Shocked by Airbnb’s response

Laura1776
Level 2
Manchester, United Kingdom

Shocked by Airbnb’s response

I advertise my home as a quiet peaceful home, no alcohol on property and the house rules state quiet time after 9pm

 

Last night my guest can’t home drunk at 1.30am waking me up trying to cook downstairs. I went downstairs and he kept saying he had nowhere to put his food in the fridge. I don’t offer food storage but allow guests to use the fridge. 

 

I calmly said it’s 1.30 am, I have work I’m the morning and I’m pregnant. He continued and got quite aggressive. I was scared. I almost called the police but drove to my husbands house instead. He came back with me to check the house wasn’t burnt down and to tell the guest he must leave in morning. Throughout the night he continued to text me saying where can I put my food? Which I ignored. 

 

I had had to miss work today as I had an hours sleep, and my pregnacy is already exhausting me. 

 

I spoke to my other guest and she was quite scared. 

 

I rang Airbnb at 3am and I found the agent not very understanding. She spoke to him and he agreed to leave at 8am. 

 

He didbg lesve and my partner spoke to him many times before he left at 10am

 

airbnb are only paying me for half the night as my checkout is 12pm. I’m not bothered about the payment, but was quite upset by the agents response. She said I had evicted him, and refused to answer his questions about the food by text! Why would I engage in a volatile situation! I shocked by their tone, and their lack of duty of care towards a pregnant woman. 

 

I want to make a complaint, is it worth it? 

 

Thanks in advance

46 Replies 46
Branka-and-Silvia0
Level 10
Zagreb, Croatia

@Laura1776Uh, this is very unpleasant experience 😞 If I were you I would try to forget about it and save my time and nerves. Do you know that you as live-in host can set up your booking requirements and host just female guests? It would be safer for you if you live alone.

And yes, in case when host cancels because his guest is breaking house rules then host is not paid for the remain of the stay. I don't think this is good business practice but this is Airbnb...

Hi,

 

Thanks so much for your response. I did only accept female guests, I stated this in my house rules. This guy booked by mistake, and seemed very polite and in a tight spot. Against my better judgment I made an exception.  I couldn’t find a way to do this on my booking requirements and had to turn off instant booking. 

 

I was just so appalled by the attitude of this Airbnb staff. You’re probably right, it’s not worth challenging. But as I work in Safeguarding I feel like they are on very dodgy ground. 

ooh, didn't know about this that if we canceled due to break of rules we'd receive less

good to know it.

a pity that the airbnb staff doesn't deal with that with a more positive way.

You could have been more kinder and offered him somewhere to store his food . We all have issues and things happened. He wasn't drinking at your house....I assume all the commotion could be avoided if you had just ushered him to his room to sleep it off. That's my opinion.

Laura1776
Level 2
Manchester, United Kingdom

According to Airbnb I ‘forced’ him to leave!! Errr what about my safety! I regret not calling the police as they would have ‘forced’ him to leave in the middle of the night. Cellbnb 

Fred13
Level 10
Placencia, Belize

Most important is what you learn from the experience so you lessen the likelihood of such a situation happening again in the future. 

Laura1776
Level 2
Manchester, United Kingdom

Yes absolutely. I’ve put it down to a learning experience. But I am really concerned about the safety offered by Airbnb and feel it needs challenging. I wouldn’t want others to experience this. I keep reading how Airbnb side with the guest. But when it’s a matter of safety I think it’s torally unacceptable. This guy is free to stay wherever he wants without consequence 

Um, no. What's most important here is that Airbnb does not supports hosts whose guests show egregious disrespect (this was not a trivial event), and even disregard a pregnant woman on her own whose guest was blatantly agressive and persistently disrespectful. Yes, we know there is an increasing trend on the part of Airbnb to support guests over hosts, but this one was substantially over the line and Airbnb's response was ridiculous, especially penalizing the HOST! What would it take for Airbnb to support a woman on her own in a hosting house? Did he have to attack her physically? Beyond that, the OTHER guest, also a woman, was affected by the drunken guest.

