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How Airbnb Stopped Playing Nice
Article

How Airbnb Stopped Playing Nice

For years, Airbnb was the friendly foil to Uber. But when the stakes got higher, it learned to fight.

Brad Stone
Backchannel, 2017
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8

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Recommendation

When Airbnb knocks on a city’s door, it usually brings flowers. Bloomberg News journalist and New York Times best-selling author, Brad Stone, shows both the humanity and the business acumen of Airbnb. This excerpt from his latest book, The Upstarts: How Uber, Airbnb, and the Killer Companies of the New Silicon Valley Are Changing the World, celebrates the shrewd strategies Airbnb uses to gain favor with cities and provides context for the reason a New York City deal came to a screeching halt. getAbstract recommends this article to shared-economy enthusiasts and business travelers who have used Airbnb and those considering it.

Summary

In 2013, a woman died of carbon monoxide inhalation at an Airbnb in Taipei, Taiwan. Airbnb didn’t take responsibility for the death but offered a “humanitarian” settlement to her family. It also took steps to prevent another similar tragedy by giving all hosts in the United States carbon monoxide detectors, first-aid kits, smoke detectors and safety instructions.

The following year, the city council meetings in the city of Portland, Oregon, heard floods of Airbnb hosts sharing their heartwarming stories of financial stability or...

About the Author

Brad Stone is a journalist for Bloomberg News.

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