Afraid to leave bad review for a local but know I should

41

I wasn’t sure thy you added that sentence but it’s just occurred to me that it could that you’re ‘explaining’ why you felt ‘threatened’ and therefore did nothing about this party?

It’s important to remember that the word Airbnb has come to mean short-term rental wherever they are advertised. (In the same way we use other brand names generically - Kleenex, Band Aid, Tupperware and so on.)

In recent years it has become hard to distinguish between genuine factual journalism and sensationalised articles.

2 Likes
42

Actually, other than the all night party -they didn’t tear up the place as they wanted to return (& they did physically show up in my drive 2 times over the next 2 weeks). I nicely & firmly told them no - that it was taken by a long term tenant. I think it was the Nazi memorabilia & guns which turned me off - plus they were LOCALS. I have had over 250 normal nice people come through Airbnb, so I am not blaming Airbnb - but other than having a credit card, there is not much of a check on guests. And if you call Airbnb at 3 AM - their only advice is call the county sheriff (who may have had a brother at the party). By the way, Google Airbnb & homicide - it does happen & the article I saw was in the New York Times. I will restate that YOUR SAFETY SHOULD AS A HOST SHOULD BE FIRST, even if that means not leaving a public review. Hopefully, there are police where you are, but this was the only time as a host that I thought I might need something other than my Dads old shotgun (which I don’t know where the shells are or if it even works.) This is the rural South, so unless you have dealt with this, you are free to your own judgements. PS I still do Airbnb but am very careful - no IB & I require several prior reviews.

43

With over 6 million listings worldwide, I would be surprised if everything imaginable didn’t happen at some time somewhere. No reason to focus on the one in 6 million events, anymore than you would be afraid to get in your car and drive anywhere because people sometimes get in car accidents.

I do agree that your safety comes first and that a biker party with Nazi symbols and guns would be intimidating to break up. But I seriously doubt that any guests, even those, are going to come back and harm you over a bad Airbnb review.

1 Like
44

Did you miss that I came home from work TWICE to find one or two of them SITTING IN FRONT OF MY HOUSE!!! (How many times have you had prior guests of 2 nights drop by?) Even if I doubt I would get harmed, I am at the end of a county road & they could easily shoot out a window or two- so I am not doing anything which might piss these people off!

45

Did you (or anyone) ask them why they were there, and tell them that your property is not available for sitting?

46

No, I didn’t miss that. You said they were there to ask about renting the place, not to shoot out your windows, and didn’t say anything about them behaving aggressively.