Call me "Ed"

I think AirBnB has a ton of potential and a great team. People in the startup/VC world love them too–and for good reason. They've also got one of the best executed iOS apps I've ever used.

That being said, I've always been a little wary of their ability to grow once cities and states start losing tax revenue because of them. 

I've also never attempted to use the service personally–until this week. Now, I'm not sure I'll try again. 

I was planning on taking my 2 youngest daughters to [REDACTED] this weekend while my wife hosts a baby shower at our house. I found a nice place there at a good rate. The host said it was available and asked me to PayPal or wire her a $50 deposit on top of the booking fee (I have no idea if this is standard or allowed on AirBnB). The host also mentioned that my AirBnB profile was "hidden"–but, as best I can tell, there's no such setting in AirBnB. 

After working out details with the host on Tuesday, I spent most of Wednesday and today working and getting my taxes done (and watching some opening day baseball). I hadn't yet booked the place on AirBnB–but I still planned to (today or Friday). Apparently, that wasn't soon enough for this potential host. Here's the AirBnB message thread (with names removed):

I get that AirBnB wants to be the "eBay of spaces"–but using eBay doesn't involve me and my kids sleeping in a potentially unstable person's house. 

Do shady people use eBay? Sure. Could this be an isolated incident? I hope so. This incident simply left a bad taste in my mouth and it will be a while before I attempt to use AirBnB again. 

UPDATE (3pm)

This potential host wont quit. Additional comments so far (I've decided to contact AirBnB and not reply): 

The "Good luck with that" line is in reference to one of my (rather successful) companies which I'm assuming they found via Google or Facebook. 

UPDATE 2 (4:22pm)

Less than 2 hours after submitting a ticket to AirBnB, one of their staff members called me on the phone. That alone is quite impressive and shows that they care about these issues.

She gave me some good tips (which most of you have already mentioned): (1) use people with good review, (2) use people with high response rates, etc.