I’m new to this forum but hoping to get some insight from others as our last guest has us rethinking using Airbnb ever again.
I’ll try and keep it concise: we allow up to two small or medium sized dogs, but request that guests crate them if they leave them alone in our cabin, as even well-behaved dogs can get anxious in a new place and chew/knock things over. We do the same with our two dogs when we are at the cabin. This guest knew this as it was clearly outlined in our listing, and went ahead and booked. She seemed pleasant over messages and we have a lock box so did not meet her, and she had no issues during her stay, and in fact left us a glowing review.
We arrived at the cabin to clean a few hours after she left and were horrified at the state she left it in - trash all over the floor of every room, including large pieces of chewed up plastic with her dog’s blood on them (assuming from their gums from having chewed for who knows how long while she left them uncrated), she had used our pristine white guest towels to wipe what appeared to be a pound of mud off her dog, only took out one of the three trash bins she used, spilled red wine down the front of our white cabinets, ruined a baking pan, stole or broke a wine glass, the list goes on unfortunately. We have really clear and detailed check out instructions to try and avoid situations like this, but she obviously didn’t bother to read them.
I left an honest and factual review describing the state she left our place in, and said I would not rent to her again or suggest others do. She responded by publishing my private information (last name, which is only supposed to be for guests not for use in public forums) and rambling on about how I was lying and maybe a ghost broke in and caused the mess and that I should be looking for a maid instead of mortgage help - altogether very insulting and personal.
Airbnb took down the response since it went against the policy of protecting privacy, but then she denied accountability for the damage she caused and they’re still, several days later, “investigating” it - even though I have photos of the damage/missing items and links for the replacements. To add insult to injury, she then submitted a request for a full refund for our stay, saying all her relaxation at our place had been ruined by how terrible I was to her and how I should have politely given her the change to “make it right” before posting a negative review - which is ridiculous considering that 1) I don’t ever want her in our place again and 2) that would require asking her to drive two hours back to supervise her cleaning. She went on to call me a drunk for sending her the damage request on a Saturday evening, which is particularly frustrating since we were giving her the benefit of the doubt in hoping the stains may come out of the disgusting mud-cover towel before charging her but when the laundry was finished that evening the towel was still ruined. She is a lawyer so is very threatening in her tone, and saying I violated all sorts of Airbnb terms of service by essentially hurting her feelings.
All in all, it’s extremely frustrating that Airbnb takes so long to resolve damage claims (they are saying they have to go back to her, even though they can see on the app that she is denying she caused any damage, yet I have the photos to prove it), that they’ve made it so impossible to block someone (after probably 15 attempts of different combos it allowed me to, but they said they couldn’t do it on their end even though I know in the past they’ve been able to) and that there is an option for a guest to request a full refund after leaving a perfect review about how much they loved our place. On top of that, it’s really hurtful to have someone say such awful things about you when they are the ones clearly in the wrong. Has anyone else had a similar experience or found a way to expedite Airbnb’s resolution process?
