Airbnb protects violent guests— unsafe as a female host

[Nicki57]

I helped my mother-in-law out as a co-host with our family-run Airbnb business.  We have hosted over 500 guests in almost two years.  There was an incident that happened with a perpetrator guest who sexually harassed another guest on the property.  I diffused the situation during a separate confrontation with the same two guests where I was followed by this aggressive male guest and felt extremely afraid for my safety.  

AirBnb closed the case after it was reported.  Then, they reopened it— and now has deactivated the account.  They refused to hear my side of the story and refused to speak to us.  My mother-in-law is planning her retirement around this business.  We have worked really hard and made this company a lot of money.  This business practice of not trusting the host over the guest is extremely unfair.  This guest who was clearly on drugs and drunk followed me nearly 5 blocks away from the property -what if they had a gun or knife?  What if I was injured physically as a result of this incident?  Would Airbnb just say oh well, you can no longer be a host?  If this is your business practice,  we are planning  a media campaign with a PR firm set out to ban folks from using Airbnb and to tell people never sign up to be a host.  This is a horrible business and I don’t feel safe knowing that Airbnb protects perp guests.  I guess they are following in the president’s footsteps. Congratulations, Airbnb! It is now official.  You have chosen money over people!  You are all selfish, greedy, fearful people and should be ashamed of yourselves.  The very people you set out to help create businesses for themselves- the market you see as your ideal host—women — are now being attacked by your unethical business practices.  You should know this will not go down without a fight.  We have reached out to other women who have gone through similar issues and plan to bring this up to state legislators, chambers of commerce, even future presidential candidates.  You want people to feel trusted and safe using your platform and yet you could give two **bleep**s about the people who make you money.  Without hosts, there are no guests.  Without guests, you don’t make money.  Be on the lookout for the media campaign.  

[Sarah977]

@Nicki57   Do you know that this is just a community forum for hosts and guests, not Airbnb itself? And that no one at Airbnb seems to read the posts here?

I certainly agree with what you've said here and it's really outrageous. But you do say that guest account was closed? At least they did that. Or do you mean your mom's account was closed?

[Nicki57]

They deactivated my mother-in-laws account without hearing my story and refused to hear it. 

[Nicki57]

@Sarah977 thank you for this response. Any suggestions on what to do? 

[Helen427]

@Sarah977 @Nicki57 

See @Laura_C  response.

All the best

[Sarah977]

@Nicki57  How outrageous! I would suggest you contact Laura, who is our host rep at Airbnb.-@Laura_C . Go to the private message function in the upper right hand corner of these forum pages, click on the envelope symbol and then tag her into a message.

[Laura_C]

Please do send me a note with more details @Nicki57 and I'll work on this for you. I've already reached out to the team to start investigating. Thank you so much @Sarah977 and @Helen427 for pinging me.

[Nicki57]

@Laura_C Thank you. I will reach out.  What’s the best way to reach you?  

@Sarah977 and @Helen427 - I appreciate you! 

[Laura_C]

@Nicki57 check your inbox here on the community center, i've sent you a note.

[Nicki57]

Ok. Sorry- this is a new platform for me. Where’s the in-box? 

[Sarah977]

@Nicki57  Top right corner of these forum pages- click on the envelope. Also, if you want the person you're talking to to see your post, you need to tag them- hit the @ sign and a list of names will come up, click on one of those, if it's not there, type it in as it appears on their post after you type the @ sign and that person will get a notification that you've responded or are asking them something.

[Sarah977]

@Laura_C  And thank you for responding here so quickly. I really hope you can make this right for this host and that you can make it clear to the powers that be at Airbnb that they need to seriously look at how they are dealing with hosts these days. It's great to help out an individual host with an issue, but the general way that Airbnb deals with hosts' issues with guests really needs to change across the board.

For instance, why are Airbnb CS now calling up hosts pressuring them to refund guests who cancel before they even arrive, in contravention of the host's cancellation policies? What's the point of having a cancellation policy if Airbnb is going to override it or pressure hosts to ignore it? This is not nearly as important an issue as the one @Nicki57 has, but it's an example of the increasingly disrespectful attitude the company is showing towards hosts in general.

[Nicki57]

@Sarah977still waiting to connect with  @Laura_C.  Wanted to reach out to you to say that I’m grateful for you and your support.  Thank you! 

[Helen427]

@Nicki57 @Sarah977 

@Nicki57 

Did you report it to Police?

It is always recommended that they are the first people to report such matters.

If you did and didn't have success there, there's always an authority over and above who oversees them.

That said there is considerable education still required within and a change of culture in Police, and other agencies with respect of reporting Sexual Harassment & those types of people who cause others to 'fear for there personal safety ' due to the perpetrators state of mind.

@Laura_C

Are you aware of this case?
Something perhaps to add to your list as Head of Customer Services to follow up on for the betterment of all within the ABB community.

All the best

[Alan565]

Most of what you said about Airbnb I agree. Just had a bad situation where family and I were guests in a dump. They simply dismiss photo and messaging evidence and say it doesn't apply. In the end all it comes down to is, does Airbnb make their share of money? Safety, laws, by-laws in city/states don't seem to matter. Good luck! I'll be off Airbnb after the next stay we do over 5-6 days, terrible company.