This forum is dedicated to connecting hosts with other hosts. Sign up to get the latest updates and news just for AirBnb hosts! Note that we are not affiliated with Airbnb - we are just passionate hosts!
I am a host in Manchester UK and i am having an issue with a guest who is refusing to leave. She originally booked through airbnb and then wanted to extend her stay because the apartment she was moving to was not available yet. With the corona virus situation i was grateful to have a guest so looked past her being new to the ice and she seemed to be honest with me.
When she tried to extend her stay due to the corona virus airbnb had blocked the calendar but she was stuck without anywhere to stay. We both contacted airbnb and they advised that i could continue to host her under our own agreement as they could not open my calendar. So she has extended her stay outside of airbnb checked out.
She then recontacted me a week later due to problems with her accommodation and asked to stay and again as airbnb would not open my calendar we did this outside of airbnb. She is now refusing to leave tomorrow morning which is when she agreed to leave and when she has paid up.
I am wondering if anyone else has had a similar thing (even if through airbnb) and what i can do to get her out of the flat tomorrow?
Thanks
Adam
Now she is refusing to leave tomorrow and I am not sure
She will have stayed for 11 nights tomorrow come
Check out time. She did stay for a few weeks in mid april but checked out for a week between stays.
She has been paying via balance transfer and we have been confirming amounts on whats app.
I know this sounds very complicated because this lady has been very chaotic with payments and her plans. She will constantly change how many nights she wants to stay etc. At one point she wanted to stay until Next monday and agreed to pay for that cost yesterday as her stay was due to end then. She then stayed last night without paying (she had been telling me she would pay when she finished work which kept being delayed, and also made some excuses about bank transfers) anyway i digress. This morning when money had not been transferred i asked her to leave as she had over stayed. She told me she had no place to go but could go to her mums tomorrow and so i agreed if she transfered me tge money for the previous night and tonight then she could stay but i would not be able to extend her stay again. This evening she is telling me that now she can not go to her mums and she wants to stay until saturday. They she has told me she couldnât possible leave tomorrow as she has furniture with her and she has to work. I have shown her storage facilities within walking distance Of the property and also booking.com has accommodation available for booking tomorrow but she constantly repeats how She can not leave or do anything
This isnât anything to do with Airbnb now @Wellness as you extended her stay outside of Airbnb.
In the UK she has no tenancy rights. She hasnât paid, so you can tell her she needs to leave.
As she hasnât paid you will need to go over tomorrow and evict her. It is not your issue that she has nowhere to live. If she had wanted to stay she should have paid. You have given her two chances now to pay which she has failed to do.
If you want to let her stay till Saturday, tell her payment needs to go through tonight or she will need to leave by 11.00 a.m. tomorrow (or whatever your check out time is).
If you agree to do this, make sure you tell her you have some planned maintenance work starting on Saturday so you will not be able to extend further under any circumstances.
Wasnât quite clear, are you saying you allowed her to bring furniture into your place?
I didnât allow her to bring furniture in, i have a self check in with key code and she says she has her clothes drawers and a tv. It was inly meant to be a short term let. I have told her that the property is no longer available to rent after tomorrow. My fear is if I tell her Saturday i will just have this same problem on Saturday.
Thank you for all of your help, i will attend tomorrow and hope that she has left.
If she is still there or still has her things there im not sure what to do. I would like to change the locks just to ensure that she can not let herself in. With this corona virus i want to leave it empty for a day or two before i clean it and stay again, just to protect myself.
Iâd not let her stay further or accept further payment. Iâm not sure what you are entitled to do legally but perhaps you could have the internet worked on and out of service, or the bathroom scheduled for remodeling. If legal in the UK, entering the home and carrying her stuff out and locking the door behind her might be an option.
outside your rental. Lock her out when she leaves and put the stuff outside. Perhaps her employer would be interested in her behavior?
You do want to try to avoid retaliation. Maybe simply being very firm, not extending and showing up at check out time will be enough.
If you want her out, then I presume you have told the guest that she needs to be out by your check out time. Tell her she must have all of her belongings out and confirm again details of local storage if she doesnât want to bring her belongings into work.
