Man Staying at Airbnb Room was Sexually Assaulted by Host and Company Refused to Help

A man was sexually assaulted as he stayed at an Airbnb in Spain, and when his mother tried to get the company to help, they ignored her calls.

The New York Times reports that Jacob Lopez was sexually assaulted as he stayed in the Madrid apartment of a Spanish transgender woman who advertized on Airbnb. The woman locked Lopez in a room in the apartment and threatened him with knives before sexually assaulting him.

Lopez managed to message his mother Micaela Giles for help, but when she called Airbnb, they refused to help get her son out of the dangerous situation. Giles called Airbnb, which refused to give her the address of where Lopez was being assaulted, and said that she should call the local police in Spain.

Giles at first followed the company's directions, but kept getting a voicemail recording in Spanish, and when she called backed Airbnb for help, her calls went straight to voicemail.

Lopez managed to free himself from his captivity and is now in trauma therapy in order to try and recover from the ordeal. The transgender woman who assaulted him says that Lopez is just transphobic and making the whole ordeal up.

Lopez said that at one point, he thought he was in a kill or be killed type situation, particularly after the host turned off the internet, leaving Lopez without any means of outside communication. Lopez said that he had begun looking around the apartment for anything he could use as a weapon to defend himself.

Airbnb's refusal to do anything to help Lopez or send an employee to check on the situation stands in stark contrast to the practices of established hotel businesses, which send an employee or security guard to a room when someone calls and is worried about the well being of a guest.