(aka Airbnb version of Deliverance)
Update: Airbnb had taken retaliatory actions against me after discrimination and unsafe conditions in property complaint, these actions are being documented in my next post here.
This will be updated reflecting further lack of action to ensure guests' safety on the part of Airbnb or any adverse actions against me. Feel free to contact me;
I'd be willing to testify in the court of law and repeat any of the below statements under oath.
Detailed account of Airbnb ignoring grave safety concern reports and bigotry/discrimination by host.
Property address: Highway 160, West County road 17, Doniphan, MO, aka
hwy 160 W CR 17, Doniphan, MO
Property name: Robert's Redneck Retreat Cabins (name not disclosed in Airbnb listing)
Photo of property sign made on 08/02/2019, phone number matches Airbnb listing phone (landline):
I had booked what looked like little quaint country cabin or "camp" deep the in rural Missouri Ozarks via Airbnb. The place was remote and surrounded by Mark Twain National Forest, which made me much look forward to my visit in anticipation of wildlilfe watching and peaceful retreat, which would be the usual scenario at such rental (hosts tend to be nice ). The place was remote enough for Google Maps not being capable of finding it. The Airbnb host was a nice woman, it seemed like, and I had no worries about my upcoming stay. There was another, solo female, guest that was supposed to be on the property at the same time, so sounded like I'd have company besides the host. I confirmed with the host in advance that their road would not be a problem for a non-4WD sedan car.
The drive was a lot longer than expected, on winding slow mountain roads and about 1.5 hours before I reached the place my Verizon phone was no longer allowing me to make calls. Starting about half and hour before the destination it showed no signal. While I still had signal, I noticed the message from host telling me she won't be on the property for days and there'll be her "husband" instead.
The host told me to look out for Cabins sign - I saw "Robert's Redneck Retreat Cabins" hand-written worn-out sign on the road, where I turned off from the paved road into a unpaved, gravel and rock-covered road and drove for what might be a couple of miles until I reached private dirt road turn off to the property. The entire area for miles was devoid of houses, except one house before the turn from the paved road.
"Survivalist" Host from Hell
Once I drove on the private road for some time, being on the property, beat-up dirty mobile home appeared on my left with junk littered around. I drove a little further seeing a regular house. 2 large dogs run out barking angrily as I got out of the car. Soon, the property owner appeared wearing the the uniform of what seemed to be auto repair place. It was the owner of Robert's Redneck Retreat Cabins. Dogs run up to me and he said "These dogs love to be stinky!" while the strong nauseating stench emanated from their long coats, which clearly were never being washed.
He mentioned that the other guest won't be coming and that I'd be there alone and can stay in either of the 2 cabins; I said I wanted to take a look at them to decide in which I'd stay, then. He said he'd drive me there on his ATV, which sounded a bit odd since they were supposed to be accessible by sedan car. There was a wet stain of something on the ATV seat (gasoline? there was no rain that day) and I hesitated for a moment when he rudely said "What? Are you afraid to get dirty??? You will get dirty!" to which I had to explain that I only have 1 pants for this kind of hot weather and have to be careful not to get them messed up.
The host's rudeness continued and grew and heavy, angry vibes coming from this person were becoming palpable. He drove me to the ravine covered with fairly large rocks and rudely said that when my car drives over it, it better drive really fast, that this was the only option to drive through it. I objected and said that there's no way my car can safely drive fast over these rocks (if at all), there was clear potential to damage tires and undercarriage. He responded that I knew nothing and "mechanics take advantage of you women", in the lines that women in general knew nothing about cars.
I responded that men and women were equal and in fact a few women out there understand cars well are some are engineers by profession. This provoked angry tirades and mockery from this individual, who also began to deny men and women were equal and repeatedly said that engineers were worthless and helpless in real life and know nothing about it. Barrage of these negative and bigoted comments flew as ATV drove towards the cabins and continued from then on. This person seemed to be really upset at the notion that men and women might be equal and also seemed to take personally the fact that some women, like myself, happen to be engineers by profession. He constantly picked on me saying things like I couldn't figure out pilot light in his cabin so how could I be an engineer then? - the light which did not work and he himself ended up taking very long time to light, things like me having difficulty with stairs (I have a medical condition which made climbing difficult on that day), etc, etc, the barrage of bullying continued and it clearly was based on my gender as he would not behave this was with the male, this person appeared to have an issue with female traveling alone, being educated and not taking his misogynist comments about "women" silently.
