Michelle, I did pay 30€ cleaning fee. I do, however, feel that I did most cleaning before I left. I even loaded the washer with bed sheets and towels I used.
Sandy, I truly believe I did not stain the couch. I did not sit on it once. The only stuff I put on it were clothes and brand new bottles of shampoo, shower gel and such. I checked them after I received his message and the bottles were still sealed. There is really no way I would have stained it. Not to mention, he has not mentioned it since even though I have been asking about it. The person I am, I would have left him money on the table if I really stained the couch. I once mistakenly broke a glass in one of the apartments I stayed in and left 5€ as an apology.
I wouldn’t advise sending him any money. If he has a case, he can open one on Airbnb and they can resolve it with the security deposit money. If he didn’t do that during the 48 hours allowed, it is his fault and too late for him to recover the money.
Katy if he has a case, it needs to go through resolutions, not by you putting money into his bank account. It’s actually possible he doesn’t know this though if he is a new host. It is a very obfuscated process on airbnb to even find the resolutions page to open one.
There needs to be photographs of the damage, and stains so airbnb can oversee the process. At this point it is a he said she said.
It sounds highly unusual that a host would risk a future relationship with a good guest that might be staying regularly over just $30, but I have heard all kinds of things.
You are right, it isn’t a hotel. It is someone’s hard earned, blood, sweat and tears. You’ll know what to do. Your message ‘what kind of mess do you allow’ set off alarm bells for me that said you thought you were responsible for something, and perhaps working in the hotel industry has you used to the big company eating up damage like this. Unfortunately it is completely different when it is just one person’s things, and possibly all the savings they had, and they are doing airbnb to try to survive via a second job.
It’s a pity all around it seems, because neither of you will be happy at the end of this. He with a broken bed, and you feeling like he is just trying to get money from you.
I completely agree. I had to take 12 hours of ignoring this response to make sure I would not say something harsh. Oh well…
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That’s not the way to handle a claim. He’s not using the proper channels. I would ignore him Katy. Don’t feel bad. You did not break the bed either.
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I just now got 2 text messages from him to either transfer the money today or he will leave a negative comment. I have never been in such situation. This is just ridiculous
Please save these messages and send them to Airbnb! Don’t give in to his threats. All conflicts should be resolved through the site. He has no right to threaten you to make off-site payments.
Airbnb’s extortion policy https://www.airbnb.com/support/article/548?topic=253
If you don’t report him he may do it to other guests. Please let Airbnb know!
Report this at once to AirBnB. Extortion is a violation of their terms of service… And they will remove any review that results from extortion. Keep copies of the messages to show Air BnB . This host should have their account suspended for such behavior. What the hell is wrong with him?!!
Report it now. Call them, don’t waste another minute it… And keep us posted here.
I just got off the phone with AirBnB. They will be contacting the host to get his side of the story. I cannot wait to hear from them.
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With all due respect Katy, you said you weren’t sure if you had stained the couch, and that you had broken the bed. You also implied that you thought that it should be allowed with your question ‘what kind of messy do you all allow?’. Having dealt with guests that seem to think I should allow damage to my furniture and items just because hotels do, it really hit a chord with me.
Obviously your host is out of line now, and he will soon find out that this is not ok on airbnb. And I do sympathize with your plight, having been extorted myself by a guest. Unfortunately airbnb would not allow me to review the guest, claiming that I could not refer to a ‘case’, even when I asked if they could remove the part referring to the extortion (the behavior of the guests was bad enough), or simply re-write it without mention of it. They said it was against policy and impossible to adjust reviews, despite the fact that just the week before I had had TWO reviews adjusted, one because I wrote the name of a guests girlfriend incorrectly, and another because I wanted to change it after I found out more details. I wish you better luck with airbnb in your case. In mine, they did at least prevent the extortion and the review full of silly lies going up, so I am sure they will do it for you also.
If I seem a little frazzled and grizzled having been dealing with guests in and out of my home for the past 3 years, you would be correct. My faith in humankind has been irrevocably shattered (despite many positive experiences also) by the self absorption, rudeness, and pure me me me attitude I have encountered face to face, and had to cope with right in my home. Emotionally it has been a tough journey. I am getting better at the selection process, but it is made difficult by the rush put on us by airbnb to accept guests quickly without allowing us to find out much if anything about who will be staying in our homes. It is a tough job for those of us who share our homes with guests, and I am not surprised those that simply rent separate apartments don’t understand. Obviously if I was in a position financially right now to stop, I would, but due to illness I need to be able to work from home on a basis that I am able to energy wise. Those that keep saying ‘find something you love’ are completely in denial that the majority of workers in the U.S do not love the work they do, or even necessarily like it. Most don’t have anything close to that option in today’s economy. That kind of speak is pure new age motivational drivel, used to sell books to the impressionable and the poor.
