Ch. 3 Ethics and Social Responsibility

''A man does what he must.. in spite of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles and dangers, and pressures.. and that is the basis of all human morality.''John F. Kennedy

The guiding principles of Airbnb are trust and honesty. With a social marketing oriented business, Airbnb must show its costumers that its morals and ethics are a major priority. The travel network's most important objective is to build up relationships between "hosts" and "guests." The company encourages members to preserve a commitment of honesty and trust with each other. The reason is simple: when people rent their place, they are taking a risk by welcoming strangers, and they are expecting someone who was raised with respect, honesty and trust. It is important because they are sharing their home. Without ethical behavior Airbnb could go out of business very easily.

Taking Responsibility  

In spite of its impressive statistics, such as $112 million of founding, Airbnb experienced a series of ups and downs that almost ruined the company's reputation. In 2011 EJ, a host, blogged about an incident with a guest who ransacked her apartment. This attracted the attention of TechCrunch, a popular technology blog, which spread the news to everyone in the community.
Unfortunately, the company did not see coming the potential magnitude of these consequences. The ethical decision was to take action after this incident by investigating the claims and reimbursing her for any damages.  EJ's case among others made Airbnb extend their guideline in the code of ethics. On July 1st, the corporate board took social responsibility by offering $50,000 of insurance policy,in order to prevent unfortunate incidents like these and to regain the user's trust.