Hello fellow hosts currently having a problem with a rsvp made by a middle aged person ( I have a historic home) so my kind of person right? Instead of 8 guests I get 12 and they are all 20 something’s. Omg. House rule. No partying I have even turned down this year 4 party type rsvp once I figure out what’s going on and they have been honest with me. Not this gal. She is NOT even staying at my property. Luckily I have Arlo cameras and I can see 12 suitcases coming in ( I only have beds for 8)
And of course more beer that you can imagine and a huge cooler coming in. They have left my back door wide open when it’s 85 degrees and my hvac system is at 72 bc they are too lazy To open and close it as they reach for more beer! We are gated and it has been left unlocked even tho we have a rule about that too. I called airbnb 4 hours after their arrival. They said send me the videos and we will get back with you. I did and it took me 2 hours to do. Nothing from airbnb I called back the next morning and nothing it’s now 24 hours later and no one has called me with help on how to handle. In the meantime these 20 somethings are all over my historic home. I’m really sick about this. I am a super host for the last 4 years and have had nearly 300 rsvp so I guess I’m super lucky so far but what a joke! I feel betrayed by this guest and airbnb. What’s going on??? Now I’ve sent her a request for an addl 50% fee bc of an addl 50% increase in guests. Look forward to getting your advice on how to best handle all of this. Thanks from Pat in Music City
-
What do you want Airbnb to do?
-
How far from the rental do you live?
-
What does rsvp stand for to you? Because I don’t think it means to you what it means to me.
Obviously a Third party booking.
You have no protection as the booking guest isn’t staying.
Are you expecting Airbnb to send a SWAT team?
You need to be managing your listing, this is your business -Airbnb is a booking platform, not your friend!
Why aren’t you at the front door telling them the booking is canceled and to get themselves out of there!
So you were absent initially but now are capitalizing on the event by trying to get more money, but it is Airbnb’s fault the ‘party’ is happening in the first place or if anything goes wrong after. Goodness.
So you are going to let this group trash your home while waiting for Airbnb to get back to you? It’s your home not Airbnb’s. Why did you not boot them out the instant you saw what was going on?
Hey, really sorry to hear about this. I can understand you would be upset at being misled by the host and the potential for damage.
Some suggestions:
- Are you local? If so can you attend the premises?
- Have you seen anything in your camera that warrant police attendance? Such as excessive noise, damage, vandalism or illegal activities?
- If you have a good relationship with your neighbours can they give you a “live” view of how bad it really is? In my experience large groups of people make a lot of noise and a lot of mess, but real damage is rare. 12 people doesn’t seem that bad to me, if all they are doing is drinking and getting a bit rowdy.
By the way, where is “Music City”. Somewhere in the US I assume?
Update: after 2 days of no help I reached an airbnb Angel. According to her I really dodged a bullet bc she said this was what they refer to as a 3rd party booking. I asked for clarification and she said that since the person making the rsvp never shows up she could not be held responsible for those who did. And of course they are not responsible for any damage bc I don’t even know who they are. This is alarming!!! This is a huge scam. Forget air cover to reunburse. Damage too bad it’s for you to take care. Yes that’s right!!!Luckily for me I caught her on my Arlo showing up the 2nd day for a visit so she no longer claim she was never there. Since she increased her number by 50% I sent a request for reimbursement which she was ignoring. They were staying tonight so I threatened to cancel them immediately if she did not immediately pay me. I also think airbnb contacted her as well so she paid up. She has basically stressed me and my my son and Husbsnd for 3 days! After almost 300 Rsvp’s and Super host status most of the time I finally got the stinker. My first bell went off when I found myself saying she was my worst communicator guest I had ever had. I could not engage her. Took 2.5 days to find out their arrival time. Hind sight I should have been there and I will try to now every time. I will also ask for them to send me Id ahead of time and verify it is them and Id for each of their guests. I will also ask now for a $500 security deposit. Here how to get airbnb’s attention : threaten to cancel the rsvp. I don’t know what I’ll find tomorrow after they leave do I guess to be continued… would love your input! If you don’t have cameras outside at the doors get them now. We have 3 Arlos and they saved me on this rsvp. Otherwise I would have been clueless to the extra guests and the fact they were 20 somethings who I never rent to bc we are a historic property and do not allow parties. They snuck in bc of their Mamas 40 ish pic and her rental. FYI it is against airbnb rules to rent a property and not stay there with your guests unless disclosed and approved by host. She did neither. Don’t get scammed. We aa have to be careful about these 3rd party scammers! Protect yourselves and your property! I’m also thinking about setting fines of $200? for each broken house rule ; has anyone done this? This renter broke 4 House/Airbnb rules! Let me hear from you all!
