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.
