I like Airbnb from the viewpoint as a guest. My partner and I were recently talking about doing Airbnb in the new home we are going to be purchasing soon. Our first concern is safety and what a friend of mine has experienced with Airbnb is far from safe.

I traveled for work and stayed with my friend and he is also one of the leaders of our leadership team at MindRight. We got back to Brooklyn from our office in the Audible building in Newark around 4 pm. We both heard cats fighting in the rooms that the Airbnb guest was staying in. The door was locked. There were never keys given to that room.

The Airbnb guest ended up getting back to the apartment around 8 pm. He informed us that he changed the lock. We legitimately were shocked.. imagine someone changing the locks to one of your rooms in your home.

The individual that was asked to leave didn’t agree to give back the keys to the home, the room or the front door. After multiple calls, Airbnb said that they wouldn’t remove the reservation and couldn’t do anything, We called the police.

The police ultimately communicated that he was now trespassing and needed to leave immediately. My friend and his husband offered to allow him to keep all of his stuff (over 20 large black bags that piled over 3 feet into the air on the bed, closet, and floor) and his 4 cats, which he declined.

The last call after 1 am, was the only time Airbnb removed the reservation because we informed them the police were involved and removed the individual. Airbnb informed us that they have seen this type of thing before and leave it up to the host to handle these types of situations.

As a CTO and a leader, I am very understanding of mistakes on all levels of operations, however, they are not ignored. As a soon to be father and homeowner, I can never feel safe doing Airbnb. Airbnb should not feel comfortable with these situations or how they resolved them.