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I’ve read from other hosts on this topic a few times and simply cannot get around people who simply do not follow the rules or flat out lie about their stay. I have a home in San Diego pretty close to the beach and my neighbors have complaints at least ever other week and are threatening to go to the city along with the fact they’ve had to call the authorities several times on guests.
Airbnb does not seem to allow you to “fine” guests via their deposit so at this point I’m wondering what I can do legally? I know there are companies that monitor decibel levels and can alert/text but this doesn’t seem to be enough. I’ve thought about connecting z-wave plugs to the stereo system and being able to remotely shut it down, but even that seems like it may cross boundaries where I could get in trouble as the host.
Other things I’m considering:
1.) Requiring more than a 2-day stay minimum.
2.) Lowering the amount of allowed people at the house (currently I advertise 8, thinking about going to 6).
3.) Removing access to my exterior hot tub (guests have already been causing problems with this).
4.) Lowering the price point as I’m increasing the minimum stay length, hopefully to attract more families vs people who are just trying to cram a ton of friends in to party for a weekend.
I would love other advice here. I’ve thought I was doing a good job of filtering guests, messaging them to let them know the rules and they agree to them - yet at least 40% of my guests end up causing problems with noise and partying.
Are you sure they aren’t bringing more than 8? Number one rule for hosting remotely…get outdoor cameras so you can monitor the people coming and going. You can also monitor the number of devices connected to your wireless. Lower the limit if you think that would help but I don’t think lowering the price will help, if anything it will hurt.
Don’t allow unregistered guests/visitors. Once you see they have more than 6 notifiy them they are violation. You can’t fine them but you can cancel the reservation and get airbnb involved in helping with that. Also get a door lock you can operate remotely if you aren’t in town. Put it in the rules that you have cameras and that any parties will result in immediate cancellation of reservation with no refund.
Longer Min stay may help. Less likely to have a bender over an extended period of time. Is this a house or a condo? I’m not sure if there is a way to get an idea of extent of the problem. Some neighbors have different thresholds as to what constitutes too much noise. May want to rule out over sensitive neighbor as a possibility.
I have Ring that auto-records people coming in. I don’t monitor it as often as I should, but I can start looking into that. I have cameras, but again, not monitoring them as often as I should - I’d like to automate this process as much as possible, but maybe it’s time to start looking into a management company even though I despise the thought of giving 20%.
Are you legally allowed to place age restrictions on the property? I have said things like that, but I have a bad feeling those types of restrictions could get you banned, I’ve seen some bad stories on airbnbhell.
I just found out it’s not allowed! That concerns me because teens can easily rent a house using their parent’s credit card and trash the house. I was under to impression that it was allowed because my daughter and her fiancee a few years back tried to rent a house with friends and were not allowed because they were in their early 20’s. Even to rent a car one has to be 25 or older in the USA. I truly think that teens and college kids rent houses just to party. I prefer to rent out to families or couples. Hopefully, no youngsters will try to rent my house. I think I’m going to raise my rates so that teens or college kids can’t afford the house : ) So far we have had lovely guests with no issues because they were families or couples.
My biggest issue with this is legal concerns on what you’re saying. I’m pretty sure cutting power to areas of your property could get you in trouble in many ways, but I’m not an expert there.
Raising prices I think contributes to guests trying to pile extra members in and moves away from families that are legitimately coming in - with additional days required, lowering prices I think will have the effect of attracting a better crowd.
We have a Silicon Valley/Bay Area Airbnb and we have caught at least once every year, a group of teenagers attempting to throw a major rager at our house. It’s the Bay, so teens are rich and/or have easy access to a parent’s credit card.
We keep a Nest Outdoor camera that monitors the driveway. There’s usually something suspicious about when teenagers attempt to book. The last one even pretended to be throwing a bachelorette party and would have her friends audibly and awkwardly say things in front of our camera such as “I can’t believe ____ is finally getting married!” Then they didn’t stay the first night, just unpacked supplies. They went back to their parent’s house of course.
We are lucky our neighbors and neighborhood look out for us. If they notice anything out of the ordinary they let us know. And this last time, an anonymous parent in the neighborhood found us on Airbnb to warn us – they saw a flyer being passed around to their daughter/son and figured we probably didn’t approve of this.
(1) Outdoor camera facing the driveway/entrance (2) Build a good communication/relationship with your neighbors. I think if you are running an Airbnb in a residential area this is a must. (3) Raise your prices (4) 2 night minimum (5) Remove all the speakers in the house (6) Post a strict NO PARTIES rule on your listing. In our case, we mention the neighbors will call the Sheriff. That usually scares the kiddos away.
We had a group throw a party at our house and since changed the listing to put front and center that the house sits in a gated residential community that is very family oriented with the fire department (and police) within view at the bottom of the hill. Since then, we have had four of our new rentals ask questions about the neighbors and/or advise us why they are coming to stay. So far, they have been good guests.
I can only imagine lowering the price point will also attract more riff raff. What about adding a rule that guests must sign a rental agreement with you and provide a deposit upfront via direct deposit, in addition to Airbnb, that you will not refund if there are noise complaints etc etc
I’m a bit disappointed in this response TBH. Sounds like you do need to start putting some effort in here and you actually have the resources to do it, If you can’t be bothered to monitor and try to be a good neighbor then try to think about yourself and fellow hosts. All negative Airbnb media stories about unmanaged party houses seriously damage the brand for all of us and lead to overregulation that hurts us all.
Hire a professional. And it’s not 20% of your profit- it’s pretax.
in this response TBH. Sounds like you do need to start putting some effort in here and you actually have the resources to do it, If you can’t be bothered to monitor and try to be a good neighbor then try to think about yourself and fellow hosts. All negative Airbnb media stories about unmanaged party houses seriously damage the brand for all of us and lead to overregulation that hurts us all.