My guest didn't disclose mental health issues

Carla82
Level 1
Merritt Island, FL

My guest didn't disclose mental health issues

'What should I do if a guest didn't disclose their mental health issues? I received an instant book, and he described himself as a writer moving from WA. Now he's ex-FBI with PTSD. I don't feel safe'. It started with him moving furniture, taking pictures off the wall, and now I find out he's trying to get mental disability from the VA. I'm NOT discriminating against this, but what else isn't he telling me???
12 Replies 12

Trust your gut. Host should never feel unsafe. Have Airbnb assist you in re-homing this fellow. Guest   is under no obligation to discuss mental health issues with prospective hosts. I would have a big problem with guest moving items. Best to you! Elaine 

Victoria57
Level 10
Strathpeffer, United Kingdom

Hi @Carla82, I agree with @Elaine-and-Duane0 that you shouldn't feel unsafe. But there is no checkbox on the Airbnb booking form where a guest must declare if they have a mental health issue so you can't blame the guest for not disclosing it. What you do about it is another matter and if you feel unsafe then either call the police or contact Airbnb for advice at the numbers and methods given here

Thank you! My intention isn't to be unkind, or even to invade privacy. I just feel that his description of his reason for being wasn't exactly forthright, and I'm ill equipped to know, or assistant someone who described themselves as "hypervigilant". He also stated that he has different triggers.
I don't necessarily like that I feel unsafe, but not trusting my gut is never good

Even when you tell airbnb you don't support you you are still penalized for cancelling reservation.

C-C0
Level 10
Memphis, TN

You are doing right, Carla.
Connie74
Level 2
Hamilton, New Zealand

I had a guest have an unsuccessful suicide at our place.  Dragged through a night of distress whilst helping police.  I went looking everywhere for help on the Airbnb website, or find a contact and couldn't see anything.  I don't understand why it didn't give me this post earlier.  After her begging to stay and not having any ground to do anything else, I felt stuck.  She is under the mental health care and her therapist (maybe psychiatrist) indicated she should never have been supported by her carers to live here.  Alarm bells!!!  I am mostly living 120kms away.  How do you process personality disorder, mood disorder with suicidal ideation, intense sexual abuse therapy?  Trapped!!!  I have gone through the expense of extra travel 500+km, paid for a carer for my Mum for two weeks, taken out 4 days in meetings to get my head around what I'm needing to supervise over this time.  Day and a half later, all set up at my end.  Another day and a half of chasing meetings with her and carers I get told she is needing to live alone but hasn't found a place.  Is this because I mentioned she might be alone with males?  SO IS SHE STAYING OR???  Next day I get a cancellation come through. MIXED FEELINGS-FRUSTRATION/RELIEF.  I would have loved to have known that 3 days ago. Then get a phone call from government department who funded her stay demanding a refund because my partner didn't want her there.  WTF!!!  He was out of town; she never meets him or talked to him.  Did they consider her condition may need exploring further?  Would it not have been supportive for her to help flesh out what was the truth, and not a distorted view which makes us villains (which we aren't) and her a victim (which she isn't).  Do they know how to support her condition?  personality disorder can be googled - here a clue - go for drilling down to the truth first and foremost.  NIGHTMARE GUEST Realisation, I'm about to be vilified, without any regard to the misuse of my home and I've forked out all these resources for no profit.  BULLS*&T   Next day, I get a request for a full refund because we didn’t want her there.  ARE YOU F*&KING KIDDING ME!!!  Okay she has a condition so maybe this distorted take on it is understandable.  But I'm not supporting a health system using my home in this way without any offer of support or disclosure so a proper discussion can occur to see if it was ever going to be a fit for EVERYONE.  ENOUGH OF THIS ABUSE OF MY GOODWILL!!!  I decline it, and am ready to defend my stance.  What about my extra expenses.  My mother is my priority during this time, this situation placed Mum second.  Behind the Guest whose family was less than an hour away, but where were they?  Undisclosed mental health patients requiring specialist support, are using AirBnB homes as part of a next step in the mental health re-housing program.  SUPPORT AIRBNB??  I find finally stumble across this message and I send a request for help on Victoria link.  I get a lovely email that they’d love to chat.  No number, not clear how that will work.   I wish I could have found more easily the contact.  I can't be the only one who goes round in circles on the site.

Lizzie
Former Community Manager
Former Community Manager
London, United Kingdom

Hello @Connie74,

 

Welcome to the Community Center, it is lovely to meet you. 

 

This does sound like a tricky situation. I think it would be best to speak with a member of the Airbnb Support Team directly, here is a useful Community Guide (created by a host here in the CC), which describes the different ways to reach the team.

 

I hope you get this sorted out.

 

Thanks,
Lizzie

 

 


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Looking to contact our Support Team, for details...take a look at the Community Help Guides.

Connie74
Level 2
Hamilton, New Zealand

Thanks Lizzie,  I found that information from Victoria's post - above.  Would have been so helpful to have it when searching the help area at the onset.  🙂

Hi Connie!

I have a mental health background. I just had a man show up at my doorstep who reeked of urine and could not utter a single coherent sentence. (my neighbors later told me they had seen him in town talking to the air). Obviously he is schizophrenic and gearing up for a severe episode.  There is no law (in the US) against being crazy, but crazy people can have their issues elsewhere, not in my home. I am not running a halfway house for the mental health community.

 

Check into real estate law and discrimination for your area. There might be some loopholes under which you can put your foot down with Airbnb. For me it is about safety, since they will be in my own home. Good luck! Liz

Hello

I always read the guest's reviews before accept their request.

I think guedts can't do an instant book if they have bad reviews, so I think that writing honest reviews of the guests  is very important for the rest of the hosts.

Sorry for my bad English.

 

Well said.

Jeffrey273
Level 2
Empire, MI

My now-ex girlfriend accepted a guest on a four month booking in a room in the home which we shared. I was uncomfortable with long-term guests from the beginning and expressed this to her but in the end deferred. This was a young single male who was, in the beginning, bringing a number of young female guests in and out of the home. Disturbingly, he would then disparage the women after they had left to my now-ex girlfriend who seemed to think it was cool. I knew from that moment that the guy was trouble. Several months later, I learned that the guy was on a number of meds for schizophrenia and major depressive disorder. This information was withheld from me by my now-ex girlfriend who had established a “friendship” with the young man which included bringing him alcohol at his request because his meds “were not working.” After learning of this and confronting her, I was told that I am no one to judge which made me question not only her integrity, but her sanity as well. I then ended the relationship and moved out. I am gone, the schizophrenic guy is still there. Go figure. 😕

 

My advice to anybody who learns of a guest with major mental health issues is to place their own safety and certainly the safety of other guests and family members first.