I joined Airbnb as a host about a year ago. Up until Monday the experience was very pleasant. I had lovely guests who appreciated the uniquness of my home, and were communicative, respectful, and very friendly. My host evaluations were fabulous, and I also enjoyed using Airbnb instead of hotels. My work takes me outside of the US or to the East Coast of the US quite frequently. My hosts seemed to like me as well. Everything was peaceful, harmonious and productive, until **** entered into my guest room.
**** is college intern of Asian American descent. She was unusually talkative, and like many disturbed people, exposed seeming vulnerabilities and wanted me to engage. All of what I did was to listen with compassion and say the psychological "ah hmm..." Ms. **** was shipped by her parents to China to be taken care of by relatives as a baby because she disturbed their process of establishing themselves financially. She developed a history of cutting herself. I should have read her blog prior to approving her as my guest. It indicates that she was anorectic-bullemic. While she admits suffering from PTSD she said that her Chinese American mother would not allow her to seek psychotherapy so that she doesn't create a medical record that will hurt her professional future, and because of the alleged stigma involed. She is very proud of her mother, who is a slum-lord of numerous properties in the Philadelphia area. She states that she is usually the smartest person in a room, but all of her smarts got her to... Penn State, a C-rate public university. Bottom line, she belongs to the category of young women with untreated PTSD who therefore develop Borderline Personality Disorder. BPS usually sound very coherent and friendly, but it's a veneer tha covers a narcissistic, manipulative personality. I should have read her blog prior to approving her to enter into my living space.
**** wanted out of the place after a week of Skype dramas with her boyfriend (she said she's with him because of his family's wealth) and bothering me and the other guest with an eternal question: "Am I a s-l-u-t?" . So rather than asking to move out, she made up stories to the Airbnb customer advocacy department of charges I allegedly charged her and requested that she deposits money into my bank account, that I allegedly requested her to wine and dine me (actually I offered her a fabulous home-cooked dinner and a glass of wine upon her arrival), that my place is dirty and full of bugs, that she paid me cash per my demands, that she helped me moving furniture around the house in preparation for other guests, that I'm landlording over the head of my landlord as a section 8 person (I'm quite a successful social scientist also authorized to testify in court, among other things), and that I kicked her out, no less. This Monday she herself came with another college intern office mate to pack and depart on her own volition. As she left my place she shrieked several times "Lesbian Psychopath!!!" Yes, I live in San Francisco. I'm an out Lesbian and my place has some pride mementos here and there.
The Airbnb "customer advocates" talked to me in an uncivilized, degrading manner. They criminalized me and believed all the fabricated stories of ****. Her evaluation of my place is libelous but Airbnb won't erase it despite its bogus style and unusual length. She continues to harrass me through text messages and phone calls. Airbnb didn't care much about this. The opposite is the case. They kept calling me to supposedly "settle" the case. Given their level of verbal "customer advocacy" aggression I asked that they conduct all correspondence in writing. It took them time to comprehend this. Eventually they did. I got a case manager, quite a sleek character as far as his manicured texts go -- that is, proper English, polite style, yet the aggressive corporate textual tactics immanent in the emails he sends to me. He closed the case. My cancelation policies disregarded. Further, I now owe money to Airbnb because of my alleged kicking out of ****. It was her who came to my place accompanied by another college girl to pack and leave.
I ended up deactivating my host listings. While I enjoy being a guest, and am a very reasonable, mature and communicative person, this whole **** affair was hurtful, abusive, unethical, and detracted me from my work and daily routines. It is not to be repeated. I have better things to deal with than untherapied BPD anotectic-bulemic cutters.
So if you look for any customer advocacy from Airbnb, better be on the guest side. If you're a host, you're treated as their captive, in a sense, when you live in San Francisco. The assumption is that you must continue hosting to pay the inflated rents of our iconic city.
And please, as other people stated here -- beware of college age mentally disturbed girls with polished manners and unregulated behavior and robbed childhood. Beware of guests who have primary relationships with slumlords or the shark style real estate attorneys.
Sending you my kind regards from the gorgeous city by the bay.
Mali.
****[Personal information hidden]