good question. Let me go find it. Oops, looks like I confused Airbnb parties. I swear I thought I read that about this host. If I find it I’ll let you know.
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Too many articles, two threads going about it now. I give up. But the owner definitely had complaints before including citations from the city. Stories like this are going to make more people anti-Airbnb. And people with whole home listings they don’t live in are going to suffer the most when it comes to regulations.
Just FYI, this has been reported on BBC news in the UK. That’s quite significant because the guns are out (pardon the phrase) for Airbnb here. Statement from Air saying they “will do more” to regulate such properties. Right…
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A lot of slum lords greatly underestimate the cost of these repairs. They are the type to try and hire the cheapest contractors and replace tiny parts instead of the whole. Unfinished patch jobs. Etc. Their properties don’t become slums simply through guest or tenant abuses. Often the “after” will look worse than the “before.”
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In what way? Can you expand?
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I recently experienced a real time situation; AirBNB Support was little help so maybe a Rapid Response Support desk will actually provide some support when needed.
LONG STORY
I had an instant Book a month prior to the stay for one person for (my minimum of) 2 nights. She had two good reviews. All it said was “ Hello looking forward to staying in this nice home “.
- She never responded to my booking reply
- She never responded to my information note, sent 2 days prior to arrival, when I advised that “Since there is not a guest departing the day of your arrival) you are welcome to check-in as early as you like, just let me know when that will be and what type of milk you’d like (for coffee)”
- She finally responded the morning or arrival asking me to provide “instructions for getting inside the air bnb that would be great I’ll be there about 1030 am 11 am “
When she hadn’t arrived by 12:30pm, I messaged her to ask if she had meant 10:30pm. She quickly responded that she “had stopped to visit some friends and would be there in “a couple of hours or less”.
I responded to “lets make it 2pm.”
She showed up as a passenger in what appeared to a non rental SUV with her “brother and his girlfriend”. When I inquired that she had only booked for one person, she explained that her brother lives in a nearby town (20 miles away) and was dropping her off and they were going to take a few pictures.
I helped with her VERY VERY large suitcase, showed them in, and tried to get her acclimated. I was a little suspicious because she had no interest in knowing how anything worked (thermostat, coffee maker, etc).
I left them and went to my local Starbucks for a snack. It was when I was there, that my video doorbell rang and I saw three (3) additional people with suitcases. Guests don’t use my front door … they have a separate guest house that they access via a side gate. I realized something wasn’t right, and I needed to get home and see what was going on. When I got home and before I went over to the guest house, I called AirBNB CS to better familiarize myself as to what I should or shouldn’t do, as well to document my concerns. I explained to CS what I described above, as well as that there was now a 2nd SUV in my driveway blocking my garage access. That was the initial premise for me knocking on their door (to ask them to move their 2nd vehicle). When the door opened the guest was styling a woman’s hair and makeup and there were a dozen or more sets of shoes lined up along the the Living Room wall. There were now at least 5 or 6 unauthorized guests. I asked what was going on, and she restated they were going to “take a few pictures.” When she stated this earlier I mistakenly assumed that meant a few travel selfies, not what was amounting to a fashion photo shoot. I explained that I have a no party or events policy. She stated she had done this before without issue. Since I was outnumbered, I said I’d contact AirBNB and have them handle. This is what the CS rep had advised me prior.
For several hours I waited for AirBNB to contact her and get back to me. I get being passed around and told they’d get back to me. Meanwhile the unauthorized guests took over my yard with their fashion photo shoot. I kept calling and having to restate my ongoing situation. They asked for documentation and I was able to send them ongoing screen print photos from the exterior video cameras and video doorbell. In order to get them to leave AirBNB had me agree to only receiving one night and cleaning fee rather than my 2 night minimum. It was only when it had gotten dark that they agreed to leave and the booking was cancelled by AirBNB
I have explained to AirBNB that if they cancelled and refunded her $ that they are rewarding her and encouraging to her to do this again. Even by charging her for one night she was being rewarded to a discounted rate. I explained that I now suspect, based on her lack of interest in mechanicals, that she was not going to stay there at all that night or the next night. This was only for a photo shoot that they got completed and on the cheap.
I’ve been escalating the issue of the 2nd night’s payment and while I’ve had some sympathetic CS reps and one Supervisor, It really is less about the $ and more about the principal. It is both the guest rules violation and the impotent AirBNB support that got me riled up. It has been a lesson learned and actually could have been far worse, as seen in Halloween party disaster. I had zero damage, cleaning was minimal (makeup on counters, sequins and feathers to be vacuumed up) and they were gone in 4 hours.
Had I to do it all over again, after first contracting AirBNB for the record, I would have first advised the guest that all but she needed to leave. If they didn’t leave, I would have called the the police and had the unauthorized guests charged with trespassing. I’ve since had a long discussion with an AirBNB supervisor (same one who acknowledged he left my high and dry during the incident), and he advised that I would have been within my rights to do so. I told him that this was guidance I was looking for DURING the event.
