Absolutely. If your Ring camera is disclosed in your listing, then you message them via the Air platform only and start a conversation. Then decide what your next steps are. First, mention the house rules about no dogs. Then: Boot them? Charge them an additional cleaning fee? Definitely review that they broke the house rules and ding them stars.
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I just checked in some guests who hid the fact they had an “emotional support dog.” I ask for “no animals please” but understand Air’s polices and abide by them.
Funny thing, when I was checking them in my little hairs were standing up. I couldn’t put my finger on it but something just felt off. During the course of check-in and showing them around I noticed that there were no coffee filters so I said I’d bring some over from my house later after I finished taking care of my livestock (I live next door). About an hour or less goes by and I get a text from them informing me they decided they would not be having coffee this weekend so there was no need for me to bring over filters. Naturally this was a red flag - they didn’t want me in the house. I didn’t respond because I was almost done with the animals and wanted the element of surprise.
Got done, grabbed the filters and popped over to the house. We had a pleasant chat, they were very friendly then as I was about to leave I saw a dog carrier. Upon questioning them about an animal one of the men said it was his wife’s emotional support animal and they had papers to prove it. I told them no need for the papers because despite my state not recognizing emotional support animals Air did and I would abide by those rules to which they chimed in “yes Air says we can do this.” Jerks. If they were so sure of what they were doing was above board why did they hide it? Air asks us to accept this animals but they also ask guests to be transparent with their hosts when it comes to bringing emotional support animals. To me this just shows that the animal is only a pet and they knew they were gaming the system and to be safe they printed off internet garbage.
After I went back to my place I sent a message across the platform saying “oh forgot to mention per Airbnb’s rules the animal cannot be left alone in the house.”
Oh well. Almost closed for the season. Can’t come soon enough!
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Actually I’m thinking I won’t. They didn’t break any rules they just weren’t “transparent” to use Airbnb’s word.
If the house is left in good order which I have every reason to believe it will be the only place I will mention it, if I do, is in a private message to the person who holds the account (it wasn’t her dog). I would probably say something like “in the future consider letting the host know ahead of time that you will be bringing and emotional support animal” though I don’t know what difference that really makes unless a host would be inclined to switch out bedding to something less nice/new and lay down furniture coverings.
Truthfully I’ve not see or heard the beast. The carrier I saw was smaller than the ones I use for my cats. The owner said it is an indoor dog and never goes out so I’m thinking it’s basically a cat.
Oh great. 
. The dog uses “potty pads” on the floor to go to the bathroom instead of going outside. Reminds me how much I have to specify that I mean the dog only goes to the bathroom outside when I am talking about a house trained dog. Potty pads are usually not big enough for a male dog who lifts its leg…
I vote for it being mentioned in a review.
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Agreed. Just because you’re okay with a guest lying about their pet doesn’t mean other hosts will be, too.
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At the end of the day this situation was within the rules hosts are required to adhere to when accepting guests. They did nothing wrong according to Airbnb’s policy. Air itself says guests are not obligated to inform hosts they are bringing emotional support dogs.
They have checked out and the house is spotless. Better than half my guests who have stayed.
The person who brought the dog was not the person who booked it. She may not travel with this friend again and if she does she may tell her friend to leave the dog at home if it is not an animal she must have with her to cope with the world. I personally do not feel this is a tar & feather situation. Sure it’s irritating but again, my hands were tied anyway.
Don’t you think a review complaining that a guest did something that was within the rules is dumb? Wouldn’t it be like a police officer stopping someone and ticketing them for going the speed limit?
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Complain and mention aren’t synonyms. I’ve often reviewed with words that say in effect “the guest did such and such which wasn’t an issue here but might be for another host.” An example would be guests with poor communication. Not an issue for me but I know from reading here that its an issue for other hosts.
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No it was not. If I was the next guest coming in I would hope you would inform me that a dog recently stayed before I checked in. I book “no pet” homes because I have extreme allergeries. I would be out of there or in the ER within 2 hours and requesting a full refund if you did not notify me of this.
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I’m sorry you have such allergies and I sympathize. I assume you make people aware of your allergies so you don’t end up in the ER. I believe Air has an exception that allows denial of service/emotional support animals for cases such as yours. I do not fall into that category so must accept service/support animals under Airs rules.
