Unpleasant message exchange from potential guest

[Valda10]

I live near Wembley & have just had an enquiry from a male guest + 4 other guests for the 3 private rooms in my home.  I list on my page that I do not take groups of men or women as I prefer families so I asked him if he had seen this & if they were 5 men.  He became quite rude & told me it was disgusting & sexist. I told him it was a safety issue as I live on my own.  He said I was old fashioned & glad he hadn’t booked.  I know it’s very minor but I want to report him for not respecting my rules & for being so unpleasant.  Anyone know if I can do this?

[Kelly149]

@Valda10 yes, you can click the "Report" button, no, it won't do anything

[Valda10]

Thank you, Kelly.   I didn't notice the report button.   I've advised Airbnb, but what do you mean 'no it won't do anything'? thx!

[Emilia42]

@Valda10 Kelly means that you can click the report button (the little flag in the message thread) but it's unlikely that anything will come from it/Airbnb will do anything. 

[Sarah977]

There's plenty of unpleasant people in the world. There's nothing against Airbnb policy about being rude. I'd just let it go. 

Here's a quote I once copied down from a novel I read that helps me not get worked up about inconsequential things: "The world is full of small ignorances. We must all do our best to ignore them and thereby keep them small, don't you think?"

@Valda10

[Valda10]

yes you are right but sexist & disgusting is quite offensive & should not be tolerated.  But I will put behind me & tomorrow is another day!

[Anonymous]

@Valda10  Have you had a close read of the Nondiscrimination Policy? See here: https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/2867/nondiscrimination-policy

If you share living space with your guests, you are allowed to make your listing available only to people of your gender. But it seems that having a rule about the gender composition of groups opens you up to a lot of potential discrimination complaints - which can result in your listing being suspended. You can always decline a booking if you're uncomfortable with it for private reasons, but you should be very careful not to make any statements implying that you're declining based on the guests' demographics. And anyway, there are many types of families and households that happen to be all of the same sex. You say "couples and families preferred," but your rule would automatically exclude many LGBT families, or a single mom with grown daughters like @Sarah977 , which probably isn't your intention. I can understand how an inquiring guest would take offense to your policy, and they're allowed to express their opinion about that even if it comes off as rude.

[Valda10]

Thanks Andrew.  I've reworded my listing slightly to hopefully have less chance of trouble in future.

[Anonymous]

@Valda10  Maybe the updates aren't showing up yet - what did you change?