I was sexually harassed and assaulted by a host I found on airbnb. After the main incident, I escaped to my room, but I couldn’t immediately leave the house because it was late at night and I had nowhere to go at that time, so I spent a terrifying night wondering if he would try to assault me again. Airbnb’s response was so confused and shambolic that the story gets quite long, I have written a blog post here to explain in full: becauseiwishtoforget.blogspot.com/2016/02/why-airbnb-is-both-unsafe-and-dishonest.html But the key points are: – Throughout the whole process Airbnb would not keep me informed of what actions they were taking, and when they did, they lied about it! Airbnb twice removed the profile, so that I thought the matter was dealt with, but then they restored it again without informing me (the second time, after they had promised in writing that it had been removed) – Because it was restored this second time without my knowledge, at least 2 other women stayed there without any warning that I had reported this man for sexual harassment! – Airbnb only deleted it eventually more than 2 months after the incident, and only then because I kept contacting them to insist they take action. This prolonged my trauma unnecessarily. – Either Airbnb has no protocol for dealing with these incidents, or their staff are wholly unaware of them. Their whole response was a mess of contradictions. I hope now that the profile has been deleted permanently, but since they promised that and lied about it before, I can’t exactly rely on it. The host’s name is Branko Kozakejevic, the flat is in Belgrade. This man more than twice my age tried to get me to drink more than I wanted and made forceful sexual advances to me while I was a guest in his house. Airbnb didn’t think this was grounds to remove him from their site.
Tag Archives: assault
Aibnb Guest Robbed -Had to Flee Town with Police Escort
Over the last couple of years I have been a satisfied user of Airbnb with an exceptional rating. On a recent trip to a supposedly sleepy fishing village I was robbed within 30 minutes of arriving at the the house by a window left open by the hosts cleaners. When the police arrived, they basically told us “Welcome to Paternoster”, I found this quite bizarre as it’s meant to be a very quaint town where South African’s can escape the crime ridden cities of which they live and work. After contacting the host he was completely disinterested and a refund was not possible as per his terms and conditions, this meant I was stuck in a house that was invaded by criminals. A few days later some more locals tried to rob us on the beach (with knives) and we defended ourselves, this resulted in calling the police to protect us while the house was surrounded by at least 30 locals (some of which where armed) throwing rocks at us. The police had to provide an armed escort to escape this town alive. After filing a report with the police, they informed me that this is an area notorious with robbing the tourists and even the landlords are sometimes involved. The police in the last year have given up all hope of resolving the crime in the area due to the increase of drugs and “maffia” presence. At first I didn’t believe it and thought I was the only one until I read such articles as listed below: http://goo.gl/AbrI68 http://goo.gl/EoLWtg https://goo.gl/eT6L43 http://goo.gl/vmwhVd After this ordeal I contacted Airbnb for two reasons, firstly to get the ad removed to protect future travelers from the dangers of this area and secondly to request some kind of insurance. Airbnb is refusing to assist unless I provide receipts for lost goods and told me that I should research the area. Maybe I’m naive or should Airbnb offer equal protection to their customers as they do to their hosts?