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Just a hunch, but I think it’s homophobia, or maybe just sex-o-phobia. This woman lives directly below the unit in question, so I’m sure she hears everything. And it may just be the noise of people clomping around that’s bothering her. It’s just a thought. I personally would be very bothered if my upstairs neighbor was taking in boarders.
Coincidentally, there is a little studio apartment below my living room where I host my Airbnb guests. The woman living in it–a very nice, reasonable lady–is almost as sensitive to noise as I am. She’s commented before about snoring and heavy footsteps. I’ve apologized and she seems to be able to tolerate the occasional bit of noise. However, it would not work if I took in couples because Blanca would definitely not tolerate it and I wouldn’t blame her.
For clarification her unit is on ground floor and 1st floor, while our bedroom was on 5th floor (the unit we rented spreads on 3 levels). From the pictures of her apartment on Facebook , her bedroom must be located below the kitchen or dining room of the apartment we stayed in… So I doubt she was able to hear anything as we did not use the kitchen or dining room. And as a detail we did not have sex while in this apartment
OMFG She was clearly homophobic and was mad at the noise because we all know that gay people always have loud sex. Fact. Whaaatt??
Sorry, I’ve probably overdosed on watching Samantha Bee.
Seriously, I think you have a great attitude, @Barthelemy, over this negative experience. I’m with whoever suggested contacting them directly, host to host, and take it from there. There are some horrible posts on here from people who seemed to delight in slamming their fellow hosts, please don’t be one of them.
Being French living in Brussels, I surely agree with this. My own neighbour is of the same cloth, and, well, is the main reason why I stopped hosting personally, for fear of a situation of the kind that happened to you. Some people cannot stand hearing French (just like in France, some people will never tolerate any foreign language, and in some areas of the US too apparently!).
I am on the side that the host needs to address this situation and come to term with protecting the guests or siding with the neighbour. Since he obviously cannot seem to come to a clear-cut decision on his own, he probably needs a little push. Airbnb won’t take any decision on his behalf. Contacting the host might be the elegant thing, but he didn’t really give you much support when it was much needed.
@Barthelemy, how awful for you, I must say that you’re taking it very well - I wouldn’t be half so civillised if it had happened to me! And I so know about some Flemish peoples’ attitude, from the very first day I lived in a Flemish-speaking district of Brussels and went to politely buy une baguette s’il vous plait in my best francais at the local baker’s … didn’t make that mistake again … But it does seem as if this neighbour had bigger issues - could be just her personality or a bad experience with other guests, who knows?
I usually err on the “soft” side when judging/reviewing other hosts, but I’m not so sure about it here … the haranguing from the neighbour was enough, but then the fact that you were unable to stay for your last night … what if you had been going to stay for a whole week? What if you didn’t live in Paris but in the south of France? Your host knew that there was an unresolved problem with the neighbour (the fact that he warned you to be quiet in the apartment shows this) and really, although he was “nice”, he didn’t do all that he should have done to see to your comfort (surely the first rule of hosting?) when the problem arose …
If you really don’t want to leave a critical review, and I completely understand your reasons for that, write a neutral review (or none at all) and then write to him personally, expressing your concerns for both his guests and the damage to his future business - he’s not going to become a Superhost if his guests are repeatedly confronted by a screaming harridan!
Believe it or not, @Magwitch, there are Flemish speakers for whom being French or Walloon (French-speaking Belgians) is a far greater crime than being gay!
AirBnb works if people give honest and factual reviews. That he gave you some money in no way mitigates the situation. You definitely to warn others of this problem. This person should not be hosting at all. I assume he had moved out of his apt and was not there truly hosting. You don’t really know what had gone on before with this woman. Perhaps he had a crazy guest too that did something to her. I would probably say something like, :“we were not able to spend the night because of a pre-existing problem between our host and his neighbor. We were severely inconvenienced, because we stood in the rain and missed dinner reservations while our host and this neighbor argued. Although he refunded enough money for us to find a hotel room, it was late and we decided to abort our vacation and return home.”
Indeed @Zandra. It was an attempt to be humourous and I hope I didn’t offend anyone. If I did, well I’ll live and so will you And yes, @Malagachica, I’ve met quite a few Vlaams and mmh, ok, well… just mmh. I have a great affinity for small countries and communities that want to shake off the shackles of oppression but you need to be open-minded and outward-looking in order for anyone to really give a damn.
Thank you again, everyone, for your support and valuable input.
So … in the end I changed my mind and I have decided to write a factual review to warn other guests, as
the way he treated us is just not right. Though he didn’t care where we were going to eat or sleep, he dared to ask for a good review !
This host has otherwise good ratings and reviews, so it should not hurt his business too much, and as several of you have said, it seems he needs a little push to address the situation. If even @dcmooney, kindest host on Earth, thinks I should do so, well, it must be the right thing to do.
As I think has been established already, it’s far from clear when the last minute would be. Like many things related to Airbnb, the precise date and time is lost in a morass of confusion.
ABB does not show your review until after the end of the review period, just as you don’t get to see your host’s review until you both submitted a review or the time period is over.
On our third night, we ran into a hostile woman we had never met before. She would not let us access the building and our apartment. (Host name) came to the location and after an argument with his neighbor, requested we leave. (Host name) told us he has an ongoing issue with her. We had to pack in a hurry and vacate. Though (host name) compensated us, we were left on our own on the streets of a foreign city, by a rainy night, with our luggage. We missed our dinner reservation and were not able to find another restaurant. We decided to abort our vacation and return home. We are discrete and respectful guests and still wonder why we had to leave.
Fair enough @Barthelemy, I would just eliminate a couple of lines that may be unnecessary, because the shorter always the better. You did put the cause on the crazy neighbor, but held the host responsible for being too weak and not standing up for his guests; which is the essence of the issue.
, her bedroom must be located below the kitchen or dining room of the apartment we stayed in… So I doubt she was able to hear anything as we did not use the kitchen or dining room. And as a detail we did not have sex while in this apartment 
