Airbnb Sex Abuse Lawsuit: Settlements, Screening, and Defenses

Airbnb has been the target of a sexual assault lawsuit repeatedly over the past decade, brought by guests, cleaning workers, and people who were secretly filmed at its rentals. For most of the company’s history, those claims were funneled into confidential arbitration and closed with nondisclosure agreements, which is why so few cases reached a public courtroom. That changed in August 2021, when Airbnb dropped its forced-arbitration requirement for sexual assault and harassment claims from guests and hosts.¹

Can Survivors Sue Airbnb in Court

They can now. For years, they largely couldn’t. Airbnb had required binding arbitration for user disputes since 2011, a clause that covered an estimated 150 million users and kept virtually every assault claim out of the public court system. Bloomberg Businessweek reported in 2021 that since Airbnb’s founding in 2008, only a single sexual assault case had been filed against the company in U.S. courts.²

Every settlement the company reached also carried a nondisclosure clause until 2017, when Airbnb said it stopped the practice following the #MeToo movement. Spokesman Ben Breit told reporters the company was not aware of any sexual assault settlement agreements at listings before that year.³

Arbitration lingered longer. Sherry Dooley, an Oregon woman who filed a sexual assault claim against Airbnb and a man named Miguel Sandoval, was pushed into arbitration in September 2020 after the company threatened to enforce its terms of service. Airbnb later said it had stopped forcing sexual assault cases into arbitration in January 2019, more than a year before Dooley’s case was moved there. Her federal case was stayed pending arbitration and later dismissed with prejudice as to Airbnb in July 2021.⁴

Under public pressure from Bloomberg’s reporting, Airbnb formally updated its terms of service in August 2021 to end forced arbitration for sexual assault and harassment claims by guests and hosts. The company said the written change codified a practice already in place since early 2019, but did not explain the delay in announcing it publicly.¹

The Scale of the Problem, According to Airbnb

A June 2021 Bloomberg Businessweek investigation by reporter Olivia Carville described a “secretive safety team” of about 100 agents, some drawn from military and emergency-services backgrounds, whose job was to intervene when serious crimes occurred at listings. Their work included relocating victims, covering medical and travel costs, and arranging settlements.⁵

Former employees told Bloomberg the company handled thousands of sexual assault allegations every year, many involving rape, and that Airbnb spends roughly $50 million annually on payouts related to serious incidents at its properties. Airbnb told Bloomberg that “fewer than 0.1% of stays involve safety issues.” Against the 193 million nights booked in 2020, that figure would still translate to roughly 193,000 safety-related incidents in a single year.³ The company said most of the $50 million goes to host property damage claims, though Bloomberg documented six- and seven-figure sums paid to assault survivors.¹

Key Cases and Settlements

The $7 Million New York Settlement

A 29-year-old Australian woman was raped at knifepoint in an Airbnb apartment near Times Square on New Year’s Eve 2015. She and her friends had picked up the keys from a nearby convenience store where no identification was requested. The attacker, 24-year-old Junior Lee, had obtained a duplicate set of keys and was hiding inside when the victim returned after midnight. He was charged with predatory sexual assault and pleaded not guilty.⁶

Airbnb’s safety team moved the victim to a hotel, flew her mother from Australia, and covered return travel, health, and counseling costs.⁷ Two years later, the company paid her a $7 million settlement. Bloomberg reported that under the agreement, she was barred from discussing the incident, suing the company, or implying that Airbnb bore “responsibility or liability” for the attack.⁶ An Airbnb spokesperson told outlets that “survivors can speak freely about their experiences” in the company’s sexual assault settlements, though the company did not dispute the specific terms Bloomberg described.⁸

Lapayowker v. Airbnb

Leslie Lapayowker sued Airbnb in California in July 2017, alleging that a “superhost” named Carlos Del Olmo locked her in a studio, made sexual demands, and sexually assaulted her a year earlier. Her complaint accused Airbnb of negligence, arguing that the company’s marketing as a “trusted community marketplace” created a false sense of security while it did “little to ensure the safety of its users.”⁹

Her attorneys argued a thorough background check would have flagged Del Olmo’s 2013 arrest in Florida on battery and domestic violence charges. He had avoided conviction through a diversion program, so the record never tripped Airbnb’s screening filters, which focus on felony convictions, sex offender registries, and “significant misdemeanors.” Authorities declined to file criminal charges over the alleged assault, citing insufficient evidence. Airbnb banned Del Olmo from the platform. No final ruling or settlement in the civil case has been publicly reported.⁹

Fort Lauderdale Cleaning Worker Lawsuit

On April 2, 2025, a woman identified as “Jane Doe” sued in Broward County, Florida, alleging she was sexually assaulted while cleaning a Fort Lauderdale Airbnb. According to the complaint, on August 28, 2024, an unidentified male intruder broke into the property at 509 SE 19th Street, restrained her with zip ties, threatened her with a knife, and raped her. She was transported to Broward Health Medical Center with visible injuries.¹⁰

