I don't mean to be snarky but how is rape/murder/theft threat different than your daily life? Someone is going to go overboard and sucker people vs randomly kidnap someone at a Wendys?
Random people scare me. Maybe I just assume the worst in random people. How many airbnb rooms have spycams installed in the showers? I'd bet it's more than in hotel rooms :/
It's just the same reason I wouldn't hitch-hike or go in an unlicensed taxi.
Additionally, if the hotel is a big chain, there's a certain standard of service you can pretty much be sure of across hotels.
So IMHO, people working for a company who are trained and employed to serve the public, are quite different to 'random people'.
It is called prison.
I'm by no means saying it happens all the time, but I can see the incentive to use airbnb as a way to lure victims.
Some references to well-known cases:
http://www.google.de/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=1&ve...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Shipman
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lainz_Angels_of_Death
Todespfleger von Sonthofen - http://www.crimezzz.net/serialkillers/L/LETTER_stephan.php http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephan_Letter
Ever heard of Mechthild Bach? Can't find an English link right now.
Everyone's trained not to do bad things (it's called education), HR departments are not able to screen out killers, thiefs, rapists etc. In the end, people working in a hotel are a random selection, too. So whoever downvoted me, please reconsider.
If I'm going traveling to some strange dangerous place, a trained employee is going to be safer than a random person off the street.
I expect you were downvoted because you decided to interpret my comments as "trained employees never do anything wrong", rather than what I actually said, "trained employees are safer for you than random people".