Physically assaulted in an air bnb apartment

[Aarti18]

I rented a whole 1 br/1ba apartment in one of the safer neighborhoods in Barranco, Lima, Peru. It was a high rise with my apartment on 21st floor, and concierge at the front desk, which made me feel safe. However, I woke up the next day, took a shower and was getting ready to go out and next think I know, I was unconscious for 1.5 hours. I woke up with a plate broken on the floor, other things that were on the nightstand were sitting on the floor, I had a sore spot on my head, was intensely nauseous, had 2 bruises on me and had memory loss. I called the host who was in a hair salon but told me about a hospital I could go to, which I did. I was honestly in a state of shock and denial, didn't want to think anything bad happened to me and was wondering if this was a medical thing. I came back to the US, went to the ER, saw my PCP some time later and everyone said it doesn't sound like a medical issue- you were assaulted! I reached out to the host and asked if they could ask the apartment building for CCTV tapes because it was driving me nuts to not know what happened to me and who digit,  but never heard back. I reached out to Air bnb and they gave me a partial refund for the stay. I don't know what has traumatized me more, the assault or Air bnb's response. I am disgusted! I had made it very clear to them when I reached out that I wasn't reaching out for a refund, but an investigation, possibly taking this listing down to prevent this from happening to others but they thought a partial refund should suffice. 

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Aarti18 I am not sure CCTV tapes from a 21+ storey building will help much. If you didn't report it at the time and it could have been a medical event I am not sure Airbnb could do much more.

[Aarti18]

Really?? You really don't think Air bnb can do anything here? I was obviously assaulted in an apartment that is actively listed. You don't think they need to investigate for safety and shut it down at least until they can figure out what happened? The fact that I got assaulted on the 21st floor without the motive being robbery ( I wasn't robbed) goes to show the person Knew I was there!! I suspect this has happened there before given how comfortable the host sounded saying she will just let Air bnb deal with it. If this happened to a guest at my place if I was running an air bnb, I would freak out! There is a whole lot more Air bnb can do, unless if they choose not to. I have a feeling many more will get victimized and traumatized there.  It's horrific! 

[Aarti18]

Here is an excerpt for you from a lawyer who is working with people who have been assaulted in Air bnbs: "From my work with survivors, I know that most of them do not report what happened to them, for many reasons. Couple that with the investigation findings that Airbnb has a safety team that works diligently to keep these cases out of the public eye, leads me to believe this issue is way bigger than we will ever know. That means we need legislators to pass laws to get this regulated and create safe spaces for people. People’s basic needs are to feel safe in a space they choose to stay or live. We are gathering information now to present to legislators to plead with them to do something. This cannot continue. It is unacceptable that people are just a numbers game and just because Airbnb is making billions and these victims are just a fraction of the percent of their pie and profits that it shouldn’t have policies and procedures in place to keep them safe.

I feel so sorry for the team at Airbnb whose job it is to convince victims what happened to them wasn’t worth much more than airline tickets and free stays. What a **bleep**ty job. I hope Airbnb is paying for their therapy because a job like that must eat away at you."

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Aarti18 What have the police done so far? I would think they are better placed than Airbnb to deal with what may have happened to you?

[Aarti18]

You obviously are either an Air bnb employee or vested  in them in some way.  They are going to have to find out for themselves what legal action I am pursuing, rather than use these sneaky ways to find out! 

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Aarti18 I am certainly happy to admit to being vested in Airbnb as we use it to market our holiday apartments.

It is clear to me that your unwillingness to discuss what the police are doing suggests they are not involved. Ah well, good luck with your legal action.

[Kia272]

@Aarti18  Even you don't know that you were "obviously assaulted." Your original post says you don't know what happened and that you had memory loss. I'm not sure what your goal is here, because what is it that you're expecting AirBnB to do? YOU don't even know what happened. 

Lashing out angrily at people who are trying to help you isn't going to win you much sympathy. Good luck with your legal action. Your original post is now public record. 

"I woke up the next day, took a shower and was getting ready to go out and next think I know, I was unconscious for 1.5 hours. I woke up with a plate broken on the floor, other things that were on the nightstand were sitting on the floor, I had a sore spot on my head, was intensely nauseous, had 2 bruises on me and had memory loss."

How's that going to hold up in court? 

[Helen744]

@Aarti18 without any actual memory or proof of what happened to you it is difficult to know what did happen Arti. I had a similar occurrence many years ago when I was knocked out for a few hours. I still have no idea if it was a burglary gone wrong or I accidentally hit my head . Airbnbs do not have cctv inside generally and the broken plate indicates that maybe something fell from a height onto your head. I know that this would be traumatizing for you not to know and having a host who it seems could not care less about their guest would be worrying too. Many people travel and have less than ideal experiences but there are a lot of factors here. All the best with whatever you do but a talk with a medical professional may be in order and some type of emotional resolution for your shock and uncertainty. This is not Airbnb resolutions so no one here can  really advise your best course of action . We all hear these types of horror  stories and hope they dont happen to us. Sounds awful... H

[Quincy]

Hello @Aarti18, I'm sorry to hear about this — I hope you're ok. Just so you know, I have passed this on to the team as soon as you had posted this.