Under Root Cause analysis, a causal factor is one that affects an event outcome.

(Evaluating

Root Cause Analysis (fhcapulse.com). The causal factor helps to minimize problems but does

not remove them. It is used to explain how and why a problem or even occurred. The causal

factor identified is ‘verification of guests and hosts is difficult’ and the Root cause is un-

enforcement of strict keys strategy as well as lack of liability and reliability.

According to MacLean J, (2021). People cannot fully rely on technology to eliminate risks of

crime. Furthermore, a question was raised about what happens when a person tries to check in a

hotel with a stolen or fake identify? In the incident of host EJ and guest in June 2011, where the

apartment rented was trashed and jewelry, cash and electronics were stolen, the cause of this can

be due to lack of ease re verification of guests. The tips for host embedded in Airbnb’s Terms of

service regarding guest verification is not effective in checking to see if people are really who

they say they are; there is no disclosure about doing background checks (for safety and security),

no monitoring and observation upon booking, no good intuition in picking up skeptical traits.

Regarding the matter in Hamptons (New York) in June 2014 between the couple and the host, it

can be said that the root cause is un-enforcement of strict keys strategy. Ibm.com states that strict

house key checking command specifies how host keys are checked during the connection and

authentication phase where strict host key checking is disabled by default and the client verifies

the incoming host key against the keys in the known host list. Under this option the hosts’ keys

are not checked against a known server where when the room is occupied, parameters rejects or

accepts host keys from remote servers not in the known host list. Lack of reliability is also

evident as the couple (guests) reviewed the Airbnb safety tips and review of the host and found

the reviews to be of positive nature. However, the host portrayed disturbing behavior while being
drunk on the same night of the guests’ arrival. Therefore, the reviews of the host is misleading

and not reliable.

Re the case of Lopez, a lack of liability can be said to be the root cause of the incident that took

place July 2015. Airbnb failed to act when they were supposed to, the incident would not got so

out of hand where Lopez was trapped in an uncomfortable situation with a transgender in the

room withstanding sexual acts. Difficulty with verification of host can also be established here,

the safety tips of Airbnb review on hosts does not accurately identifies or displays the true nature

of the host as the case states that referring to the host “who turns out to be transsexual”. This

indicates that Mr. Lopez had no prior knowledge about the situation.

The causes (verification of guests and hosts is hard, un-enforcement of strict keys strategy, lack

of liability and reliability) which leads to the problem of vandalism and crime seems to be taking

place at Airbnb for quite a while as it is seen that Mr. Lopez case 2015 is somehow connected to

previous happenings in 2011 and 2014. Similar incidents keeps occurring and Airbnb has not

been doing much to correct these causes and effects.

References

Evaluating Root Cause Analysis. Retrieved on November 16, 2022 from https://fhcapulse.com/

MacLean J, (2021). Know Your Guest: Why secure identity verification needs to be a top

priority for hotels. https://dis-blog.thalesgroup.com/identity-biometric-solutions/

Strict-host-key-checking. Retrieved on November 16, 2022 from

https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/datapower-gateway/