnb. Make sure you come up with ‘invoices’ to substantiate your claim (i.e. Get someone you know to invoice you £298)

Easy easy money because most guests at your Airbnb won’t take pictures of every square inch when they enter their Airbnb. Easy money that’s all margin and void of court costs because Airbnb requires binding arbitration.

Established companies monetize against goodwill pretty often

– See Apple deleting composer music files

– See StateFarm in my Twitter feed Re: finally paying a December 2009 claim in January 2016

See the example below! [note: This is first hand investigative Business Model reporting ]

Zoe, Jun 28, 21:08 PDT:

Hi Larry,

Thank you so much for all of your patience and understanding.

After careful review of all photos, documentation, and related communication, we do believe that your host should be compensated for the damages caused during this stay. Although $707 was set as the security deposit, we have concluded that it is appropriate to charge only a portion of this amount.

We have charged £196 (=$261) to your security deposit as of today for the following:

1. Carpet cleaning : £62 ———-> Approved (fully charged)
2. Repainting the wall : £200 ———-> £100 Approved (Since we follow the general standard of painting the wall, the cost of repainting wall on the invoice is almost double;therefore we charge half of the amount)
3. Pillow : £9.99 ———-> £ 9.69 Approved ( Depreciation rate of 3% as it is 3 months old, stain did not come out after washed)
4. Pillow case : £9.58 ———-> £ 9.29 Approved ( Depreciation rate of 3% as it is 3 months old, stain did not come out after washed)
5. Plain pillow case : £15.98 ———-> £ 15.11 Approved ( Depreciation rate of 3% as it is 3 months old,stain did not come out after washed)
6. Total: £196 (=$261)

Larry, we understand this is a compromise for both you and Vera. Please know that it is ideal in situations such as these if both host and guest can reach a mutual understanding; yet we know that this is not always possible. As you may know, our policies state that we have final say in all disputes in which we are called upon to mediate. As such, the decision reached in this case is final and cannot be overturned.

We hope that you move on to have many more positive experiences using Airbnb.

Best regards,

Zoe
www.airbnb.com/help

THIS EMAIL IS A SERVICE FROM AIRBNB CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE.