I'm still pretty new in the game so a bit of a rant here - yesterday I was at Lagao, found a guy I liked went out and then headed back to my AirBnb and the facial recognition picked up he wasn't registered so I rang the owner to register him and they said they don't let gay men bring guests!  I really book rooms to sleep in, not to have a stranger monitor and approve my sex life. 

If, every time, Julia Roberts had gone to see Richard Gere at the Beverley Wilshire, the security guards had surrounded her, it would have ruined Pretty Woman. 

Is there a security reason for this? Specifically the gay man bit got me - I mean we aren't going to burn the place down. Surely they have my Amex card on file if anything goes wrong?

 

Sounds like one for Erin. It not right. Fight fight fight.

You might provide more detail. Was it a fingerprint scan on an external gate and the camera picks up the registered face linked to the fingerprint? That’s how I envision it. Unless you simply buzz and your face is scanned at that point based on check-in biometrics. In either case you can possibly let yourself in and your guest can be hovering out of range nearby but outside the gate and let in by you … but give it a minute … swinging the gate the opposite direction how you had entered, once you are inside. That would be how some deliveries are made to occupants going down to accept, say, a DoorDash meal order, typically not letting the deliverer in any further but that does not mean they couldn’t be spirited in. Obviously tourism unit guests accept such deliveries too.

Unless you have to scan to leave the courtyard opening the gate to exit to the street and the camera is activated, but that might just be picking up your face scan from the opposite direction camera. Depends. You may be able to circumvent the guest scan procedure depending on the setup. If you are dealing with a mechanical setup there may be a workaround. If it’s more ironclad and also possibly requires facial recognition for elevator access you may be out of luck. However, it’s unlikely a full-time resident hosting a social event would need every guest registered. I do believe that these systems are sophisticated enough to be set up to distinguish permanent occupant units’ security details from tourist rentals.

Additionally, if you had a phone conversation as opposed to platform text you really have little basis to make a formal complaint. However, I would contact Airbnb to get ahead of it seeing as you may get a negative review, to try to pre-empt such. Explain what was imputed by the host to you by bringing in a local friend the host asserted represented homosexual or sex work activity. You have the greater plausible deniability. Try to block the reciprocal post-checkout review to avoid a big hit to your star rating if that is of relevance. The host can absorb a zero-star rating into their composite better than you unless you have dozens yourself.

You evidently took a rubber bullet while the host employed a decision in which he/she combined risk management in the interests of you dodging a bullet, that cannot be entirely considered a judgement not in your favour considering bad outcomes, albeit good security intentions watered down by the expressed element of homonegativity. 

The least they could have done was send you a list of love motels in the area.

5 hours ago, jamieb202 said:

they said they don't let gay men bring guests!

If it's in the Airbnb chat part of the site, report it to Airbnb, that discrimination is against their policies.

I stay at a place that switched from fingerprint entry to facial recognition....I scan me, it's approved automatically , door/elevator unlocks and I'm in...... why you scanning your tricks face?

5 hours ago, Riobard said:

Sounds like one for Erin. It not right. Fight fight fight.

Erin ???

many airbnb do not allow guests, straight or gay.

Some host listed that clearly in the listing, like no party, no guest

You need to find airbnb that allows guests, you can confirm with host before booking 

 

Sorry you had problems.  Your story sounds unbelievable, so I’ll respond for the benefit of others.

Before booking an AirBnB, always check the house rules to ensure there are no rules forbidding non-registered people in the apartment. And always reserve for two people. Contrary to the advice from @babybear2, I suggest that you do NOT ask the host to confirm that it is ok to have non-registered people in the apartment.  Why give the host an opportunity to refuse?  As long as it is not forbidden in the house rules, it is allowed.

The AirBnB where I usually stay in Consolação recently switched to facial recognition, which is a huge improvement. (Before facial recognition was implemented guards who stood outside the building’s front gate had to call in to the front desk to confirm that I was registered.)  When in SP I usually meet guys from Grindr and invite them to the AirBnB.  There’s never any problem.

5 hours ago, Tantric said:

 There’s never any problem.

*Yet.....

I'm not a lawyer, but always a good disclaimer to include 🤷‍♂️

Update on this guys - while I was away in CDMX Uber contacted me to apologise. Don't know why. It was out of the blue. Possibly their internal review?

They offered me 300$ USD per night as compensation plus a full refund and the apartment will no longer be offered. I asked if someone else had had the same issue and they couldn't answer.

