Assaulted by a Male Guest as a Former Superhost

Airbnb deactivated my account- running my two listings were my main source of income. Airbnb also allowed that guest on their platform, then did nothing to address the assault.

I’m not sure that responding to you is rational anymore.

Hello @YAABOM

I am sorry you have been treated less than sympathetically by some of the posters here.

I wasn’t clear what situation led to this guest assaulting you with his car?

Were you injured?

I am sure it must have been a frightening experience.

If you want to take things further, I would contact your local media and express your concern about Airbnb siding with a guest who violently assaults a host with a lethal weapon (this is what a car is).

By the way if STRs are you main form of income I would hope that you are not just reliant on one listing company, but have them listing with multiple listing providers and are also marketing them directly.

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The problem is that you do not know what this guest told to AirBnB. He could have made up a lot of stories.

The quickest way to get back online, is to get media involvement. Get a local newspaper or an anti AirBnB website to pick up your story.
AirBnB hates bad publicity, so the will be triggered if this story gets out.

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I’m very sorry you were assaulted.

Yes, you can redact the personal info. It doesn’t take a PhD to photocopy, black out your name and address with a sharpie, and scan.

Your best bet is to get the media involved to report on this story. The local news will jump on the fact that this guest is still on the platform after running you down with his car.

Your next best bet is to sue like PuppyLover did.

Common advice on these forums is to make sure you’re not in a situation where you rely on AirBnB income because AirBnB can shut your account down at any time. I sympathize because I’m in a similar situation to you: I only list on AirBnB and I’m also an underemployed PhD and parent. However, when I need a break from hosting, I get a tenant to help pay the bills.

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Obviously you didn’t read my post as I said clearly the problems of AirBnB and their CS

That it is a host or a host forum also doesn’t change anything.

A case presented by one of three parties cannot be considered as credible. Maybe what this person said is true or maybe not. No one has anything other than an anonymous post.

I sympathize if it is true but I remain skeptical at something this unlikely on the part of a large company. There’s too much fake news bouncing around us to accept the words of someone you have never met.

I am saying and still say that what is presented as highly questionable. It is hard to accept that a company as large as Airbnb with many lawyers would do something this stupid and get themselves into media hot water.

People can argue the opposite, but you have zero evidence and it is only opinion to agree with the poster.

I did read your post @Klatchers I just don’t agree with your position.

By your logic then, there is no point you being a member here as it is always going to be a single source saying something and therefore nothing that is said can be seen as credible (by you).

We don’t need to accept someone’s word. But neither do we need to start from a position that everything someone says is a lie.

Thankfully most of the world is not governed by the weird obsession with fake news, propagated by your president.

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I’m laughing out loud at this assumption.

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I’m going to add to the comments because I found your comments overly harsh…most everyone here gets, and gives, a dose of tough love every now and then but are also not afraid to say when someone goes a bit too far. Air CS often does make arbitrary decisions AND a delisting would be the risk-averse approach corporate lawyers advise when police are involved, even if the host was in the clear. Perhaps the host will get reinstated with bad media coverage, maybe not. Single hosts are a dime-a-dozen and so one less is no skin off their nose if they want to get the fact sorted out in the meantime.

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I would like to extend my sympathies for the assault and the delisting and no person whether they be male or female should be placed in this type of situation especially in their own home. However, how did you put yourself in the position of being hit by his car? Sounds like it turned out to confrontational situation and both parties got heated which is no excuse for you being “assaulted”. Hopefully, things will turn out well for both of you.

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As an American citizen, a reminder that the old angry ‘fake’ president (he lost the popular vote by over 3 million) is not MY president…

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We have had multiple reports over the years of hosts who are deactivated with no recourse. And frankly, the Airbnb TOS say they can terminate anyone for any reason at any time with no due process. In many cases the hosts claim they don’t even know what they did. I think @Barry_Brachfeld would be in this category. Puppy lover had that experience which she has shared extensively here.

Based on my reading of this forum over the last 4 years I’d say it’s more likely that the story is true than not.

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You just said he hit you with his car, so being physically larger stronger has absolutely NOTHING to do with it.

There ARE a lot of missing details. You told the guest to leave. He must’ve at least been in the process of leaving since he was in his car. Why were you also outside where the guest could hit you with his car? What transpired?

You have a PhD and work as a Data Scientist, and your Airbnb listings are your main source of income? The average salary of a data scientist is well over $100K/year, so you were making around $200K? I’m sorry you’re losing the Airbnb income, but if that statement was meant to garner sympathy, it kinda backfired.

I’ll say it again:

How about retelling this story from the beginning?

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I have been the victim of assault a couple times. My point is that I am skeptical. Airbnb and their CSes are often clueless, as we all know.

I cannot imagine a scenario in this environment, where host calls up with a police report to Airbnb about a guest, and Airbnb decides to delist host and risk a huge media firestorm.

Maybe it’s true and maybe it’s not. But I’m not going to spoon out sympathy to an anonymous poster without any word from the other sides.

It’s what we call justice. You may run to defend and chuckle and ladle out sympathy, but there still remains no evidence this is real.

There are three sides here. Maybe the victim caused this to happen. Maybe they weren’t delisted. Maybe the poster was a huge pain in the neck to Airbnb.

I have been in court. Each side gets a fair hearing. Here, two sides are missing.

“delisting would be the risk-averse approach corporate lawyers advise when police are involved,”

Having worked with corporate lawyers in my occupation as a writer, nothing could be further from the truth of the statement. Delisting an assault victim it’s precisely the kind of thing the media would love to blare across the Universe

Sorry @Rolf - when I said 'your president ’ I said it as being shorthand for the president of your country, which like it or not does make him your president :frowning:

In our country we don’t even get to vote for our prime minister.

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As I have already said you are in the wrong place if you expect to have three sides of every story posted on here. Others have pointed out at length that Airbnb can and does delist hosts at will and without explanation. Ask @PuppyLover.

Rather strange for you to have joined this forum if what you are looking for is a three way view.

And that you see forums as a place to met out ‘justice’. This forum is a place for us to offload, get advice and have a bit of banter.

And why the constant sarcasm and nasty comments to your fellow hosts? Hardly makes you a credible poster but rather more of a troll. People aren’t going to want to engage with someone who constantly derides others.

Anyway I’m out.

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You’ll never read the other sides on this forum. Ever. So it’s pointless to even bring that up. However, it would be nice to actually read a complete telling of the host’s side, and it is unfortunately absent from this thread.

Well we agree to disagree. I, too, am a writer and a PR person for a Fortune 50 company and have done crises work for more than 30 years. Added to say delisting is EASY to explain to media.

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I agree @Atlnative

There are a fair few of us here who are writers and former journalists including myself. It doesn’t make us any more credible or our point of view the only one that should be considered.

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Hosts here sometimes post guests negative reviews or screenshots of conversations. Some hosts here will put their personal pride and feelings aside to have an unbiased examination of what happened. If you priority is to make money, its the rational thing to do.

Besides that, I don’t make up my mind on something until I’ve heard both sides so I don’t expect others to make up their mind without hearing both sides either.