We just had a booking from a first time airbnber and after accepting received a profile photo wearing tshirt on the lines of “f society - execute Democrats”. Wording was initially hard to make out and looked like a foreign language but image had been mirrored (obviously deliberately). After flipping it back to normal view text became readable.
We are not comfortable hosting these guests, but if we cancel and give the real reason Airbnb will obviously claim discrimination. Even if their intention was violence to other political parties, we would still feel the same way. In 5 years ion hosting over 100 guests we have never cancelled any one but if we do will we be penalized whereby our listing position will be removed or dropped down? Would like to hear from hosts who have cancelled for the first time.
Don’t cancel yourself- contact Airbnb. They will have your back on this, I’m pretty sure. You won’t be accused of discrimination and the guest may be banned from the platform. This guest is advocating murder.
Airbnb has told hosts to report guests who are of this mindset.
Get in touch with Airbnb at once. Airbnb are most unlikely to claim discrimination in this case and just don’t worry about that. Safety is the most important issue here.
Tell them this is a Trust And Security issue. Be sure to save a screen shot in case he changes the picture.
AirBnB should cancel this without penalty. Insist on it.
You should cancel and simply state to Airbnb “I’m not comfortable with this booking.” I cancelled a booking, and I was not penalized. I think it might depend on the Airbnb rep.
The OP said “after accepting”. So it was booking request, not an IB. An “I’m not comfortable” host cancellation isn’t an option.
Besides, this user should be reported in any case.
UPDATE. Airbnb cancelled them but initially had responded that they had “checked the profile photo and it seems to not have that photo” which was bs as it was Airbnb who sent it to us. We contested that and had a response from another caseworker as follows:
Airbnb Support8:45 AM
We cancel this reservation HM8xx with no penalties for you and send a full refund to the Guest xx, as you requested.
Hopefully we wont see our listing position slide.
Thanks for returning to update us.