Is it your contention that the host is responsible for making sure the guest has no allergies or do you think the onus is on the person with the allergy to make it known?
I did have guest inquiry once where the person had a severe cat allergy. I told them there were no cats in the house and had never been but that I did have cats at my house next door and they did go outdoors and wander both yards. I also let her know I always try to wear clean clothes when working in the house but could not guarantee no cat hair or dander made its way into the house. She declined to book. Nothing to do with a review and everything to do with communication.
I live on a farm with livestock and cats. My last guests before these were six cowboys in town for the rodeo you can only imagine what kind of dirt/dust/dander they tacked into the house. No matter how much I dust, mop and vacuum I’m sure the house is full of all kinds of animal hair and dander not to mention pollen from crops and weeds.
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I always inform hosts in advance of booking. I have had great luck with the exception of twice. Both were support animals that stayed right before my booking. I will not book off of AirBnB for this reason anymore unless the host gives me advance notice of housing a support or ADA animal prior to my stay. A lot of hosts won’t book me for this reason as I am a demanding guest from the get go in their minds, but they have not had rescue inhalers fail to work and landed in an ER struggling for their next breath.
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Okay here’s what I did to help future hosts out - in my review I mentioned the emotional support animal. I said “the emotional support dog they brought was very quiet and well behaved” because it was.
I never even saw the animal and in doing my very thorough cleaning I can find no evidence it was even there (I lint roller, Swiffer, vacuum and mop floors, furniture, coverlets, shams etc.). Yes, I used a black light too.
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I’ve had good luck with dog guests overall and it’s definitely worth it to allow them. But they leave plenty of evidence they were here. The dog hair really gets everywhere.
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I imagine the dogs must leave their hairs everywhere but the guests who bring dogs clean up better than any other guests - we hardly ever see any dog hair.
Now, menopausal women with long hair, they shed like crazy and just leave their hairs all over the place. God forbid if they wash and blowdry while they’re there.
The dog owning guests are just more conscientious, or at least just over-compensating, but it works for me.
It’s crazy how every airbnb is different. This morning’s dog peed on the throw rug, there was dog hair in the refrigerator and I found where the dog from 2 months ago chewed on the iron! Also found today…Scratches on the door and I suspect the hole in my pillowcase I spotted is dog related.
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@KKC
Oh geez, that’s awful!
Do you just take all guests with dogs or do you question them to see how they “parent” their dogs? I have that dogs must be pre-approved before booking. I’ve only turned down one or two people because of their dogs but it was because they seemed so clueless about having a dog. When I asked one of them for more information about the dog, they said, “he’s the cutest thing ever and is usually pretty good but this will be his first trip away from home”. I said no thank you. And I don’t take young puppies unless they won’t be left alone or will be crated when alone and I want guests who have a plan for this already, not guests that I have to guide - guests who are good with their dogs will have good dogs. But I think having the “dogs must be pre-approved” in the listing helps weed out some people who don’t have responsible dogs. That’s just my approach but it’s been working.
On another note, do you know about Bac-Out by Biokleen? My last dog had some leaky issues when she got really old and it was the one thing (after trying a hundred things) that really did remove the pee and the odor. It is enzyme-based and never ruined my upholstery or rugs and doesn’t have to be rinsed either.
No I take all dogs. The one that did all the damage was left in the room all day while the guy was at work. I won’t allow that again. I’ve posted several times about the guy. He’s just terrible at communicating.
I haven’t used that specific product. I’ve also used about a hundred different ones. This rug was taken out and hosed down. It’s not a huge deal, just extra cleaning. There’s always extra though. Sometimes a little, sometimes a little more. Lol
Yeah I remember the posts about that guy with the dog! I am sure it will happen to me eventually and you will all hear about it!
I wonder if you get a different set of dogs because of being off of the 10. There must be a certain amount of dogs who are having to travel because of a move or something but aren’t necessarily experienced travelers (lots of bad behaviours from nervous dogs ,) . Most of the dogs I get are dogs that are on vacation and always go on vacation so they are just more relaxed and used to being in a strange place. Also, a lot of them are city dogs from NY and other places that are used to being inside all of the time. And their owners are used to cleaning up after them because they live in little city apartments (I’ve done it) so they clean my place too and I can hardly tell the dog was there. I think there’s a lot to the situation of the dogs we are each getting.
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