How to sue AirBnB in small claims court

@JohnF

Eagle eye for misplaced modifiers! You are now officially my editor du jour. I have fixed that passage (I think):

I was VERY concerned that Air was INDEED paying her legal costs — until @Brian_R170 (so much gratitude) posted the AirBNB Hell link, where she indicated she was footing the bill herself.

@GutHend, I filed a motion to bring physical evidence to court, and the motion was approved, so EVERYTHING (the dog’s toy basket and all its contents) was there in court. And, it’s rubber, and the judge and the defense attorney could see it.

The defense attorney did not bring any evidence (photographs, eyewitnesses) to show a real gun was there. If it WAS there, it would have been planted!

So, demonstrably false. There simply wasn’t a gun there. There’s never been any weapons in my house, baring my rapier wit. j/k


Couldn’t reply to the guest’s review because I was delisted.


The guest’s “job” is not to make up extremely serious allegations out of thin air.

Her job is to tell ME she is concerned and have me shove the 1/4 inch of rubber that so alarmed her completely under my eyeglasses case so she can chillax!

@AlexSJ YES I DO have witnesses who are willing to testify that the rubber gun has been there for a while. GOOD POINT.

and YES re diversifying, that was a question my legal aid attorney provided. I gave him a LONG list of all the many places I list, and unfortunately, it really came to 640 or so Air bookings, and 10 all together of maybe a half-dozen other ways of ferreting out guests.

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I have only seen cases of hosts being investigated for racism on here, where there was video, text and/or evidence on Airbnb messaging to back up allegation.

Which case discussed on here are you thinking of, where a host was accused of racism with no evidence and was then shut down?

Not saying in any way that Airbnb can’t and won’t do this. Just don’t remember the case :slight_smile:

Wow @Mexican

I appreciate you have only been a member for a few weeks, and it takes time to get a feel for how a forum works, but your post wasn’t at all helpful, and definitely personal .

I may not always agree with @GutHend - but I think you overstepped the mark here.

@GutHend I do actually think it is interesting to discuss all sides of this case, as it has huge repercussions in terms of hosts and guests leaving reviews on Airbnb, as it is so unusual for a host (or guest) to win a legal challenge against a review.

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I agree, it’s definitely a very interesting case in many ways and I’m very curious how this will all turn out in the end.

AlexSJ found the specific case I was thinking about: Thrown off for absurd violation? . Apparently it wasn’t because of racism, but something about same sex couples (I’m not going to read the whole topic all over :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:). Anyway I remember the case being equally astounding.

Thanks just reminded myself of the case @GutHend.

This was a large scale property developer who said he wanted to cancel because the guest wanted to bring an extra four female guests and he was afraid they would stay over. And the guests (four guys in a two bedroom property) said he wanted to cancel because he was being homophobic.

Unfortunately the property manager had kept his communications about this to phone calls, and had not followed anything up on Airbnb messaging, so there was nothing in writing to back up his side of the story.

Airbnb ruled against the host and closed his listings.

It’s hard to follow up on airbnb extranet. When it’s booked and arrival is same day. They call us and say they wish to do something rediculous. Owners told me to just cancel.

My case is a good reminder to all. That no matter how big you are. If the client makes a outlandish lie. Airbnb might toss you. We have the position now once booked on airbnb never cancel. Make my case funnier that we discriminate. We had a same sex couple ftom airbnb staying that week. Which we had nothing but excellent experience with. So. When you call airbnb or they call you. And they remind you this conversation is being recorded. Remember it’s not for training. It’s to get you.

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Do you have witnesses that you can bring on that if interested Airbnb could have easily found, showing that they just don’t care because they are high and mighty?

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If you mean in the sense of past guests, oh yeah sure!

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Well, if one would try move away from: xxx says so, YYY says this …
What would say a guest saying that stayed at the same time?
Or one shortly before or after?
If you come up with a few, then you can throw that out there: why didn’t Airbnb dig that teeny weeny little bit before closing your account.

