I received a death threat from my AirBNB guest & AirBNB's response has been missing.

[Tomas41]

I received a death threat from a guest in the messaging system and here we are 75 hours later and 8 phone calls to AirBNB customer service and they STILL haven't banned the guest and they still haven't removed his fake review on my place. 

AirBNB NEEDS to take the safethy of the hosts more seriously.  I filed a police report on this subject.  Here is the death threat that I received through the AirBNB messenger system.  AirBNB, please get it together...

[Image hidden due to inappropriate content–inline with the Community Center Guidelines]

[Tomas41]

The profile of the guest says that he lives in the SAME city that I live which is about 40 minutes away from my AirBNB property that he rented.  That's why I filed a police report with his profile picture (which he changed); his name and his cell phone number.  Whether the police does something, I don't know.  

[Alexandra316]

@Tomas41I would consider going to Airbnb on social media with this. The guest threatened you and they have been removed from the platform (I believe anyways:  I get the ice cream girl when I try and view him). Their review should not stand; it just does not seem right. 

[Susan1028]

Im so sorry you had this experience and am so glad you reported this to the police.  I hope you documented everything and saved screen shots of his profile, your messages, texts, etc.  You have grounds for a restraining order if you choose to pursue it.

Airbnb is not the law, but the reaction (or lack thereof) by airbnb is deplorable!  Google Airbnb and death threats/stalking/etc.  You're not alone.  I would definitely share in on thier FB page and twitter and everywhere else I could to wake up other hosts, because (no joke folks) this could happen to any one of us. 

Airbnb does NOT vett guests, check ID's, require photos of guests or require matching photos to ID's (like they do hosts), or require guests.  They've relaxed thier host safety and support standards to spotty or non-existent, so we have to do our own "due dilligence" to request facial images in profiles, photo ID's upon arrival (that match) or find a more professionally operated booking platform that does and requires signatures adn deposits up front so we're not put in this position (and they're out there).

Thank you for sharing this. I want to know more about this guest so I can decline them, because there is no full time law enforcement where I am.

[Lee150]

I was threatened last week by a guest. He went from perfectly reasonable to a crazy Man in less than 10 seconds.
As he was pulling out of my driveway I called Airbnb to report
What SHOULD happen when a host is threatened and is REPORTED
Call should be escalated to someone in a department that takes these calls seriously
And under no circumstances should guests like this should be able to review
Right now my "case" is being looked at

[Munteanu0]

I had a very similar issue with a guest two weeks ago and after lots of reports and calls from to to airbnb support, still nothing happened. The guest left me a bad review and my review and reply on his review were deleted. I said that the guest has a problem and that is dangerous and airbnb deleted my reviews.
Now I call them and they all say that they understand but only to send me a message with a cased closed line in it..
I am very disappointed about airbnb support at this moment and I really do not know what other steps should I take. I have the superhost status for 3 years and this guest has other bad reviews considering his behaviour and airbnb are taking his side.
Very frustrating to see how airbnb are ignoring the hosts and always protecting the guests. Totally unfair as we, the hosts are doing the work. Nobody else but us.

[Robin4 · Accepted solution]

@Munteanu0 

I am regularly taken to task by contributors here for, as they would say, 'sugar coating'  review suggestions.

Munteanu, some guest are not just going to annoy the **bleep** out of us.....Mate, they will drive us to insanity!

You are a Superhost, you know as well as I do, the review system is weighted in favour of the guest.

If you give an honest 'boots and all' review of a guest you had an issue with, rest assured that review will be removed. All the guest needs to say to Airbnb is, you told a pack of lies, and .....bingo.....your review disappears! And tell me Munteanu, what good is a review that nobody can see?

I don't condone poor guest behaviour any more than the next host, but I want my comments to stick.....I want to make sure Airbnb have no grounds to remove them, and for that reason I say things like .....

" The guest had a problem understanding my house rules"

" I wish the guest well, but would decline the opportunity to host him/her again" 

" The guest thought what he was going to get was something other than my listing description"!

Each of these phrases says, stay away from this guest. Our duty is to say to future hosts, beware of this guest, we don't have to do any more than that. We don't have to say, they were a creep, a pervert, a thief, a walking disaster......all we have to say is, d o n' t   h o s t!  Anything more than that is just promoting ........Voyeurism! 

Munteanu, I have only ever written one scathing review....I have written a few where I have used the above phrases but I have only had to write one downright derogatory review ........

I thought over that wording for a long time Munteanu.....but I never accused her of anything, and I gave Airbnb no grounds for removing that review. That woman turned our cottage upside down, she called me a 'creepy old man' because my wife and I did not pull our non-existent blinds down over the windows while she walked around our rear garden. She broke stuff, she made more mess than any other guest has ever made, left after 2 hours and wanted a refund!

If I had given a blow by blow description of what this guest subjected us too, do you think for a second my review would have stayed visible? It would have ended up just like yours Munteanu! 

That review is still on her profile, and she has not had another stay or host review since then.

Munteanu, we do not live in Gods ideal world where we call a spade a spade......

If we want what we have to say have a lasting effect, we have to diplomatically call it.........

A digging implement!

Cheers......Rob

[Susan17]

@Robin4 

How utterly preposterous though Rob, that hosts should practically need a degree in "Acceptable Anodyne Words And Phrases To Use In An Airbnb Review Of Scamming/Lying/Cheating/Anti-Social Guests", in order to leave honest feedback on nightmare guests, that won't get deleted by Airbnb.

Makes an absolute mockery of the "trust and integrity" of the entire review system, and renders it beyond worthless. 

[Robin4]

@Susan17 I agree with you 100% Susan, but lets be realists here, guests make Airbnb money, hosts cost Airbnb money. My God, if anyone has had an uphill battle to just survive the platform as an STR host, it's you! 

We should not have to play with words, but if you are going to use this platform, that is a requirement. 

What I am trying to do, is my duty, warn future hosts when I get a bad guest. I have been blessed, I have not had many, but when I have had one, I hope I have made my point. 

I had one who absolutely cleaned me out, even took the contents of the medicine cabinet. 

I said in my review......"It doesn't matter how much you provide, to some guests that just won't be enough"! Susan I didn't need to say any more than that! If I saw something like that on a guests profile I would immediately realise this guest shafted the host....and I would stay clear of them.

Once again, I agree with you, but I am a realist, and just want to warn the hosting community in the best way I know how!

Cheers......Rob 

[Michelle2137]

Thank you Robin your comments have been enlightening, but one question I have is that I do not have the option of seeing guests profile before they book ???

[Helen3]

You are allowed to see a guests profile before they book @Michelle2137 however you can only see their profile photo once a booking is made. This is because sadly some hosts were discriminating against guests based on race/colour.

You can need tick the box on your listing to say you only accept guests with profile photos.

[Jack1617]

It sounds like you removed that person, at least.  Imagine being a guest trapped in a property you can't leave while waiting on Airbnb's resolution team, where the host is actively harassing and threatening - in a foreign country no less.  And same - countless emails and calls later, and still NO RESPONSE from Airbnb.   **bleep** this company.  I've been a loyal host, guest, and advisor to some of the VPs over seven years, and what do all my thousands of dollars paid in only fees from these years get me?  Nothing but empty promises and being ignored.  I am about to to publish on a very widely known travel blog about this, because at this point, **bleep** AIRBNB.