Provide better host support for difficult or dangerous guests

[Peter124]

My wife and I have truly enjoyed our Airbnb hosting experiences, with one very notable exception.

Last Summer I accepted an invitation from a guest who did not have any reviews. After emailing each other I was confident that he and his guests would abide by our house rules.

Not only did they violate our policies, but they behaved so badly that they endangered the safety of our neighbors. I was on the phone with Airbnb from the moment I heard from my neighbors. I explained the severity of the situation yet was basically told there was nothing Airbnb could do and that I had to contact my local police.

I did call the police and drove 40 miles to my property to take care of the problem. But I expected Airbnb to take a more active role in helping me resolve the situation.

[Andrew234]

I recently experienced the same issue with one of our guests. The guest was not only disruptive and violated the house rules but also threatened retaliation (which was taken to mean violent action) against me and the other guests staying on the property. My other guests (first time Airbnb users) were so frazzled by the incident they decided to abruptly pick up their belongs and return home, after not even having arrived an hour before.

I contacted Airbnb as the event was unfolding so they could be fully aware of the situation and informed them that I was asking this guest to immediately vacate the property. That guest ended up requesting a refund, which Airbnb initially granted!  They also told me that there was nothing Airbnb could do and it was up to me and the other guest to contact the local authorities. I requested that Airbnb refund the stay of the guest who was scared and left out of the disruptive guest's security deposit. They denied that request. I was told by the Airbnb customer support team "that because the retaliation never happened it was up to other guest if she wanted to cancel her reservation as her space was a private space".  Because I did not agree with this decision I ended up refunding her the payout amount and pet fee, after a long dialogue with Airbnb they did finally refund her the fees. 

It is disappointing that Airbnb did not step up to the plate and help me resolve this situation. Airbnb should have a NO TOLERANCE policy. Under no circumstances should they allow users to threaten retaliation and/or violence against other guests and hosts. People that threaten violence should immediately be kicked off Airbnb!

[Peter124]

Sorry you had to go through that, Andrew. And thanks for echoing my concern about Airbnb's poor response to these unfortunate situations  

[Birdy0]

Totally support this. 

Community is not just all the listings on Airbnb. Our neigbour is also a part of our community! 

Airbnb should provide a professtional suggestion to manage common cases step by step and a clear consequence of violate guests who threaten our community. 

‘Totally up to you’ ‘try talk with guest’ ‘our community works with trust’ are common sentences when i have contacted Airbnb support, with difficult signal. Well, this is just like calling my friends, not very useful. I actually need more professional suggestion. 

One of my guest said he honestly mistaken the neighbor’s helmet. The neighbor is very angry when he found out on CCTV. They had a little of dispute, but luckily, he didnt call a police. Another day, I go with my guest to ask juristic of condominium to see CCTV again, as the guest claimed he lost his helmet too. The story turned out that the girl he bring in had taken his helmets because some unknow personal argument. And finally when he left property, he dishonestly blame me on review that the hair on bed caused all matter!!  I have got a lower star because of this dishonest guest even i tried best to help him. But i cant refuse this review. And all i’ve been reporting to Airbnb is pointless.

I hope Airbnb would take better care of the host cases, and come up with better procedure.