“Belonging anywhere”?

Dear Mr. X,

since you clearly don’t understand, or don’t want to understand, the problem here or what hospitality truly means, let me enlighten you.

“Belong anywhere”?

The Airbnb slogan suggests that we can feel at home anywhere in the world, thanks to hosts.

“Home” is a place where we should not only feel comfortable but, above all, safe.

“Home” should be a safe place for me, my personal belongings, and valuable items.

“Home” should be a place of refuge.

The color of the curtains, the softness of the bed, or the brightness of the light—those are matters of taste.

But safety? 

Safety is not a matter of taste. It’s your fucking job.

As a host, you have a legal and moral responsibility to provide a safe and comfortable environment.

It’s your fucking job to protect guests not only from physical threats but also from emotional or psychological stress, such as (sexual) harassment or inappropriate behavior.

It’s not my job to tolerate a power imbalance between host and guest.

It’s not my job to deal with messages like this.

You claim you knocked on my door two hours after I arrived and sent me this message because you wanted to check my windows?

So you “just wanted to see for a moment how sweet and pretty” my windows were?

Interesting.

Your behavior shattered my sense of safety in an instant.

With that message, you made me, as a woman traveling alone, feel safer standing lost and planless on a street in an unfamiliar city at night than in the space that was supposed to feel like home.

Your conduct is a disgrace to all hosts who understand what hospitality truly means.

For you, it might be just a message. For me, it’s much more than that.

I will no longer stay silent about incidents like this.

P.S.

Before you could delete your message, a screenshot was already sent to Airbnb and the police. Welcome to the 21st century.