17 hours ago, jamieb202 said:

Update on this guys - while I was away in CDMX Uber contacted me to apologise. ...

UBER⁉️

Assume you mean AirBnB. Congrats on your victory!

18 hours ago, jamieb202 said:

Update on this guys - while I was away in CDMX Uber contacted me to apologise. Don't know why. It was out of the blue. Possibly their internal review?

They offered me 300$ USD per night as compensation plus a full refund and the apartment will no longer be offered. I asked if someone else had had the same issue and they couldn't answer.

Great news! I did have an issue (nothing compared to yours) with an owner and Airbnb responded positively and quickly, deciding on my favor. They gave me a full refund.

5 hours ago, Xclay said:

UBER⁉️

Assume you mean AirBnB. Congrats on your victory!

Sorry AirBnb yes... I'll edit.

It should be mentioned that I knew the moment I started reading this that you were in SP, not Rio. Although SP has many advantages over Rio as far as meeting guys (e.g. more than twice as many listings on garotocomlocal) the visitor policy is SP is so $&@“?& annoying, where airbnbs that allow visitors are in the minority, as opposed to Rio, where I have never even heard of a building that did not allow visitors.

Because of the differences in economic vibrancy, SP has a lot of new buildings, and despite being safer than Rio, has a lot of these high tech security features. I try to look for older buildings, who more typically have the doorman at a front desk and a phone to call upstairs to ask if they should let your visitor pass. Regrettably, these are pretty rare. I haven’t done the homework to figure out the high-tech system, but it’s in the heart of the gay neighborhood, so somehow at least the gay guys who live in the units (unless they are very atypically chaste) are receiving visitors. 
 

For about a year, I had a great place of the old school variety, but the owner sold the apartment. I have a trip coming up next week and in fact, the very first line after the title is “Receive your friends at this comfy….” so I snatched it up, despite some trepidation about the weird air conditioning system described in light of the predicted day after day of 90° heat. 
 

In the past though, I have gone ahead and said something to the effect That I enjoy receiving friends for dinner and Netflix and I noticed that many buildings in São Paulo do not allow visitors and I wanted to be sure that yours did not preclude this. 

On 10/10/2024 at 3:38 AM, jamieb202 said:

I'm still pretty new in the game so a bit of a rant here - yesterday I was at Lagao, found a guy I liked went out and then headed back to my AirBnb and the facial recognition picked up he wasn't registered so I rang the owner to register him and they said they don't let gay men bring guests!  I really book rooms to sleep in, not to have a stranger monitor and approve my sex life. 

If, every time, Julia Roberts had gone to see Richard Gere at the Beverley Wilshire, the security guards had surrounded her, it would have ruined Pretty Woman. 

Is there a security reason for this? Specifically the gay man bit got me - I mean we aren't going to burn the place down. Surely they have my Amex card on file if anything goes wrong?

 

I am loving the pretty woman reference !

On 2/27/2025 at 9:04 AM, Canadianbtmguy said:

It should be mentioned that I knew the moment I started reading this that you were in SP, not Rio. Although SP has many advantages over Rio as far as meeting guys (e.g. more than twice as many listings on garotocomlocal) the visitor policy is SP is so $&@“?& annoying, where airbnbs that allow visitors are in the minority, as opposed to Rio, where I have never even heard of a building that did not allow visitors.

Because of the differences in economic vibrancy, SP has a lot of new buildings, and despite being safer than Rio, has a lot of these high tech security features. I try to look for older buildings, who more typically have the doorman at a front desk and a phone to call upstairs to ask if they should let your visitor pass. Regrettably, these are pretty rare. I haven’t done the homework to figure out the high-tech system, but it’s in the heart of the gay neighborhood, so somehow at least the gay guys who live in the units (unless they are very atypically chaste) are receiving visitors. 
 

For about a year, I had a great place of the old school variety, but the owner sold the apartment. I have a trip coming up next week and in fact, the very first line after the title is “Receive your friends at this comfy….” so I snatched it up, despite some trepidation about the weird air conditioning system described in light of the predicted day after day of 90° heat. 
 

In the past though, I have gone ahead and said something to the effect That I enjoy receiving friends for dinner and Netflix and I noticed that many buildings in São Paulo do not allow visitors and I wanted to be sure that yours did not preclude this. 

please let us know if they do or do not allow guest.

 

I know the AirBNB I am getting thanks to Manu. Gave me options for 4 different Airbnb's that allowed guest. its my hope that since it says I can have 3 guest. I can have them.