Maybe it’s a regional thing. In the European media I see lots of news reports that sprouted off from a social media post (selfies with VIPs, injust government decisions, funny animal stories etc.).
Two Words: Direct booking. And your own website for when this happens. Hopefully you have a database of contact info for all your past guests and can invite them to your new website and direct booking platform.
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An update on her latest two claims about me stealing money from her:
My listing wasn’t suspended during either investigation and both have been closed without any response from Airbnb.
I’m sure that there will be a new complaint this weekend as she seems to be reporting me for something every Saturday or Sunday.
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I don’t think you need a PMS or CM (depends on the amount of unites you are renting out) but ChargeAutomation can take care of most of your needs, completely for free.
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Sadly this is still ongoing.
Airbnb has reversed their decision to pay me for the damage, additional guests, late check out and additional cleaning.
Apparently the guest has submitted evidence that I gave her permission to throw the party, that I told her that I was happy to see the house a filthy wreck upon checkout and that I told her that I wouldn’t be charging her for the additional guests or the late checkout.
Presumably the ‘evidence’ is photoshopped texts and unfortunately I can’t prove a negative, so the money they awarded me before will now be deducted from a future payout.
Of course I am still disputing this with Airbnb as her claims are complete fabrications.
Disheartening… Would this mean that a guest can simply Photoshop a WhatsApp message with an ‘approval for a party’ to reverse any damage claims from a host?
Any video evidence or Airbnb chat exchanges of demands of the host to stop the party would be ignored?
This is extremely frustrating.
Have you contacted a lawyer?
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Sounds like you are going to have to take Airbnb to small claims court. Hosts have been successful doing that.
This “guest” sounds completely insane and Airbnb’s stance is just as insane.
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This is so juicy I think you could get media interest.
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I think so, too. Nothing like a big negative viral news story to make Airbnb jump into damage control mode.
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I can’t believe it. My listing has now been suspended AGAIN. A guest checked in last night and called Airbnb late at night. Support then sent me a message at 01:21 and, when I obviously didn’t respond by 02:47, they closed the ticket and ruled in the guest’s favour, cancelling his booking and providing him with a full refund.
The message I received said that the guest had reported loud noises outside the property, which were preventing him from being able to sleep.
When I called Airbnb at 08:00, they told me that the guest had reported construction work ongoing at 01:00. Obviously this is complete nonsense as, not only do builders not work that late, but there is no construction taking place in the area.
Airbnb told me that they would investigate this. At 09:45, they sent me a new message telling me that the guest was complaining about loud noise from the house next door and that he had an audio recording. He also claimed that the house was trashed upon arrival and that the property was infested with ‘pests’.
Obviously this isn’t true and the fact that he changed his story from ‘Construction’ to ‘Loud noise from a neighbour’ after I told Airbnb that there was no ongoing construction in the area, should have immediately alerted Airbnb that he was lying. However, they have gone along with it all…
CCTV shows him leaving the property at 07:00 (so he enjoyed a free night) and purposely leaving both the back and front door wide open. I am very fortunate that nobody entered the property after him.
There is no sign of any damage in the property and it is in pristine condition, so I am curious as to what photos he shared with Airbnb. Did he bring some ‘pests’ along with him, trash the place and clean up after himself? Or has he taken pictures of another property or photoshopped evidence to trick Airbnb?
I have requested to see copies of the pictures along with the audio recording. However, I suspect that this will get nowhere as they blanked me when I requested evidence that the other guest had provided, which allegedly confirmed that I authorised the party.
Since this guest is the same ethnicity as the guest who threw the party, I suspect that he is a friend of hers and I am about to be banned from the platform. All he will have to do to guarantee it is pretend that I racially abused him.
I was just about to ask if he were possibly a friend of your previous “guest” and there to make more trouble.
I am so sorry this is happening to you.
I do not know what is more racist, thinking that because the ethnicity of one of your bad guests matches the ethnicity of another, they must know each other, or simply lumping all of that ethnicity into “bad guest”.
If you’re being serious. This isn’t simply me assuming that they must be connected because they are the same ethnicity.
The guest who threw a party has been reporting me to Airbnb for various things on a weekly basis. Nothing happened on the weekend just gone.
On Tuesday morning, a guest booked a five bedroom house for two guests for three nights. It’s already strange that he booked such a large property for two people.
CCTV shows three people entering the house around 19:00 (there is no extra charge for a third guest, so whatever), then exiting through the front door at 07:00 and leaving it wide open. The guy who booked returned five minutes later to open the back door and some windows before leaving for good.
This doesn’t sound like something somebody would do without a grudge against me and only one person fits the bill.
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I agree- that this latest guest went out of their way to purposefully leave the doors and windows open, booked for three nights and then left after one, citing complete lies, sounds to me like they are in cahoots with the insane vengeful guest. While you certainly can’t assume that people are working together to destroy your business simply based on their ethnicity, there are just too many co-incidences to think these bookings are completely unrelated.
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I wondered about this before I even read the sentence about same ethnicity. A little too much coincidence that one guest gets her blocked complaining about lies then the very next guest does the same thing.
I never had anything like this happen but it is really awful that people do this.
As sad and frustrating this matter is, I hope that you eventually get this ‘sorted’ with Airbnb - I don’t know how but I hope there is a way.
At the same time it would be helpful for any host to figure out ways to minimize risks for such a situation and/or measures to prevent such people from booking.
I saw on VRBO and BDC that a security deposit can be set up which isn’t charged at the time of the reservation but a host can get to those funds easier. Anyhow, we only have one reservation now with this set-up on VRBO and I hope nothing will go wrong, so I don’t have any experience with such security deposits.
My thinking was that such a deposit would prevent such clowns from booking. I’m inclined to assume that they wouldn’t risk their deposit to be held back for any damages. At the same time Airbnb doesn’t offer such security deposits. Could that be set up via a house rule?
I’m just ‘thinking out loud’ as this is a total nightmare scenario beyond having just a negligent guest…
I have no other idea for such psychos who apparently get free rides for just making up stuff… You can’t be the only one this happened to and I wonder how Airbnb acted in similar situations.
All the best.
I am struggling to get anywhere with this investigation. Airbnb will not share the audio recording or the pictures the guest has taken without his permission. Since he’s lying, he won’t consent to this.
They have completely ignored my questions regarding which ‘pests’ were reported along with the change in story since I pointed out how absurd the complaint about construction noise at 10PM was.
Surprisingly, I won the dispute. I am being paid for the booking and my listing is no longer suspended.
Absolutely no explanation has been given. They never explained what ‘pests’ the guests claimed to have found at the property, nor did I see any of the photos he was supposed to have taken. I am left with absolutely no idea as to what the guest did.
I suspect that this isn’t over and that there will be retaliation from this guest or the previous one. Especially if the money I am being paid for the reservation has came from him and not Airbnb.
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I assume that you got that in writing, if that even makes a difference with Airbnb… 
Good to hear though that your listing is back. How would the review situation with those two bookings in question look like? They’d be not able to leave one or would this be another problem to tackle with Airbnb?
So start getting your eggs out of the Airbnb basket as they are running your business, no you!
After 9 years I have my own website and am at 91% occupancy, 85% direct booked, more bookings from BDC than Airbnb.
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