Abuse with trust and safety

[Mary4168]

Can anyone help me how to reach out to legal department of Airbnb??Once again we’re being scrutinized by Airbnb’s trust and safety poor decision making team.  We had a military guy who stayed with us over a month. He extended his stay a couple of times. On the second extension, instead of canceling the 2nd cleaning, I had asked him, if it was OK with him that we can move forward with the cleaning. He agreed, and the cleaning crew showed up. He put everything, including all the comforters inside one bedsheets. I pulled out the comforters, and put the sheets in the washer machines. Once I arrived at the laundromat, I realize there is bloodstain, pea stain, and God knows what else.

We normally deal with this kind of abuse all the time from the guests.  If we have a voice our opinion, and this gets to the guest, then they sabotage our listing, by leaving one star review.

Having to deal with hundreds of times Of guests staining and Destroying comforters, sheets, and pillows, this time the guests was still in our home.

I called him from the laundromat, he offered to bring bleach. I did not want to touch them, and I brought them back to him. he offered to dry clean them, and he was apologetic. I instructed him to go back to Laundromat, and not to waste any money over the dry cleaner. Plus no dry cleaner was going to get them done in the same day. I needed those comforters. Hours later he texted me that he is putting one by one???

I asked him what do you mean one by one, he said he’s using the washing machine and our home. I got furious with him and I drove back. I told him how come he’s washing them at home??Those comforters are too big for the washer machine in the house. they break the washing machine down!!  When I came back, he was drunk, and he was yelling at me, that I did not give them clear instruction.

He is a military Personnel.  
He must be suffering from PTSD.

at this point, I text him that I feel very unsafe that he staying in our home.

Not only he did not move, the next day all are handmade knives, a heater, and a towels were missing.  He left every single light on, all the AC units on full blast. He trash the place down, and he left it like that.

Following all the distractions, he made a bully call to Airbnb, that I did not specify the surveillance cameras in the driveway. He was staying in our home for over a month, how come all the sudden the surveillance cameras are an issue.

Following this accusation, Airbnb without checking my listings, block the calendar for several hours, without having any proofs of any sorts.

he has left a one star retaliatory review, calling me a scam and her fraud. Airbnb doesn’t give a crap to remove that.

I want to know how many of you feel the same way? What to do when you’re being miss treated like this.

We are super host family, and because of this one nasty guest who is suffering from PTSD, we will lose our status???

any suggestions???

[Emiel1]

@Mary4168 

I read the review and your comment. IMO Airbnb must remove it all, as both(!) are not correct.

Security cameras MUST be mentioned in your listing, Airbnb is very strict about this.

Unfortunatelly one "problem" guest can destroy years of good work, there are multiple stories about it in this community. It should not be possible.

[Anonymous]

@Mary4168  If the security cameras were indeed mentioned in the listing at the time the guest booked, you might have grounds to have the review removed. I'm not certain about whether Airbnb will treat that comment as a violation of the Content Policy. But actually I'd have much greater concerns about some of the things you said in your review and response. Twice in your review of this guest, you called him a "maniac" and twice in your response you accused him of suffering "PTSD." It is both unnecessary and extremely inappropriate to publicly comment on a guest's mental health. It's one thing to factually describe the problematic behaviors that you witnessed, but your position as a host does not qualify you to make a clinical diagnosis - and even if it did, it violates the guest's privacy to make a public statement on it.

What's more, if the guest genuinely was suffering from PTSD, publicly trashing him for his psychological condition only makes you look bad to your prospective guests. I truly hope that both his review and yours are removed.

Not excusing what sounds like some erratic behavior on the guest's part, but don't you think you could have handled the issue with the linen stains differently?  All guests are burdened with a human body, which is naturally subject to unintentional secretions. The fact that those sometimes make it into the sheets is not in itself evidence that the guest was "abusing" them, and it's awfully triggering to have someone call you to make a big drama out of bodily secretions found in a cleaning that you didn't ask for in the first place. This needn't have been a source of conflict - you could have requested additional payment if the linens needed to be replaced or professionally laundered, but surely a host as experienced as yourself would have at least one backup set ready for the changeover. 

[Mark116]

@Mary4168 I cannot imagine what possessed you to have a guest be responsible for laundering sheets and comforters that all you already knew were going to require very specific steps and products to clean them.  If the guest was so careless or troubled or whatever that he's leaving blood and urine on the sheets, why would you ever trust him with cleaning them? So, it is no surprise that the guest broke your machine.

A better strategy would have been to contact the guest and tell him that due to the many and various bodily secretions on the linens, you were going to have to ask for some extra $$ to cover the cost of cleaning and/or replacing the items.

[Emilia42]

@Mary4168 This could have happened differently:

You could have sent a message (through the Airbnb platform) . . . "Dear guest, I am at the laundromat now and the sheets appear to be quite damaged. I am not able to remove the stains. If you do not mind, I will bring these sheets back to the house for you to carry out your stay, they have been washed. However, I will request reimbursement via Airbnb for a new set of sheets which I will purchase as replacements."

The guest would respond with "So sorry, no problem." OR go ballistic (probably a better word than "manic") in which you would contact Airbnb and have all the evidence/documentation on your side. 

[Sarah977]

I can't understand why you made a big deal out of the laundry, which is what triggered all this. If you think pee is a "stain" (it doesn't stain at all- it washes right out) or that sheets with blood on them have to be thrown away, I suggest you do some research on how to deal with removing things from laundry- blood comes out by soaking in cold water and pouring hydrogen peroxide on the blood stains- it will never come out if you put them through a hot wash and dryer before pre-treating.

Laundry isn't the guests' responsibility, nor is making the guest feel bad about getting some natural body fluids on the bedding.

I'm sorry you had a nasty situation with the guest, but the way you dealt with this laundry situation and your review and review response are quite unprofessional.

@Mary4168

[Mary4168]

Thank you for your feedback

[David192]

**You say you have had your bedding destroyed 'hundreds' of times, but you have only had about 60 reviews from guests. This doesn't add up, to say the least! I hope the guy got away from you without you upsetting him further. Stains happen - Deal With It!

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