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]

[Sarah977]

@Tomas41  How terrifying. And how unbelievably "Untrust and Unsafety" their non-response. What have tey actually been telling you? Maybe stop phoning and contact Airbnb via Twitter, which is reported to get the quickest and hopefully the best response. Tell them you'll go staright to the media with this if they don't act in a way that ensures your safety. I would also go to the police with this.

[Emilia42]

@Tomas, I can't access his profile. I only get the little ice cream girl so it looks like Airbnb removed this user. I hope he can't easily create a new profile. Sorry this happened to you. Scary and not good at all!

[Tomas41]

I did file a police report on Friday.  My frustration is with the slow AirBNB response and how they let his fake review after he threatened my life to still be there in the system and the user is still there in the system.  76 hours later and still no action.

[Sarah977]

@Tomas41 As Emilia said, his account has either been closed or suspended. Yes, it's a drag that his review is still there but your response to it was perfect- that review certainly won't lose you any bookings, considering all the great ones you have, and I think Airbnb will actually remove it, but they aren't known for their speedy actions. And yes, Airbnb's lack of appropriate response is aggravating, but they actually won't disclose to you whether they suspended his account or not- they have this thing about "violating privacy". But it's easy enough to see if you click on his profile photo in the review that he no longer has an active account.

[Tomas41]

I didn’t know you can’t see his profile.  That’s good.  I am confused because I can still see his profile.  Maybe I can still see his profile because he was my guest but no one else can see his profile.

[Susan17]

@Tomas41

I can still see his profile too. 

[Ben551]

@Tomas41 this must have been very frightening, I'm sorry you weren't supported through this. Going to the police was absolutely the right thing to do. You might also want to change your house locks if this person has access to a key at any point during their stay... they could have made a copy. Get in touch with your house insurance and see if they will pay for replacement locks...

[Tomas41]

We have locks that we can re-key.  

[Sudsrung0]

Thats nasty, I would have called the police also but I have to ask you what made him go off like that?

[Tomas41]

What made him go off like that?  Well two days earlier there were temperatures below -20F outside from the polar vortex and a natural gas pumping station from the gas comapny blew up causing a gas shortage and a State of emergency in Michigan.  The governor of Michigan sent an emergency alert through the emergency system that we all needed to set our thermostats to below 65F because the gas company was going to run out of gas.  If the gas company runs out of gas, we ALL freeze.  That night the thermostat went down to 64F.  He complained about it and I sent him the alerts from the Governor of Michigan which he ignored and he had the temperature set 80F for the next two nights and the temperature inside the house was between 77F-80F.  Everyone else in Michigan was doing their part.  (We monitor the temperature inside the house remotely for the safety of our homes because we don't want frozen water pipes as a result of guests leaving the heater off by mistake or by ignorace).   When he checked-out on Friday, he maliscioulsy set up the temperature to 99F and when my cleaning crew came in the temperature insde the house was at 85F when outside was below zero.  My cleaning crew sent me a picture of the thermostat. So I sent him that picture through the AirBNB messaging system.  He told me that I "tried to kill him" with the low temperatures and that he was an attorney and that going to sue me.  I told him that I will welcome his lawsuit, that if he sues me I will counter sue and that I will ask for a jury of my peers...that I want to see how he will try to convince a jury that "I tried to kill him" Then he did the threat.  I stopped the convesation, called AirBNB and filed the police report.  I highly doubt that he is an attorney as no attorney will self-incriminate the way he did.

[Tomas41]

This is the message that I received from AirBNB this morning....  So I guess a guest can threatened your life, but still can leave you a fake review and it does not violate AirBNB's policy?   This makes NO SENSE!!!!!

Hi Tomas,

This is Fleurene, the case manager from Airbnb. This matter has been forwarded to me. We understand you would like us to remove the review left by XXXXXXXXXXX after their reservation with you.

It is our general policy not to remove reviews. This is because reviews help to generate an honest portrayal of the variety of experiences that our hosts and guests have with each other. There are rare instances when we do consider the removal of reviews, as outlined in our content policy:

www.airbnb.com/help/article/546

After examining this review, we have determined it does not violate said policy.

Best,

Fleurene

[Tomas41]

So basically what AirBNB is saying is that a guest can threaten my life; rape me; kill me; vandalaize the house; burn the house; or do any other illegal activities that are CLEARLY not allowed in their content policy but if his review says something like "worse stay ever" then that doesn't violate their policy and his ill-motivated fake review stays even if the user is banned.  

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

yes @Tomas41 because this review "help to generate an HONEST portrayal"  Honest ! 😛 😛  she must be joking!

[Mark116]

@Tomas41   That is truly awful and scary, I hope the guest lives somewhere far away from you so you don't have to worry he will return and do any damage to you or your property.

Airbnb appears to be staffed almost completely by Stepford Bots, who stick to the script no matter how silly it is, so you can get a result where a guest threatens to disappear you, e.g. a threat of violence, and their review is allowed to stand.

It cannot be that hard for airbnb to have a policy that reviews will be removed when there is evidence of a legal threat or other wrongdoing or documented illegal activity, yet, they won't do it.