Has she paid you for last night and tonight yet?
Legally in the UK @KKC@Wellness can just go over to the listing and pack up the guests belongings. (I would suggest you video and photograph the belongings ).
@Wellness if she does leave her belongings there pack them up and say she can arrange to meet you outside of the property to collect them.
If she has a key and doesnât leave them (or even if she does to be honest) get the locks changed.
EDIT
Sorry one thing I didnât think about is that currently it is illegal for landlords in the UK to evict tenants at the moment because of Covid. However as she is not a tenant my understanding is that this shouldnât be an issue but I am not 100% sure.
I think this is a lesson to us all, not to let guests extend their stay outside of Airbnb in these sort of circumstances.
You mentioned she is staying with you because she is working, so I presume she is a key worker? Just want to make sure you are covered as you let her stay in case there are any issues.
@Wellness You need to put on your professional hosting hat and stop letting this woman walk all over you. Her furniture, her work schedule, her finances, are not your affair. She isnât your friend or relative. She pays, she takes good care of the place, she stays- she keeps changing her mind, doesnât pay, sheâs out. You agree on a check-out day, the guest canât just ignore that, and you need to enforce it.
Donât make verbal arrangements with guests- if you are going to extend off-platform and take cash, you should have a formal, written agreement.
Youâve been getting some âtough loveâ answers to your problem and hereâs another. All the above advice is excellent but you need also ensure that you know how to deal with this problem properly in case it happens in the future.
You need to do much more than hope.
As RR said above, and I do this with almost every check out, march in there with cleaning stuff, strip the bed, ask her if she needs any help with her bags. I do this all the time if guests are even one minute past check out time. (Unless I have given them express permission to have a late check out).
Remember that once 11 am comes, or whatever checkout time is, the guest has no longer got any right to be in the rental.
Weâre talking here about a grown woman with a mum who lives nearby. She has to be responsible for her own life and not be scrounging from you.
I know that you probably had the very best of kind-hearted motives at first but youâre in business, youâre not a charity.
One thing I found interesting is that she was a prior guest before this stay. Apparently, it had only been a week since she left, but I think a lot of hosts would be willing to book outside of Airbnb for guests that had previous reservations without issues.
This to me would raise red flags and would mean I wouldnât risk the guest staying outside of Airbnb without making advance payment (she is on her second free night now).
There is definitely a learning opportunity here and i do indeed Need to wear my professional hosting hat and am grateful for the Tough love.
I believed the sob stories that went along with the stay(i dont want to go into each of them but originally it seemed believable why she was extending and changing plans) But the bottom line is she has paid to stay until tomorrow and thats when she needs to leave. She is an adult and has to be responsible for her own stability in life.
When a guest starts in with sob stories, that would be a red flag for me. Like you say, sheâs an adult, her host shouldnât be subject to her problems and issues- thatâs for her to deal with.
Iâm not saying we should never be sympathetic and try to accomodate when possible-if youâve had a guest staying who is hassle-free, a good communicator, and something comes up for them that means they need to extend or maybe they wonât be able to pay you until tomorrow, you can decide that on an individual basis. But someone who seems to have one issue after another and expects it to be your problem, nah.
The timeline isnât clear, but it appears as though all of that happened after the Airbnb stay completed and the guest was already booking off-platform. If not, well, yeah, thatâs a lesson for certain.
Sorry about the situation but at least there is no money lost currently. Good news is she is not a tenant. Perhaps also good that air is not involved (no negative review worries and no CS rep having any say at all).
Regardless, I do not understand UK law. I have no idea if there is any potential trouble, if you simply changed the code while she is out, etc. You may or may not have to get the police involved, for her to âget her stuff while being watchedâ and out-the-door.
I would HOPE that the law allows you to change the code when she leaves Thur for work, then meet her outside the door with her junk when she comes back - and she stays outside while you give her her stuff back - all on camera. I would hope UK law totally allows this. In any case, I would want one or more friends with me, with one filming on a phone in case she starts lying, calling the cops, claiming violence, etc.
All the best of luck to you!Please let us know how this wraps up!
