@David8830 The best outcome that Airbnb can offer you here is that their truly awful outsourced customer service reps grant you a cancellation and fully refund all unused nights, on the grounds that the gate guards are preventing you from freely accessing the property. You will need to be prepared to relocate quickly at your own expense - ideally to somewhere suited to last-minute accommodation, such as a hotel.
To reach this outcome, you'll need to come clean to the gate guards that you're renting the home through Airbnb, and obtain evidence that they're refusing you entry. This needs to be conveyed to the host explicitly through your correspondence over the Airbnb platform, so that there's a paper trail. Obstruction of access to the home is one of the basic Travel Issues that's eligible for a refund. An experienced host would know this and offer you a full refund without involving customer service. But "Tom" sounds clueless and sneaky.
Hostility from the neighbors is only worth mentioning in your review; it's not really something the host or Airbnb can do anything about, but it's a valid part of your experience. I'd be surprised if previous guests hadn't mentioned anything about it, though - new listing?
If you don't get a satisfactory result through your host and must contact Airbnb, prepare to navigate thickets of miscomprehension and incompetence, with no procedure to escalate. Hopefully it doesn't come to that.
