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Comment by axod | Hacker News Reader

I live in a safe place. If I'm going traveling (To likely a more dangerous place), I'd be safer staying in some sort of 'official' establishment, such as a hotel. Rather than staying with random people. They could be irritating, unhinged, dangerous, murderous, thieving, perverted, etc

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.

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How are people working in a hotel not random?

They're vetted by the hotel, there's regulation, command structure, security in the hotel, they have an incentive to not do bad things (They'd get fired), they're (hopefully) trained, etc etc

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'.

People have an incentive not to do things bad on Airbnb too.

It is called prison.

spycam in shower? I'd expect chance of prison is nil. Stealing wallet / jewelery / etc? Again, prison is a long shot.

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.

You mean like nurses/doctors (prime example of people who are trained and employed to serve the public) that kill their patients?

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.

I didn't say there were NO instances of trained employees abusing trust. Obviously there are edge cases everywhere.

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".

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