Airbnb acts against reputational risk
AirBnB has hired two external advisers to its "Trust Advisory Board" to help the company on safety issues.  Whilst the company claims to have over 50 million users with “safe, positive experiences”, it is well aware that it has also suffered from bad headlines due to either guests or hosts misbehaving.  To that end the company has now brought in Juliette Kayyem, previously a Homeland Security advisor to Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, and Rich Serino, the ex-head of Boston's Emergency Services.

The company said Friday that Juliette Kayyem — a onetime Massachusetts gubernatorial candidate, homeland security adviser to Governor Deval Patrick, and a former Globe opinion columnist — and former longtime head of Boston Emergency Services Rich Serino will join the Airbnb Trust Advisory Board.

Now, the company is bringing on two big names from Boston to help address those fears.

Home-sharing giant Airbnb has millions of happy users. But there are still some who won’t use the service over fears — real or perceived — about safety.

In that role they won’t be employees of the home-sharing service, a spokesman said, but they will meet regularly with senior staff to design safety protocols, help with crisis response, and provide training to help both guests and hosts use the service safely.

Advertisement

For a company that touts 50 million guests with “safe, positive experiences” but has drawn its share of bad headlines over guests or hosts misbehaving, Kayyem and Serino double as trusted names the company can put in front of television cameras if needed.

Kayyem is a CNN analyst, host of the “Security Mom” podcast on WGBH, and author of a forthcoming memoir of the same name. Serino climbed the ranks at Boston EMS for 36 years before being named deputy administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, where he was front and center during Hurricane Sandy. Television and other public appearances are possible, said Airbnb spokesman Jakob Kerr, though their full responsibilities haven’t quite been defined.

TIM LOGAN

Tim Logan can be reached at tim.logan@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter at @bytimlogan.