Domestic Violence Situation

[Brunilda3]

Hi Everyone, 

I recently opened my home/rooms to the AIRBNB world and was immediately struck with a difficult/scary experience. A lady instantly booked for three nights and would arrive the same night. After reviewing her very positive reviews from other hosts I welcomed her and hoped it would be a great experience for both of us. She checked-in late 2:30am while i was at work (I work nights at times). During her stay she remained in her room for the first 36 hours without coming out for me to introduce myself or have the opportunity to show her around (but i didn't mind- "to each their own"). The second night I finally met her and had little concerns. The following day, I received a phone call from AIRBNB saying this guest is requesting to leave as her AIRBNB accommodations as her account was hacked by her ex-boyfriend and she feels unsafe. AIRBNB also stated he has been looking for her and now knows where is is. I stated I completely understood and wanting to ensure everyone's safety so I released her from the night and my calendar was opened. I received another request from a couple who booked not too long later for the same room.

So I cleaned the room, other guests checked-in and along I went with my day.

Later that night 9:00pm, I returned home from an outing and a strange man exited my house. I approached him and said 'Hi, I'm Brunilda, i'm the host. Did you just come out of my house?'. I obviously knew the answer but I wanted to bring up the conversation. The main said 'oh, I am a guest of Jay, do you know where she is?' I quickly put two and two together and realized this man was the ex-boyfriend who my guest was fleeing. I asked him how he got the passcode and he responded that she gave it to him. Very firmly, I asked him to leave, that he was not welcome in my house and is actually trespassing on my property. I told him I would be calling the police if he didn't remove himself right away. The man began laughing and starting walking off. 

I approached my other guests who confirmed that this man went throughout my house, knocked on every bedroom, opened the doors and asked if Jay was currently there. 

I then messaged and contacted the previous guest and told her what had occurred (to give her the heads up). I told her I was worried for my safety and the other guests and requested his name to file a report, at the very least. She said she would not give me his name and that he would not return and I should forget it ever happened.

I contacted AIRBNB and they just told me to change the passcode to my door lock! (which i did right away). It's been three days and no follow-up has been made by AIRBNB. 

I contacted my local police who, to say the least, were absolutely no help.

This is my very first guest experience of opening my home , and I feel so insulted, violated and stunted. I am just so disappointed in this whole event. AIRBNB would like me to review her as a guest and although this is absolutely no fault of her own I can't help my feelings. I am just thinking how much worse this could have ended up. 

[Jim566]

Sorry you are going through this.  I highly recommend a programmable code lock where you can give each guest a unique code, and then delete their code after they leave.  I would also invest in an external / doorbell style camera. 

Jim

[Stephanie]

Hi there @Brunilda3 ,

I'm so sorry to hear about this awful situation you have been through. I see you have reached out to customer support - if you wouldn't mind doing so again with this case, I have shared this thread with the team and escalated it internally.

If you ever feel unsafe with your guest, contact the team at your earliest convenience: Contact us

Thanks,

Stephanie

[Gail-and-Beth0]

Speaking of domestic violence and AIRBNB policy — We just had a couple arrive from Airbnb last night for a one month stay and there was immediately a domestic violence incident, just a few hours in.  Our property is a 5 unit building, so other residents were emotionally impacted by the violence that occurred.  Police responded but no one was removed because the couple was reportedly calmer when police arrived and the woman protected the man.  Sound familiar?  

The long term resident (1 year lease) who called the police had heard everything — such as the sounds of the man choking the woman and the woman gasping for breath.  This resident has been traumatized to the extent she is seeking to move out of the building immediately, breaking lease that runs to Oct.  (She’s a domestic abuse survivor so it’s a trigger and she’s also certain it will happen again — psychiatric professionals we know have confirmed that she’s correct).  

So we call Airbnb and guess what the rep comes back with, after researching, with “the team”?  If we want the Airbnb domestic violence guests out, we have to forfeit the month’s rent they are expected to pay.  And of course the rep directed us to the “Resolution Center”, for any further issues.  (We’ll take this case directly to arbitration as well as the media before we go to that runaround h#%^ in the sky again.  No, not for this case, this is about a guest committing violence on our premises.)

There also was screaming and other loud noise that disturbed our residents as well as the neighbors on both sides.  San Diego has a noise ordinance which is included in our house rules.  We thought Airbnb had a good neighbor policy?

Come on Airbnb, get it together.  And train your reps — we were not even provided a

reference to a policy we could read that substantiates your position, so we could

attempt to understand this.

We’re long time rental operators.  We own a bunch of property.  We’re super hosts.  We don’t fuss, we manage.  We hardly call Airbnb.  The few times we have, it’s been this kind of nonsense, unfortunately.  There is poor judgment and zero giving back.

We’ll get these people out, as we have a duty to protect our residents — and we’ll arbitrate, unless Airbnb either deposits the rent due to us, or can show us a policy that allows this conduct and disturbance in neighborhoods and ***rewards violent men who abuse women by refunding their rent.***

Let’s not get into a long term versus short term policy discussion here, please.  And I don’t want to hear from the Airbnb bots and submissives who think hosts should just take one for the good of all, a cost of

doing business. We did plenty of that at the start of COVID, didn’t we all, and we shouldn’t have had to, and we shouldn’t

have to now, under these circumstances.  As it is, we’re looking at the loss of a long term resident (6 months rent) as a result of Airbnb guest’s violence.  We’re also supposed to eat another month? Breach of good faith and supposed partnership.  