Wow bc I was naive. I like your style and appreciate your input. Yes I did have a neighbor take pictures even for me because they had set up and we’re partying in the back parking area but it wasn’t excessive it’s not like they had 50 or 100 people it’s just that I never house 20 somethings for the obvious reasons and I’ve turned down numerous request once I can fetter that out this fortyish woman did not communicate to me and I unfortunately assumed I could trust her little did I know she would not be there at all
I will for sure next time! You are right. I was mortified and thought airbnb would advise me. I was wrong!
Third party bookings are illegal under Air TOC. Tell Air it MUST be cancelled for that reason, without any penalty to you.
So I am 35 minutes away and they arrived at 7 p not 4 p. I do try to meet my guests most of the time even tho my adult kids tell me I’m wasting my time and most people don’t want to meet their hosts.
I will no longer listen to them about that. And Yes, I thought airbnb was there to help guide me with this very new situation. Wow have I learned a lesson.
Question would you be there while they are checking out? Normally I would not intrude on My guests and respect their privacy but these were bad guests. And I’m very worried. Please advise me friends
And rsvp for me is short for reservation Music City is in Tennessee.
As @Debthecat said, what were you expecting Airbnb, as the advertising platform, to do? Send in the host-can’t-deal-with-their-guest SWAT team?
It seems pretty unbelievable that you’ve been hosting for any length of time if you can’t manage your business. For example:
I’m really surprised that you’ve been hosting for 4 years but you don’t know what a third-party booking is. I’d really recommend that you read a lot here and learn how to handle your business.
Sorry, tough love.
Lindsey, it doesn’t matter what some clueless Airbnb rep might advise, they aren’t going to physically remove bad guests from your home. That is up to the host.
I hope you don’t find a really disgusting mess or damages.
And rsvp has nothing to do with “reservation”. It stands for Repondez s’il vous plait. Which is French for Please respond.
It used to always give me a chuckle when clients would write in their copy “RSVP please”
I always meet and greet with the keys, do a head count and a quick tour to explain the historic house idiosyncrasies. Most guests appreciate it and I don’t want those who don’t!
No not capitalizing trying to recoup for 4 addl people in my home
I hope I don’t have a mess either. Should I be there when they are checking out?
Could be very confrontational…please advise Thanks
You are right about rsvp. I got lazy and just didn’t type up the word reservation
I think having an older style home probably has kept the riffraff from renting from me I really haven’t had 95% great yes very fortunate and so I am new to this third-party stuff this gal also did not have any reviews.
Please suggest to me what good practices are regarding folks with no reviews or should I just reject them straight away ? this is the first time I’ve had a problem with somebody who had no reviews;
I will be implementing For all of my guests to send me a photo ID of themselves upon accepting their reservation as well as their guests and their contact info as well.
Also do you require a deposit? If so how much? Thank you all for your support ! Pat
Unfortunately Airbnb has disallowed the security deposit option and you can no longer ask for a refundable one through the resolution centre.
No, you don’t have to decline guests just because they don’t have reviews, everyone, including hosts, started out with no reviews. I’ve had guests with no reviews and they were fine guests. Airbnb will send you threatening messages about declining too much if you start rejecting everyone who doesn’t have reviews.
Just dialogue with reviewless guests, make sure they have read your listing info, and the house rules, make sure they have entered the correct number of guests, try to get a sense of them. You have 24 hours to either accept or decline, so don’t feel pressured to make a decision right away if you aren’t getting the info you need.
I don’t think you can require that guests send you a photo of themselves, and certainly not everyone on their booking- you can require that guests have a clear face photo on their profile, though. And you can ask them to show ID when they arrive. All this has to be mentioned in your listing.
What contact info are you talking about? You are given the guest’s phone number when their booking is confirmed. That and the Airbnb messaging is the only contact info you should need. I do ask guests for their email address after they book, but that is because I need to send them a map to my place, which is hard to find.