I had a guest register for 6 people. My neighbor texted me (after I had gone to bed), that there were 16 cars down the block, and a huge party going on at my home rental (I rent the whole house). I have had exceptional guests… but these people trashed my place. Took my fiancee and I 10 hours + to clean. Over 10 cases of beer consumed, and left all over the place, and they were planning on a second day of partying, from the amount of beer and food still in the fridge and on the deck. We did get there the next morning, and kicked them all out (ater contacting AirBNB and getting the OK). There were 12 people in the house. Vomit all over brand new Duvets and covers, high quality linens used to mop up spilled beer and vomit. They had urinated off the deck as well.
I am leaving a very harsh review. I have had 5 stars to this point from my guests, and we work VERY hard to provide a clean adn great place, and I am in line to be a superhost at the end of this month, and I have been doing this since just mid January. I will NOT put up with something like this though, and want to spread the work about these horrible people. This will NOT stop me. Its a bump in the road, but I will not stop. We are filing the repor twith AirBNB tonight. THey have been SUPER helpful to this point
If you are going to rent an entire house you absolutely must get security cameras around the exterior perimeter of your home. You could have easily stopped this party from happening as soon as you saw the cars arriving and the cases of beer coming in. Make sure you picture and disclose them so they can act as a deterrent (also required per Airbnb policy).
Also, don’t review these guests until the last day.
Welcome to the forum. Reading as many threads here as possible you will find we can be quite helpful.
Do return and let us know how everything turns out.
Your poor neighbours, I do hope you provided them with a personal apology and a gift to say sorry.
As @KKC mentions, I agree you need to take some responsibility here for letting it happen. Having CCTV is a given if you host remotely and a local manager on hand who can go and intervene.
In some areas this would be enough for your local council to want to close down your listing.
Unfortunately some guests behave irresponsibly, so for hosts who have larger properties, you need to be more vigilant to those who will look for places with a remote host so they can party. Have strict house rules around noise and extra guests, get CCTV installed before your next guests. Spend time talking to your guests to understand their motivations for staying. Look at a two night minimum stay.
Make sure you use the resolution centre to claim for damaged goods and as you said leave an honest review.
They were set for three nights, and in my listing it states no parties. They were quiet outside, just a lot of cars coming and going. We took one neighbor out for dinner last night and apologized. They said no problem, all the other guests have been really great. I just bought the security system, installing it tonight. I also put in my lisiting must be 25 or older to book now. Thank you for your reply!
~Rusty
@KKC Just bought today! THANK YOU for the recommendation. I will wait the 13 days to do the review.
~Rusty
I am not sure you are allowed to ask for over 25’s as Airbnb might see this as discrimination.
Do you have in your listing rules that only guests who have booked and paid are allowed on the premises? If so, this would have been a reason for you to cancel their booking.
However quiet they might have been outside having 16 cars is bound to cause some disturbance. Trashing your place and having a party shows a complete lack of respect for you and your property.
Have a contract and restrict the number of cars also. And look into Noise Aware. I also suggest that it would have been wise to get out of bed instead of waiting until morning. Let future guests know you live next door…that will help stop the parties too.
Hi @Helsi
I appreciate your voicing your concern about age discrimination. The host needs to be aware of possible issues.
In the USA, car rental agencies use age 25 as the minimum. Age discrimination is if you don’t rent to people over 40. I have a minimum age to rent of age 25.
I suggest double checking the policy. I do not think the cameras need to be pictured any longer, just disclosed.
This is what Airbnb say
Age and Familial Status
Airbnb hosts may not:
Impose any different terms or conditions or decline a reservation based on the guest’s age or familial status, where prohibited by law.
Airbnb hosts may:
Provide factually accurate information about their listing’s features (or lack of them) that could make the listing unsafe or unsuitable for guests of a certain age or families with children or infants.
Note in their listing applicable community restrictions (e.g. senior housing) that prohibit guests under a particular age or families with children or infants.
So it’s not terribly clear to be honest. I guess it depends where you live.
I’m not sure you ever had to picture them. Putting them in pictures is for the idjits that don’t read, they just look at pictures.
Car rental is a different thing. If you don’t allow under 25 to rent your house you can be in trouble with Air. Not that I agree with it, just that you can’t really discriminate based on age, according to Air policies
A real security deposit would help, but not something ABB offers. Other booking services do.
I appreciate you voicing your concern. I re-read the Airbnb Nondiscrimination policy. Under the section for USA & EU hosts, I found:
Age and Familial Status
Airbnb hosts may not:
Impose any different terms or conditions or decline a reservation based on the guest’s age or familial status, where prohibited by law.
——-It appears that a minimum age of 25 is OK. The law considers not renting to age 40 and older adults as age discrimination.
Before I implemented the minimum age of 25, my biggest problems from damage, items missing, & bad behavior complained about by the neighbors were from under age 25 renters. If I get a complaint from Airbnb, I’ll consider a change.
The thing is, I have had AWESOME guests who were under 25. Some way better than older ones. They are in many cases, very anxious to please.
If you get a complaint from Airbnb @Annet3176 about discrimination, they can close down your listing. I would suggest giving them a call to clarify.
I did post their policy in an earlier thread and say that it isn’t particularly clear so worth checking with them.
Hi there, the same thing happened to me. I then changed my listing from just noting No Parties, to adding in the opening blurb about our home, “Our home is not suitable for groups of people who with to hold loud, alcohol fueled parties” I also call every person before they book with me and ask them have they read the house rules as we cannot have parties at our home". I also rent with Stayz and when we came home and found out about the bucks party held the night before, we contacted Stayz and we received our $1000 security bond in total as these guests had broken the house rules. Why have house rules such as no smoking etc if we can’t take the bond when they break them?
This happened to us about 2 months into VRBO which is one of the many reasons we stopped listing with them. For our areas, Airbnb guests are much more considerate of rules. We found out later, that VRBO was actively marketing and advertising to high school students looking to throw graduation parties. I was able to break up the party (50+ underage drinkers) before midnight thanks to our Nest security camera facing the driveway which includes sound (crucial feature!).
do you have instant book, do they have other good reviews?
Hi Rusty–
I’m going to go against the grain here and say this isn’t your fault–security cameras or not. I had this happen to me twice. Once I only knew about because a neighbor told me 6 months later. The other time I came home to a house that was trashed. They had taken doors off rooms, food everywhere, spilled drinks left on end tables, pool area a mess. Every towel I owned was used. They went through my closet and pulled out personal items out (like my clothes). I was absolutely shocked. I don’t blame myself. They had good reviews, prior Airbnb bookings and I specifically told them in our exchange that there were not to be more than 4 people at the house at anytime.
Even if I had cameras up, I was 1500 miles away and likely couldn’t have got them out without them doing more damage. I now require 3 previous stays with good ratings before someone can instant book.