So here we are again.  Airbnb really ought to figure out the calculus for doing the right thing with/for hosts — you’re losing us.

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Gail-and-Beth0 I find it hilarious when you post 'I don’t want to hear from the Airbnb bots and submissives who think hosts should just take one for the good of all'.  If you only want people to comment that agree with you then why post on an open forum where people have their own views?

Anyway, recognising this IS an open forum then I shall give the view that, whilst the situation is most unfortunate, I am not sure Airbnb can do anything other than refund the guest after they have been removed from the property.

[Gail-and-Beth0]

Thank you snarky Level 10, just what I was talking about.  The point of this is:  What exactly is the policy, what is the rationale, and is it the right policy?  And what is this supposed partner Airbnb doing to support hosts in tough circumstances, on the rare occasions when Airbnb is needed?  

Airbnb also expects us to either cancel the reservation and lose super host status, or allow this violent environment to be endured by our other residents.  So we also

get penalized for doing the right thing for health and safety of our residents. We know from other host experiences that Airbnb has the authority to cancel reservation and issue no refund when guests breach significant house rules or violate good neighbor policy

— these guests have done both — and Airbnb also has the authority to ensure the host isn’t further penalized in the process.

[Helen3]

I'm sorry you and your other guests had such an awful experience because of a violent guest  @Brunilda3 

It's not just in DV situations that your guests will get a full refund of the rest of their stay , if you ask them to leave. They will get a refund if you ask them to leave for partying , smoking etc (see Airbnb's T&Cs ) 

If you want your fellow hosts to provide you with advice and support it's seems counter intuitive to be make sarcastic remarks about them in your post  @Brunilda3 

[John5097]

@Gail-and-Beth0

The way I see it you have two options. Cancel the guest or not. The fact the wife covered for husband after reports of domestic violence puts you and ABB at a disadvantage. Even if you had a lease and security deposit you can't both evict someone and keep their rent. The fact you haven't already canceled them when you had the opportunity and deal with compensation later says more about your own priorities. Letting them stay puts you at further disadvantage. 

[Gail-and-Beth0]

Why pass judgement?  We pursued eviction, because safety is top priority, so I'm not sure what the criticisms are about.

And after much pushing, AIRBNB Health & Safety was engaged, they investigated and while AIRBNB Support did nothing and sent us packing, just couldn't seem to understand that violence must have consequences, Health & Safety sure did take it seriously.  The guests are being cancelled/evicted, there's no penalty to host, and the rent will be paid out in full.  And this is exactly what should happen under these circumstances -- because this is the core purpose of  having a good neighbor policy and a health and safety team.  So please don't seek to make fools of us for thinking AIRBNB Support was missing the boat entirely, not doing the job.  And yeah, we should collect rent --- although we were evicting whether we collected, or not -- it's just very difficult to evict anyone in California, and without AIRBNB behind us, it was basically going nowhere, or nowhere soon.  These people had more than a month stay, this is not short term, it is considered a legal residential tenancy.  This is a business too -- no one ever needs to be ashamed of that -- and AIRBNB is supposed to be a partner, they're certainly profiting from all of our good work, why shouldn't they support us?  I fail to understand why several Level 10s jumped in here and didn't know better than to criticize us and not hold AIRBNB accountable.  Speaks volumes about the culture 'at the top' of the host community.  

[Sarah977]

@Gail-and-Beth0  No one here criticized you for anything except being nasty to other posters. Other hosts simply gave you their take on the reality of getting Airbnb to help you out, but I'm glad to hear that they did step up to the plate.

There is no 'culture at the top' of the Airbnb host community. The levels here have nothing to do with anything but how active one is on this forum.

But your antagonism towards other hosts here says more about your attitude than anyone else's.

[Gail-and-Beth0]

Antagonism?  I did not criticize or antagonize any particular host.  Read again.  I received a snarky comment out of the gate and simply responded.  I started by pre-empting what appears to be a tendency for some individuals on this site with high Level credentials to blindly defend AIRBNB.  Why didn't one of these Level 10s recommend escalating the case to Health & Safety?  Why didn't AIRBNB Support do that, instead of closing the case out?  Was this not the proper course of action for a domestic violence case?  You've elected to criticize versus share what you know...or what you should have known.  And still, you criticize?  This was about violence and not rewarding those who commit it, and holding AIRBNB accountable to its purported principles and policies.  It's easy to be a "partner" when the going's great -- but partnership also is defined by how one responds when the going gets tough.

[Sarah977]

@Gail-and-Beth0 

"And I don’t want to hear from the Airbnb bots and submissives..."

That was from your very first post on this thread. An attack on other posters when you hadn't even received any responses yet.

From your next post:

"Thank you snarky Level 10, just what I was talking about. "

And from your 3rd post: 

"I fail to understand why several Level 10s jumped in here and didn't know better than to criticize us and not hold AIRBNB accountable.  Speaks volumes about the culture 'at the top' of the host community. "

[Gail-and-Beth0]

Sarah, for goodness sake -- enough.  The violence, AIRBNB Support's indifference, and the final rightful outcome by Health & Safety, are what matters.