Rhiannon Ingle
There has been yet another Airbnb scandal after one 'superhost' took it upon herself to send her guest's wife a photo of him with another woman.
In the bizarre series of events, both the host, Pamela Fohler, and the guest, Shawn Mackey, are now embroiled in a lawsuit submitted to the Mississippi District Court.
It all started when Mackey reached out to Fohler to stay at her Airbnb listing, described as a 'little bit more country' on the website, based in Memphis.
Mississippi District Court
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Mackey booked his stay for just a couple days (September 9 - 11) for himself and three others as part of a weekend reunion with old friends back in 2022.
He went on to tell the host that some others would be coming round for dinner during the stay but would not be spending the night to which Fohler said was fine, just as long as he registered all additional guests on Airbnb beforehand.
She also outlined the other rules of the stay which included; no smoking/vaping, no excessive noise, parking in front of the garage door, no glass, food, drinks, or urinating in the pool and no skinny-dipping.
Fohler also reminded Mackey that security cameras at the home were in full operation during his stay.
Things soon took a turn for the worse after the guests arrived, providing a dinner guest list of nine people with 'maybe a few more', and planned for four or five to stay over for the night.
The Airbnb host replied to Mackey's message, stating they could only 'accommodate a max of 8 guests, due to the 'city restrictions' and capacity and the home - adding that there would be an additional cost for all the extra guests.
When she didn't get a response from Mackey, Fohler reached out to him again and requested he either officially register his guests or get them to 'leave immediately'.
She also mentioned at this point that there had allegedly been some complaints of disturbances and profanities before eventually asking Mackey to leave after he had 'violated the no party rule'.
Mississippi District Court
"I am very sorry but you have violated the no party rule, disturbed my neighbors by cursing and yelling in the parking lot, and have unauthorised guests," the suit said Fohler wrote.
"I am asking you to leave now. I can’t allow you to stay, I am sorry."
A lawsuit, spanning 22 pages, has since been launched investigating the matter which sees Mackey claiming such allegations were false - stating that only one extra guest showed up in addition to the original four.
He also denied Mackey's claims of yelling and profanity as 'unfounded accusations' and stressed that 'none of this was true'.
"No party had taken place. No one had been yelling or cursing in the parking lot There were simply pretexts for the host and Airbnb to collect more money," according to the suit.
Mackey went on to leave the next day as planned, under the impression that 'all issues had been resolved as simply a misunderstanding', the lawsuit said.
Seems like a civil way to end things after all that, right?
Well, shortly after leaving the residence, Mackey left a negative review of his stay on Airbnb’s website and requested a partial refund of $502.46, which was denied.
The lawsuit alleges that Fohler 'began harassing' Mackey following the review, over concerns for her 'superhost' status on the app.
An Airbnb representative got in touch with Mackey in the days following, stating they would investigate the case, which could potentially end with his account being terminated.
Mississippi District Court
Then, some days after that, Mackey alleged he received a text message from Fohler.
It read: "Hello Shawn, hope you are well. Sorry it took so long to get the photos you requested together to show your stay at our home. But I had faith, was driven by integrity, so I committed to get these posted for you and Airbnb. Photo at 3:16 AM is especially notable. Should I forward the photos and videos to [Mackey's wife] Teresa, or will you?"
According to the court document, there 'was a photograph depicting [Mackey] in the company of another female (not his wife) taken by one of the cameras at Fohler’s Airbnb home' attached to the message.
He alleges that Fohler also threatened to put the videos on YouTube as well because the files were too large to sent over via text.
Mackey was then billed $960 (£764) for breaking house rules and for inviting extra guests.
He also alleged that Fohler made a fake email account, with the handle [email protected], to send the photo to his wife at her place of work with the subtle subject 'nice bag', which the lawsuit called an 'an extortion attempt'.
The body of the email included a screenshot of her guest with another woman, with the accompanying text reading: "I love your bag, where’d you get it?"
Mackey claims he was not backed by Airbnb at all, with the suit claiming that: "The plaintiff's marriage has suffered as a result," with Fohler causing Mackey 'extreme emotional distress' among other things.
Tyla has reached out to Airbnb for comment.