Tag Archives: Airbnb Discrimination

Twelve Days and No Resolution from Airbnb

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My son reached out to Airbnb support on June 3rd to let them know that he did not feel safe staying at the Airbnb he reserved from June 1-26 after a nearby shooting and the fact the host’s description of the neighborhood had not been accurate. Instead of a vibrant up-and-coming neighborhood like the host had described, my son found a quiet and lonely street with little foot traffic, worn down buildings vandalized by graffiti, barred windows, and surrounded by construction sites.

This was not the first time that this host had been given a review that claims she is giving a misleading representation of the area where she lives, as stated on her profile. In addition, it appears the basement room she has been renting out is in violation of several health and safety codes. I also found out from Airbnb that there is at least one other ongoing case against this host. My son was told by Airbnb to cancel his reservation and work with his host to get a refund.

At first, the host seemed understanding of how my son felt, as a foreigner to the city. He spoke with her in person as he picked up his belongings on June 4th and later messaged her to thank her for her understanding, explaining the urgency of receiving a refund as he needed to find a new place to live. After this, his host never responded again. I tried calling her myself, leaving her a voicemail on June 5th. She never called me back.

I starting calling Airbnb the next day. I was unable to speak to anyone in the United States for days. While the representatives in the Philippines were very friendly and tried to be as helpful as they could, they continued to tell me they “only have so much power” and that their requests to transfer my calls kept getting pushed back. I was told the only thing that they could do for me is message my son’s former case manager, who told him to cancel the reservation, and ask him to reach out to me.

Not only did the case manager never reach out to me, but he was also “never online” the days I kept calling. When the representative from the Philippines, tried to reach out to the host on June 6th, the host told him she was “too tired and hungry” to deal with me, waiting at the other end of the line. The case manager then told me to fill out a form through the Resolution Center to ask for a refund, but warned me that I would have to wait for the host to respond or involve Airbnb after 72 hours of nonresponse.

The host read the message from the Resolution Center immediately after I filled it out with the representative on the phone. She would never respond through the Resolution Center, instead messaging me privately. In this private message, she accused my son of discrimination, saying: “This is a vibrant neighborhood as I stated in my description. People who are not used to diversity and seeing so many people of color, often mistake that for crime.” As a proud Latino hailing originally from Miami, my son was deeply offended by this accusation. She ended by telling my son, “This is really horrible what you guys are doing. And this deeply concerns me that you are creating this when you are here to work for [omitted],” leaving my son worried that she would go as far as to contact his place of work for feeling unsafe in her neighborhood and the room she rented out to him.

After days of countless hours spent on the phone waiting to speak to a case manager in the United States, my case was finally taken over on June 8th. This new case manager promised to reach a resolution given the circumstances. My son desperately needed the money to find a new place to move. She promised to update me every day as to how the case was going. After Friday, her first day working on the case, she stopped answering. The last update we got from her was that the host was not answering her calls. I emailed her every day since and received no response. I called Airbnb on June 13th and they informed me the new manager was on leave, and so she had not been working on my son’s case.

I then spoke to another case manager who told me the only person who could do anything was the one on leave, so I would have to wait until she came back on June 15th to revisit the case. He was extremely apologetic and even admitted that he would issue me a refund alone based on how my son was treated by the host. On June 15th, it will have been twelve days since Airbnb has continued to put off my son’s case. Airbnb has yet to acknowledge their host’s inappropriate behavior that goes against their mission to promote diversity and inclusion, has yet to speak to the host, who continues to ignore their calls and continues to be active on their site, and has yet to tell me anything other than “they have no power.”

This has been the worst customer service experience I have ever had. I have attempted all reasonable means through front-end customer service and am now taking to social media to resolve this issue.

How Airbnb Refused to Protect Basic Human Rights

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Note from Airbnb Hell editor: this post contains strong language

I would like to tell you a story about how Airbnb has treated me when I was faced with homophobic abuse at my own house by one of Airbnb guests. Let’s start from the beginning: I am renting my spare room via Airbnb in Amsterdam, and I had a guest from Texas.

