Extortion?

Chris777

Dear all,

Looking for a little bit of advice...
Recently myself and friends, a group of 8 mid-30yr old males, hired some accommodation for one night prior to a wedding. Whilst found on Air BnB the owner was adament we book direct with them rather than through the site, it is worth noting at this point no deposit was taken, contract signed etc, just payment for the accommodation taken.
We sat up late into the night having a few drinks and then took ourselves to bed. We were woken at 7am by the housekeeper who wanted to inform us of many unintentional misdemeanors that we had caused... Despite no rules, signage or anything we were supposed to know that large areas of the house were out of bounds, the kitchen being one where we had ventured in to grab 2 glasses before pouring 2 very small glasses of port. Unfortunately one member of the party spilt a small amount (2x3inch slight mark) on to a rug in the lounge which was pointed out.
This is where it gets a little messy... rather than discuss this, something that would have been rectified had the owner allowed an air bnb booking with a deposit and agree a cleaning fee (some Vanish would have done the job) we were locked in the house with the keys removed and the exit gate was blocked by a vehicle until we had transferred £500 to the owner directly (who was abroad and hadnt seen the mark). Essentially we were held hostage until one of the group agreed to pay £150 and leave their driving licence at the property in case of a follow up fee. I am unsure but this does not seem particularly legal and feels a lot like extortion!?

I would be very interested to hear others thoughts if anything like this has happened to you? I would doubt they would have reacted the same were it a family and some baby food had been spilt...

Comms69

Chris777 wrote: »

Dear all,

Looking for a little bit of advice...
Recently myself and friends, a group of 8 mid-30yr old males, hired some accommodation for one night prior to a wedding. Whilst found on Air BnB the owner was adament we book direct with them rather than through the site, it is worth noting at this point no deposit was taken, contract signed etc, just payment for the accommodation taken.
We sat up late into the night having a few drinks and then took ourselves to bed. We were woken at 7am by the housekeeper who wanted to inform us of many unintentional misdemeanors that we had caused... Despite no rules, signage or anything we were supposed to know that large areas of the house were out of bounds, the kitchen being one where we had ventured in to grab 2 glasses before pouring 2 very small glasses of port. Unfortunately one member of the party spilt a small amount (2x3inch slight mark) on to a rug in the lounge which was pointed out.
This is where it gets a little messy... rather than discuss this, something that would have been rectified had the owner allowed an air bnb booking with a deposit and agree a cleaning fee (some Vanish would have done the job) we were locked in the house with the keys removed and the exit gate was blocked by a vehicle until we had transferred £500 to the owner directly (who was abroad and hadnt seen the mark). - nope, sorry. You're 8 guys, this didn't happen. Essentially we were held hostage until one of the group agreed to pay £150 and leave their driving licence at the property in case of a follow up fee. - and you didn't call the police? I am unsure but this does not seem particularly legal and feels a lot like extortion!? -it's obviously illegal; and that's why I don't believe 8 adults didn't act appropriately.

I would be very interested to hear others thoughts if anything like this has happened to you? I would doubt they would have reacted the same were it a family and some baby food had been spilt...

I have several thoughts, most suggesting this simply isn't true

Dean000000

Chris, sounds awful....

Was there any reason you didn’t call the police?

**********

Edit: seems comms jumped straight to it, rather than coax the story a little longer....

waamo

Just out of interest did you not consider ringing the police?

Chris777

Thanks for that one...
Actually its entirely true and the reason I posted... because it is so ridiculous that I'm not sure where to go with it. The owner is still hassling the member of the party who left their contact details whereas I'm unsure about the legality of their actions in the first place.

Comms69

Dean000000 wrote: »

Chris, sounds awful....

Was there any reason you didn’t call the police?

**********

Edit: seems comms jumped straight to it, rather than coax the story a little longer....

Sorry dean0; I didn't have popcorn to hand.

Chris777

yes but we didn't... the whole thing was so surreal that we weren't really sure of what to do until we had digested it later on!
One of the party was actually the groom and we needed to get to the wedding!

Dean000000

Chris777 wrote: »

Thanks for that one...
Actually its entirely true and the reason I posted... because it is so ridiculous that I'm not sure where to go with it. The owner is still hassling the member of the party who left their contact details whereas I'm unsure about the legality of their actions in the first place.

....and calling the police wasn’t literally the first thing you thought of?

Dean000000

Chris777 wrote: »

yes but we didn't... the whole thing was so surreal that we weren't really sure of what to do until we had digested it later on!
One of the party was actually the groom and we needed to get to the wedding!

Oh....sort of like a stag do?

Sorry I can’t help. No, what he did was not legal. :A

Comms69

Chris777 wrote: »

yes but we didn't... the whole thing was so surreal that we weren't really sure of what to do until we had digested it later on!
One of the party was actually the groom and we needed to get to the wedding!

So you all stood there and went.


"Someone has kidnapped and falsely imprisoned us.


I guess it's easier to transfer £150, to this stranger none of us know.


The police would obviously be a total waste of time."


Given that: I'd quite like £150 too, so let me know how you'd like to pay...

Chris777

Honestly we mentioned it but our main priority was to get out of there and go and set up the wedding venue, it was only really later in the day that we decided this was probably quite illegal... I'm aware it sounds ridiculous but none of us had (unsurprisingly) experienced anything like this before!