#5SmartReads - July 12, 2021

Hiwote Getaneh on Airbnb, deadlines, and Lisbon

Today’s regular guest contributor is Hiwote! Follow her on Instagram to see what life in Lisbon is like!

Airbnb Is Spending Millions Of Dollars To Make Nightmares Go Away (Bloomberg Business Week)

I just recently moved out of my apartment in New York to live in Lisbon for a year, and my first month was spent at an Airbnb. I always knew bad things could happen anywhere, but never did it cross my mind that a stranger could have a copy of my temporary apartment's keys. Nor did I think it was likely that the owner of the apartment might directly harm me. This article opened my eyes up to how much I trust strangers simply because they are verified on the site, which is just not enough. Airbnb paid over $50 million in settlements over the past few years after some truly horrendous things happened on the properties listed on their site … including deaths. Yikes.