Cancelling a booking after confirmation upon seeing a lewd male photo in profile

Courtney517
Level 2
Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Cancelling a booking after confirmation upon seeing a lewd male photo in profile

As a woman, living alone, who lets out a spare room, do you think that once you accept a single male guest and only then are given the opportunity to see his profile photo in which he has his legs spread and is holding his crotch (through his shorts) that it is acceptable to cancel the reservation? Well, I did.

I phoned AirBnB support within 2 minutes of receiving access to the photo (after checking for contact phone number on the website) and the (self-admittedly) very inexperienced staff member on the phone support was not in any way helpful so after 5 mins I separately messaged the guest and told him I would have to cancel and that the room was not available after all because I did not want him showing up at my home. I gave a superficial reason because he had my address by now and I didn't want to risk some form of confrontation (AirBnB didn't get round to cancelling the reservation for several hours).

Because it was within 24 of arrival AirBnB charged me a penalty for me protecting my own safety which I think is totally unacceptable because:

1) I would not have cancelled if I did not find the prospective situation uncomforable and potentially dangerous

2) I was not able to see this concerning photo before accepting the booking

3) I took action within 2 mins of accepting the booking

4) I have never cancelled a guest before, having acted as a host for more than 5 years with more than 200 bookings

5) He had no previous reviews and only the most basic authentication

Just to be sure I wasn't overreacting I showed the photo (without his name and with his face scrolled off the top of the screen) to a male and a female neighbour and both confirmed he is doing in the photo what I thought he was doing and voiced their own views on levels of unacceptability and danger.

After more than a dozen exchanges with AirBnB, about half by phone and finally 2 with supervisors, they have finally reimburshed the charges and one of the supervisors (a man) vocalised that he could see what I saw in the photo.

My query is what does the AirBnB Host Community think of this situation and has it happened to others and, if so, with what did you do/what was the result?

I would also say that I have had a lot of great experience with hosting guests but this experience has really thrown me.

Courtney

@ links to members; @safety @

15 Replies 15
Courtney517
Level 2
Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Yes, but the point is that AirBnB didn't help me for days and days and when they did respond they were not helpful. The ONLY reason that i finally had the cancellation charge removed was because I kept on badgering away until I finally got a supervisor to talk to me. I shouldn't have to go to these lengths. No host should. AirBnB needs to take better case of its hosts.