Is this a declination or cancellation?
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You need to read the latest updates and the furore that was caused in the UK. It was not a couple who requested the cake but a single man. At first, the authorities thought that the bakery was discriminating because the requester was gay, but there was no evidence of this - simply that he supported gay marriage. (Which a lot of heterosexual people do).
Believe me Alan, I do see your point and your objection to a certain potential guest. Itās your place - your rules. But I really doubt that AirBnB (as a business) would be able to support you in this. This is my main point. You are disappointed because they did not support you but I hope you can understand their reasoning.
You are well within your rights to accept or reject any guest - AirBnB gives you that facility - but I donāt see that they can support a rejection based on a hostās own prejudices or opinions.
Wouldnāt your time be better spent concentrating on giving your future (and acceptable) guests a great stay with you?
I disagree with you about AIRBNB having to go long with offering accommodations to sex workers. In my country, as it is in yours, the US, sex-workers, ie prostitutes engage in prostitution, which is illegal. A business that knowingly engages in the facilitation of criminal activity could easily be found to be racketeering. Further if a business were to force another business to assist in a known illegal act, that would be coercion, which ups the penalty on racketeering. Guess what I do for living, eh?
Though I understand your point, it has to be recalled that, once it has been established that the person seeking to rent the place is also advertising their services during the same dates and is advertising their location as being the location of the place they want to rent from you, it is easily the reasonable man argument to conclude illegal activity is going to occur. And once the āreasonable man argumentā is in play, forcing someone to participate in illegal activity is a legal battle no one wants to be involved in, nor be dragged through the press with. That said, Iāll run my business with the moral and legal stewardship I have created that has allowed me to progress in life as I wish.
But, thank you to all those who offered reasonable, thoughtful responses. If I hear anything from AIRBNB I will pass it along as an FYI.
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With respect Alan, that isnāt exactly what I said. Personally (I might be wrong OK?) I believe that AirBnB would be ill-advised to discriminate against anyone because of gender, race, political persuasion, sexual orientation or indeed, their profession.
Nevertheless, AirBnB gives us hosts the ability to do so if we wish - we can pick and choose. You had that option and you used it. I wouldnāt have done so. Some hosts will agree with you, others will not. Thatās our/their prerogative. You asked for other hostsā opinions and you got them.
If you want to use your moral judgments when accepting guests, then no-one will disagree with you. However, please understand that they might not be in line with AirBnBās policies.
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@jaquo, I used a legal view, not a moral judgement. But thanks for your two cents, sincerely.
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Alan:
Odd, all along I was thinking your were coming from a moral view, which I can identify with more than a legal view; law is supposedly the height of reasoning, but not necessarily morality. I suspect I was in the same profession you are now. Your quandary stems from the fact that you want to preserve your Superhost status, which appears of paramount importance to you, and AirBnB with their too-stringent numeric requirements of accepting and declining guests perhaps has put you in a legal and moral dilemma. Interesting case indeed.
Only thing I suggest is perhaps re-thinking the true āvalueā of Superhost status, and that perhaps comes at too high of a āpriceā and maybe, just maybe may not be that important in the first place to your getting bookings. Imagine how much freer you would be without it, considering this particular situation. There was a an interesting discussion recently here about being Superhost, perhaps you may find it of interest.
Either way, wish you the best luck, for no other reason than you walk through life with the same moral fiber as I do, which I certainly can respect.
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FYI UPDATE: I received a call from a supervisor from the Premium Support Team; hereās the deal: First AIRBNB has removed the guest account of the prostitute. They too do not condone prostitution, and have no interest in that association. I guess for those of you who think prostitution is okay and have no problem with prostitutes renting from you might be disappointed to learn that AIR encourages hosts to report suspicious people; and when they discover what I had discovered, they too have the position of not doing business with them. Huh. As to the āsupervisorā who claimed he reports directly to the CEO and no one is between him and the CEO: Turns out his manger is having a long conversation with him as well as the original agent who took the call, because, AIRBNB is appalled at the way they handled the call considering a known prostitute was being brought to their attention. I have been informed that AIRBNBās view of the original agents behaviour of suggesting that I should not be judgmental is way off base; as it is precisely my business to do so, and they expect hosts to be responsible and pass judgment on guests AND bring these people to the attention of AIRBNB.