The cabins turned out to be nothing but horrendous shacks, with outdated unsafe-looking propane setups, pilots lights which wouldn't light or stay on, strange chemical smell coming when fridge gets turned on and disgusting overall strong smells in both -the 1st cabin smelled like chemicals and the 2nd smelled like mold/mildew, the later smell could have been coming from ancient air conditioner. To add to the dismal state of the 2nd cabin the A/C was located in the attic,which required climbing the ladder, which had to be setup first (heavy wooden ladder had to be pulled down from the attic). This ladder was blocking the entrance door when pulled down (door could not be opened) and this man also stated that if one climbs the ladder they'd be hit in the head by the ceiling fan if they forget to shut down the fan first. NO mention of heavy ladder to be pulled from attic by guest required to access A/C was made in the listing or pictures. Doors did not really have locking mechanism other than some rope to pull through unclear setup that one might find in an outhouse. He stated previous guest complained of moldy smell and "I'm just getting the smells from previous guest out", quoting him.
The hateful, bigoted commentary continued to run throughout the visit to the cabins with constant bullying and degrading comments in the lines of me being useless and incapable in real life, not knowing anything about country living, my occupation being worthless (as if it had
anything to do with my recreation via Airbnb or being his business at all), men and women not being equal, engineers being worthless, etc. This escalated further into uninvited comments and stories such as about actual homicide he was aware of - some guy being murdered "being beaten to death" "because he was an idiot" given as a reason for murder, which seemed
to have purpose to terrorize and intimidate me and "put me into my place". Another mention of violence was made about how he was going break neck of some guy who came on his property whom he considered to be an intruder.
At that point I started to get seriously concerned about my safety being alone with this mad person on isolated property at least half and hour drive to any potential 911 call, and with no neighbors "for miles" as he put it. He stated that 911 can't get to his property, unless they call him and "get directions" from him and than it'd take them 3 hours to get there. He mentioned how 911 was called for someone he beat up on the property and they couldn't get there, and were calling him for directions. All of this was mentioned in threatening tone of voice. He also said that there, in that area, people who intrude on the property just "disappear" and no law enforcement would get involved. He also was telling about some "tweakers" who did meth in his cabins and that he chased them out. Numerous mentions of violence and intrusions to the property few around. After meth was mentioned, from my standpoint cabins were likely contaminated by meth and the dismal state of these rundowns cabins and smells in them did not convince me they went through any official proper meth contamination clean up. Crazy comments escalated further into anti-government runs, about how government, in particular Clintons' couple kills people. Fluoride poisoning, shooting, goverment spying on people were mentioned. He also kept repeating "I have no use for meth!", while acting unusually hyper all the time. He ranted about people receiving Medicaid being leeches living at his expense which I found insulting, as I myself have serious health issues. He kept mentioning how he'll survive "anywhere they drop him in Arctic" while us, city-educated people will not.
I was in grave concern for my life and safety at this point. I was cut off from my car and was not sure where my car was, I was unarmed and no one knew that I was on that property. I decided not to argue with the unhinged individual and wait for a chance to leave without confrontation. The man continued to rudely and loudly insist that I must drive my sedan car very fast over rocky ravine, that refusal was the sign of me be being clueless and too wimpy, useless
"out there" in real life, etc. He seemed agitated and extremely angry at government and often repeated "People suck!!!"; he appeared to be paranoid about the government getting him and government being bent on killing people. After he turned on the propane, fridge and left a water container in the cabin he drove the ATV back. He drove ATV at very high, dangerous speed, avoiding the road on purpose and going over bumps and vegetation, and driving extremely fast over rocky ravine which caused my back to hurt from extreme bumping while I was holding onto the side of ATV to avoid falling out. This speeding was clearly done on purpose to intimidate me and this person was clearly enjoying harassing me and having fun at my expense.
He suddenly took turn into a dirt road away from the path back to the house and to my vehicle saying he's going to see "the lake". I was concerned about getting murdered by this unhinged bigot at that point and wondered if this detour was taken to harm me. He drove to the high levy with no lake in sight and went on a rant about how the government "stole" hundreds of thousands of dollars to install some worthless National Forest signs there. Rants about violence continued. On the way back from that levy to the house, he frequently stopped ATV in the middle of the woods, looked intently at me continuing rants about murderous government, killing "women and children" (that misogynist bigot seemed to equate women with children), etc. At one point he said "Mountains...they're there but they're really not there", followed by anti-government angry rant about government killing people. To alleviate the mood I asked what did he mean by mountains being not there to which he said, after stopping ATV and giving me prolonged stare "The mountains seem remote...but government can get there if they want to!" Having concern for being shot or otherwise harmed at this point I did not argue and kind of played along all the time agreeing with all insane statements as it was a clear case of mentally deranged, extremely angry individual who likely was armed.
