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As an experienced former Superhost for years, I was assualted by an angry male guest (with no prior Airbnb experience) for telling them to leave an hour after checkout time.
The police filed an Assualt on a Female report and charges are being pressed against the guest.
Without explanation or chance to share my story, Airbnb deactivated my account and two listings based on zero information from tb police report. They sided with a guest with no reviews, and a criminal record prior to assaulting me.
Airbnb will not take my emails or calls. I’ve simply been cut off from the income that supported my child as I boot-strap another start-up. As a single parent, I have a PhD and work as a Data Scientist, and Airbnb treated me like incompetent trash after earning them $10,000 over the years. They had me wait over 30 minutes on the phone to try to speak with a manager as they were deactivating me, but no manager or explanation ever came.
With enough disgruntled former hosts, we can take action to alter these unacceptable practices by Airbnb. Now I’ve got to take the time to be in court as an assault victim, also sue that defendant, and now speak with attorneys about suits against Airbnb. Negligence isn’t allowable when hosts and guests are trusting Airbnb.
Many folks here have said that they got quick action on problems like this when they posted a short summary of what happened to the AirBnB Twitter account or the AirBnB Facebook page.
Do you have copies of the police report or other info related to the police call?
Did anyone witness this or is it just your word against theirs? What is their side of the story? Where do you live that there is such a law as “Assault on a Female”?
Why does it matter that you were a Superhost (at some point)?
Why did the guest’s gender matter so much that you started a new thread to indicate in the title that the assaulter was male?
BTW, I’m sorry this happened to you. Most of us are aware of Airbnb’s behavior whereby they cut all ties under certain circumstances. If you want to have a constructive discussion about it without a lot of assumptions, you need to provide some more relevant details.
I’m leaning toward a theory that much of Customer Service involves robots, and badly programmed ones at that. I can definitely confirm that AirBNB would side with a loopy guest and not side with a Superhost.
@YAABOM I have some threads and a YouTube video on suing AirBNB. You can definitely go into Small Claims Court; to seek cash damages you will have to attack head-on the Terms and Conditions clause (17?) that excludes us from seeking lost profits. And maybe go more on damages due to screening negligence.
I am assuming that the “Former” part of the post refers to their having deactivated your account? Yes or no?
More facts would be good but if you feel you are in the right, OP, then yes, publicize what is happening via Twitter, Facebook and the local media as well.
I truly hate that the assault occurred. I’m guessing the guest was under the influence of Alcohol and/or drugs. A&D make people behave badly. Also some people have discovered that behaving badly and bullying gets them the results they want.
I hope you reported the guest for late checkout to Airbnb before confronting the guest.
Airbnb cancelled you? Move your listing to another platform like VRBO…you may need to lower your rates for a while to get rentals. VRBO guests are slow to rent places with no reviews.
There are several advocates on this forum for maintaining your listing on multiple sites in the event something like this happens so consider your options to do that. (I’m not very successful at that—Houfy & Airbnb are my two & I’m slow in maintaining my Houfy listing )
I may have missed it—it’s late. What action did you report as assault?—verbal? Shove? Hit? (If he hit you I hope you grabbed a cast iron skillet into action-my personal in-home self-defense choice)
Yes they side with guests. And I have no idea about what goes through the minds of some of their clueless CS reps.
But there is no way in 2019 with #MeToo and hidden cameras and liability and other black eyes Airbnb has gotten that clear assault on a host by a guest would knowingly intentionally lead to a permanent delisting by Airbnb as described above. They have many lawyers.
Again, no word from Airbnb or guest, can’t just assume the original post is true. That is the problem with a forum. Justice is when all sides are heard.
I am so very sorry that this happened to you. I am also perturbed at Airbnb’s actions.
From this end of the keyboard we have no way of knowing if an assault took place.
However it is reasonable to assume that something went down if the police charged the guest. A long history of hosting on Air speaks to credibility. We won’t know until the trial is over.
Airbnb was quite firm in their last update that they bear no responsibility for what happens. But shutting your listing is punitive. My evil twin wonders if the guest is off platform.
Assault can be traumatic for you. Please see a doctor.
If and when you are up for it you may wish to hit the media.
It matters because this MAN was physically larger and stronger than me, and extremely aggressive. Women can also fit that bill, but in NC, the charge is Assault on a Female.
You seem to dislike the gender aspect, but NC courts take it seriously.
Of course you are not hearing the guests side of it. It is the host that is posting @Klatchers. It is after all a host forum.
I would have to call you rather naive if you truly believe that Airbnb sides never sides with the attacker (guest) and fails to listen to the victim (host), (just as you are doing actually).
I don’t know if this new poster is credible, just as i don’t know if you are credible as a new poster.
Airbnb has a lot to do with this. I was a dedicated host who worked hard for my guests- anyone with more than a few months of hosting experience knows that the Superhost designation takes time and effort. To have had 120+ positive reviews and 300+ groups of guests hosted in the past shows how much I cared about my role as a host.
And that has what to do with Airbnb regarding the situation you described above?
Please be careful: I have been a host for many many years and SH isn’t something that takes a great deal of time and effort. Don’t cancel, offer good service and get good reviews. Job done.
