What to do when I want to cancel a booking as guests violate airbnbs nondiscrimination policy?

[Matthias41]

My flatmate and I are gay, which up until now never has been a problem to any of our guests. Unfortunately our current guest turned out to be presenting himself as extremely homophobic. Not just did he feel the necessity to point out which one of us according to him looked and sounded “more gay”. Another example of his highly inappropriate behaviour is that he informed us to be very afraid of getting diseases like HIV and therefore asked us how often we did have sex suggesting that gay guys performing sex always carry diseases. I guess I don’t have to mention that HIV doesn’t get transmitted via sharing the same flat as a homosexual person, etc 😉 .

However we find his generalized statements to be very offensive and disrespectful towards our personal feelings and believes and are beyond uncomfortable having him over. We don’t think that whilst he is at ours our job is also to educate him on being more respectful and tolerant when as far as I remember taking part in the airbnb experience is exactly not to be discriminative in any way when it comes to peoples race, colour, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, or marital status etc. in the first place.

He just arrived and booked the whole month but I want to cancel his booking immediately as in my opinion it is unbearable to have someone around who violates basic rules of human interaction (as mentioned above).

Unfortunately I don’t see that I will be getting any support as the cancellation rule for hosts doesn’t include violation of the most basic of airbnb’s policies, which is its nondiscrimination policy and which I as a host obviously was very happy to agree with. Instead as a host I will be facing penalties for guests violating the nondiscrimination policy doesn’t appear to be a valid reason when cancelling a booking.

I’m so ready to cancel his booking, but I won't accept the penalties either because I don't see why we should be punished for being open and tolerant when the guest isn't.

What is the smartest way to deal with it? Anyone having similar experiences?

[Robin4]

@Matthias41

Oh Matthias, what a terrible thing to happen to you and I along with just about everyone else here feel for you and what you must be going through.

You do indeed have grounds to have this guest immediately removed. You state that the guest is making you uncomfortable with extremely discriminatory comments which are impacting on you and your partner.

The phone number for Germany is +49 30 30 80 83 80 or if you have a 'Twitter' account contact as follows.....

 Step 1: Log into Twitter

Step 2: Search for @Airbnbhelp and choose "Follow" them

Step 3: Send a Direct Message (DM) explaining your issue and wait for their response.  They may ask for information such as your listing but always provide it over DM so it is not public.

Matthias, do it now, you do NOT have to put up with behaviour like this, and the sooner you have this person out of your life, the better.....but do not cancel the guests booking yourself, you will be penalised heavily if you do. Get Airbnb to remove this individual, trust me, they will. There will be hosting payment issues to sort out, but that's better than what you are going through here......All the best Matthais I hope this sorts out quickly!

Cheers.....Rob

[Matthias41]

thanks robin for your support and advice,

got in touch with airbnb directly, waiting now for them to respond

[Matthias41]

...so in general airbnb were real quick to solve the issue after i called them. they cancelled the booking for me as i found out i wasnt able to do it myself because once a guest arrives you apparently cant cancel it anymore at all...they charged him for the days he's been here and theirs no penalty for me. im very happy it went so smooth. obviously they are trying to find a place for him to stay now.

as well they promised me to check on our issue in relation to their views on antidiscrimination and whether changes in their policies need to be made.

[David126]

So you can not contact the non discrimination team direct, you have to go through the usual call center and wait for them to cotact you.

Begs the question why AirBnB would seek to find somebody else to host him rather than just kick him off the platform?

[Matthias41]

...actually this team did respond to the e-mail i wrote and called me. but they did respond really quickly, too

but as i couldnt wait too long to have the issue solved with our guest i did call the customer service and as i wrote before they were most helpful. i think the process for me in total was about an hour from calling them for the first time reporting my problem to them confirming that he will have to leave the same day.

i dont know about the actual process for the guest and wheather they find a a place for the guy via airbnb or if they book a hotel, etc. for them

[Lawrene0]

That's something. If indeed "rehousing" happened here, do surrounding hosts get a message asking if they are willing to take a blatherskite bigot, or is that aspect of it a surprise to them? 

Anyway, how awful for you, @Matthias41, and so glad the machinery of Airbnb, community -> admin, worked the way it should, starting with @Robin4's answer. 

[David126]

I wondered how it operated, if I was contacted my first question would be why and I would want to contact the previous host first.

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Matthias41 he said he feels uncomfortable and affraid... so make him more uncomfortable and affraid until he cancels :))))  

why should you  educate him? you are not his father. 

[David126]

Did AirBnB not say there would be a special team to deal with such issues when this policy was announced? 

[Matthias41]

...they do apparently have team for that, and they called me and were most helpful apologizing for the inconvenience.

[David126]

How do you contact that team, do they have a telephone number?

[Matthias41]

yes they have a phonenumber for every country and i wrote an email to them...they did respond to both, calling was the most easy and quick way though, even on a saturday ;)...

[Matthias41]

well, we wouldnt opt for that...was horrible though to have a person like that in our home

[Bruce43]

@Branka-and-Silvia0  As a father to a gay son he says hahaha.    Good call also it good Airbnb did their job and help us hosts.    Glad everything worked out for the best.