Staying with a stranger or inviting one into your home is an inherently dicey proposition.
That line, buried halfway into Zak Stone s story in Medium about his father s tragic and sudden death while staying with his family at an Airbnb rental, is the understatement of this era of the sharing economy. Led by icons like Uber, DogVacay and TaskRabbit (the list is endless), this new paradigm-shifting paradigm is changing the way we drive, find lodging, get food, and seek or offer help for a long litany of life s little challenges.
It s great. Usually. But sometimes, as Stone s story illustrates, things get dicey.
The title of the story:
Living and Dying on Airbnb: My dad died in an Airbnb rental, and he s not the only one. What can the company do to improve safety?
Stone, a longtime and respected journalist, took two years to write the piece, something he says has been an important part of letting go of the trauma.
But by sharing his story about the sharing economy and how that economy ended up ushering tragedy into his family s life, is a clarion call to all of us who create and work for these new companies and who use them everyday, usually without giving it a second thought.
The story s a shocker: Family rents a cottage through Airbnb in Texas. Everything s fine. Dad takes a ride on the tree swing outside. The tree snaps in two, killing Stone s father. The story then recaps what happened in the aftermath, including Stone s dealings with Airbnb about the incident and his investigation into other unreported deaths that have occurred at Airbnb sites, pretty much without anyone knowing.
While reporting this story, I discovered that my father was not the only person to die in an Airbnb. During the 2013 holiday season, a Canadian woman and five of her friends stayed together in Taiwan for a wedding, booking accommodations through Airbnb. On December 30, she was found dead. Airbnb did acknowledge her death, in their statement to me. But her tragic accident, like my father s, has been left out of the company s self-reported narrative about its safety record until now.
The piece is worth reading, especially the ending. It should send shudders down your spine and make you think at least twice before you get into that next Uber or Lyft car or check into an Airbnb property that in the online description seems like heaven on earth.
Above: Airbnb screenshot
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