LESSONS LEARNED
- Red Flag for someone with minimal or no communication. I explained to the CS Supervisor that it was “Guilt by Omission” … She clearly avoided providing any information and did not want to disclose what was actually going down.
- Don’t depend much on AirBNB CS … unless this new “Rapid Response” group will do things differently.
- I’ve since added the following verbiage to my house rules about NonAuthorized guests
HOUSE RULES:
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Only guests included on the reservation are allowed on premises. NO visitors without host’s prior written approval.
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If it is determined that there were unauthorized visitors on site, the registered guest will be charged (for each unauthorized person) $100 per person per day.
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NOTE: It is not our intent to deprive you an enjoyable respite so if there are friends or family that you would like to visit, please advise the host to gain agreement. The actual intent is to prevent the premises from being used for undisclosed commercial endeavors or events.
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NO Business shall be conducted on site without written authorization from host. “Business” is defined as (but not limited to) professional photo / video shoots, onsite interviews, or anything that may involve more than the registered guests being on the premises.
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@HH_AZ that’s a very disheartening situation. Apparently Plus hosts don’t get any sort of upgraded CS. At the very least I think the wireless would have had an outage or maybe the power would have gone off.
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Seriously. We live in our multi-unit house and haven’t had any trouble at all with parties but I still made Oct 31 a 3-day minimum. New Years Eve and St. Patty’s too.
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Speaking of which, you’ve already been asked nicely more than once, publicly and privately, not to insult forum members. Take your angry act somewhere else. I’m sure there’s a facebook group with people who would enjoy your company.
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@Arde - if you expect to continue using this forum then I suggest that you acquaint yourself with the forum FAQ
If you’d rather leave this forum, a preferred outcome, then I doubt that anyone will miss your input.
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The problem with this is then you have no more camera access for continued documentation. I do have lots of smart plugs I could turn off but it would be obvious all they would need to do is unplug from the smart plug and plug directly in the outlets.
I think, though, that as long as the internet access they have is a guest network that you could change the password rendering their current connection(s) obsolete.
I have a camera on my phone.
But I think he had plenty of documentation.
Oh in the case where you are right there and able to record that way sure. I meant for if you were not present at the moment.
Seriously, if I ever need to call for a rapid response, this is the first thing I’ll mention. Hopefully, I won’t get the kind of BS response that you did.
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Well, if you weren’t present you couldn’t turn off the power… And you sure as hell aren’t going to leave once you see that going on.
I know what RR would do. He’d allow fashion shoots but at a price. And that would probably be the thing to do, say "pay up or get out. "
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Thats why I wasn’t addressing the power shut off part. Anyways, yes, the pay upnor get out is fine to say but actually getting them to leave (or pay) is another. Regardless, I agree with your thoughts on this.
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I’m afraid I wouldn’t be as cool headed as HH. I could keep my cool at school because the inmates, I mean students, were forced to be there and they were kids. But you dare to come on my property and tell me you can do as you please. Other hosts didn’t have a problem with it? Then go book those places! I feel mad just thinking about it!
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Turning off the power or inet would have made little difference to them
- hair and makeup really don’t need either, since there is good natural lighting inside the guest house, where the models were being made up and changing.
- the photographer (her “brother”) was mostly shooting outdoors, so it was the afternoon light he needed.
And, as mentioned, turning off the power would have undermined my own ability to capture the ongoing activity without ever stepping outside and would have limited my ability to communicate and transmit documentation to AirBNB CS.
I was able to submit a review for the guest, but have not yet had one from her.
As for charging additional for a photo shoot as RR might. I’ve been asked several times for such, but it has mostly been in exchange for a free or discounted night. If someone approached me for a paid photo shoot, I would consider it and based it on # of people, risk, reward.
This was a different situation where there was Fraud and Deceit in trying to do such on the downlow. My concern to AirBNB was the liability that both the guest and AirBNB put me in, should something had gone wrong, or someone had gotten hurt.
It is also worth noting that I remained calm and stayed in my home and was dealing directly with AirBNB because all the participants were of a different ethnicity than mine … I didn’t want any confrontations with the guest or her visitors for fear that I’d be accused of discrimination. I knew that they were violating the rules, and I feared that retaliation might also be in their playbook.
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I retract my earlier statement. I wouldn’t have wanted to deal with this guest because she wasn’t honest and was like @kkc says
If arranged up-front and honestly, I don’t have any issues with photo-shoots in and of themselves.
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While Airbnb might not be the main issue, from reading the forum here they also don’t support hosts when ‘more’ guests are showing up. They try to avoid cancellations, return the money to guest, allow reviews after … simply said: they don’t have your back.
Interested to see when and how this will be reworded: https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/1515
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