I can relate and feel burned out myself at times, often wishing my other businesses would pick up so I don’t have all these guests in and out. It wears on you after a while. Especially if you get a bad one, which I just had.
He just picked up and left my property with six days on his reservation, after making sure to make me feel bad that my “dump” had ruined his expectations of Hawaii. Lecturing me that he is a consumer and I am running a “business,” that I should have this or that (no TV and AC, which is disclosed) and he didn’t like some of my amenities, blah blah. Never mind that I have 65 positive reviews on Air. Never mind that I am one minute away from premier snorkeling, I have a beachy location, ocean views, private studio, private entrance, patio, BBQ, etc and am never priced higher than $99 per night in the high season (Well I do raise it Christmas…) To be fair he was off FlipKey and I have since disabled my FK account since they are even worse than Air and tend to send you unsophisticated ultra picky travelers who really don’t understand how to book a place online or what the whole thing is about.
I don’t know about you guys, but I’ve been a host since Air opened their doors, and I can relate to Sandy feeling burned out. I don’t even have to SHARE my personal space with them, like she does. It’s a BURN OUT.
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It’s true KC. The three aggressive men on here that pretend that bad guests don’t happen, and that there’s nothing airbnb could do to improve the experience for hosts and guests (even though it’s a relatively new business and a totally new business model) most likely have some kind of agenda. Most of us are aware anyone that uses mysogynistic language, and tries to suppress free expression must have some kind of agenda that is not in line with being in a modern democratic society.
There are major issues with airbnb both for guests trying to navigate a good stay, and for hosts hoping to ensure they have respectful guests whose expectations are in check with the money they are paying. It is becoming more and more difficult to do this, with guests expecting a five star resort like stay at a bargain basement deal. The stress does get to hosts over time as we see repeatedly here and on other forums and review sites. Whatever these guys are trying to achieve with their denial and acting as if they have made their dreams come true by renting out a few apartments to holiday makers, is anyone’s guess, but then again, it takes all kinds.
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It seems these guys are all over the Internet, ready to jump on anyone that relays their negative experience with bad guests and blame in on them, even when they are consistently high rating hosts, such as myself. I saw this thread on reddit, which was eerily similar to what is happening here, and I swear, it could even be one of these guys. The wording is almost exact.
I’ve had 1 good couple. They were from Denmark. Gave us salted licorice (a Denmark thing) told us about their hometowns, it was great! Everyone else just uses us a cheap hotel. I have to keep adding house rules to keep up with the poor behavior of guests. I had to take away use of the washer and dryer because it was being used for 1 load of 2 items every single day. And no, they didn’t use their own detergent either. Why should they? They’re guests and they already paid $45, right? I had to put in rules about no more check-ins after 11pm because I was getting people who couldn’t care less about how they inconvenienced us. It’s gradually becoming a bunch of people who want to pay waaaaay less than a hotel or BnB or vacation home but they expect waaaaaaaay more than a hotel or BnB or vacation home. All the imaginary comforts of the home they hope to have one day without the price. I can’t raise my prices to either gain a better quality of guest or price my house like a hotel, because in my location, I’m already pretty pricey at $45.00 a night so it’s either keep hosting cheapskates and get nothing from the experience or quit Airbnb. If things don’t improve by the end of the summer, I’m out.
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[–]maroger 5 points 5 months ago
I’ve had the exact opposite experience. If I were you I’d change my perspective or get out now. It isn’t for everyone.
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[–]Cinnamonbite -1 points 4 months ago*
Yes. It’s totally MY fault that the guests act the way they do. Couldn’t possibly be anything else. DO tell, what did I do to cause the one guy to steal from me? Or the couple who came in, bled all over the furniture and bedding and had loud conversations in the middle of the night (of course I have quiet hours posted. I just got tired of getting up every few minutes to tell them to be quiet. They finally shut up around 3am). Yup, I totally forced them to behave this way.
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[–]maroger 3 points 4 months ago
Different perspective: we both have the same pool of potential guests. I’ve had hundreds of guests, not one bad experience. You do the math.
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[–]Cinnamonbite 1 point 4 months ago
Unless you live right down the road, we very much do NOT have the same pool of potential guests. The reasons people would stay in your location are very different from the reasons people stay here. Why? Location.
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[–]maroger 3 points 4 months ago
Then short of beating a dead horse, I would come to the conclusion that airbnb is not appropriate for your location, at your price point for what you’re offering. Pretty basic. It’s a business. If you can’t make a profit doing it, it’s time to move on.
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[–]sol_robesonHost 3 points 4 months ago
My experience is that when I treat my guests like family, they treat me and my house like it’s their home.
