Got my first crazy guest

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This guest was a nightmare from the moment she arrived.

I should not have overlooked her past bad reviews. But after corresponding with her she assured me that would not be asking me to reclean the room with her own products and ask me to remove everything from the room.

The first thing she did was to start opening my windows even though the A/C was on. I agreed to turn off the A/C as the weather this time of year is only in the lower eighties.

The whole time she was here constantly keep on going out the front door, opening the trunk of her car and standing behind the trunk. I later found out she was smoking from my neighbor across the street and I guess opening the trunk of her car to hide behind.

On the second day, she asked me for aluminum foil so that she could wrap her laptop battery because it was "giving off magnesium, cobalt energy waves and also told me that she is allergic to electricity.

On top of her constant going in and out of the house, I kept on hearing furniture being dragged around the room.

On her third day, she told me that the stopper in her bathroom sink was stuck. She had been trying to use a butter knife to pry it open. Found the clip on the stopper rod had been broken so did a quick repair and put a couple of drops of Gorilla Glue on it and told her not to use it for an hour while the glue set. At which time she freaked out and said that I had mad her ill by using glue. She then without saying anything packed up and left.

Then I went to clean the room. Room smelled of cigarettes so bad that I had to rent a steam cleaning to get the stench out. Not sure if she broke my rules of no smoking in the house or if she was just so covered in smoke that it got on everything.

She also took an electric cord, most of the bedding including the mattress pad, decorations in the room like a Geode crystal and other items and put them in the closet and drawers so I had to go hunting for everything.

I also had to scrub off all the scuff marks on the floor from the furniture being dragged around the room.

I just wish I had not ignored her past review and accepted her as a guest.

She left the room very tidy, but removed things from the room and hid them plus the issue of the smell of cigarettes.

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Wow, you have to wonder about someone who is afraid of magnesium, cobalt energy waves (Is that even a thing?) and glue, but isnā€™t afraid of smoking cigarettes.

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I have friends who are raw vegan health food yoga nuts who chain smoke. Never understood that.

Your guest sounds absolutely crazy. I would not hesitate to leave another terrible review and also possibly make a claim for all the damage she caused.

What a TOTAL KOOK. Now you learned the hard way to take those reviews seriously.

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Iā€™m sorry you have had this experience. Next time donā€™t ignore reviews from other hosts. Most hosts think really carefully before giving a negative review. So if you see them itā€™s unwise to ignore them. If there is more than one, itā€™s a definite no no to let to the guest.

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The original poster said repeatedly that she has learned to take guestsā€™ prior reviews seriously. It would be nice if we didnā€™t all pile on her to tell her the same thing.

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We hosts who share our personal space with guests occasionally run into what you did. Just be glad she hadnā€™t booked for more than 3 days. Thatā€™s about my limit for difficult guests. When I see the signs I take comfort in knowing itā€™s just for 3 days.

My crazy guest story has to do with a young Swiss guy who wore make-up, which was ok, but he also wore tons of perfume thatā€™s in my house rules: please no perfumes or heavily scented lotions. He also tracked tons of sand into the house, lay on the floor in the middle of the living room blocking my path. He dribbled some kind of lotion or oil on the carpet and in the bathroom. He stuck a blob of gum on a wicker chair back and then put a pillow over it. I could go on. On day 4 I asked him to leave and got Air involved. Lesson learned? Not everyone from Switzerland is clean and normal :)))))

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Now you know WHY we leave Bad Reviews. Not for the guests, but to warn off other hosts.

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I always read their reviews, if they have them. I was hesitant to take this guest but after writing back and forth I figured at worst she would be a bit picky and seemed like such a nice older women, 69 years old.

On the plus side she left one day early due to the glue issue but I still got paid for that night. lol

This is my first time every leaving a bad review and I did it so that other hosts would be warned and also so that AirBnB would know. I added comments just for AirBnB in the review admin basically saying that I think she may be mentally ill.

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Sounds like she is mentally ill and not simply an annoying guest. I now work in an emergency department and worked in a psychiatric unit for several years and a surprising number of people are brought to the hospital from airports or have travelled from another city or country in a psychotic or delusional state. I read a couple of reviews on a young female Australian guest that stayed with a host in Jordan and a host in Afghanistan who reported the woman was not sleeping, disorganized, leaving at night and very poor boundaires with men. My take on the guest was she sounded like she was Bipolar and in a manic state, not that she was just a terrible guest. Sad situation and I hoping this highly vulnerable guest eventually made it back home safely.

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That sounds more than averagely weird. Why was he lying on the floor?

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He was on his phone I think. Or maybe it was his laptop. I do have a very large living room, but even still it was pretty odd because he was in the way. Another very strange thing he did was to lay on their side a row of various bathroom items: skin freshener, after shave lotion, sun blockā€“probably 6 or 8 tubes and bottles I keep on top of a cabinet that holds towels. He may have had something to do with my asking him to please not wear so much perfume. Who knows?

I know he liked my place and kept asking about who uses the 2nd garage below. He wanted to move into it I think. I was very relieved to see him go.

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@faheem ā€“ What is ā€˜more than averagely weirdā€™? I swear, you come up with the most unusual comments that set me to chuckling.

(Oh noā€¦Iā€™ll bet you will respond with, ā€œhow is my comment ā€˜unusualā€™?ā€)

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Hi @SandyToes,

You win your bet - I donā€™t think my comment is unusual. And more than averagely weird just means that itā€™s more extreme than the normal wacky stuff people do.

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Remember, heā€™s a mathematician and teaches statsā€¦ So the word ā€˜averageā€™ is probably used many more times per day in Faheemā€™s world than in the rest of ours. :smiley:

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Congratulations on your first crazy guest! Just as you thought you had the craziest one, the next crazy one comes in a different flavor! :yum:

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So now the crazy lady is asking for a refund of $75 because my house is so filthy. As proof, she took pics of the wooden fence on my property line. A pan in the sink that was soaking. All the bedding that she removed and folded and put in the closet. Close-up from under the back of the sink of the stopper mechanism that she broke. Pics of the aluminum window frame showing that the aluminum is oxidized. She also complained that there was cat hair in the house.

Besides refusing her request and filling out the feedback to Air I put in a request for $75 from her to offset the cost of having to rent a steam cleaner to get the smell of cigarette smoke out of the room along with having to buy products to get the scuff marks off the floor.

Iā€™m really glad that all our conversations were through the Air message system and not over the phone as they show my concerns with her past reviews and her assuring me that she would not do the same thing. Also confirming that I have cats and that she would not have a problem with them.

Also, I gave a very detailed review of her right after her time of checkout that included private feedback to Air explaining that this lady is crazy and should not be allowed to book with Air. She has not reviewed me back so the review is not live but Iā€™m guessing that Air can see it along with our conversation in their messaging service.

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She left me a review so now the horrible review I left for her will go live.

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Do share both!..

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Is it a bad idea to say in the review that the lady is crazy? This isnā€™t snark, and I donā€™t know the answer. Iā€™m genuinely asking.

Iā€™d like to see this guestā€™s account. :slight_smile:

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Iā€™d take even one seriously, if it sounded detailed and sane. But yes, two negative reviews (which is a rarity) is a definite no.

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