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I have a guest who left today who will be staying again in 5 days time. In my house rules I state I don’t offer bag storage. I don’t want people’s stuff here, I have very limited space, I don’t want the responsibility outside their Airbnb contract. She asked anyway but said it was fine if the answer was no. I told her she can store a bag at the hotel across the road for £6/night. I’ve already been nice to her and given her a £50 discount on her second stay. She told me she wouldn’t use the hotel but just take the bag with her.
Today I found lots of her stuff tucked into my private wardrobe in the guest room when I needed to put something there myself, I needed to use that space, it’s mine! The wardrobe is un-lockable unfortunately, but so full of stuff I never thought anyone would put things in there.
I feel like she lied to my face and took advantage. I don’t want her back, what do I do? Reach out to her or call Air? They will just try to make me have her stay again, but I’m not happy!! I demand my guest respect my rules and my space, I even make them agree to these rules before they arrive. I don’t mind refunding her everything, I just don’t feel good with this guest now.
Don’t do that! You’re going to get a bad review if you do that. If she didn’t have the common sense to not impose herself, do you think she’s going to be reasonable now?
You’re stuck with her for the second reservation so wait until after that and follow up in the review. There’s nothing to gain from confrontation before then.
If you don’t want the guest back, photograph her belongings in your wardrobe @eyeborg and tell Airbnb you want them to cancel her second booking.
Tell them you don’t feel comfortable with the guest because she lied to you and told you she was taking her stuff when she completed the first leg of her stay, whereas she has actually hidden it in your private wardrobe.
This has left you with nowhere to store your own belongings.
Insist they contact the guest and cancel the booking as you can no longer trust the guest in your home. Give the guest an ultimatum for when they need to collect the luggage. I would also send through a request for £10 a night or whatever you want to charge for her luggage.
Then respect yourself first. Instead of feeling insecure and angry, take charge. And if you don’t really feel that kind of confidence naturally, fake it until you make it as the kids say. I would be removing her things and putting them in a bag and storing it somewhere. I would submit a charge for bag storage through Airbnb. If she didn’t accept the charge and without giving me attitude I would then cancel the reservation. I would message her matter of factly like “this is my home and this is the way it’s going to be” first. I wouldn’t be cowering and cancelling because you still have to face her when she comes to collect her things.
Except self respect. I’m tired of bs advice here that boils down to “bow, cast your eyes downward and back out of the room because the almighty review rules.” This guest should be appeasing the host, not the other way around.
PS. Quit offering discounts in advance. Tell guests you will refund xx at the end of the stay.
Patience grasshopper. You’ll get your time to leave a review. Until then, if your priority is to make money, the most rational decision is to avoid confrontation.
Oh please @Mexican if we all took your stance, every guest would be able to get away with appalling behaviour because hosts would be fearful of having a bad review left for them.
What I’d be very inclined to do is this. I’d remove her bag and put it elsewhere - the garage, a storage unit, a friend’s house - anywhere. Put a padlock on the closet. Then when she returned I’d smirk and wait for her to ask about it.
“Oh, you mean that blue bag? You left it at the hotel across the street as I recommended, remember? Funny thing is, I had one just like it and when I cleared out my closet the other day I threw it out”.
What we disagree on is that this is a confrontation. It’s not. I’m also not a fan of the “let me ambush you with a review after I get your money” approach. This is pick your damn head up and deal with it adult to adult.
I think that story is for amusement purposes only. I’d never in a million years expect you to do that. Like me you’d deal with it like a professional host and talk to the person like they were an adult paying guest. Some people are playing gotcha (guest included) when they shouldn’t.
I agree, it’s easy for people to sit behind their keyboards and post here advising other hosts to follow a needless course of action that will probably result in conflict, bad feelings and possibly a bad review.
At the end of the day. Yes she’s been a bit cheeky but it’s not the end of the world and, assuming she behaved herself during her first stay there is no real reason to expect any problems with her second stay either - unless she’s provoked.
I am assuming the OPs core priority is to make money with the least hassle so with this in mind I would just not say anything about it but I would just leave the bag on the bed for her next stay so when she returns she will be fully aware you rumbled her. She may apologise, she may be too embarrased but I’d get 2 stays worth of money in the bank and (probably) a guest that’s no trouble to host.
I messaged her with a photo of her stuff, she then said she must have forgotten the things in the wardrobe. So, she’s not sorry, not apologising, not coming clean and lying to me again.
I don’t want her back because it’s a flat share with me and there will be a bad vibe, but I also don’t want a retaliation review. I’m pretty sure I’ve read on here that Airbnb can remove the ability to review, there’s a box they can tick. I’ll call them now and ask for advice.
Thanks for all your input so far, it seems there are many different opinions here! I agree we should not be slaves to reviews in general, and I appreciate the advice to give discounts afterwards, I’ll do that from now on!
I agree it’s easy which is why I’m here all the time. However, since this seems to be an attempted dig at me I’ll go ahead and take the bait and stand up for myself just as I’ve advised the OP to do for herself.
I’m one of the the most active and helpful members here. And although I’m a moderator, I don’t get any pay or compensation for doing this. I really do it to be helpful. But I’m not going to sugarcoat my opinions or tipie-toe around all the people with big chips on their shoulders. I’ve been a host 4.9 years and have 488 98% 5 star reviews. I’ve been a guest 6 years and have 10 reviews. I’ve been an active member of the forum for almost 4 years and have a pathetically large number of posts here.
I too am another long standing member of the forum, long standing host and guest who spends far too much time on here
I am always learning from being a member and enjoy being able to provide advice and support to others, as well as the general banter.
I would never advise another host to do something I wouldn’t do myself. Just because you don’t happen to agree with the advice we have given to the OP, doesn’t mean it is ‘needless’. We replied on the basis that the OP said she didn’t want this guest back.
It’s good to stand up for yourself and your values, but with the review system in mind sometimes it is ‘wiser’ to just let things pass and get the last word in your review.
It’s not often, but I kind of agree with @Mexican and disagree with @KKC in this.
Yes @KKC, this is the adult way to deal with it and is great if mutual respect can be expected… But can we still expect this from a guest who does such things? Worst case scenario this tactic will get the host a few dollars for the bag storage plus two reviews with 1 star in all categories. Maybe if you have +500 all 5-star reviews this doesn’t matter anymore, but for lots of others it would still make a difference.
In this case I would have chosen not to confront the guest, AT ALL. I would not have left a review for her first stay and would have left her the review she deserves for her second stay. This would have limited the risks for my business, while informing other hosts about this guest and how she functions.
@Eyeborg Now that you already confronted her and this guest has even shown more of her true self by denying she left her things on purpose, you need to think about what will be best for your business:
OR You accept her explanation and don’t make a fuss, hoping for two good (or not too bad) reviews.
OR Call AirBnB to cancel her asap. At least this way she can only leave 1 bad review instead of two. Unfortunately by putting in writing that you have her stuff, you lost the leverage to prevent this 1 bad review.
I was not having a dig at you in particularly at all, I was referring to the many times both on this forum and on the ‘main’ Airbnb message boards where people advise hosts with potential issues (which are iften relatively minor) into combative scenarios which could result in retaliatory actions from the guest where a more conservative approach is probably more sensible.
Please don’t take what I wrote as me having a go at yourself, twas not intended that way
