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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Hefty additional guest fees might help.
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I use $20/additional guest over 1 and then $50/unauthorized guest. Problem comes when Airbnb doesn’t enforce the unauthorized price or worse, either one!!
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A power outage is a good idea!
@HH_AZ and all…
Sadly, even with your house rules Airbnb won’t honor you charging violators. I’ve been in a similar situation just a couple days before the Orinda incident. And, be careful if you do try to charge becuase Airbnb will deactivate your account.
We had someone throw a party. 4 people booked, 14 people showed up the second night after a wedding. We first attempted to call the guest, no answer, no answer, sent 3 messages reminding of house rules and manual clearly stating no parties and they would forfeit their deposit and be charged $500 (we thought hefty enough to deter anyone even thinking of a party). Called Airbnb, wait for callback, guest finally calls back to say they would leave in 40 mins. One and a half hours later, they are all still there, more alcohol, pizza delivered, in and out the house and loud discussions on the side walk and porch. Guest turned his phone off. Airbnb told us to go break it up. We attempted and got called racial and homophobic slurs, physically assaulted, car kicked, guests screaming in the street at 2AM. Cops called and of course they finally left before Cops got there. Fast forward a couple days to the tragedy in Orinda. Two days later, Chesky says banning “party houses”. Result…we, yes you read that, WE, THE HOSTS are deactivated as a party house, but I can only assume this because Airbnb won’t discuss anything once you have been deactivated. They won’t even honor the resolution that someone called about 2 days earlier and said would be approved and deposited. Hosts are what make this platform what it is and there is ZERO support. We sent in the video doorbell footage and the only notice we got in the deactivation email was that privacy was violated, which may mean the video footage but this was all disclosed in the listing so we are at a loss.
It’s sad that I would have to say this but hosts need to be careful in how much “complaining” to airbnb. There are 7M listings. Your 1, or maybe few, is pennies.
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Quite a few people here have various charges for violations and have collected on them. Others have filed resolution requests for damages and been reimbursed.
I’m unclear about why you think you were delisted. They said it was for privacy violations but you think it’s actually because you tried to charge guests? Or it was because you complained. I know you’re upset but your post is kind of all over the place.
I can only imagine how frustrating this must be for hosts who are “ghosted” by Airbnb, trying to guess what caused it.
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- I added that at the Suggestion of AirBNB CS, and have that documented in my conversation with them.
- My goal is hopefully to never have to enforce it, but rather to deter those considering using my listing for such purposes
- In event I encounter a situation like I had before, I have it in writing so that it can be enforced by AirBNB, the Police, and/or small claims court.
On a side note, there is a syndicated court television show ‘HotBench’, which had a recent episode of AirBNB Hosts suing a guest. The guest was father who rented a home for a “graduation dinner” for his teenage son that turned into a party house of over a hundred teenagers drinking and doing drugs. The father didn’t deny what had transpired but his defense was that AirBNB had already paid out the hosts $6K and that should have been sufficient. The hosts had damages in excess of $10k and were suing for the remaining balance (not paid for by AirBNB) including lost revenue for not being able to host, until the repairs were complete.
Granted this is a “reality TV show” but the judges did not look favorably on the guest. One judge even went so far as to point out to the guest that there was a “no party clause” in the AirBNB house rules and the guest was in breach, on that alone.
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An update:
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Admittedly, I haven’t been following this news story. I assume something is known about the shooter. Or maybe the shooter has been caught. I don’t know. Certainly Airbnb is far less guilty than the shooter.
Whoa, so sorry about your awful experience. If I’m reading this right, sounds like Airbnb is in full freak-out mode, and if a host reports an unauthorized and out of control party, even if they put themselves at risk to try to stop it and call law enforcement, Airbnb may leap to labeling the property a “party house,” and shut down the listing. Thanks for taking the time to warn other hosts that reporting a problem party could have risks for the host. I think you should take your story to local media. “We Stopped an Unauthorized Party at Our Airbnb. Airbnb Blamed Us and Shut Down Our Listing.”
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One problem with this, for some hosts, is few folks want that kind of media attention. Some people are legal but operating with a tenuous relationship with neighbors, or just don’t want all the trolls that crawl out from under their bridges. I know at least one host who gets stalked by her ex and definitely doesn’t want to be in any news stories.
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The victim must have been on the guest list and not trespassing …
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