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Yep I can try that tact tomorrow if AirBNB a) shows up and b) tries to counter the physical evidence that I will be bringing to the courtroom (the entire toy basket including the training pistol, as well as a small bulletin board covered with thank-you Post-Its from guess).

It’s gone now.

I read this whole thread and watched both of your videos, @PuppyLover. I am so sorry all of this happened to you and I will be following with interest.

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Thank you so much. I have two additional videos in process that will show the next stages of these parallel legal battles.

Yep the guest’s attorney apparently got her to take down that ill-advised AirBNB Hell posting as of April 8, right after included it as an exhibit in the appeal. Here is a copy of the original.

Sued by Airbnb Host for Reporting a Gun - Airbnb Hell

Her attempted pity party for getting sued for her defamatory review was not well received by commenters. Samples:

That was a toy gun and you ruined this woman’s life. You also didn’t retract your review when the guest contacted you that this was a toy gun in a basket of dog toys. Why are you so vindictive?

What you did to the owner of that house was very messed up, Stephanie, and now other hosts like myself are going to be wary of renting to you.

The poster is an example of Airbnb Hell, not the host. She falsely accused the host of owning an unsecured gun and Airbnb shut down the listing no questions asked. Host lost five months worth of revenue due to this inconsiderate guest.
The host has been reinstated on Airbnb. This guest however, should be permanently removed from the site. Completely inappropriate behavior, especially to come here and write this post after she was shown proof that what she saw was made of rubber. Don’t believe me, look at the reviews alone. The host has over 500 reviews, the guest who posted this has only nine. Who are you going to trust?

Why didn’t you leave a note to the host AFTER check-out? You sound like a professional trouble-seeker – try a real job:)

As a disclaimer, I don’t know any of those who wrote the above responses, so the response to the actions of this guest were received very negatively by the neutral/uninvolved parties who responded to her depiction of events.

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I feel like the judges were giving you breadcrumbs. I presume you have been looking at cases regarding unconscionable contracts and will understand if you don’t reply.

Three of the four TOTALLY giving breadcrumbs … heck, ROAD MAPS on how to proceed … I will quote Judge Scurti (original Small Claim against guest) who laid out his views that this was a heinous defamation …Judge Baylor-Thompson (original Small Claim against Airbnb) opened my eyes to the constitutional problems with the Airbnb contract … Judge Pierson (Airbnb 1st appeal) (that video is a doozy and almost complete) all but gave me the correct forms to take Airbnb on to the next level, the Md Court of Appeals …

The video of the Airbnb appeal in front of Judge Pierson is 95% complete, and our very interesting and mutually respectful dialogue goes to town on the problems with the unfair contract, as does the Writ of Certiorari asking the Md Court of Appeals to take the case. (link to Writ, maybe start at p. 7 for the parts where we say this is SO UNCONSCIONABLE it’s unreal.)

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Thank you for doing this! And yes, please don’t sign a NDA, and also if you can, make your transcript and written pleadings available online. You are doing us all a favor by doing this. As one who has filed cases pro se in the past, I know that for a non-lawyer doing your own legal research and paperwork is really a grind.

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Thanks @NordlingHouse I am working as we speak on getting EVERYTHING online so others can copy/paste whatever they need for their own complaints and/or strategy against guests or Airbnb itself.

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She was so frightened by the (OBJECT,) yet she (over)stayed? It’s really just the next level up from a photo of a firearm… not real.! “Scary” to some who have been programmed, but not a weapon. Who cares if she (thought) she saw a firearm, it wasn’t. If she isn’t intent in causing trouble, she’d correct her defamatory statement affecting a very kind lady and her serious loss of income. This Guest has not suffered any from her error. It is only right she pay for the absolutely unnecessary damages her ignorance and rottenness has caused this poor woman. This would be out of the Guest’s front yard had she corrected it even and labeled it a toy gun even… :roll_eyes:

Absolutely ridiculous and unreasonable to have left the review up. I can call Airbnb on any review I’ve left and said I was wrong, please remove it… they will. This means that she is choosing to leave it up, which makes the Guest, rotten.

I’ll bet her attorney advised her to remove it…