Xenophobic Airbnb Host Harasses Guest After Stay

Posted on May 31, 2021

I am a college student whose lease started after the school was scheduled to close. This meant for the few days in between I was on the brink of being homeless. I had finally found a way to move in early but I still wasn’t given a consistent time and date. My Airbnb host knew this and offered to store my things from my dorm room. He changed his price, but I did not mind or rather had no choice to because there was no available storage left in town that I knew of.

From the beginning, I felt uncomfortable. He was telling me what to do, and I felt extremely rushed. Later on and even before he was very confusing on what he meant by storage. We eventually agreed on storing my stuff in his car and he would deliver to my place at a price. This was fair to me. Overall, our personalities did not match, but I was willing to ignore that because I needed a place to stay and that’s ultimately what I was there for.

We had made an agreement that he would drop my things off at my house at a certain time. I tried to express to him multiple times that my property manager was not very responsive and he kept pressuring me to reach out, call him, and check my phone. It felt like I was caught between two men who wanted different things and my literal living situation was on the line. He told me he would drop me off at a certain time and I agreed to that because it was mainly congruent with the time my property manager gave. He also told me I could remain in the house until it was time to leave. He changed this very last minute and I had to leave earlier.

While I was waiting for the call to move in, he asked me what I wanted my occupation to be. To keep it brief it had to do with immigration and helping immigrants and native citizens with integration; this is a very incomplete explanation of it. His political views definitely differed from mine and he verbatim was quoting what seemed like Trump tweets. I constantly told him I was not having the conversation he wanted to have and he continued to talk about it despite my statements and clear discomfort.

I may have accidentally left something in his possession and he was reluctant to help me because he said I was “cold” after he helped me. I paid him for all services outside of housing such as delivery and picking up my stuff. He also made me uncomfortable by asking which exact unit I lived in after he was done.

When I made my review it was 4/5 stars for my comfort and he responded with it dismissing my comfort with his “good reviews”. He’s blocked me and I have blocked him, but there’s no telling if he has my possessions or not because he isn’t compliant. At first it seemed like he was going to help me but after I said thank you for looking for my stuff and I may have just misplaced it he really went out of line with being like: “I’m shocked you asked for help after being so cold” and accused me of getting my feelings hurt like he wasn’t the one calling me “bent out of shape” and overstepping my own boundaries.

It was honestly the most uncomfortable experience ever. I am missing a small pouch and the fridge I let him handle has a piece missing from the back I believe. I am hoping the pouch is just lost within the bins that haven’t been fully unpacked. I’m not trying to accuse him of anything but for someone who handled me so wrongly he really handled the situation poorly. Talk about hurt feelings. I doubt you’ll enjoy staying here.

Politically Motivated Account Suspension from Airbnb?

Posted on January 15, 2021

I just received this cryptic email from Airbnb:

“We’ve determined that your account is affiliated with someone not permitted to be on Airbnb. The types of affiliations we consider to make this determination include things like your location and the email address associated with your Airbnb account. As a result, we have removed your account from Airbnb and you will be unable to use the platform in the future. To protect the privacy of the Airbnb community, we can not provide details about this user’s account eligibility.”

So a phantom is magically associated with me that disqualifies me from the platform. I have paid all fees and have had compliments from hosts for the business given by me and my family members. We have booked multiple times and never left a negative review. No complaints from any host or from Airbnb. Suddenly… complete suspension.

What is this? I suspect it is politically motivated, given the timing of the suspension.

A Laundry Room is not a “Private Room”

Posted on December 12, 2019

Due to being desperate to find affordable housing in LA during the summer, I settled for the next best thing: Airbnb. At the time it seemed like a huge step up from where I had previously stayed (a six-person dorm in what seemed like a large renovated tool shed with no windows and sketchy guests). Now it’s just getting ridiculous.

Again, I had decided to stay in this Airbnb because I was literally desperate for some peace of mind, and I thought, “Hey, considering how many people potentially live in this Airbnb, they’re not going to do laundry every day“… except they basically are.

It seems that the hosts/property managers clean for other houses (what I am assuming other Airbnbs that they own), so they basically use this laundry room pretty consistently. There are usually two days at most in the week where they aren’t? If they aren’t using the room, then other guests usually need to wash their laundry. I rarely have privacy.

There seem to be a slew of other questionable things the “hosts” do. I have noticed the roommate of the host has spammed positive reviews on every listing they’ve put on Airbnb. I put “hosts” in quotation marks because the whole thing is confusing in of itself. I’ve never met the actual hosts in person; I’ve only met the property manager, who has access to the hosts’ account.

Another guest and I often wondered if said property manager and host are the same person but under a different name. Not to mention how the property manager thought I voted for Trump for some reason when I first got there. It became like a hyperfixation for them. They would always mention it as like a “gotcha” moment, but I never did. It always just came off as confusing at first but then got annoying when I was just trying to get on with my day.

They once used my contact information to even text me a picture of Trump. They also did the text thing to a former guest I roomed with at around the same time we stayed, and when said guest replied with ‘lol’, the property manager asked him who he voted for. I feel like there are a lot of other things that I have forgotten to mention, but it would take a while to remember what other stuff I tolerated.

I am not entirely sure what I can do at this point to be honest. If there is anything you can take from this just please don’t support these hosts’ listings. They’re weird, and kinda sketchy. I am also genuinely tired of Airbnb as a platform. I have never had a good experience with Airbnb, and considering how it has proven to be one of the major factors for how messed up the housing situation has become in the US, I wish it would get trashed as a whole.

Extremist Political Signs at Airbnb in Bozeman

Posted on May 31, 2017

I booked a stay in Bozeman, Montana with what turned out to be an unusual host named Stacey. When I showed up at the place, I noticed there were extremist political signs all over the front yard and in the windows. Venturing inside, I found much more. I texted her that her place was just too weird for me. She would not provide a refund. She seemed a little strange, so I expected that. What I didn’t expect was the runaround and no support from Airbnb. I did not feel safe at this host’s house, I spent no more than five minutes there, and Airbnb would not refund anything. To add insult to injury, they wasted a huge amount of my time on numerous emails back and forth for nothing. They would not even allow me to post a bad review on this crazy host’s listing to warn others about her. Airbnb Hell, please take my $5 donation to fight Airbnb.