I don't think what you're suggesting is that paranoid. There has to have been some motive. Perhaps it was just somebody seeking revenge, either against the person whos flat it was, or against AirBnB.
To suggest it might not be paranoid, but merely prudent. To think it's at all more likely that this is a setup against AirBnB and not just... you know, crime... I think is in fact paranoid.
If you want motive, here's one that you might be surprised to learn motivates a lot of crime: the guest needed money for drugs/debt/food/just wanted money, and thought he might get away with it.
Houses get broken into. People get mugged. There doesn't need to be a conspiracy for these things to happen.
Not many opportunistic thieves would pay to rent a target which they haven't cased, right? And meet whoever handed over the keys. Seems pretty bizarre.
I presume AirBnB got some money from the person making the booking, so you're probably right that they went in with some plan having had to pay up front (?) for the opportunity.
I'd also be curious (but not enough to look into it further!) to know whether the lister made it clear in their profile that they would not be meeting the renter in person.
Could be a mixture of theft and then opportunistic/drug-fueled mischief. Backtracking, I wonder if someone put a group up to it, or suggested that AirBnB listers could be soft targets - opportunity for the thieves and also for someone putting them up to it.
Short of having the blog post taken down, even if a follow-up is added to the top of the post, this will be very damaging for AirBnB. I've used the site a few times successfully (though ended up thinking it was often more trouble than just using a cheap hotel) so hate to see this happen.
