Airbnb Horror Story Begs The Question: How Many Other (Unreported) Victims Are There?

Talk about "Risky Business"...

A 19-year old young man was locked inside a Madrid, Spain apartment, held inside against his will and sexually-assaulted by his Airbnb host on July 4, 2015.

The man began texting his mother - who was in America - by phone as the events began to unfold.  He begged her for help.  His mother called Airbnb, but the company's employees refused to tell her his location, nor would they call the Madrid police.  Instead they told her to call the police and ask them to call Airbnb for the youth's address.  The phone number Airbnb provided led to a recording - in Spanish - and being disconnected.  When she called Airbnb back, her calls went straight to voicemail.

Airbnb was horrifically irresponsible and neglectful in this incident.  Their employees could have and should have immediately called the Madrid police and provided the man's location and urged the police to investigate.

Did you know that, at least, half (if not most) sexual-assaults go unreported?

This incident begs the question of how many others have occurred and how often are sexual-assaults occurring between Airbnb (and similar businesses) "guests" and their "hosts".

When I was a kid, my parents impressed two things on me very strongly:
1.) Don't accept rides from strangers; and
2.) Don't go anywhere with strangers, because terrible things have happened to kids/people who do.

Now, businesses like Airbnb, Uber, Lyft and others are making enormous profits encouraging people to do both of those dangerous things.

And, apparently, they aren't dealing with it too well when it goes sideways.

From: nytimes.com:
Airbnb Horror Story Points to Need for Precautions