Are guests getting stupider?

[Militaryhorsegal]

touche! Luckily I was the guest, not the host. Stating for myself!

[JohnF]

@Militaryhorsegal

I was the guest

And that stopped you?

JF

[JJD]

@zillacop

how to use the squeegee on the glass shower doors

Swedes, I just know it.

[aelilya]

@Lynick4442

I state that in most cases Airbnb lets the host resolve issues when notified and that we will not accept a complaint and request for compensation unless we have had the opportunity to rectify the problem

That’s interesting. I suppose guests do this with the express intent of trying to get money via AirBnB for whatever they were unhappy with? Does Air do that often?

I definitely have had my share of , which were resolved with repair, workaround, etc and usually a nice “I’m sorry, gift” that usually turns the “problem” into a win, actually. I imagine there have been issues I wasn’t told about, but thankfully no one has ever been so nasty as to try to get a refund without working with me first.

[Lynick4442]

@aelilya

That’s interesting. I suppose guests do this with the express intent of trying to get money via AirBnB for whatever they were unhappy with? Does Air do that often?

I’ve had guests try in the past. I was told years ago that Airbnb wants the hosts to rectify the issue is possible.

I once got a complaint that there was a piece of tape on one of my smoke detectors covering the green light. (I used to sleep in this bedroom and the light bothered me.) They wanted to refund for the entire stay because they stayed in an unsafe unit.

I created a diagram showing all the smoke detectors in the unit along with my city code and could prove that I had 2 additional smoke detectors than required. Even though my detectors are hard wired that didn’t convince them but the fact that I could take away the “defective taped detector” and still be above code did it.

Had the guest said something to me, I would have removed the piece of tape.

[aelilya]

@Lynick4442

Had the guest said something to me, I would have removed the piece of tape.

Great thinking on your part! I’m glad you prevailed because they definitely were being shysters.

They were quick to want to pay them for a missing “amenity” but had they crammed more people in there than the fire code allowed you’d have seen $0 to almost no compensation, even with proof & a confession . Thankfully most of my guests caught in this scenario did right by me (when confronted, of course).

[Lynick4442]

@aelilya

Great thinking on your part! I

It get’s even sweeter.

I found out later that the people who booked were friends with my neighbors that were very difficult.

I’m pretty sure they put them up to it to complain and she even said something to the effect of “Now I know why XXX dislikes you.”

Mind you when I talked to the police chief about my neighbors’ harassment, they pulled out a hugh binder of complaints against the family vs me who had 3 complaints from them and one where I was also an eyewitness to a car accident. The chief of police had no problem believing who was harassing whom.

(Note - this part of the story has nothing to do with Airbnb although they did harass some visitors once but they were friends of mine and not guests LOL)

[aelilya]

@Lynick4442

I’m pretty sure they put them up to it to complain

Glad the Chief knew what was up! But still, what a bummer of a scenario.

I’ve had the occasional odd neighbor, such as the 90+ yrs old who, bless her heart, thought my husband was climbing on her roof & my kids were peeking through her windows on the regular in the middle of the day. Mind you, this is pre-pandemic so no one was ever home during the day except me sometimes & my kids were teens (& I couldn’t get my husband on my own roof!). She’d come over banging her cane on my garage door sometimes because she was mad about it.

I have one now who “smokes” 5x daily (21 yrs old, not medicinal) and you can literally smell it when you open my front door and in my garage.

Can you imagine if I were trying to STR ?! Ugh. But, nothing where they were/are being harassing. I actually liked/like my neighbors but we couldn’t do business next door to them.

Thankfully my STR neighbors and I are cool. I’d like to retire there in the future!

[KKC]

@aelilya

I have one now who “smokes” 5x daily (21 yrs old, not medicinal) and you can literally smell it when you open my front door and in my garage.

Can you imagine if I were trying to STR ?!

I don’t live on a very swanky street and I’ve posted about some particularly troublesome neighbors multiple times. For a few years they had one or two macaws. If you’ve ever been around pet parrots you know they can be very noisy. Periodically in warm weather they would have them out front and once an Airbnb guest posted in the review about his alarm at hearing a woman screaming. Then he realized it was the parrots.

They got rid of the parrots but now their boys are teens and there are loud cars and trucks periodically and the yard is trashed. I just warn in the listing what to expect and so far, no poor reviews because of it. I’m more surprised at the number of reviews that say it’s a nice neighborhood.

[aelilya]

@KKC

I just warn in the listing what to expect and so far, no poor reviews

That’s good! I can’t imagine what I’d write about my two funny neighbors : “Angry geriatric neighbor who is actually quite dear to us may yell at you for being a peeping Tom, please ignore”, or “Bob Marley (that’s the dog’s name for real) and owner “chill” on the regular - please keep doors and windows shut at all times”

[Lynnie]

@muddy

My daughter says humanity is devolving.

Yes, I see evidence that people are getting stupider.

Have you or your daughter watched “Idiocracy”?

[muddy]

I’ve heard of it, but never seen it. Don’t know if she’s watched it.

She’s pretty demoralized about the state of the planet in general. Has a 2 year old and is concerned about what the future will look like for her. She and her partner are just saving as much money as they can, so they can buy some land, build an ecologically sound house and be as self-sufficient as possible.