Airbnb called me trying to re-house a party

[Inna22]

I was without my phone for about half hour and came back to several missed phone calls from Airbnb. I freaked out thinking something was terribly wrong. They called almost immediately and told me they were calling on behalf of a guest to help them book. Right away I got suspicious and asked why this guest needed help with the reservation and why was this so urgent. To make a long story short, this person was just canceled by another host because the host realized they were planning on having a party and Airbnb was calling around to see who would take them. First off, they were not upfront with me as to why this guest was being rehoused. It took a lot of questions to get to the bottom of it and CS was being very vague. Second of all, my initial reaction was to trust Airbnb. If they’re calling and asking me on someone’s behalf, this must be a good reservation. They would not knowingly give me a house party reservation, not at least after everything that happened, I thought. I only got suspicious because in the past when I canceled guess I knew Airbnb was dumping them on another unsuspecting host. I would think most hosts would trust Airbnb in this situation and they are exploiting that. Their persistence and devotion to accommodating the guest was fascinating. This person was dialing me for a good half hour nonstop until I answered. I of coursed drilled the rep about the entire notion of rehousing a known party. I was told that as long as both sides are ok with it being a party, airbnb no problem with it. I did see a blurb about that in the announcement. How does the idea of party houses being banned goes with the idea of parties being ok if the host is ok with them? I assumed at the time that blurb was more about events- weddings, etc but apparently that blurb was all about nothing changing with the way business would be done. Furthermore, Airbnb was not upfront with me about this being a party at all, so my agreement to host this guest would have been based on deception. Do they really make enough money on these reservations to offset the negative publicity and the cost of repairs of host houses?

[Christina99]

I had a similar experience with a guest in September 2019, I was contacted by customer service about a guest for hosting and I agreed. He showed up at noon, check in was at 3pm. Then proceeded to have a revolving door of guests, smoke weed and when he extended the stay it was accepted without a credit card.  I suffered through it (I live downstairs) for three days and I should've tossed him out. Trust me that won't ever happen again.

He trashed the place and it took me 10 days to get paid by ABB. Their initial response was "we haven't paid you because we haven't been paid". I  changed my IB to require host approval and will be raising my minimum nightly rate for 2020.  I will also never, ever accept a guest from ABB customer service ever again.

It seems to me that the quality of guest has really fallen in the past six months. I've had way more guests leave the apartment in an absolute shambles and my poor cleaning person has borne the brunt of it.  

[Sarah977]

"Airbnb- where liars, scammers and housewreckers can rest assured they will be welcome, because we believe that everyone belongs and everyone deserves a second chance, or even twenty." 

[Emilia42]

@Sarah977 Anything else would be discrimination 😉

[Susan17]

@Sarah977 @Emilia42 

"Anything else would be discrimination..."

Exactly the rationale from Margaret Richardson, Airbnb VP of Trust and Leader Of The Infamous 10 Day Sprint... 

WSJ. Dec 26, 2019

Airbnb’s Ms. Richardson said running background checks is seen by some as discriminatory against certain groups, including formerly incarcerated people. Some advocates for criminal-justice reform, she said, have advised the company “that doing background checks is not appropriate, and that people are unnecessarily excluded from travel” because of old criminal records.

[Rebecca181]

The fact that CS did not *immediately* disclose to Inna that the guest was looking for a 'party house' (and that IS what he was looking for, let's be real here - Friends over, loud music, New Year's Eve, etc, etc) is what rankles me. This should have been shared with her up front. The approach used by CS was unfair and deceitful. Also, incomprehensible, given Brian Chesky's 'party house' speech following the Orinda Mass Murders two months ago and the '10-Day Sprint'-generated reforms supposedly being made to prevent such tragedies in the future. Obviously, CS never got the memo. Intentional, I would have to assume, at this point.

Question: What do you all think the legal consequences will be when (not if) Airbnb re-houses a party-throwing guest via such deceitful practices and then another murder (or two or three) takes place? 

[Zojka0]

Anybody wanting to have a party of any kind in someone else's house is a suspect. You gather people in your own home or a place specially established for this, not someone else's home. I'd delete the part option all together.

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Zojka0  Yes, it came to my mind as well because that's common in our part of the world. I've never heard someone here would book an Airbnb in his own town to throw a party.  And of course, it would be very risky and costly because here we have to register all our guests, so no anonymity GDPR bul*sh*t here 🙂

 I asked on another thread why people in USA don't party at bars, clubs and cafes like we do? I was told because alcohol is forbidden for younger than 21 and because smoking is not allowed at public places.

[Zojka0]

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@Branka-and-Silvia0 wrote:

@Zojka0   I asked on another thread why people in USA don't party at bars, clubs and cafes like we do? I was told because alcohol is forbidden for younger than 21 and because smoking is not allowed at public places.

Branka, Besides of age, I think mainly the reason is the price of drinks being very expensive in bars... and then of course you cannot freely do drugs in bars

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[Zojka0]

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@Branka-and-Silvia0 wrote:

@Zojka0  ...

 I asked on another thread why people in USA don't party at bars, clubs and cafes like we do? I was told because alcohol is forbidden for younger than 21 and because smoking is not allowed at public places.

And Branka, some of the same reasons people book AirBnBs in other places, for things they cannot do in public, like romantic rendezvous;)

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[Emilia42]

@Branka-and-Silvia0 that is a really good point! I have never thought about it like that. Americans prefer closed doors. 

[Inna22]

@Branka-and-Silvia0 @Zojka0 most adultS party in houses or special venues. It is under aged who rent houses or those who make money on parties. This is precisely why these parties become such a huge issue. It’s either a bunch of minors who don’t know how to control their liquor or somebody who renter the house, charged $40 per person and stuffed it with people. Those are usually after parties after a concert or after clubs close when people are already drunk and it’s late at night in the first place. This is also why these parties often get out of control - nobody really knows anybody.