Physically assaulted by the host

[Majdi3]

I booked a condo for a month and almost 3 weeks into my stay i heard a loud banging on my door,  a big guy who didn't even identified himself started using foul language and accused me of smoking inside the place. I tried to explain that any issues should be addressed thru Airbnb and he can schedule an inspection if he is truly the owner of the apartment i was renting. The host escalated his tone and became verbally abusive, threatened me with physical violence  and tried to force himself into the condo and as a result the door handle slammed into my lower abdomen and caused a physical injury and ultrasound was ordered by my family doctor. Upon contacting Airbnb they adviced me to leave the place immediately and they will refund the remaining days and a stay at a hotel.   

That experience left me terribly shaken to the point where i am taking anxiety medication as i don't feel safe anymore or falling asleep at night. There is no followup by Airbnb and the host's listing is still active as if i am expected to just forget about it and move on. 

I would like to get some feedback from the community if anyone experienced something similar, should i expect any action taken by Airbnb against the host and what should i do next? 

The host was acting like a raging psycho i wouldn't be surprised if one day he kills someone 😞 

[Majdi3]

@Marie82    I can list a 100 reasons why someone would look for a furnished short term accommodation in his home town, in my case it's circumstantial due to personal reasons. I can give you a good example of a serious red flag, it's you outrageous judgmental attitude which is a reflection of self  bitterness and negativity towards life, taking it out on the general public is not going to help you.   

I didn't ask for your opinion on what happened, i am only seeking advice from others who have been in similar situation, if you have nothing to contribute, you can ignore my post and take your anger on someone else. 

[Majdi3]

@Colleen253   Thank you  Colleen,  I have informed the safety department and there is an open case. I have also filed a report with the police and they are investigating. 

Airbnb asked me to file a claim with their insurance department,  should i do that now or wait until the police are done with their investigation? 

[Cormac0]

@Majdi3 

The police won't find in your favour when you refused to allow your host enter his own property and judging by the comments you've made to some on the host on here you a self entitled pup.

" I can give you a good example of a serious red flag, it's you outrageous judgmental attitude which is a reflection of self  bitterness and negativity towards life, taking it out on the general public is not going to help you." Majdi3

You sound like a spoilt brat to me

[Anonymous]

@Majdi3  If you're going to file a claim, you should do so now. If the investigation yields any new information, you can submit that as supplementary evidence later.

"If you have nothing of value to say, say nothing at all.   "

Whether you like the comments you receive or not, the fact is that you have sought unpaid advice from peers who have voluntarily given their own time and consideration to your problem, in exchange for nothing. You're free to ignore responses that you don't find helpful, but you might benefit from being aware that perspectives such as @Cormac0 's reflect what the vast majority of people who hear your account of this incident are thinking but are too polite to tell you. 

[Majdi3]

@Cormac0    You mean "spoiled brat"  ? 

Join the angry MOB of hosts attacking anyone who dares to sound a complaint.  Most replies here are lacking any objectivity, judgmental and often plain rude. 

If you have nothing of value to say, say nothing at all.   

[Sarah977]

@Majdi3  Actually, hosts are very often quite sympathetic to guests who post here having experienced issues and will give helpful advice as to how to proceed with a complaint. Hosts don't wish to see bad hosts on the platform anymore than guests do- it gives all hosts a bad name.

But the attitude you have displayed here makes it difficult to sympathize with you, as it seems you are not giving the whole story. For instance, you refuse to answer whether you were indeed smoking inside a non-smoking unit, i.e. disrespecting the house rules. And you appear unable to accept others not agreeing with you and view it as "anger" when all it is is someone's opinion. 

And "spoilt" happens to be an acceptable form of that word. Check a dictionary.

[Cormac0]

@Majdi3 

"If we are not ashamed to think it, we should not be ashamed to say it."

Cicero

its obvious your a pedant, I'm not so sure your an educated person

[Majdi3]

@Cormac0   sure. we can all google cliches,  but how are you contributing to this post? 

[Majdi3]

@Sarah977   I am outraged by the judgmental attitude and MOB mentality towards guests. I understand that most of you are hosts and at some point you had a few bad experiences with guests, leaving a ? every time "one of us" wants to sound a complaint. I will repeat this one more time, i didn't smoke in that apartment nor do i ever smoke inside any a place i ever stay in, even if it was my own home.  What baffles me here is that most of you are missing the point, physical or verbal assault shouldn't exist in any civilized society REGARDLESS of the circumstance. 