The suit names Airbnb, property management company La Bella Vacations, and cleaning company Monet Cleaning Services. Attorney Kim Wald argued the defendants failed to install basic security measures despite two prior incidents at the property: a laptop theft a month earlier, and a break-in on August 21, 2024, when an unknown man entered through a window and locked himself inside while guests were present.¹¹ Fort Lauderdale police ruled out suspects from the prior incidents. As of early April 2025, no arrests had been made. Airbnb said it had suspended the listing and was investigating.¹²

Hidden Camera Claims

A separate line of suits involves guests recorded by concealed devices. In a court-ordered deposition, an Airbnb representative testified the company had generated 35,000 customer support tickets related to surveillance devices over the preceding decade.¹³

A. Jay Allee, an Airbnb “superhost” in Comfort, Texas, used hidden cameras to record guests, including minors, for more than a year. Police recovered over 2,000 images identifying more than 30 victims. Allee pleaded guilty to six counts of invasive visual recording and was sentenced to one year in jail. In July 2022, 13 victims, including two children, sued Airbnb in California state court. The company settled about six months later on undisclosed terms. A CNN investigation reported that an Airbnb employee testified in a deposition that it was not the company’s practice to notify law enforcement when a guest reported a hidden camera, even when children were involved.¹³

The Screening Argument Plaintiffs Rely On

Almost every negligence claim against Airbnb targets the same weakness: the company does not run background checks on every user, and its filters focus on convictions rather than arrests, charges, or dismissed cases. Airbnb’s help page tells guests to “use their own discretion when booking.”¹⁴ For U.S.-based users, the company works with third-party providers to check public criminal records, sex offender registries, and terrorist watch lists.

The gaps are real. Del Olmo’s diversion-program resolution kept his record clean of the flags Airbnb screens for. In another case reported by Business Insider in 2017, Carl Bergstrom, a registered sex offender convicted of felony sexual battery in Carmel, California, was living in a home listed on Airbnb by his housemate. Because Bergstrom was not the listed host, his name was never screened. Airbnb removed the listing only after a reporter flagged the situation.¹⁵

How Airbnb Defends Itself

Airbnb’s core legal position is that it is a technology platform, not the operator of the rentals. In hidden-camera and other tort cases, it has cited Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which shields online platforms from being treated as the “publisher or speaker” of user-generated content.¹³

That shield is not absolute. In at least one case, a court allowed a negligence lawsuit to proceed after finding Airbnb had failed to conduct a thorough background check on a host with a prior history of assault allegations.³ Plaintiffs increasingly frame their claims around what the company does — screening, booking, safety promises — rather than what it publishes.

What Airbnb Has Changed

Under litigation and press pressure, Airbnb has adjusted several policies. It stopped putting nondisclosure clauses in sexual assault settlements in 2017. It ended forced arbitration for sexual assault claims from employees in late 2018 and extended that to guests and hosts formally in August 2021.¹ It banned all indoor surveillance cameras from listings effective April 30, 2024.¹³

The company says sexual assaults at its listings are “extremely rare” and points to its safety team as evidence of its commitment. Bloomberg’s reporting showed that even after Airbnb said it had stopped enforcing arbitration for assault claims, at least one survivor was still pushed into the process. And the 2025 Fort Lauderdale suit, filed years after these reforms were announced, shows plaintiffs still allege the company falls short on basic security at its properties.

1
Fortune. Airbnb Arbitration Lawsuit Sexual Assault Policy
2
Bloomberg. Two Sexual Assault Survivors Spur Airbnb Arbitration Turnaround
3
Business Insider. Airbnb Faces Thousands of Sexual Assault Claims Yearly
4
CourtListener. Dooley v. Airbnb, Inc.
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CNET. Airbnb’s Secretive Safety Team Pays Out Millions Each Year, Report Says
6
The Guardian. Airbnb: New York Woman Allegedly Raped Reached Settlement
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BBC News. Airbnb Paid Tourist $7m After Rape at New York Rental
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City A.M. Airbnb Paid Tourist $7m After Rape at New York Rental
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The Guardian. Airbnb Guest Sexual Assault Allegation
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Sun-Sentinel. Woman Sexually Assaulted While Cleaning Fort Lauderdale Airbnb Files Lawsuit
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NBC Miami. Woman Files Lawsuit Against Airbnb After Claiming She Was Raped at Home in Fort Lauderdale
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CBS News Miami. Alleged Rape Victim Files Lawsuit Against Airbnb in Broward
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CNN. Airbnb Hidden Camera Investigation
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Airbnb. Background Checks
15
Business Insider. How Registered Sex Offenders May Not Be Spotted by Airbnb