Threatened by guest

[Nanxing0]

We just had a crazy guest threatening us. He made a reservation of like 20 nights starting 4/5 and we accepted it. After a few hours Airbnb cancelled the reservation and sent both of us an email explaining it. From the Airbnb message, they mentioned "Unfortunately, we’ve received quality assurance information regarding this guest and we’re no longer able to support them as a member of our Airbnb community. Your calendar should now be open for the affected dates."

Then the guest started to seem angry and texted my co-host with threatening words. Also the guest's parents contacted us asking what happened and we politely explained to them that Airbnb cancelled the reservation and that's not what we can control. If they have any problem try to contact the customer service. The parents understand that but the guest never stopped. Here's the last message he sent to my co-host this afternoon.

"My parents might have gotten involved while I was transferring housing. I know that you accepted me starting 4/5 and I am going to deal with this. You accepted and per basic convention, backing out is wrong. You do not get two shots to screen me, you had one shot. I did not threaten you, I stated a fact which is that I have the address and your phone number and that's a problem for you because you did not honor your agreement. Use your imagination. There are 2 options. You must provide keycode and entry details by midnight tomorrow for me to check in at the standard time on Sunday. Or, I will take you, Nancy and airbnb down for false advertising and breach of contract. Get back to me in 2 hours."

I'm wondering what we can do to this guest. I have reported his profile and sent message in the customer service page but nobody has responded to my request yet. Should we report this to the local police for a record? 

[Anonymous]

@Nanxing0  What an awful experience, I'm sorry to hear you have to deal with this douchebag. But you don't really have to take any additional action here if you don't have time to (in these crazy times I'm sure you have more on your mind). The booking does not exist, and therefore the guest has no contract with you, and therefore you are not in any way obliged to supply any further information or engage any further contact.

If you lived in a big city, I wouldn't suggest contacting the police. But I don't know Haverford - if it happens to be a small town with friendly cops, and your Airbnb is fully above-board and legal, maybe it's worthwhile to show them the correspondence you've shared. The problem is, if you don't have the guest's identity data, Airbnb is not going to release it to you, so there's nothing much the police can do.

Bottom line is, the guest attempted a booking through a third=party service that rejected him. His beef is with Airbnb and not you. If you choose to have any further contact with him, it should only be to clarify that you are unable to host him because Airbnb has blocked his access as a user. After that, I would cease any further communication with this person.

[Nanxing0]

@Anonymous I personally live in Haverford but all my listings are in Philadelphia, which is about 10 miles away. The guest is from Swarthmore so I would consider him local. I'm not worried he can find me somehow, just want to make sure I have taken all necessary actions to stay out of trouble. Thank you for the advice!

[Sarah977]

@Nanxing0  Are these threatening messages being received through the Airbnb messaging, or youindictaed he is sending these to your co-host via text? Make sure you screen shot any messages in case they disappear and save any texts.

I would definitely go to the police- this crazy is making threats of physical harm and could show up and torch your place.

@Stephanie  Can you expedite this with CS? 

[Nanxing0]

@Sarah977 Not on Airbnb message. The guest text messaged my co-host. We have all evidence logged. The problem is that I don't have the guest's identity information so I don't know how I should tell the police? Maybe the guest's phone number can be a clue though.

[Sarah977]

@Nanxing0  I would copy and print the text messages to give to the police, along with the guest's phone number, or the number these are being sent from. If they needed to, for instance, if he showed up and trashed your property in some way, I'm sure they could trace the number. Obviously they can't do anything at this point, but I think it would be a good idea to make it known to the police that this guy has threatened you. This line is what jumps out at me - "I stated a fact which is that I have the address and your phone number and that's a problem for you because you did not honor your agreement. Use your imagination. "

[Anonymous]

@Nanxing0   It sounds like you've done about all you can for now. Definitely flag and report the threatening communication to Airbnb, and block the user if it's still possible. If it escalates past these stupid juvenile threats, then make it a police matter.

[Ocean50]

@Nanxing0 

Don't worry about it, he sounds like a keyboard warrior gamer. I said 10x worse to people over a game before. He is just trash talking and won't do **bleep**.

If you are worry, just get the insurance in place. If that fool really damage your place, great! claim insurance and make your place looks better while insurance company will be after him for the rest of his life.

[Helen3]

Why are you or your co-host accepting communications by phone, just block the guest for communicating that way and ignore any communications via Airbnb. @Nanxing0 

Interesting to hear hosts in the US are still accepting bookings. Here in the UK and in many other countries there is a lock down and we can only accept bookings from key workers to help stop the spread of the virus.

[Nanxing0]

@Helen3 We have no choice. Once the reservation is confirmed the guest will have the phone number on the reservation. We mention in the welcome message that suggest all communication done using Airbnb message, but there are still a small number of guests texting us. Should we not respond to the text messages? A lot of guests don't have and don't want to get the Airbnb app...

We still have some market demand here at least in Philadelphia, including some healthcare workers and people undergoing quarantine. No travellers though.

[Sarah977]

@Nanxing0  Yes, guests have your phone number when a reservation is confirmed. But when a guest wants to communicate by phone call or text message, the best thing to do is just tell them that you prefer to keep all communication on the Airbnb messaging. Of course there are exceptions, like maybe a guest is lost trying to find your place and calls to ask directions, or to let you know they'll be a hour late. My guests text or call me when they get into town and i pick them up at the bus stop. But other than little, non-contentious things like that, it's best to keep communication on the platform, so CS reps can easily see the message record if there's a dispute. 

And if a guest is being threatening or abusive or harrassing, for goodness sake, just block their number on your phone.

[Mark116]

@Helen3  You know how we Americans are.....  but, it is true that there are large swaths of the country where there are almost no cases of the virus; unless someone is traveling due to their job or to check on rental property, something to do with income, I don't get why they would be doing it.

Here at ground zero, NYC/JC, we haven't even had any requests from first responders since we listed the house there.  But, I'm not sure that airbnb's program is really linked up with hospitals/city governments to get the offer in front of the people who should be seeing it. 

[Tony-And-Una0]

What a horrible aggressive message for you to have received. So much for the world becoming a kinder place.

On reading it, I took it as more of a legal threat than a physical one.

But it still makes for very uncomfortable reading.

[Mark116]

@Nanxing0  I guess, count yourself lucky you don't have to host this terrible person.  You might send one more message, on the airbnb system, that restates that it was AIRBNB, and not you, that cancelled the stay, and therefore, there is nothing you can do, and it is up to the guest to work things out with Airbnb if there is a problem.  You might also tell them that you found  their text message to be threatening and ask them not to contact you further, either directly on airbnb or any other way.  

It is probably not worth it to call the police, but hopefully you have some cameras on your property or neighbors you might alert to keep an eye in case this nut tries some vandalism.