Booked guest refuses to provide names claiming I would discriminate

[Inna22]

This is very convoluted. A guest booked, I’ve gone over house rules particularly because he mentioned it was going to be his birthday. Explained no outside guests allowed which is all over my listing. He then sent me a list of those coming that had 30 names. I explained that in Chicago gatherings of more than 10 is not allowed, which is again in my listing twice. Not to mention my listing doesn’t allow 30.

We went over it in circles about eight more times with him trying to prove he can have as many people as he wants and me trying to prove that he cannot have more than 10. Eventually he said he would comply but would not give me the names because I am a racist and I would discriminate based on the names.

This makes very little sense: first of all, I meeting to check their IDs anyway. If I was planning on discriminating, he’s just delaying that by 24 hours. Second, he is already booked. This is a private space, I’m not going to be around to discriminate. I’m not sure what to do with this one. I’m certainly not comfortable hosting him. I don’t think he’s now going to have 10 people when he already invited 30. At the same time, if he promised he won’t, am I now discriminating by canceling him?

I am also slightly nervous to be meeting with him tomorrow for check in. What if he shows up with more people? Not let them in? I don’t want to be starting a confrontation in front of the house.

Why can’t people just follow the rules!

[Inna22]

@Clara116 I guess he started to mess with my head by accusing me of being a racist. I started to think- what if I was? What if this guy truly misread, misinterpreted, whatever and now was going to be fully compliant while I made assumptions. It helps to run things by everyone here when in doubt

[Clara116]

@Inna22 That makes sense.....I totally get it......and when we second guess ourselves in these touchy days it compounds it. 

Hope you feel better and things are working out better for you. Peace

[Anonymous]

@Inna22  You knew for certain that the minute you received the 30-person guest list that they intend to throw a party against your rules, and exceed your occupancy limit. Presumably this is forbidden in your house regardless of what race or ethnic group the partygoers belong to. So what you should have done the minute you received notice that the guest was bringing more people than they had booked was contacted customer service to terminate the booking. It doesn't really matter whether there was a misunderstanding or malicious intent involved - the terms were displayed prominently when the guest booked, and if those terms aren't met, the booking simply isn't valid.

There would be a case for discrimination if your listing said "Suitable for Events," or you had consented to a group of 30 but changed your mind when you saw the profile photo or guest list. You can't hold guests to different standards based on their race, age, nationality etc. But as @Colleen253 said earlier, there is no need for that discussion to escalate to the point that personal bias is called into question. 

If this booking happened to be a result of using Instant Book...well, can't say nobody told you so.

On the other point:  you come across as a person with a curious mind and a loving heart, and it's commendable that you apply those to some introspection about how your own subconscious biases might affect your judgment or contribute to unfair outcomes. This is a thought process we all need to seriously engage as humans, and it's especially crucial when handling something as intimate as home-sharing and living through a movement as precipitous as this one.  Just because one jerk has made a really bad attempt to play you doesn't mean you were on the wrong track there. 

[Inna22]

@Anonymous very kind of you to say this

[Debra300]

@Inna22,

There is nothing racist about being uncomfortable hosting someone who has already stated he planned to invite 30 people, and then argued with you about your policy and Chicago's public health policy.  I am sure that you'd have felt the same way even if he was translucent.  As others have said, contact customer service to cancel the reservation, and explain your reason for doing so.

Common sense has no color and doesn't display prejudice.

[Sarah977]

@Inna22  Have you hosted guests of his race before? I remember David from London's story of how an Asian guest he had declined or cancelled because he read all the red flags of someone planning on throwing a party had the guest reply something along the lines of "We so woke, we know you can't decline us, that's discrimination" and reported him to Airbnb, who then tried to accuse him of being discriminatory on the basis of race. He was able to point out that he had actually hosted scores of Asians before, and also had had issues with his place being party-trashed before by those of various races and now knew the warning signs, and while I seem to remember it was a bit of an argument, they backed down when they saw that was true.

[Inna22]

@Sarah977 90% of my guess over the last four months have been of his race. Not sure if it is coincidence or some other factors. I do think Airbnb has an algorithm that sends same type of people to same hosts. I’ve had waves of guests from Spain or guests from a particular smaller town in a neighboring state or other similarities in the past. Perhaps if one guest from a particular group leaves positive review, the algorithm now thinks that another one would like the place as well. In any case, I’ve had lovely experiences, several groups have actually returned more than once. Three groups extended their stays by another week. For a moment I thought of telling this guy some of this but didn’t think I needed to explain myself. I don’t think he would ever change his mind. And as @Anonymous pointed out, sometimes further talking only leads to further trouble.

[Sarah977]

@Inna22  Well good you've got that going for you if Airbnb makes some attempt to take his accusations of racism seriously.

As far as guests from certain countries coming in waves, it could be because the reviews from guests of a guest's home country appear first when viewing the reviews. So Spanish guests coming to Chicago would see reviews from other Spanish guests first, which may influence their choice.

[Anonymous]

@Inna22   Whatever the gobbledygook in the Lighthouse Project says, Airbnb doesn't collect racial data directly and its algorithm doesn't funnel people of the same race in the same direction. However, I can tell you from my experience in Europe that when you get a review from someone using the localized platform for their country, such as airbnb.es or airbnb.de , that is the first review that appears for users browsing from that network. And this influences the search algorithm - you may find that right after getting a 5-star review from a guest in Japan, your listing is suddenly at the top of the Chicago search in airbnb.jp . This is all a mouthful, but one of the reasons people are often a bit offwhen they think about "search rank." Each country-specific version of Airbnb has an entirely different search formula.

[Melodie-And-John0]

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosting/As-a-host-are-you-allowed-to-put-a-stock-photo-and-fake-...  I can't help but see a trend where people feel its ok to begin a relationship based on missing, inaccurate or purposely omitted information about the person your about to do a business transaction with.  That more than just "Seems" like it could be dangerous, injurious and financially a bad idea, it is all those and more.  This isnt an EBAY Transaction, we have folks coming in our homes, we both deserve "No Surprises" and "No Regrets".  Nobody's minds are going to change at the stoop of our doorway from problems that arise out of not being willing to step out of your comfort zone when entering someone else's.  This policy puts the people it intended to help at the greatest risk when they can least respond to it, non native guests in a place that is unfamiliar meets racist who decided to keep the money instead of losing their status for cancelling...  Thats a recipe for more than a bad review, I would rather Bubba just not accept than somehow think they should represent their area to a visitor cause of the rules.  Be safe, JR  

[Christine615 · Accepted solution]

Cancel cancel cancel. It’s going to be an illegal party and likely your place will be trashed and you won’t have info to report to police. Also get security cameras ASAP.