Upon arrival, the guest started making comments about me and my friend: that we were wearing faggoty clothing and have faggoty hair. Once he came into his room, he started screaming that he needed a door with a lock because there are faggots with him in the house and we would rape him at night. I choose not to have a confrontation and decided to leave the apartment for the night altogether. I left him alone there, so he wouldn’t be afraid of “rape.”

I would like to mention that when he arrived, I carried his six huge bags upstairs because I was trying to be polite. I also offered him the choice of cold water, tea, and coffee. After I left the apartment, the guest ran away with his bags and my keys. He wrote me a message stating exactly the same. When I returned home, I called the police and reported the verbal abuse. I also had to change the locks, which cost an additional 100 euro. I obviously have submitted a complaint against this guest to Airbnb, but naturally they haven’t done anything (what can I expect?).

Today I received a message that this guest filed a complaint against me, stating that I didn’t give him enough privacy and respect and he had to leave. In my reply to Airbnb, I explained the entire situation one more time and offered the following documents as proof: a police report; photos of the rented room to show that there was enough privacy; invoice for changing the locks; witness statement from my flat mate who was present during this event; witness statement from the neighbors, who heard all the commotion and to whom my guest spoke upon departure, claiming that “dirty AIDS faggots” lived here.

What do you think Airbnb did? They charged me the price the guest paid for the room plus extra charges from Airbnb. Obviously they refunded him all the money, because the poor homophobe was upset. Apparently I didn’t argue with him in the messages. I am shocked about the very fact Airbnb once again completely ignored the gay community and returned money to an abuser. Please feel free to contact me for more details. Let me know what exactly you want to do; I’d be happy to provide more information.

Airbnb Forces Political Views on Account Holders

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I opened an account with Airbnb, and in mid-January 2017 made a reservation for a five-night stay in the US Virgin Islands. I paid the host with my visa card, but when I tried to log into my account again a few days later to ask the host a question, a website popped up asking me to sign on to a so called (political) pledge, including that I would not be discriminating based on race, sexual orientation, gender, or religion. The website gave me two options: either agree to their one-page nondiscrimination pledge, or cancel my account. It stated that if I did not agree to their nondiscrimination pledge that I would not be able to do business with Airbnb in the future. As it is none of Airbnb’s business to impose their political views on me, and in this way insinuate that I would be engaging in such activities, an approach I find totally un-American, I had no choice but to press the cancel option, thereby cancelling my account. That, however, also cancelled my reservation, and I am now fighting Airbnb through my bank and visa for a full refund. I have instead made my reservation with VRBO. For me, it is never again, Airbnb.

Nest of Thieves: Airbnb’s New Policy Costs Me

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Editor’s Note: The views and opinions expressed by AirbnbHell.com users do not necessarily reflect those of the Airbnb Hell staff.  That being said, we will continue to provide a free and uncensored platform for all of our contributors to share their Airbnb related stories, opinions, and experiences.

I’m a pensioner, an old lady who can’t afford to be ripped off by Airbnb. I had booked a holiday in the UK. I paid for it in full and was due to take it in November 2016. Then I received an email from Airbnb saying that everyone who uses their website will need to sign their Equality Commitment. I could agree to almost all of it, but though I have no property to let out, I could not agree to let out a room in my home to a gay couple. I have no problems renting from a gay couple. But as gay marriage is against my religious principles, I just cannot sign it. I was able to get a refund for the actual holiday but not for the service charge. I’m an old lady and can’t afford to lose that service charge. I would understand if they had told me before I paid my money out, that this is the way it’s going to be. That would have been fair. But this isn’t even legal! Never mind fair. They state that any bookings I already have will be cancelled if I don’t sign. You can’t do that! But they have done that. They have ripped off this old lady and robbed her blind. Why are they allowed to get away with it?

Has Airbnb Missed the Mark Entirely?

