So I had a request for booking via VRBO few days ago. Using the guest’s email address I found she was listed on an escort site. And according to her listing would be working in my city, located on my street during the time that she wanted to rent my apartment. I declined her of course. Two days go by, and I receive almost the exact same wording inquiry from a woman, looking to book my apartment, but this time she is coming through AIRBNB. Her dates are the same, she wants the place for month, starting in two days. Ever had a month long booking that was booked two days in advance? Me either. Anyway, I contacted AIRBNB and asked, what do they do with these guest accounts that they can confirm are prostitutes? The answer floored me: I was told that they do nothing, provided the guest has opened their account properly, and it is not their job to determine a person’s profession or judge the profession. Okay, let me speak to a supervisor. The supervisor tells me that I cannot prove she is going to be applying her trade, and that I should not be so judgmental. I pointed out that she is advertising on an escort site, the dates she will be in my city, and she will be working on my street, and it is probably a good indication that she will be working from my home. The supervisor says, well you said “probably”, so she may be taking some personal time and again, who am I to judge? Well, lets see, it is my house, and it is my business, so I think it is my place to judge who comes into my house and who I do business with. I asked to speak to someone above the supervisor. According to the supervisor, the only person above him is the CEO, and I should contact him directly. And what number would that be at? The supervisor gives me the same number that brought me to this supervisor. I ask, specifically, that there is no one above the supervisor, that “you report directly to the CEO”, and the answer is yes. Well, here is what put it over the top for me: I asked this supervisor, am I expected to rent my place to a known prostitute? And he said, ‘yes’, that is what a super host does. Seems to me, if I know or suspect someone is going to engage in criminal activity, and if I allow it, does that not make me a party to the criminal activity? I am fairly confident that my insurance company would have issues with me if I knowingly rented to escorts. And do I really want to turn over my largest investment to someone who is a prostitute, who, in all likelihood, will be committing illegal activities in my house? I worked hard to become a super host; I am not willing to turn it over to escorts. And if I do not do this, that means I should not be super host? If I lose my super host status because I will not allow such a person into my home, so be it. Maybe I should send a copy of this posting to my insurance company, and ask them for advice on how this might affect my insurance coverage too.
If it wasn’t an Instant Book reservation you can simply decline it.
Thats a tough one. So she is an escort? You know, i had contacted through Wimdu by 3 different young women who had their pictures there, very provocative half dressed pretty girls. Messages were almost identical with asking to contact them privately through emails, explaining how they do not trust online bookings. I ignored them of course.
Then around February i was booked by “travelling photografer”. But what i think happened, the "photographer did not realize it was a room in a house, not the whole house, and never showed up. He booked me for 3 weeks. Thats the longest someone ever booked me. The funny part, i still got paid with no problems.
I think you have no choice but cancel her if you dont feel comfortable with this guest.
Sometimes Superhost, makes you a Superhostage; oftentimes the less you worry about status, the freer you are.
Have you tried contacting her and telling her that no other guests apart from herself are permitted to stay? Have you asked her if she is planning to “work” from your rental? Also, perhaps you could bring up that you found her profile on the page.
Keep me posted, this is an interesting one!
I agree that you should be direct with her and tell her she won’t be allowed to work from your rental. That’s what I’d do. I wouldn’t have a problem renting to a sex worker if they followed my house rules, which include no guests and no illegal activities, so they could stay at my place but couldn’t have local clients over who now know how to get into my home.
She’s welcome to stay with me. 
I would just cancel the reservation if I was not comfortable with it - I have a 5 star property but I am not a superhost - because I have cancelled a couple of reservations in the past ( my calendar will not sync properly with vrbo). I think your reviews stand for themselves. Airbnb just wants the money regardless. I am a bit surprised by their response under the circumstance. I would not want an escort operating out of my place period!
@Alan1 We had a very similar booking request in SF! I did not have her email address so I wasn’t able to do full internet stalking of the woman, but my first thought was she was an escort. She wanted to book our house same day for ‘at least 20 days but probably 30’. Her message was very short and she had no reviews, etc. I asked some more questions and then declined. Later that day her ‘boyfriend’ messaged me and tried to book. The entire thing was SO shady. We speculated that the BF was her ‘pimp’.
I think I’m protected by such things because it’s clear in my listing that there are kids in the house. Sometimes I think ya’ll should borrow some little kids and get them in your profile photo!
Updating this situation: I have called AIR BNB today, and as instructed by Mark the supervisor I spoke with last night, asked to speak to Brian Chesky, the CEO. Recall that Mark the supervisor told me he reports directly to Mr. Chesky, and I confirmed his assertion that he reports directly to Mr. Chesky several times during the conversion. Needless to say, today I am informed that there are several people between a customer service supervisor and the CEO, not exactly a surprise on that. I am also told today, that in no way am I expected to book any one I am not comfortable with; and that it is unacceptable to be told that I should book a person who I believe is a prostitute. I declined the reservation, no surprise there either.
