We haven’t experienced anything like that. We’ve had blood on the sheets once. And we’ve had wine spilled on sheets once. We’ve had three towels ruined by skin products. That’s it in over 300 stays.
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Yes, you’re right. I had originally considered an extra cleaning fee since we spent more than twice as long having to clean up (she decided six pillows on the bed weren’t enough so went into our cupboards and pulled out extra pillows for the pull out bed and found our personal pillowcases to make it eight pillows on the bed) but decided against it as I thought easier to be done with her with things that were backed up by photos as damaged (extra cleaning is hard to show). After she demanded the refund, I requested Airbnb add in another cleaning fee as well given we did double the laundry, mopped twice and vacuumed multiple times after she left. I will look into VRBO, thanks for the rec.
3 towels ruined in 300 stays is absolutely amazing. Wow. He had to swap all our towels over in less than 30 stays. Yikes.
Yes, exactly - we’ve had variations of things that are annoying but isolated, this one felt like all the bad experiences we’ve had so far bundled into one, with a healthy dose of entitlement and brattiness.
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Such a drag.
I hope you can get past it. The best news here is that Air took down the snotty/rule-breaking review.
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Absolutely, it’s the insult to injury that really feels not worth it. This should be a business transaction, and I do not owe her the politeness and kindness she said I lacked by simply stating an accurate description of her visit. All of this denying the damage done and requesting a refund isn’t based on reality and she knows it, she’s just retaliating because she was unhappy with the review. The stuff can be replaced and the cabin cleaned, but being repeatedly verbally attached by a litigious and obnoxious person who knows where your home is is what I find really difficult to deal with, and where I think Airbnb’s off-hands approach to resolving is sorely lacking.
You’re way too emotional right now. Take a really deep breath and start focusing on your next guest. Don’t wait for Airbnb or the guest on the damage claim. Deal with that in the background.
The main problem is that you are taking it too personally. Stop it! Airbnb is not going to give her a refund after giving you a 5-star review. The worst that could happen now is that guest won’t pay and Airbnb won’t pay so you’re out $38 and some cleaning time. Not really that bad in the grand scheme of things. Ignore the guest’s lies and any other bullshit because she is mad and her goal is to make you mad.
For the record, I have been where you are now. I had a group of bad guests. 13 hours of just cleaning, plus ruined sheets and towels, broken glasses, missing silverware, three holes in the drywall, and a bent bed frame. Cost me $300 on top of my (and my wife’s) labor. The guest gave me a 5-star review and I gave him a bad review. However, I did not file a claim for damages, I just used it as an opportunity to upgrade the bed ($270 for a very nice used bed frame) which I was already planning.
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I’d be really worried if every 10th guest left my place in the disgusting state described by @bk23 @Suntory.
I wonder how you are vetting your guests if 1 in 10 are so awful. 1 in 10 is not ‘every now and then’ it’s a regular occurrence.
Not had a problem guest in four years and hundreds of guests (apart from first nightmare guest).
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The cost is not worth your frustration. $38 after a year with no issues is a non issue. By bringing Air into it you are just dragging it out. They don’t care. Let it go and get ready for your next guest.
RR
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If you include all of those things, my ratio is almost 100%.
If 10% of my guests were problematic, I’d start looking to find out what I was doing wrong.
JF
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I think you’re lucky to be honest, but those things are just part of hosting. Blood on sheets (or any other bodily fluids) aren’t an issue because the sheets are going to be washed anyway. Guests tend to take out the kitchen trash but almost always forget to empty the bathroom bin. I’ve rarely had breakages but there’s quite often a spill of something in the fridge or on the stove or on the worktop. None of these matter because they’re all going to be cleaned thoroughly anyway. It takes no longer if there are a few spills. This being said, guests who do none of those things ought to be in a guest hall of fame and are, in my brain.
Towels are another matter. I can’t remember the last time I had a ruined towel. Very dirty ones yes, but not ruined.