When I was finally driven back to my car he requested me to follow him to the cabin. He shoved me some small piece of paper which he said was a liability release and asked to sign, which I signed just to be left alone fearing confrontation. The person appeared to be extremely angry and I wondered if I attempted to just drive away on my car at this point he'd confront me, as he could easily block my vehicle, it being on a narrow dirt road with rocks all over, where it could not drive fast, and he being on a very easily maneuverable ATV and having a truck, also. I was in a state of shock, pretty much, under extreme stress and was not quite sure about the right direction being out on several dirt roads and driveways. The situation seemed like a potential for me being blocked and confronted by paranoid crazy person which could escalate into physical harm to me. I agreed to follow him to the cabin, and he kept yelling demanding to drive fast over rocky ravine. At this point he mentioned that my car would get stuck in the ravine unless it drives very fast because some other sedan was stuck there before.
This was never mentioned earlier (cars stuck there before). I drove over the ravine slowly, with rocks rattling my car and hitting my car underside which made me very worried about damage to my vehicle. When my car reached the cabin, he stated that I was able to drive in but might not be able to drove out as "cars stuck on the way out" unless they drive very fast over rocks. He said he'd "tow me out for 30 bucks" if I got stuck and seemed to derive entertainment from the notion that my vehicle can get trapped or damaged there. (I was on cross-country solo trip by the way and damage to the car could mean me being stranded on remote roads without cell signal and danger to my life, situation with 2 stranded tourists in Canada being shot very recently was coming to mind) I realized that my car could be trapped at that point, alone on the property with hateful, likely armed madman. The man continued to insulting rants about the uselessness of "educated people", how he finds them laughable/pathetic. Next, he made a very concerning statement of life being not worth living and him dying soon, basically, which, combined with other, hateful comments made me wonder if I'm finding myself in the potential active shooter to be/murder-suicide scenario. He also angrily said about his child daughter being "raped" earlier and blamed his "ex wife" on that, he seemed to be angry at women in general, just like at the government.
Escaping the Property
The paranoid man insisted I start unpacking, waiting and intently starting; clearly he was waiting to see if I'd unpack. I took one food item out of the car and placed it on the car roof to make it look like I'm unpacking. At that time I tried to figure out the exit route, with several dirt roads being there, I was not sure about my exact location and I wondered if I had to get to the paved road on foot in the dark through dense forest and if my car was really trapped. I realized that cattle gate was closed behind the path to the cabins closing me in and getting out was not easy. It started to get dark when he finally left. I waited for several minutes to make sure he was really gone. I got into my car and drove through the ravine, my car, again, battered by rocks but not getting stuck.
I was able to undo the chain on the cattle gate in the dark with sickening feeling that I would't be able to clear the property before that angry bigot comes back to confront me. I had trouble with cattle gate realizing my car was too close to it as gate opened only in one direction; I moved my car looking around in the dark hoping the mad person doesn't come back, cattle gate was heavy and stuck in dirt several times but I was able to undo it and open it. I closed the gate behind me. While I did not want to lose a second as I believe he could have heard my car engine (the main house was only about 5 minutes walk from the cabins which were in the woods, it seemed like, so the sounds could be easily heard), I closed cattle gate behind me figuring if it was left open he'd know I escaped from the property. I had real concern he'd come harassing or harming me later in the night in that completely isolated place. I drove out on the dirt road, my car being rattled, trying not to drive over large shale pieces on it which could tear up my passenger car tires and I took wrong direction a couple of times, making U-turns. At all times I was concerned of this individual chasing me to confront and easily blocking me on the narrow dirt roads. Google Map was unable to show me direction where I was going, it did not function well in that remote location without cell signal, and I got my hiking compass out to find my direction North to the paved road, finally.
I got out to the paved road and drove for about half and hour to the place where I had cell signal and could make a call, being shaken. I was not feeling well at that point. Sitting in my car on the roadside I made a call to Airbnb and reported what happened. After that I drove out further to town, where I was hoping to get better connection, be in a safer place and may be find hotel accommodation. Airbnb told me to find a hotel. It was around 9pm on Friday night and hotels in the area were filled, with people coming to recreate in that river-rafting and National Forest area in summer. I found a couple of hotels in the closest town but only smoking room was available (I have asthma and can not stay in the smoking room, despite Airbnb pushing me to take the smoking room). There were more hotels in town a long drive away, which were two-story ones. It appeared first floor rooms were booked. My car was loaded with belongings including expensive camping equipment and very heavy cooler full of food, and with my back aching especially it was not realistic to unload it all onto 2nd the floor hotel room (and back in the morning) and I could not leave all this in the back of my car, exposed to view as car break ins at hotel parking lots were happening in this general area of Missouri (as local police officer who stopped to check on me had advised me). Airbnb pushed me to get a hotel room, even a smoking room, while I have asthma and can not have damage to my health by staying in a smoking room neither I could afford to lose my belongings which Airbnbn could not compensate me for neither they were really replaceable. I spent most of the night in my car on the roadside not being able to find alternative accomodation in that rural remote area with few services and I drove out of the state during the later part of the night.
