No response from Airbnb

[Yvonne57]

Hi

Last weekend, I had a very difficult guest who amongst other things had serious mental health issues and must have had my keys copied.

I reported her immediately on the airbnb site but have had no response. Apart from the fact that I'd like some acknowledgement from airbnb, I also feel strongly this woman should be barred from future bookings as she is a threat to hosts.

Any suggestions??

Yvonne

[Andrew157]

Hi Yvonne

Sorry you have had such a negative experience. The vast majority of mentally ill people are not a danger to anyone except themselves. You may say that is easy for me to say as I did not have them in my house. Airbnb run a lean organisation so responses are limited. I do not know what you expect airbnb to do.

You say that you think the guest copied your keys. Do you have any evidence to back that up? If so you must change the locks or at least one of the so she cannot return. Otherwise you don’t say what issues were present other that she was difficult. Difficult is not the same as mental illness.

[Lee59]

Andrew, I feel your comment was unsupportive to this host.  Her experience reflected an act that threatened the security of her home and your sweeping generalization of the behavior of mentally challenged people was insensitive.  

[Lee59]

Andrew:  I feel for you.  No one, mentally ill or otherwise, has a right to copy your house keys.  Put that in your House Rules!  After having been a long term host, I have been burned a few times by inexperienced airbnb customer service reps who respond only with scripted lines they seem to have memorized.  I always request a supervisor in those cases and many times am refused access to one. I have deeply considered leaving airbnb because of their strong lopsided support of guest over the host.  Yes, the guest brings in the dollar, but without the host there us no accommodation possible.  There seems to be a trend away from the original concept of guests experiencing life in a different setting that is personal , toward more of a hotel operation with instant booking, increased amenities offered to guests, super host goals, etc.    Airbnb is still in transition, but the bottom line is this is your personal home, it is your safety that you need to protect, and no one has a right to force you to compromise on either of those.  

[Linda108]

@Yvonne57 Did you write a negative review as well as reporting the guest?  That would help the host community should she seek another place.  If you have a way to support your concern that your key was copied, your cost to re-key could have been deducted from the security deposit if reported in a timely way.

I think an unsettling experience as you have described can be difficult to overcome.  How are you doing with respect to accepting new guests?

As to following up with Air BNB, what are you looking for?  Try sending a message to Air BNB via Twitter.  I have found that this is an effective communication system.

[David126]

I am also unclear as to what you want AirBnB to actually do. Or what realistically they could do.

Sounds like you think she may have copied the keys rather than know she did.

Keys are a problem, I have an electronic lock which I can change, otherwise sounds like it is more somethig for the review system.

[Jeeds0]

I can second the electronic lock idea. They were much less expensive than I had originally imagined and it's so nice to know you don't have to hand out keys. The passcodes for each guest can be expired so that after they leave they can never return, back into the house anyway 😉

[Jeeds0]

A couple of people have mentioned being unclear as to what the poster expects Airbnb to do. Granted not much information has been given regarding what happened but assuming that the poster is correct - that the guest was 'a threat to hosts' and 'copied her keys' then to me it seems obvious that Airbnb can do something.

Firstly if a person IS a threat then surely Airbnb is not going to want that person to continue booking with other hosts. Secondly isn't it possible to use the security deposit for necessary lock changing etc?

Perhaps people are over-reacting to the mention of mental illness? It's well known that most of those with mental illness aren't dangerous. It does happen occasionally and it may be that Yvonne was not 'disciminating' so much as simply mentioning where she believed part of the problem was stemming from. And if it is that and the guest was 'threatening' and stole keys then I don't think she should have to put up with that.

[David126]

If someone is dangerous then it is an issue for the Police.

Lets say I work for AirBnB and somebody calls me saying they have issues with the mental instability of a Guest, what do I do, do I ban them from the platform? How do I know it is not the Host who is a bit weird.

How do you know someone has copied the keys, OP made it sound like it was an assumption, because they were weird how would you have evidence?

[Jeeds0]

I definitely see your point about the staff and how they can't know. That makes me wonder - does anyone get banned or removed from the platform? What has happened with other hosts who've been abused, scared, had things stolen etc? Sorry David that is a general question, not one I'm asking you specifically.. It's just got me thinking. 

I had two guests stay here who had fled another Airbnb listing in the area. They'd stayed there for a couple of weeks, things were fine, then the host started drinking and didn't stop. He became aggressive and one of my guests beleived he'd also stolen his wallet. The police were called (for the aggression thing more so than the wallet I think) and I don't know what happened in the end but I did encourange them to please place a review AND to contact Airbnb because I felt that they would want to know that sort of information. Maybe I was wrong about the second part... maybe reviews are all we have.

Re the keys it was unclear but I think the Yvonne did say the guest 'must have' copied keys - leading me to believe that something had happened as opposed to just the general behaviour of the guest. 

[David126]

There was someone a few days back who was banned for what seemed an extortion attempt by a Guest.

Seems ABB did nat want to get involved so just closed his account.

[Victoria746]

We had a bad guest that booked the room for football game, arrived, jumped in for 5 minutes, while his friends were waiting for him outside in the car, left to see if he can stay with his friends and in order to return his deposit in full posted untrue dscription of my property and even lied about the distance from the stadium. I put the true facts and claimed that person even did not see the full house, just the room, but lied that he did not want to stay because it did not fit his preferences and he did not like it. After his review, my property was permanently taken off and I was blocked and not just I, but my daughter is not allowed to list her room and her mother either. Please suggest. I feel like local competitors used that bad person and kicked me out of competition. It strongly feels that Airbnb enter in relationship with local authorities and we do not know who they are, but my requests to get the manager or supervisor never have been satisfied. Thank you. Please suggest.