Beware: AirBnb's Extenuating Circumstances includes pets

The only way into my condo in which I rent out bedrooms is up a steep flight of stairs. I say in my listing that the stairs are sturdy and well maintained but quite steep, and please always use the hand rail.
Anyone with mobility issues can tell from that whether they can stay here.

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#hostsdontmatter. Is the best answer. I own rentals as my sole income. Miy guest wrote and said they didn’t want to come because of rain . So we tell them that was not an excuse . Seven minutes later they wrote and said their father-in-law had suddenly dad . Air B&B believe their story. We lost $378.

Not only are they people too, as you aptly said, but, to refute what the OP said you CANNOT TELL a “legit” service dog from a photo!!! Some people have “legit” ESAs for PTSD, etc. (which is essentially why ESAs exist) and others have unusual breeds (i.e., neither labs nor goldens nor lab-golden crosses) who perform specific and life-saving tasks; my neighbors have a dachshund who’s been trained as a seizure-alert dog. I have a service dog who’s not been “trained,” per sey, but sleeps in bed with me to paw at me in case my glucose levels drop too low (I have hyperinsulinemia and could go a coma); she’s a mutt who wears no vest but is nonetheless REQUIRED for my health, and I have the documents to prove it.

I’m sorry you lost money but you have no idea how much bull$hit people with service dogs endure on a daily basis. More compassion and less jumping-to-nefarious-conclusions, please.

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My sister has panic disorder, without her service dog she is housebound. She’s been able to fly to her daughter for grandchildren’s birth in Western Canada twice because of the airline accepting her service animal. I agree some people are pretending their dog is a service animal to get around rules, there needs to be some form of certification to stop the abuse.
If a service animal becomes sick it’s devastating. My sister’s dog Bruce died last year, she has just adopted a new dog. The last year has been very hard for her, planned trips have been cancelled.

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There are exceptions where you can legally deny a service animal.

If you have your place listed as low allergenic, and have equipped your listing as such, you can deny access.
You can even openly state that since it is a low allergenic place listing, no animals are allowed, even service animals.

Actually to me the issue isn’t even the animal. The part that makes me furious is that the host loses money on this.

AirBnB out of the goodness of their heart (ahahaha) refund the guest even when it costs the host money. As they did for me for a lying prostitute who didn’t get enough business and decided to go home early. Her father died she said… sure he did, honey. I am not uncaring, I know tragedy happens sometimes, but I also know when I smell a rat, and someone does not clean the apartment top to bottom and accidentally forget to tell me she had left for a further two days! If you have the presence of mind to care about cleaning up to hide what you were doing there, then you have the presence of mind to send a text to the host that you have to leave. Instead, I got dinged for her whole stay, had to discount the remaining few days to sell them, and had no way to sell the empty days that had already passed before I knew she was gone.

It’s disgusting. If Air is going to be so kind they should bear the cost themselves. But to hosts all I can say is: include the possibility in your nightly rate by raising it a bit, that one in every 20 or so guests will do this. Your cancellation policy is irrelevant if the EC clause kicks in, and it doesn’t matter that it doesn’t cover pets or service animals, because it is decided by AirBnB’s discretion - that means it can cover anything at all if they decide to be “nice”.

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