The most important thing is that hosts accept reality and do not expect Airbnb to adapt nor accomodate to every individual host need, including the function of a police force, for that is not going to happen. Airbnb (meaning one of its infinite CS combinations) was called  at 3am and the guest was told HE must leave by 8am, and yes he then continued to act like a stupid drunk. Had it been worse, the local police should/could have come into play.

Andreas-and-Anna0
Level 10
West Vancouver, Canada

Is there a reason you allow the use of fridge but not storage? And you said no drinking on property, Not the same as coming home drunk. Perhaps going downstairs was the wrong choice and you could have called husband before hand.  And kicking someone out does entitle them some money so they can go elsewhere. You could tighten your rules or stick to the ones you have and not allowed him in first place. 

Sorry @Laura_R While you may not like the words of Andrea and Anna, they are being supportive. Safety is very important and you need to take responsibility for your safety. AIRBNB will NEVER be there in a violent situation. Who cares what they say after the fact? You need to have support close at hand and you can only take the safest guests (specifically, the ones who don't start by breaking the rules.) I am not condoning your guest or his actions. You try to be the victim here - Female, pregnant. But you did not call the police AND you left your other guest alone at the house! If something happened to the other guest, you would be in big legal trouble. I am glad you are safe.

Hello @Andreas0 and Anna

why come across as unsupportive, why on Earth is this apportionment of blame directed towards a pregnant woman?

 

After this season, particularly any problems I’ve had with entitled guests are those from across the pond.

Us Brits may speak the same language as yourselves,but there is obviously no shared culture whatsoever as I’ve found this year from the significant stream of entitled guests.

 

Here in the U.K. particularly in Scotland we are not your servants and neither, are our family homes, to be treated like impersonal hotels.

We expect folk to at least be polite and not intrude and not just assume that our family home is to be treated like some hotel......it’s not on, I’m afraid.

 

Laura1776
Level 2
Manchester, United Kingdom

Wow what a supportive response!  Seems to be a lot of blame apportioned to me here, rather than a scary threatening man intimidating a pregnant woman 🙄

 

I don’t offer storage in my description, just use of the kitchen. When guests arrive I say they are welcome to use the fridge, but there’s not much room. 

 

When I went downstairs I wasn’t expecting him to be drunk and aggressive.  I don’t think I’m im the wrong here! It’s my home and I went to check what was going on. 

 

Ive never had this before as my home is advertised as peaceful with a 9pm quiet time.  So I wouldn’t expect someone to come back severely intoxicated. 

 

As I have previously stated, I don’t care about the money. My concern is with Airbnb’s response.  I don’t think it’s fair to say ‘I kicked them out’ when my safety is threatened!!! 

 

Please don’t bother to reply if you are just here to judge and place blame. It was a distressing situation and this is not at all helpful. 

 

Robin4
Level 10
Mount Barker, Australia

@Laura1776

Oh Laura, what a terrible experience for you! No host should have to be confronted with a situation like that....Sometimes I am ashamed of my gender!

Unfortunately you can't pick these sort of guests in advance because, in the cold hard light of day they are perfectly reasonable normal human beings....Unfortunately the demon drink has a lot to answer for!

 

CS can at times seem to be uncaring Laura. What are regarded as normal behaviour in some parts of the world can be taken as completely unacceptable in others. I am afraid CS can be something of a lucky dip, you don't know from where around the world your call for help will be answered and the response you get will differ according to cultural standards! It's got nothing to do with Airbnb, we are talking about people, that's what CS are, people!

One thing is universal though...an anquished cry for help! 

Your call to CS in a situation like this should be...."I am sorry to trouble you but I am a female host who is being confronted with an aggressive drunk male guest I cannot reason with! Please how can you help me?" 

Every CS agent will respond to that and do what ever is in their power to help you. You are asking for their help, not simply wanting to know their interpretation your hosting position!

 

As others have said Laura, you should maybe tighten up your availability options to only include guest of your own gender and level. Hosting is supposed to be fun...and for me it is but I seem to have a massive advantage....I am a male and that it appears is a ....massive advantage. I know, not fair.

I am sorry Laura.

 

Cheers.....Rob