# What would you do in this situation? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 19, 2016, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-in-this-situation/757777 "2016-06-19T16:04:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Sunny\_Daze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunny_daze/32/438_2.png) [@Sunny\_Daze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunny_Daze)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2016, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-in-this-situation/757777/21 "2016-06-21T05:33:11Z")
I think the question of whether it was taken seriously by the police would depend, in part, on where it happened. Beyond that, I went through an internal argument with myself on what advice to give you. It went like this: 1. Did you feel safe in his home? 2. Do you think he would do this to others? 3. WTF difference does it make whether he would do this to others? it’s bad enough that he did it to you. 4. Reporting sexual assault to the police might be time consuming and annoying. True - but this is probably going to be a battery complaint, which makes things a lot less involved than a rape complaint. 5. It’s been a while. Will that make it less likely that they believe her? OTOH, she did talk to Airbnb right away. I circled on this, IOW. Here’s where I net out. Yes, this was sexual assault. I believe that the police would take this seriously here in the US, particularly given the circumstances that gave him access to women alone in his home on a regular basis. If you don’t mind making the phone call to the local police, I would imagine the worst thing that would happen is that you’ll waste a few hours answering questions. ---
**Author:** ![Filbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/filbert/32/3433_2.png) [@Filbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Filbert)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2016, 10:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-in-this-situation/757777/22 "2016-06-21T10:28:03Z")
> [@Dogzilla](#): > > See, I would never use airbnb in the first place for precisely that reason. You have no way of knowing who’s actually going to lurk and creep on you or worse. I can’t understand kids these days who see absolutely no danger in things like Uber and Airbnb. > > So yeah, I’d GTFO and go rent a hotel room or stay in a youth hostel (marginally safer, if at all), or find an actual B&B or just anything but trying to stay here and hide in my room until creeper sees something shiny and wanders off. Curious, what do you see as the safety difference between an “actual B&B” and airbnb? Certainly in the UK a standard B&B is normally someone’s house that they decided to rent rooms out of, but without any kind of central complaints office, and possibly without any real review system. OK, so I have pretty broad safety standards, I have hitchhiked, couchsurfed with strangers and generally travel solo, so maybe I’m missing something, but I really don’t get it… ---
**Author:** ![bellybean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9d8465/32.png) [@bellybean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bellybean)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2016, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-in-this-situation/757777/23 "2016-06-21T21:34:20Z")
> [@ddsun](#): > > I think the question of whether it was taken seriously by the police would depend, in part, on where it happened. This happened in the UK. ---
**Author:** ![Sunny\_Daze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunny_daze/32/438_2.png) [@Sunny\_Daze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunny_Daze)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2016, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-in-this-situation/757777/24 "2016-06-22T05:38:07Z")
I have the impression that the UK authorities would take this seriously. ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2016, 11:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-in-this-situation/757777/25 "2016-06-22T11:32:53Z")
> [@bellybean](#): > > So, let’s say you want to take a vacation on your own. You want to meet locals, so you decide to go with Airbnb, renting a room instead of a whole apartment. First of all I’m sorry you got harassed. Since you’re in the UK, call the police. Secondly renting a room only gets you to meet one local (and as you found, they may be unpleasant and then it’s hard to get away from them.) Next time I’d book into a hotel instead and ask reception about local activities that interest you. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-in-this-situation/757777.md?page=1)