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[–]Cinnamonbite 1 point 4 months ago
So how do I treat people like family before they even arrive since our lasts guests lied to us about what time they planned on arriving and lied about the reason they were visiting the area? The guests before that lied about how many people and the ages (we do not accept children) and demanded that I change my house rules for them. And that’s before they were even accepted (I declined them). And if I was treating them so badly, how come they call left glowing reviews? 5 out of 5 stars, every guests has left a wonderful review, INCLUDING the guy I caught stealing and told him to bring it back and to NOT take my personal belongings from my home. Because I handled it most awesomely.
So nice try blaming me.
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I think some of these hosts who praise Air to the sky are still in the honeymoon period. A $45 room is going to attract the deadbeats with no manners. No amount of rules and descriptions are going to change that…I think this host is right, for them, Air is not working and it’s time to find something else to do. I think when people start realizing all the hard work involved and the frequency of bad guests (to say nothing of those renters who are doing it on the sly in violation of their leases) that Air may not be all it’s cracked up to be.
Unfortunately airbnb does try to make out it is possible to do it and at those prices. I’m sure those are the prices he is being told to charge for his area. The fact that there are so many terrible guests on airbnb that want to treat homes like hostels, that nothing is being done to address the issue, and there are so many naysayers saying that it doesn’t happen is a huge problem for the business moving forward.
I see no reason why people shouldn’t be able to rent out rooms in any price range they deem profitable enough, and hope for guests that are respectful and decent, especially if airbnb bothered to address the major problem hosts have with fearing future booking issues if they are honest in their reviews, and troubled themselves to listen to hosts experience, instead of spreading lies all over the Internet. Clearly the guests were more than happy with their stay. The disconnect was how the guests expected to be able to treat the hosts home. Why is there nothing out there directing new guests as to how to behave in an airbnb? Why all the pushing hosts to perform, and nothing remind guests about behavior? There are simply not enough ramifications for guests that don’t behave respectfully. Airbnb doesn’t want to turn off guests by letting them know this isn’t spring break in someone’s bedroom, so they continue to let the partying, rudeness and disrespect go on as if it is unnoticed.
Just now I read a post on reddit by someone from airbnb that claimed they don’t delete reviews, and they prefer to ‘adjust them instead’, when I have within my inbox, a message from airbnb telling me adjusting my review so that the extortion case isn’t mentioned is totally impossible (despite the fact I had had two reviews adjusted just the week before). My review of the extortionist was removed. I guess that’s the kind of review airbnb prefers to remove rather than adjust. Until airbnb adopts honest and open principles, there will continue to be stories from hosts such as myself (which I can back up) about extortion and deleted reviews. And until they are honest and open and ready to protect the hosts that provide the ability for them to earn income safely, there will be issues with guests abusing homes and hosts, leaving them feeling burnt out and less than supported by the company that makes a lot of money from their listings and hard work.
I had no idea you experienced Air editing your review. That is really bad and makes you lose faith in the system by a lot.
Yes KC. But the plot thickens. Whilst telling me it was impossible to remove the part of my review that mentioned the extortion as per their ‘open case’ rules (although the case had been closed due to the guest having been immediately found guilty of extortion as per both the first and supervisors findings), they quoted one of my messages from the agent that changed an entire review for me and said it wasn’t usual policy but she didn’t mind helping me out in this instance saying that ‘as you can see in her email she quoted it was against policy’. The only problem was the other agent had changed an entire review, and here I was just asking for an adjustment only because they refused to post a review about some severely criminal types, and, yet they wouldn’t do it in this instance, which was a. Not my fault (the first one was my fault yet they were happy to bend the rules anyway), and b. Here I was only asking for them to remove a part that they thought was against policy, where I mention the extortion, which I think is ridiculous anyway to have rules that hosts can’t mention that they have had criminal guests, yet they refused to even remove a small part of it. Even more bizarrely, all traces of the other review I had had adjusted, in which I had written the name of a girlfriend incorrectly and had changed, completely disappeared from my inbox - this is a new discovery. The only evidence I have it exists, is that they didn’t check messages where I let the guest know I had changed it for them, so I have proof of it occurring there. All the email from airbnb on the topic of the extortion and review changes have disappeared from my inbox timeline completely, and the only way I have copies, is where I have replied and have copies in my sent box still. I never trash any emails, particularly of a business nature, so I am very surprised to see more messages from airbnb evaporate out of my inbox (I had this happen before my eyes just the other day when I received a message that disappeared two hours later). Very bizarre and disturbing practices.
Take screenshots of those disappearing emails! Completely bizarre!
I have, and I’ve sent them elsewhere so they don’t get lost. I am thinking of doing a blog post on it. Also opening my computer up to a professional interested in investigating. Re-writing history to suit different scenarios for the benefit of themselves and hiding the issues that happen with airbnb is pretty insane, and any company engaging in these practices are asking for trouble.