Katerinka12

I am very sorry to hear about what happened to you. I hope that you are doing better now and your kids as well.

Were you able to check his ID and did it match the name as in reservation? If yes, then you can proceed with criminal charges. For that purpose you should secure medical Legal report as soon as possible as there is short time frame for it. Call police and they will tell you what hospital in your country can issue medical legal certificate. When you have it, go to police. This certificate is enough for police to file criminal charges.

If you know their identity and they are still in the country, they will have wonderful time dealing with police, if police is reliable in your country.

In addition to it take pictures of your bruises. Report to Booking by pressing Report Misconduct. Call their hotline. Send message to Finance dept in extranet. You can dispute again after they issued financial statement. Just keep reporting as much as you can and they might return to you the commission for that particular stay...

"yes filed the complaint with the police who responded and logged the incident as an assault I even provided all relevant police log number and crime reference number to booking.com."

As I explained above, the filing does not mean guilty. And besides the process is too bad for you: time waste, money waste and please don't feel down! This person was just smoking when some people kill each other, be happy that you safe!

"perhaps there is no legal duty of care but I think there is a moral duty of care this individual attacked me in my own home in front of my wife and children and booking.com are allowing this person to book in your home."

Moral duty... You know what it means... When you expect people to act and feel the way you do. It's impossible. They grew up in a different kind of a family, had different way of doing things, and... How did exactly they attack you?

You will be surprised. Other sites such as Airbnb will block the host, not the offender! Because anyone can complain to police, and even if someone has a case, it doesn't mean yet they are guilty.

It is completely, completely your responsibility for your own safety, not to mention the safety of property.

Any OTA serves as newspaper ad, where they just play a role making people meet each other. What happens next is up to the landlord and tenant and government authorities, if needed. OTAs have no human resources and possibilities to check who offended whom.

What do you mean you provided a crime number? Did you report to police? Did they file a case? Do you have a case number?

One man wore poor clothes and pretended he was a beggar. People looked down on him, thinking he is no one and only few thrown him coins.

Next day that man wore a nice suit and was begging again. People not only gave him money, but were trying to get a taxi for him.

So "really good price" could be tricky. If it's lower than your place deserves, than people will not only find it's suspicious (pictures are better than advertised, host is hiding something, maybe something broken inside), but will add more suffering to the poor host by throwing "coins" - bad reviews.

And if the price is just right or higher, they will get the feeling that the host values the property and himself. Few people are not knowledgeable about pricing structure in your area, but seeing the higher price makes them believe that there is a reason for it and most probably this place is better than competitors (and good host could be a reason of it, not just better interior).

And there is another point, psychological :) Cheaper places attract people with cheap behavior. Look at the reviews of 5 star hotels in any country. People PAID MUCH for it and now they will show how they paid much for miserable stay? Maybe good mood and mood to spend is other reason, but something is very clear - those paying high are flying high.

For one of my "really good price" property I did experiment on Airbnb. I made a very long and emotional statement in my House rules, that Unjustified low stars will return to the one who complained. After his stay we will have inspection and if we will find any of his fault, we will file a dispute case with all possible consequences such as penalties and account removal. People must acknowledge it Before they book.

And you know what? People not only booked like crazy, but started talking to me First! "Excuse me... Can I ask you a question?... Did anyone really leave a bad review? How come? Your place is wonderful, very clean, etc. And you are very friendly, polite, etc wonderful :))"

I never knew that those guys that drink, party, sleep few hours and still have to fly, would leave such amazingly written and very long reviews with not even one comma missing how wonderful I was as a host, how promptly replied, that attention!..location is perfect (with mentioning places nearby)...and many, many things more.

And all of this happened because I warned them Before they even booked on how much I care about the property and the guest, but will fight for Fair review till the end!

I am working now on my House rules, that I will send to the guest right after the booking. It will include my favorite paragraph about reviews.

On some other occasions when the guests were too demanding from the start, I sent magical words (after polite explanation what we can do and what we can't) "If you do not like this, please feel free to cancel. We don't charge any penalties for cancellation". Only one canceled (demanded early check in and late checkout because she is Genius").

So, dressing up my suit - house rules. No more throwing coins at poor host, who gave all his money to the bank to pay mortgage to cover wonderful stay of a stranger!

Please, do not feel "very down"... negative reviews are integral part of Booking :)

9.6 is a Great Achievement!

Thank you for sharing your experience and it will be great to learn from you. As I have some questions:

Antique furniture - how do you justify the price? Normally Airbnb asks for Official receipt and do you have it for antiques?
What is your process from collecting the payment to checkout and charging for damages? Do you need to file the dispute or guests agree to pay? The charges you were paid for fixing are vey high.

As for us, it seems that charging security deposit is impossible due to "airport place" with all consequences. Such as guests can just leave in the middle of the night and disappear in airport crowd. At least we don't have carpets..

It's very easy, just write them through Extranet and ask them to remove the cleaning fees. Before you could do that manually, but now they ask for additional fees to be requested from Booking as there were many misunderstandings before.

As for charging ANY fees in cash, you will always have a problem and disappointed guests that will feel "cheated" and experiencing "hidden charges". Needless to say that the bad reviews will follow and the truth will be twisted. They will write that the host "didn't notify them", "cheated", the fees were published at amount X and now they are charged Y.

In addition to that you will experience guests who will RESIST to pay and if you allowed to check in BEFORE collecting any cash, they will resist to leave your place and will act just imagine how. Even if you will show them their Booking reservation with notification for additional cash!

So, after we switched to Payments by Booking, we have the guests who either pay fees in advance or do not book, if they don't like additional fees though it's charged by all places in my country, but guests feel "cheated".