The Aftermath
I ended up not making any hotel claims to Airbnb as I stayed in my car for 1 night and found alternative Airbnb accommodations starting the next night. Airbnb issued a coupon for ridiculously small $32 amount towards replacement accommodations which I was not able to use as they didn't even tell me about this coupon neither anything in email headers I received made it clear about it (Airbnb floods email mailbox with notifications and it was hard to find any relevant emails among numerous notification messages, while I was sitting in a car on very poor connection in the middle of nowhere and not feeling safe by the roadside and not feeling well). Airbnb refused to later apply that coupon to my replacement reservations, kind of to add insulwt to injury, showing appalling greed. The person from "safety team" who "handled my case", Gemma, had cancelled both of my reservations with that dangerous host the same night. When it happened I saw a message asking me to leave a review for the host; Gemma assured me over the phone that they won't be able to leave a review for me. I did not want to leave a review or communicate with host as things like meth and homicide were mentioned by this person, Robert, and not knowing if Airbnb gave them my full name I was concerned about this person trying to find me to revenge and harm me, plus I felt there were too many legal and law enforcement issues for me to safely continue contact with this person, including reviews (and I let Airbnb know all that via email)
I was extremely shaken by the experience and felt completely physically sickened. I experienced extreme levels of stress after the ordeal and was not feeling safe enough anywhere, and other consequences of that very stressful experience, not being in good health to begin with. All parts of the ordeal were sent by email to Airnbnb, I have copies of all messages I've sent. Finally, Airbnb sent me an email stating they took action against the host. The host appeared to me to have a "nice" female host "front", going under name "Kathy", while the dangerous male who harassed me on the property was the owner of the place and the actual host (he stated to me he was the owner and made it sound like he was a sole owner and the boss there). There were no pictures of that male in Airbnb listing, which was unusual as normally all hosts (if the couple is hosting) provide their pictures; seemed like that person had something to hide. He did mention his wife a couple of times calling her a "bible trumpet" and saying "he had to teach her how to cook"
Imagine my surprise and dismay when I realized that about 10 days later the host, who was allowed to continue operating, had left me a negative review(where they accused me of not closing/locking the door to the shack, among other things, which was a lie - that horror shack did not have anything that can qualify as "lock" - only some homemade setup with rope pulled through the door was there, impossible to figure out). The host was not removed or blocked by Airbnb, continues to operate and and even can leave negative reviews for the guest they menaced to the point the guest was forced to leave out of concern for life and safety. Description of the property continues to omit hazards and ladder, while Airbnb now knows about them: they don't care. Clearly Airbnb refused to take action against the host and to stop them from operating or harassing me via review, it was also also clear from the host's review they were pretending they weren't aware of the reasons why I hastily left their property (they're well-aware, I know that) and acting as if they weren't in the wrong and I were.
Airbnb refused to act on expressed concerns that range from harassment and discrimination to even potential of hateful murder-suicide situation (life not worth living sentiment was mentioned to me by the host)
It became very clear that Airbnb:
- does not take safety concerns and report seriously
- allows dangerous and threatening individuals to operate
- allows bigoted hosts to operate and to insult and degrade guests, express hatred and bigotry, while aiding them in their discriminatory actions
- has no problem with gender based discrimination, clearly
- Airbnb in particular does not take solo female traveler's safety seriously, appears to dismiss gender-based harassment and menacing, and had dismissed known threatening situation against female solo traveler such as myself when I reported grave safety concerns, multiple safety concerns about one property
I was de-facto denied accommodation and forced to leave the property out of fear which I firmly believe happened because of my gender because of misogynist bullying I as subjected to.
All of this made me wonder what really happened in the unfortunate Carla Stefaniak's case: she'd been a solo traveler who was murdered in her Airbnb rental which she described as "sketchy" after checking-in, while it had positive reviews on Airbnb.
Did Airbnb dismiss any unsafe conditions reports for the property Carla Stefaniak was murdered at?
This is something I want to know.
I also want to know if criminal background checks for serious convictions are being conducted on hosts and if it was conducted on male host in my case who seems to hide behind the female host I never got to see (at this point I'm not even sure if she really lives or manages this property or if she's just a front to lure guests), in this Airbnb listing, and are there serious criminal convictions of the real host being covered up.
Why Airbnb, which required a recent photo from me (even though they had one from 2 years ago), does not require any photo from the host that stays alone with guests?
I do not want any travelers to be harmed and I want the harm done to me to be undone (unlikely to be possible)
It seems that Airbnb covers-up the damages to guests, bigotry and threatening behaviors by hosts and protects dangerous, hazardous hosts (is it happening when a traveler a solo female in particular?).
How many people had been already harmed because of this and how long before there's another actual physical injury or death occurs? (I have mental, emotional, and overall health damages from stress, pain and suffering so far, but made the right decision to leave the property asap, before direct physical harm)