I didn't mean for this post to turn into a verbal brawl, i was only looking for advice from other guests who experienced similar incidents so please don't judge or investigate me. If you have a sound advice please post it, if not then ignore this post.   

You are absolutely right when you said that this kind of behaviour gives a bad reputation to the entire airbnb community. 

[Cormac0]

@Majdi3 

Yet when all is said and done, you were the one that was most judgmental, casting aspersions on the motivations of hosts, here are a few examples

“I didn't ask for your opinion on what happened, i am only seeking advice from others who have been in similar situation, if you have nothing to contribute, you can ignore my post and take your anger on someone else. “

Madjdi3

 And another

“Join the angry MOB of hosts attacking anyone who dares to sound a complaint.  Most replies here are lacking any objectivity, judgmental and often plain rude. “

Madjdi3

And another

“its your choice not to believe the story based on your own prejudice that guests are usually the perpetrators not the victims.”

Madjdi3

For someone with no photo id that only joined Airbnb in December 2019 you seem to be an authority on the motivations of hosts, as an almost daily contributor to these blog for the last four years, I can tell you that the majority of regular contributors have a very fair and balanced view of what they encounter, and on many occasion offered support and solace to guests who have been treated poorly.

Hopefully, you’ll get your day in court where all the evidence will be put on the scales of justice, and your host will have an opportunity to put his side of the events that unfolded.

I simply don’t believe your version.

[Majdi3]

@Cormac0   You don't have to believe me but you can at least give me the benefit of the doubt, because maybe i am telling the truth. I understand that not everyone is truthful about their version of events and expect other people to take their sob story as the truth. Despite what happened to me, i wasn't seeking sympathy, just understanding the process of what happens after such an event, like the type of action that Airbnb takes, what to expect and available legal action that i can take. 

[Quincy]

Hello everyone, 

I have noticed that this conversation is starting to get personal. It is very important that we are respectful and encouraging of each other, even if our opinions differ.

@Majdi3 , I am so sorry to hear that this has happened to you. I can see that you've already contacted Airbnb, but I've passed on a message again to them. 

Please, I hope we can continue this conversation respectfully with each other as I do not want to close it down. 

Thank you,

Quincy 

[John1080]

I would be interested to hear the host's (or the man, whoever he is) side of events and/or read a review, but I don't see it appearing yet. 

[Sean433]

@Majdi3 @Cormac0 @Anonymous 

It is not necessarily that others are not sympathetic to you, it is just that your story is clearly scripted. With the exception of Lisa723 who always suggests everyone to report and rat on each other without using critical thinking skills, every post here I see challenges you but for good reason.

1) In your post, you wrote that the host "tried to force himself into the condo and as a result the door handle slammed into my lower abdomen"

So you said the host "tried" which suggests that he was unsuccessful in opening your door but later in that sentence, you said "the door handle slammed into your lower abdomen". So which is it? Did he try and was unable to open the door or did he open the door which caused the door to hit you? It's one or the other. Even more importantly, if he actually did open your door, then what happened? I assume he couldn't open the door because if he had done so, your post would have highlighted what happened after he opened the door and it didn't. And if he couldn't open the door which is already apparent then the door couldn't have slammed into your and therefore you weren't assaulted.

Therefore, in that one piece of sentence, you have already exposed yourself as a liar. Don't expect sympathy from people, a lot of us are a lot more intelligent than you may think and within just 1 minute of reading your post, I easily saw your mistake.

2) There is nothing to gain for a host to try to force himself into an apartment. Ask yourself, what benefit is there for them to try to inflict damage on their own door which they will have to repair later out of pocket unless this was something very urgent. My suspicion is that you were smoking or doing something worse. People take the treatment of their properties very seriously, it's the biggest asset they own. Many renters don't understand this and so there is usually a disconnect and an attitude of "I am paying to stay here, therefore I should be able to do whatever I want".

If you are going to file a police report, hopefully your report wasn't as flawed as your post. An investigator can analyze inconsistencies in your report such as the one I just caught better than I can so just be careful where you take this.

[Quincy]

Hello everyone,

I feel that this topic does not bring any benefits to the Community, therefore, I have decided to close this topic.

Thanks,

Quincy