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Editor’s Note: The views and opinions expressed by AirbnbHell.com users do not necessarily reflect those of the Airbnb Hell staff.  That being said, we will continue to provide a free and uncensored platform for all of our contributors to share their Airbnb related stories, opinions, and experiences.

I am a boring old white male married with three children. I have no racial prejudices: the best man at my wedding was an Indian, I lived in Brixton when it was mostly black, I have gay friends, and I spent 11 years in the Middle East. I have employed Arabs and Jews and have friends who are both Muslims and Jewish – I even have a couple of friends who are lesbians – so clearly I am not racially prejudiced or against any particular minority group.

So what is Airbnb trying to do? They have sent me an email saying that unless I agree to their anti-discriminatory, pro-gay, pro-this and that terms and conditions, my guest house listing will be removed and any bookings I have made as an individual will be cancelled. What on earth are they trying to do? They are just an app with some really annoying features, like removing useful information from emails. This unbelievable arrogance speaks of delusions of grandeur. I will not agree to their new terms and conditions; it is not their business how I discriminate. I can fully understand why a old school catholic family may not want to host gay people. Surely they have that choice; it is their house and I am sure gay people would feel uncomfortable. Similarly, would a black guy want to rent a room from someone who is a member of the UK National Front? Probably not.

We all have our preferences. Airbnb has lost my listing for sure.

The Airbnb Community Commitment

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Editor’s Note: The views and opinions expressed by AirbnbHell.com users do not necessarily reflect those of the Airbnb Hell staff.  That being said, we will continue to provide a free and uncensored platform for all of our contributors to share their Airbnb related stories, opinions, and experiences.

It seems that this new policy is leaving a huge gap in the non-discrimination policy. Airbnb is apparently allowing rampant and blatant discrimination against what certainly is a fair percentage of users. I expect that a federal lawsuit against Airbnb will be necessary to right this wrong. The discriminated group are the pedophiles, child molesters, rapists, and criminals that search for victims among single females or hosts with children in the home. Do you want to hurt the feelings of these criminals by making them feel less than welcome? I should hope not! Certainly you are only partially addressing this discriminated group by creating a mandatory policy for forcing single white women into having black males in their guest rooms! Just because fifty percent of blacks have a criminal record by the age of twenty-three, it is not their fault! This racial discrimination against black criminals has got to stop! I expect that the present administration will use the justice department to correct this grievous injustice in the near future (after all, if they are no longer in prison haven’t they “paid” for their crimes?) and now deserve to be restored to full rights regardless of how many times they have been convicted? Thank you for forcing everyone to stand up and “do the right thing.” This is just the camel’s nose under the tent for moving forward with the political allegiances which should be included in the future mandatory statement. Great job, Airbnb; it is all about controlling the masses and deciding what is best for them whether they like it or not!

New Discrimination Policy: Instant Book

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I’m happy to see Airbnb beginning to address this. However, as a former host, I hope that the ability of hosts to screen customers does not take a backseat to guest satisfaction. Keep in mind you are profiting from people hosting strangers in their personal space – that involves a great deal of trust from a host.  My husband and I found a number of new Airbnb users were approaching booking our home as a hotel rather than a private residence. This included property damage, leaving our home a pig pen, leaving kids unattended, and rendezvous putting us in awkward situations with unhappy spouses. These incidents caused us to hesitate when booking new Airbnb users who did not have any reviews. The increase in promotions on airlines and the number of first time travelers resulted in requests from people looking for a cheap place to stay rather than a home stay experience. I would find it imposing to restrict the ability to screen just for the sake of a few hurt feelings, especially when our booking history showed we welcomed all races, genders, and sexuality into our home.  The problem with “instant book” is that it removes the initial communication between hosts and guests.  Please do not penalize your hosts who are hesitant to allow just anyone into their homes. We are not prejudiced – we are protecting our family and our belongings from those who do not understand the culture of Airbnb. Thank you for your consideration to those who make your business possible.