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Last year when i was a new host, “Dude” checked in and made my life a living hell. I’ve never been happier to see the back of someone’s head.
He tried to book with me again today and I denied him for solid reasons. Now he’s saying he will drop by on Monday and explain to me why he should get in.
Air says that I need to block him and file a local police report, and then the Safety people will take action.
The problem is there’s little the local police can co, him being an itinerant Hungarian national with no job or fixed address here. He does, however, have a history of arrest and inciting to riot in Hungary that is well documented.
If you declined, then he can’t book. He wants accommodation so (hopefully) he has no interest in tracking you down and meeting you. If by any chance he does, then let the local police know. Make sure that Airbnb knows also.
Contact police anyway. Contact all your biggest, toughest friends and ask them to stay with you at the place. Heck, I’d go to the nearest biker bar, turn on my southern drawl, and do my best damsel in distress impression to get a bunch of burly biker dudes to hang out and help me for a few days in exchange for some pizza, beer, and a stay at my Airbnb. You can bet my butt I would NOT just sit by hoping he doesn’t show up. Stay safe and let us know how it goes.
I’m sure you have replied that having declined his request, there is nothing to discuss, that he will be wasting his time visiting;that his intentions are tantamount to harassment should he appear at your door and you will file a complaint to the police, with the risk that he will be barred from using Airbnb in future. In the meantime, those burly bikers sound useful!
When you denied his booking you should have just declined him without giving reasons or engaging with him. Similarly if he turns up just don’t answer the door and don’t feel like you have to go out and have a discussion, even through a screen door. It is amazing the number of people who think they can convince crazy people to stop acting crazy by their powers of persuasion. If he wasn’t crazy he wouldn’t be bothering you in the first place when you have told him he is not welcome. Stay safe and avoid all contact. And if he turns up call the police immediately.
I did NOT engage this guest in conversation at any time.
I am NOT trying to convince a crazy person that they are not crazy.
And I DO know a lot of people, including some Angels. They will most assuredly NOT be staying in my home at no charge and drinking free beer. Nor will I be held responsible for their behaviour to anyone at any time.
Gosh, now that you mention it, Clemkadiddlehopprer, absolutely nothing.
I’m wasting your time!
Now, I kinda had this weird thought that maybe, just maybe, other hosts had run into something like this (apparently not) and that Air might offer some support (apparently not) so I’ll just kinda muddle through this one myself.
I hope it all turns out okay @justMandi – it sounds very threatening to me. While I’m in the states, and it sounds like you are in Hungary, I had a situation once (nothing to do with Airbnb) where a guy in our neighborhood was very aggressive and scared me. I didn’t think the cops could do anything but what I learned was that if they were present when I told the neighbor he could not come on our property, the next time I could have him arrested. The key was having told him in front of police. I would hope there’s something like that available to you. Stay safe!
Rest assured you are not wasting our time, and thank you for looking for host support in these difficult circumstances you are experiencing. Even if no one else has had a similar issue, there are always more than a few, kindly meant, listening people to offer their thoughts and ideas. Please keep us posted on how this pans out.
I posted this last night on another thread but it seems to fit here as well.
Your post @justMandi and @Clemkadiddlehopper) was fine and not inappropriate at all. However, being a public forum people just react. Here’s a typical gamut of reactions on a post here: 5 people ask for clarification, 3 misunderstand your post, 6 tell you shouldn’t do whatever you were posting about, 2 tell you shouldn’t post about the topic at all, 1 person gets offended, 3 people get offended that anyone was offended, 10 people tell you how they do it and 3 people go so far off topic you don’t recognize your post. Edit: 2 people tell you to check the Airbnb help center first, 1 person makes a poll about it.
Rants are welcome here, just abandon any preconceived ideas about what reactions you’ll get.
You won’t always have hosts who have had exactly a particular situation, so all we can do is offer advice based on our thoughts of how we would tackle a given situation.
I think you have already been offered some great advice/support from hosts here.
@Clemkadiddlehopper is new here so I think still finding their way around - so perhaps a little more tolerance and a bit less sarcasm would have been nicer in your response?