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LET IT GO. Unless they are able to fool a newbie customer disservice contractor into giving away your money, it’s not worth the effort. You’ve just been spoiled by having so many excellent guests that you weren’t ready for a bad one. You need to not let the bad ones get under your skin.
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I think you’re well-intentioned, but telling someone they’re way too emotional is never not obnoxious. I’m not crying and traumatized, I’m actually rationally evaluating whether, for me personally, Airbnb and its lacking policies that encourage interaction with problematic guests is worth it. Maybe it’s not the same for everyone, but our cabin is the only place we own and the items in it are ours and we care about our place, and when people come in and treat it badly it’s costly as well as upsetting.
Perhaps it means I shouldn’t do Airbnb if I have a connection to my home, which is something I’m considering, but I hardly think it is unusual or negative to value your home in more than a financial way and feel uncomfortable with someone who appears to be aggressive and potentially unstable sharing your private information on the internet and knowing the remote location where you live. I think most women you know would agree.
And I’m sorry about the guests you had who sound far worse than mine, but I really don’t understand why you wouldn’t file a claim for $300 worth of damage. All of us are ultimately doing this for the money and taking it upon yourself to eat the cost of hundreds of dollars worth of damage because you were up for buying a new bed is nonsensical - the entire point of using Airbnb is that there is some level of protection for situations like these, however large or small they may be. While I personally rarely do submit a charge for broken items I wouldn’t ever judge someone who did or a host who charged me for anything I damaged.
There’s a difference between the cost of doing business and just doing bad business.
Nor for this host. The entire point of using Air is to get bookings and get paid. There is little level of protection for hosts.
I think @Brian_R170 is well intentioned, I am way more obnoxious than he is.
What he said in the next line was more important, try not to take it personally.
Well said.
RR
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What exactly is your hosting situation? It sounds like you live there. But you rent out the entire place? You go sleep somewhere else when you have guests?
I know there are hosts who do this, but it’s always seemed quite odd to me. Of course people have an attachment to their private homes and are upset when people don’t respect it. But I can’t imagine giving over my entire home to guests in my absence. Complete strangers using my stuff, snooping through whaever they want, etc, is just a weird concept to me. I list a private room, and live in the house. And all of my guests have been respectful. I would never vacate my home just so I could earn more money renting it as an entire place.
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I don’t know in the OP’s case but they did say
That sounds exactly like the set up for @CatskillsGrrl here. And I’ve also stayed in a cabin in New Mexico that was set up like that. The owners stuff was in cabinets and drawers. It was just like staying at a friends cabin in the mountains, except it wasn’t free. That concept was very common in the early days of Airbnb. Now it’s become more of the exception than the rule.
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It’s extremely weird to me that people would have strangers in their house while they’re there, so to each their own. We live in NYC, where the cost of owning is prohibitive to pretty much anyone who would ever need to use Airbnb, so like many New Yorkers we own a place out of the city. There are no personal items we leave out, but we use the things that our guests use, so we invest in nicer things than an airbnb that is solely used for renting. We do not vacate our home, we work in the city but have flexible schedules so are often at our cabin during the week and when we’re in the city on the weekend we list it on airbnb. The extra money is not a necessity, but it’s nice to offset the costs of owning and renting and we genuinely do like that most of our guests are able to enjoy our place when we aren’t using it.
“Nor for this host. The entire point of using Air is to get bookings and get paid. There is little level of protection for hosts.”
By those standards Craigslist and Venmo would work just as well, and maybe they do for you. But in both hosting and staying as a guest, I appreciate knowing there is some level of protection. Aside from the hassle of dealing with them in this situation, they’ve been good in other instances for me as both a guest and a host.
“I think @Brian_R170 is well intentioned, I am way more obnoxious than he is.”
One can be obnoxious and well intentioned at the same time. In fact, it happens quite a lot.
I have STR insurance and I hope I never need it, this is a business to me and Air is only a booking platform, so is VRBO and my own direct book website.
Uhm no, craigslist is not a place I would look for guests. I use Google adwords to drive traffic to my website where a guest can use a credit card.
Yes, and internet forums can be harsh. Take the best and leave the rest.
RR