So, bottom line is, illegal activity is not acceptable and the lunacy of believing that I or AIRBNB are required to do business with anyone who comes along is TOTALLY INCORRECT. And those that engage in illegal activity, guests or hosts, do in fact get their accounts removed; as is the case with the hooker who tried to rent my place. I shout this last fact so that those who promote the idea of hookers as being acceptable guests, might get a hint and clue into reality and learn a bit of how to run a business with some dignity towards the industry we are apart of.
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There is no way I would host someone under those circumstances! I had a young lady want to rent a room from me last year, for a 6 month span. Told me she did Tantric Massage. I had to point out to her that there was no such thing. I refused. Who wants to live around that mess. Now, Iām ok with whatever they want to do, I just donāt have to host it. My dignity, reputation, standing in my neighborhood and as a long time (34 years) business ownerā¦I have a lot on the line, not just making money on Airbnb.
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Thanks, Alan, for the update! I am happy to hear that you had a satisfactory experience.
I do feel that you are being a bit unfair with your last paragraph - most people one here said that while they would agree to host a sex worker they would not let her use their premises as a place of work. There is a massive difference there, so saying that hosting a sex worker would be illegal activity is incorrect - hosting a sex worker who works in the air rental however would be considered illegal activity (which some hosts here said they would allow). Sex workers are people, too.
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I did not want to interfere in this heated discussion, but need to thank you Julie to put this right.
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Can we go back to the beginning and stop this nonsense? Declining an inquiry does NOT impact your superhost status. So, Iām inclined to believe this is a stunt.
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^^^ I am still baffled why all the dramatics, when all one has to do is decline the inquiry, unless being a Superhost forces one to only a few allowed ādeclinesā per year, which the thread has led me to believe.
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You can decline as many as you want as long as you respond.
People are confusing cancellation with declining.
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Got cha. So this whole exercise accomplished assuring us that AirBnB didnāt support illegal activity. Thank you, that was weighing on my mind much too heavily before this thread.
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The entire discussion has been based on a sex worker who is advertising herself on an escort site, stating that she will be working in the city and specifically on the street that she is attempting to book the apartment on.
So it is clear, the understanding is that she IS working while at the rental, and IS working in the rental. At no time has it been stated that hosting a sex worker is the issue, the issue has been hosting a sex worker who IS working at the rental.
I can well imagine if AIRBNB and hosts allow known working prostitutes to use the service and book as they wish, how often would that be used to enact city by-laws banning the operations of short term rentals?
And I stand by my comment that those who believe that illegal activity should be permitted to go unchecked at their rentals, provided the house rules are followed, are going to be the reason short term rentals will ultimately be put out of business by governments. Businesses have a legal AND moral obligation to uphold community standards, just as a person does.
And just to conclude this: The original issue was about the AIRBNB agents informing me that I, as a super host, should accept prostitutes, even though I know they were advertising their services while at my place, and that I should not be judging them: This is what began this, being told that I had to accept anyone. And as noted by some other hosts here, they too believe that as a host and a business that we are not permitted to reject business; which we have now have been informed, without any murky waters by AIRBNB, is incorrect, we, me, us, and AIRBNB does not have to do business with anyone we donāt want too. And accepting, or being a party to known illegal activity, is not permitted.
And just to conclude properly: This has NOTHING to do with your Superhost status. Declining an inquiry has NO IMPACT on your status as a Superhost. You are free to accept or decline whomever you will.
Thanks.
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Airbnb always states that you as a host must feel comfortable with the guests you accept ā although discrimination on basis of marital status, gender preference, race or religion or cultural should not occur.
However, you can have a policy in your house rules that only registered guests are allowed in the listing. It does seem an even more sensitive issue you are listing rooms in your own home than if your listing is a full apartment or house elsewhere. I rent rooms in my own home. I donāt care if a couple is married, single lovers, or gay or straight, as long as both are listed as guests. Single guests are not permitted to bring home overnight company ā actually no company of any type is allowed whether for two mins. or two hours. This is my home and I donāt want non-guests coming through ā the only exception is if Iām asked in advance if a relative of a guest can come into the house, then I will allow that.
@Alan1 --This is certainly an interesting situation in many ways. Thanks for the update.
Happy Hosting ā Lia
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I also appreciate the update. I was very concerned before when it seemed they not only condoned but expected us as hosts to do so. Nice to see sanity prevail.
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Doesnāt declining negatively impact your search results? Iām sure Iāve seen language that says the algorithm takes that into account.
The impact seems to be quite minimal.
Iām sure the impact on your business is going to be much greater if you get the reputation of operating a bawdy house, get arrested, or get sued by one of the frequentersā¦
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