The person I spoke to today is going to review this with their supervisor and pull the calls from last night and get back to me. As I told this fellow at AIRBNB today, I swear that what I have reported, and the way I have reported it here, is what the conversation with the AIR BNB rep and supervisor last night were.
I have concluded today, I now fully understand why there are hosts with scores of great reviews who are not super hosts, and I understand why now. As for my super host status, it means nothing to me now; I am not even sure if I will continue using AIR BNB, I am that disheartened with them. But I do give credit to the fellow I spoke with today, very nice, and truly seemed apologetic.
I am renting an apartment. I really don’t care what people do in there as long as they leave the place in good condition. It’s all very well calling this guest a prostitute but the correct term is ‘sex-worker’. You may disagree but I have no problem with that.
And what’s ‘illegal’.? Speeding? Smoking weed? Having a dog not on a leash? It depends from place to place.
If a sex worker rented my place and was respectful of the house rules, that’s fine.
You know what I find odd, Jaquo, that you are content having a sex worker, provided they are respectful of your house rules. So, shouldn’t you be respectful of the community rules, and thus not encourage sex workers to operate in a family neighbourhood? My place is downtown, on a tree lined street, with schools and children, surely the neighbours deserve respect too?
Even though this has been an entertaining juicy thread, why all the drama? if you don’t like the sound of the inquiry, don’t accept her request. It is not a fact, only a suspicion, that she is a prostitute, or the guy is her pimp, or what really is going on; its your call, no one else’s. I reject people all the time for a myriad of reasons, and could care less who doesn’t like it.
Getting the whole chain of AirBnB command involved seems to me is a huge waste of everyone’s time, and by the sound of it, no matter what AirBnB does now, it will not meet your standards anyway, because someone at AirBnB didn’t answer your first questions more tactfully.
Better yet, refer her to my place (or Geoff’s), we will take her off your hands. 
I can see that a new start up venture may be worth looking into. Maybe called whorebnb.
LoL. May I suggest another alternative name for consideration - SleazeBnB.
Sex work is legal is some cities around the world. I agree if they are obeying your house rules and not breaking local laws who cares. However, if you are in a building or situation where neighbors/hoa/council would complain, its probably better to say ‘no thanks’. Remember folks, the power is all yours. 
It seems like the original issue was loss of SH status, because of denying a request to book. IIRC that does not effect SH, only cancelling outside of the 3 freebie IB cancels. The OP got bad rep at Air BNB, shocking, but this is not something Air can control until after the ‘illegal’ act has taken place.
Yes @Alan1 - I am very respectful towards my neighbours and expect my guests to be too. However, I don’t see why the proximity of schools and children is a problem. The potential guest may or may not have planned to receive her own ‘guests’ in your accommodation but there’s no reason to suggest that this could harm local children in any way.
How would the neighbours know? The woman is hardly likely to be soliciting in the street wearing fishnet stockings, stiletto heels and a miniskirt like some bad B movie from the last century.
In business you can’t always deal only with customers you select. There was a recent case in a country that does not yet allow gay marriage. A man ordered a cake from a local bakery bearing the legend ‘Support Gay Marriage’ for an event. The bakery refused because they don’t agree with same-sex marriages. They were found guilty of discrimination. The radio program I heard about this stressed that when you are inviting the public to pay you for services, you do not have the right to be discriminatory.
Well, @jaquo - you got close to what occurred in Ireland regarding the cake and discrimination case; but you actually missed what the ruling was based on. The court found that the baker was not discriminating against the couple requesting the cake, the baker was found to be discriminating against the message the couple wanted on the cake. The judge determined that the baker was required to provide a cake with any message that is lawful, even if they have a conscientious objection to it. Sounds fair enough. But what this ruling, which is now under appeal, means you cannot discriminate against an idea. So, a Jewish printer would have to print booklets denying the Holocaust, a Muslim printer would have to print cartoons of Mohammed and a gay baker would be required to write anti-gay slurs on a cake if requested. I agree discrimination against people is wrong; but discrimination against ideas? I think we all do that, simply by not being bigots ourselves, we discriminate against the ideas behind bigotry.
As to being in business and having no choice but to deal with who ever comes along; no that is incorrect as well. If the KKK want to book my place, I would say NO. If a person promoting hatred towards a specific group of people, I would say NO. Not because I do not like them, or discriminate against them, but because I do not accept their ides and do not want my business mingling in those ideas.
So, don’t be so quick to suggest that I have no choice but to deal with whoever comes long; for one day, someone will come along with some far right-wing proclamation and you will surely want the right to oppose the idea. Wouldn’t you?
The above is likely to esoteric for some here, based on the child like ramblings and school yard humour displayed; but they are entitled to their opinion, even if it vacates the topic and directly assaults the poster and not the idea or merit of the post.