Hi Everyone, Today my case Manager told me that its ok to abuse guests and guest to abuse and threaten hosts. There are no policies against foul language. Air Bnb does nothing to protect us against this. FYI Everyone.
Iâve encountered 4 abusive situations in the last 8 weeks (just lucky, I guess! ;)). One of them involved a police report. It took 3 weeks for Air to respond.
Airbnb is a bookings broker. The new terms we signed off on recently disavows any responsibility on their part. A lot of this stuff comes down to "he said, she saidâ. And when you are hundreds or thousands of miles away, there is not a whole heckuva lot they can do. Everybody still gets to review.
The police are the muscle. And they advised me to quit hosting (seriously). They are getting violence every week at Airbnbâs, and they added that Toronto police are completely fed up with them.
The host is the gatekeeper. Suspicion gives rise to more refusals. And yet we are now being measured by our rate of refusal.
I donât understand how on earth Airbnb (or any company) could enforce such policies. This is especially the case when we all have a different idea about what exactly constitutes âfoul languageâ.
As an English person, I would be more than capable of giving as good (better) as I get in the foul language stakes.
The conundrum is that if you are being abused, threatened, and sexually harassed, the âguestsâ get to leave punitive reviews.
Despite 96% acceptance, Iâve had 2 1-star reviews from a fellow who a. simply refused to leave my home, and b. was drunk for 2 weeks. Both involved Case Management intervention, and yet these 2 STILL got to leave reviews.
By way of exercise, i am going to challenge Mr. Freestay to have the review removed. it is dishonest.
Apologies. From your original post I thought you meant verbal abuse; foul language.
How did he manage to refuse to leave? Remember that you can review him and give him a thumbs down so that no other hosts will have to put up with a sexual predator. Itâs really our responsibility as hosts to do so.
Iâm sorry to say it doesnât work that way. A thumbs down and scathing review doesnât do anything in and of itself. Maybe if a potential host reads the review it will save that host the trouble.
And if itâs really strongly worded I wouldnât be surprised if Airbnb just removes it altogether.
That is so sad to know!
I wasnât the OP, but i would include verbal abuse under the 'abuse" category. In Canada, thatâs law.
The guest who refused to leave was an overseas newbie who seemed to think I was his personal concierge. everything was an argument.
Concurrently, a friend died the day before, the toilet blocked, and i started getting very ill. at 11 AM I asked Air for extenuating circumstances and offered him a full refund plus an alternate place.
He refused to accept this, left for the day and refused to answer calls or texts from myself or the Case Manager.
He came back at 7:30 PM and my partner had to evict him.
After 2 hours of hanging around my yard he called the police because his computer was still in a drawer. Had we known during those 2 hours we obviously would have given it to him.
The review was 1-star across the board and accused me of theft. And on and on from there. Said I had a filthy toilet, tried to get extra money, etc. Obviously this was not honest.
Again, by way of exercise, I am going to ask that the review be removed. Case Management is well aware of what happened.
I didnât know that.
So sorry that you had such a dreadful guest.
WOW! Iâm so sorry this happened to you!
I also am so sorry you had to deal with that. Some guests are simply too much.
The bottom line; the OPâs statement is true.
Who hasnât been on the phone to a cs rep (not necessarily ABB) and when the tone gets a little heated they pull out their ace âif you keep being abusive Iâll end the callâ and Iâm like âwtf? are you talking about, Iâm upset because you arenât doing your job properly, Iâm not abusing you personallyâ then they hang up. Saying âwtfâ isnât the same as saying âeff youâ. It is a tool for inept cs reps to use to stop you arguing with them is all I can think.
Jam- They remove the review i think if it has abusive language. Why remove that then either. Its Free for all speech keep it in the reviews too. So one can speak whatâs really in the heart.
You missed the point. They can remove a review with abusive language since there is proof in the writing of it. If you tell them a guest used abusive language itâs your word against the guestâs word.
Iâve had plenty of guests under pressure who have used the eff word while sharing with me.
Of course, I would NEVER do anything like that.
However as Jam pointed out, some csrâs ang guvvy employees can stop the conversation there.
If the guest (or host) is having a hissy fit, raising their voice, swearing because they are out of control, etc. itâs meant to intimidate, and is considered verbal abuse.
Karma- I have proof of it in writing I have not spoken to her. Its the messages i exchanged where she called me the âAâ word and then threatened to sue me.
This is what I mean about everyone having differing opinions about what is âverbal abuseâ and what isnât. Iâd be pretty happy if that was the worst thing Iâd ever been called in my life
I have a story about calling a student that my first semester of teaching. We both survived. (not that I recommend it but heyâŚ)
I was once very busy at work and quite distracted when someone asked me what title I wanted on my new business card. (For example, âownerâ, âCEOâ, whatever).
Because I was so distracted I said âI donât bloody care. Use b**** q**** if you wantâ.
They did. For ages I was stuck with business cards that proclaimed me to be a b**** q****. (Quite accurately, as it happens!)
Such a shame that I have to use the **** but if itâs necessary here to say âthe A wordâ instead of a****** then so be it!