My guest left over religious profiling.....

[Sarah683]

Help!

I am new to Airbnb and my very first guest arrived yesterday and then left in a fury when they saw incense and other spiritual things in my apartment. The images in my ad, showed my space, very clearly, showing mandalas, pentacles, candles, and incense...as well, as I described it as a "sacred space".

They flipped out saying they cant have their kids around "incense and stuff like that", and then began changing their topic and saying the apartment was trashed....which it was not.

I am OCD and an extremely clean person. I have a $400 100% linen sheet set on the bed, which they are claiming was dirty, because the natural linen wrinkles....

I then, had my friend who is watching the apartment for me, go back in, and she said that they trashed my apartment. Dishes all out of the cupboard in the dishwasher...toys all out...beds messed up....what do I do???

I dont know what to do or what I can do. I am proof the apartment was spotless and clean...pictures AND videos of it right before they arrived.

[Linda108]

@Sarah683  I am a little confused by your posting.  You state that the guests left due to the "religious" items and then you state that they trashed your place.  Did they stay?

It appears you are remote from your home at this time and you are counting on your friend's description?  Was there any damage or were the guest disrespectful and messy?

I read your description and I do not know what you mean by "sacred".  In my mind if something is sacred I would not want strangers to be allowed in the space.  Perhaps you are trying to communicate that this is your home and you expect guests to treat it with respect.  Other than that, you are not specific about any sacred feelings you have attached to items in your home.  Most hosts remove very personal and important items such as a Christian crucifix or Bhuddist altar when guests are expected.

You have no information about yourself on your profile which I think does not allow guests to have a sense of you and your family.  Your listing is your personal space unlike those hosts who do not reside in the listing, so there is a certain amount of intimacy.

[Sarah683]

They did not stay. They arrived, first compained about the "religious stuff", then changed their tune and started saying the place was a mess. My friend went to pick up the key from them an hour later, and they trashed my apartment on their way out. Making it look like it was a mess or something. I dont even understand what or why they did what they did.

There were toys and books out and messed up, all the dishes were taken out of my cupboards and placed on the counter and in the dishwasher....it looks like they were trying to make it looked trashed when they got there...to get their money back or something. I dont even know. Im just very upset.

I have pictures and video of what it looked like minutes before they arrived....and then when they left.

[Linda108]

@Sarah683  So after complaining about the religious items, they said they were staying and your friend left them in the house.  Then they complained the place was a mess within an hour and your friend came back within an hour to pick up the key and found the place a mess.  So weird.  They are not getting a refund for the hour they stayed in the house.  They may ask for a refund if the booking was more than a day.  Did you have any direct communication with them via the Air BNB message system or was your friend the only one communicating with them?  You should summarize what happened in a message to the guest on the Air BNB system.  What do you want from Air BNB at this point?

[Farah1]

@Sarah683 I am sorry to hear about what happened. There are people who want to take advantage of others, but I personally not sure whether this is their goal or not. I can only share my experience that one time a couple "staged" my house to look like it was a mess (I was away at work). As soon as I get home (I did not even enter my home yet), they started yelling at me and saying that my listing is not accurate and they wanted a full refund. Long story short, we went to the resolution center and found out that they found a cheaper place to stay and they just want to throw me under the bus. That was a horrible experience.

So, any evidence you have, gather them in case you need to provide them to ABB later on.

[Kate157]

Hi @Sarah683, I don't think there is much you can do, except reclean the space and move on. I would suggest using different sheets-linen is a very tricky fabric, and most guests just want clean, soft, free of wrinkles sheets. I also would remove all the incense and icons. Most guests would not feel comfortable with all this. It may be your "sacred space", but travelers want a comfortable place they can relax, not a sacred space filled with religious or semi-religious stuff. While these things are important to you, you cannot expect guests to feel the same way.

[Annette33]

@Sarah683 , so sorry this has happened to you on your very first outing as a host. Take it as a learning experience and see what you can do from your side to help prevent such an encounter from happening in the future:
1.) flesh out your profile and listing description, quite a few things are not really clear. That will help guests as well as yourself to get a better sense of what your place is all about and to attract the "right" guests.
2.) Do clear the place of anything that would make staying there difficult for some guests, like the "religious" things, herbs you are asking not to be touched, etc. Being advertised as "entire place", not shared space, guests expect it to be more neutral. the word "sacred" in your description is problematic, I would take it out. If you are ready to welcome people with kids, make sure it is child proof.
3.) You say it's your personal space, yet you are not available. That's a but puzzling, as one doesn't know anything at all about you. Meeting guests personally goes a long way to pre-empt problems, and it will help you get a good sense of your guests. Perhaps you can make yourself available?  Or at least exchange several messages with guests pre acceptance or arrival, so that both parties have a better sense of what to expect.
4.) Because you were not there, whatever your friend characterized as "left in a fury" or "trashing the place" will have no merit in Airbnb's eyes, best is to just move on. Nothing was broken or damaged.
5.) Hope you will enjoy hosting and get the right guests for you. Good luck!



[Rick3013]

I just want to say that cultural decorations such as crucifixes, incense, candles and statues of things like the Buddha don’t offend me. I did, however, stay at an Airbnb recently where the owners of the rental were devout Mormon‘s. Although, the rented space was in the lower section of their home, it was apparently only used for the purposes of Airbnb. On the wall as you entered the space they had installed a large, framed parchment copy of the tenants of the Church of Latter Day Saints and instead of leaving out any combination of secular DVDs found in their video library offering, they instead left out four prominently displayed LDS recruitment videos on the console directly in front of the TV. This attempt to indirectly influence the spiritual lives of their guests was an overt and intentional gesture therefore we took offense with it and filed a complaint against the host for violating AirBnB’s discrimination policies. Had they fully disclosed their strong religious beliefs and had fully depicted the space accurately I would have been able to make a different choice of rentals. As it was, we didn’t find out any of it until we arrived at 1:45 am, too late to do anything but accept it and lodge our complaints later.