undefined | Better HN

0 pointsatotic6y ago0 comments

Wow. I had my own bad AirBnB experience, and privately decided never to never use them again. I wrongly assumed it was just me.

This is sad, I thought AirBnB were one of the good guys, and had a good experience 4 years ago.

Is there something about doing things at scale that makes things go bad? It seems like so many companies are great at start, but go downhill when their assumption that "fraud is a rare exception" does not hold.

0 comments

1 comments · 1 top-level

htrp6y ago

Communities don't scale.

Airbnb 4-8 years ago was a quirky thing that biased towards tech early adopters. Because it wasn't wildly profitable, it didn't become a magnet for scams yet.

As the community grew, the population includes more diverse people (including the bad actors). Once bad actors find it's easy to get around the loopholes, they tell others and the scams become prevalent.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse