Discrimination

[Jennifer177]

Hi all, I am curious as to everyone's opinion on this non-discrimination policy and advice if you have any. I have been in the accommodation industry for 15 years. At the moment, I am with Rylance Holiday Homes managing their portfolio of beautiful homes. One of these beautiful homes (our largest) has been completely trashed, over the last weekend, words do not describe the carnage that was left behind by a verified air bnb guest. It has been estimated that it will take at least 2 months to make it habitable again.

Holes in walls, carpet ruined, banisters ripped off, pipes from water features broken to make bongs, a $40,000 pergola ruined, furniture broken, filth, food, vomit, blood, you name it, it's there. I don't think even a dish was left untouched. It was malicious, purposeful damage. Tv's stolen, x box stolen, art works stolen, any piece of equipment that they could take, taken. Statues smashed, every bit of linen ruined, water left running in laundry to flood floors etc etc. I have never seen anything quite so bad.

Which brings me to my point, having been in the industry for so long and having managed everything from motels to island resorts, EVERY time I have had guests from this particular group/race of people, it has resulted in something like this or theft, every single time without exception! Not my fault, it's just how it is, this has been my experience. My last experience was at a motel where the petty cash tin was stolen and the bed and carpet ruined, maliciously, on purpose. As you would be well aware the policy is to not see the guest photo until booked.

This guest booked, I saw the photo and immediately because of past experiences red flags went up, discussed with the owner, since he was verified we decided (against my better judgement) to allow the booking. I wanted to cancel it. We made special changes to the confirmation we send with strict rules, we had a staff member meet him at the property before giving out codes for access and check id, we made sure he read and understood the policies before entering, in other words we went out of our way to protect ourselves.

He was very polite, articulate and well spoken, he understood. All good we thought. Glad we gave him a chance we thought. The first email we got from a neighbour was Friday night saying there was a party. I immediately contacted him, he apologised, said there was no party but music so he will turn it down. We went over anyway just to make sure, all appeared well, house was clean, no noise, there were more people than booked but we were willing to overlook that. Once again we think it's all good, surely they would behave now that he knows we will come and check and that the neighbours might complain. Not so, received a text early Monday morning from another neighbour saying that a party has been going on all weekend.

Why they didn't alert us earlier is beyond us! Although speaking to some people we believe that they were intimidated and actually scared that if they complained these ferals would come back and hurt them or their property. We turn up 8 am Tuesday morning, they are gone, along with all our electronics, just some random girls hanging around saying they don't know anything, it was just an invite from instagram to a party and they were from the Gold Coast. House unrecognisable and completely ruined. I am so angry about this, mainly because I know, I know people, when you have been in the business for so long you see patterns, I knew this would happen! I went against my better judgement.

But here's the problem, my better judgement would be classed as racism, and non inclusive and I would be the bad guy. Correct me if I am wrong! I will not be taking bookings from these people who fit this profile and pattern ever again! If they slip through the system and book, I will cancel. Call me what you like. So for all you sharing caring inclusive people out there, what would you do? I would actually love to know. I would have to erase my memory, don't think that is possible.   So whilst the sharing, caring, trusting policy is rosy and sweet, it isn't realistic!

These guests do not care about us, in fact, my experience shows that these incidences are malicious and done on purpose, shouldn't the caring and trust be from both sides? Doesn't seem so. Alerted Airbnb Tuesday morning, rang them back again yesterday, still waiting to hear back from the person they escalated it to. But the funniest thing of all, well it's not funny, it's disgraceful, is that I can't even review him, they have blocked it, it says you do not have access to this.

How nice, can't even warn others, I sincerely hope he isn't doing this to someone else home right now. So angry!

[Ocean50]

@Jennifer177 

Wow this is so awful, here I am whining about bad reviews I couldn't imagine if this happens to me, probably serious mental break down. Am I live under a rock or this kind of stuff only happen in Australia? And let me guess it is either ** background or ** background?

I hope you find the strength to get through this and come out way stronger.

**[Inappropriate content hidden - Community Center Guidelines]

[Ocean50]

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosting/Airbnb-Host-Guaranteee/td-p/1255252

It also happens to @Len37 just couple days ago, so I say fk it. Profile the hell out of them, it's your house, your rules, and you can chose which guest you want to serve.

[Helen3]

I am sorry to hear of this guests appalling behaviour @Jennifer177 

But wonder why you rely on neighbours to flag anti-social behaviour by your guests rather than having CCTV and why you wouldn’t have asked guests who hadn’t booked and paid to leave when you found them at the listing?

CCTV would have also flagged guests were removing goods. 

I don’t believe in discriminating against guests based on where they are from. 

Call Airbnb to find out why you can’t review and put in your claim for damages.

[Susan17]

It doesn't matter whether your guests are black, white, brown or pink with purple spots @Jennifer177  - the fact remains that you were alerted by a neighbour that your guests were partying on Friday night and you were fully aware that there were unauthorised guests in the property (and chose not to evict), yet somehow the troublemakers were still allowed free reign to carry on marauding, disturbing the neighbours and thrashing the house until Monday, apparently without your knowledge? (And even after being alerted by neighbours again on Monday morning, you didn't attend until 8am on Tuesday?)

Sorry, but this one is on you. Hosts need to start accepting a bit of responsibility and accountability for what goes on in their listings, at all times. This is the sort of sh*t that gets everyone shut down. 

[Sharon1014]

@Jennifer177  I have a lot of sympathy for your and your home owner's situation and question re discrimination as there are certain groups of people that I also would prefer not to host.  That said, not visiting the property again until Tuesday morning wasn't the best of strategies and it is one of the problems for remote hosts who use an agency or third party to manage their listings, particularly if you are accustomed to weekends off.  We are on-site hosts so weekends are our busy time.  It may be necessary for you to change your work days if you are going to manage a collection of other people's properties for STA.  Just sitting ducks for the weekend party crowd, regardless of nationality / ethnic origin, but especially so for those groups with a track record.  Definitely a trust your gut instinct thing next time!

[Stephanie]

Hiya everyone,

I know there is frustration around the particular guests behaviour but I would like to remind you that discrimination for any race, group, gender or of any kind at all will not be tolerated. Please review our policy here: Nondiscrimination Policy.

Thanks,

Stephanie

[Jennifer177]

Thank you all for your replies. I will address some of your comments.

We are definitely looking at installing cameras, had we had cameras this never would have happened.

We have put in a claim with Air BNB (still waiting to hear back) Unfortunately once I completed the claim, there was a message that said the maximum we could claim is $15,000. Well that might cover the tv's and some of the electronics stolen, but nothing else. The broken vergola is $40,000 alone. We estimate the damage to be around the $200,000 mark.

I think it's really wrong that I can't review him, also the conversation I had with him has disappeared from the site. I'm guessing because it's under review. I really hope they have banned him off the site, they said they would, but I have no way of knowing. I sincerely hope he isn't doing the same thing to someone else's home right now. I probably can't put his name here as that would be discrimination! The name would give away the ethnicity/background of this guest. And once again the host would be the bad guy! 

As far as evicting them the first night: When we got there, there were 8 people, the booking was for 5, when asked they said the extra 3 were just there to pick the others up for a night out on the town, the house was spotless, they apologised for the music being a bit loud and turned it off, they were respectful and very apologetic. Based on the very principals of trust that we all abide by, we believed them! Had we evicted them then, I'm quite sure they would have screamed discrimination, seriously you have to give guests some benefit of the doubt as we did in this case. We even had the thought that maybe this neighbour that emailed us was over exaggerating or perhaps he himself was a racist. Since we also had no other complaints, we let our guard down. (The house is surrounded by high-rise apartments) so there are many neighbours.

The initial neighbour who complained only emailed through a booking site, we had no phone number, we emailed him back many times over the course of the weekend asking him to please contact us, no reply, this cemented the idea that perhaps it wasn't genuine and just a case that he didn't like who was in the neighbourhood. Believe it or not, we also do not like discrimination like that! So we assumed all was well. Not another complaint, in an area where there are probably over 200 apartments, we even tried approaching other neighbours in the area that night, being secure complexes we couldn't just door knock, the one house on the other side, nobody was home. 

Sorry I got my days mixed up, the next alert was Tuesday morning 7am, not Monday. We responded immediately. Text saying, just letting you know there was a party going on all weekend and a bong was thrown on my car. We and the police were there by 8am. We acted immediately! Of course they had left by then, a couple of stragglers left behind, who the police took away with them. The neighbour chose to alert us after they had left!

We are well aware of the discrimination policy and do abide by it. It's a great policy! Problem is it only seems to be applicable to the host not the guests. Quote:

"The Airbnb community is committed to building a world where people from every background feel welcome and respected, no matter how far they have travelled from home. This commitment rests on two foundational principles that apply both to Airbnb’s hosts and guests: inclusion and respect"

We showed inclusion, we showed respect, we showed trust. Did they?

No they showed hatred, disrespect, malice and disregard for others and their property. I sincerely hope this guest is kicked off the platform regardless of whether he is ‘black, white, brown or pink with purple spots' I think rules are rules regardless of colour, race, ethnicity or anything!

Just as a side note, the irony, yesterday I received a $64,000 booking request for this property from a yacht crew wanting to stay until July whilst their boat has work done. Had to decline.