I need some help! We had a guest who left yesterday. He booked the room for 1 person and stated that his kids had rented a house here (we are in the Rosemary Beach, FL area), but he prefers a quiet place to sleep. Our house is set up like a bed and breakfast…2 rooms on air, 1 full time resident, my husband and myself and our 12 year old dog. We do not allow pets. We have an electric fence for our dog, but no fence for guest pets. We have had numerous guests ask if they can bring a pet…even friends, and the answer is NO! Pets aren’t allowed on the beaches here and we have no fence. So what is your dog going to do all day? So this guy calls me a few days before arrival and says that he has a lady friend staying in the area, can she bring her dog to visit? I said to him, “we don’t allow pets…can’t you visit her where she is staying?” He said okay and asked a bunch of other strange questions “Will anyone be going in my room?” “Are there extra sheets?” Alarm bells should have been going off in my head. Well, he shows up with the woman and the dog in the car 2 hours before check in. We informed him again that we don’t allow pets and he stated that the woman and dog were staying somewhere else. Okay, so we go to work. We come home and the next morning the woman and dog are walking around our property. We should have kicked them out at this point, but didn’t. Lesson learned. When they checked out, the sent us a note saying that they were leaving, thanks for the comfortable and quiet place to stay. We have a check in the same day, so we go up to the room. It reeks of perfume, I am guessing that they thought we would not notice all the urine stains if we couldn’t smell the pee. The dog and the woman caused over $900 of damage to the room. We have very high end bedding and bath towels. I supply make up remover wipes with a little note asking to please remove your makeup before sleeping on the bed or using towels, etc. There was makeup or self tanner all over everything. The dog peed all over the room, chewed on the wood blinds. In 3 days almost everything was ruined…the bedding, the sheets, the towels, the rug and the wood blinds. Doggy treats all over the floor. I spent all morning digging out receipts and taking pictures to get them on the resolution center page before our next guests arrived. Everything in that room was brand new before our first airbnb guests in March. It took 2 people 4 hours to clean 1 room and a bathroom. I posted all the pictures and receipts and asked him for the money to replace everything. Then I called Airbnb to make them aware. Have not heard back from him on the resolution senter about the damage (of course), but I see now that he has written a review. See what Douglas said. I don’t care what Douglas said. He trashed our house! I have read a lot on this forum and feel sure that I will not get my money back. All of our reviews have been great, but I am sure this guy’s is not and full of lies as he had no problem lying to my face! He brought an unauthorized guest and pet to our home. Is there anything that I can do to keep his review from being published?
The only reviews which can be banned are those that tell evidenced lies or violate guidelines. You have a right to reply underneath of course. Get your current guests good review on there first.
Yep you should have asked them to leave straight away. It might also be an idea to check on the room in the morning like an hotel, rather than give them 3 days to wreck the room. I really hope you get a refund from Airbnb. What booking policy do you have? Guests with bad reviews can’t do IB on mine.
Thanks for the answer. I guess I will just wait until the last minute to leave my review. This guy (who by the way was 72 years old) didn’t have any reviews at all. I’m about to go change my booking policy. This is the first time anything like this has happened. I guess for some people the rules don’t apply. It is so disheartening that someone would disrespect someone’s home this way.
If you have receipts and good documentation, you have a good chance. I was reimbursed for a smashed glass door because guest forgot door code and threw a brick through it. Also, got extra cleaning charges reimbursed. But you have to give 3 days for him to respond I think before you escalate. Good luck!
So you already know what you did wrong so no need to rehash that. You say you are going to change your booking policy. To what? If you aren’t going to enforce it what good is it? Airbnb has no way to magically force people to follow your rules. If you live on site and can’t do it…
I’ve had hundreds of guests who have no prior reviews and they were fine. My only trouble guests (and that’s using the term loosely as I haven’t had much trouble) has previous reviews.
You also know what you need to do to have any chance of reimbursement so keep us posted on that.
Finally…the review. This fellow needs to be absolutely eviscerated, one star on everything, thumbs down and use every character given to detail how awful he is. He’ll probably just delete his profile and make a new one or book under his gf’s name but it’s the least you can do. Members here will be happy to help you with wording so feel free to share your draft when you have it. Usually I’d say go ahead and leave the review but since you have a resolution case waiting (though you can’t mention it in the review) you should wait.
That’s so horrible what happened to you! I sure hope you get reimbursed. Let us know what happens. The last thing you should be worried about is his review of you.
Thanks so much. After consideration, I didn’t change my booking policy. This area is really high end and we get lots of great guests with no reviews that tell us that they couldn’t book anywhere else because of their age or lack of reviews. This is the first time anything like this has happened and it certainly wasn’t young people. We have had messy guests, but nothing like this. I will share my draft when I have it ready so you guys can help me with the wording.
No, you don’t need to. Let it fly now and tell everything. You only do it at the last minute if they have not,left theirs yet. Remember not to mention the case! In fact, always reread the guidelines when you are about to slam someone. One gets emotional and sometimes forgets about the guidelines! (Been there!)
Instead of simply opening a resolution center case requesting money, you must also CALL them and open a real case. I hope you did and if you haven’t, do it NOW.
Hi,
Thanks for the input. I did call Airbnb to make them aware of the situation, but they told me that I had to wait 72 hours before they will get involved.
Yes, good work. Wasn’t sure!
If Lea thinks the PerfumePiddlers left a poor review, wouldn’t she be better off withholding hers? I’ve done this just to push a potential poor review down my page…
eg. Jerk guest leaves Schrodinger’s Review (could be good, could be bad…can’t see what’s in the box)
I wait.
Good guest stays after the Jerks
I review Good guest, they review me
I review Jerk guest and his review shows up on my page below the “Good” review.
I suppose but I bet they leave a good review since they seemed so clueless and thanked her.? Or did they write the review after the res center request was done?
Unrelated to this story, I recently got my review removed, although it had a very neutral public part and massacre in stars rating. Maybe it was because it was clear from our subsequent communication that the guest did not understand how ratings and reviews work, like, at all. For example, I got 3 for accuracy and public review stated that everything was as described. Guest’s later explanation was that the bed was broken - which was untrue. There were many other inconsequential explanations. The guest said he didn’t think that there was a problem with his grades, that he would come back (?!) and that he would agree to removing his review. Maybe that was crucial. They removed both review and the stars. I was very pleasantly surprised.
That was good. There was an inconsistency in what they said and how they reviewed (an unintended lie), and as you say they were happy for it to be taken down, which probably swung it. I am amazed confusions don’t happen more often, given all the languages. Airbnb don’t seem to educate guests that 5 stars is normal.
Well, it was a confusion, as on the guests’ screen it is stated next to the 3 stars that this is meant to be “good”. Also, we have a star system for apartments in my region, on a scale from 1-4, 3 being the most prevalent category. So I think some people choose 3 as a 3 star apartment, or simply as a “good” stay. They have no idea that 3 is definitely not good on Airbnb.
On the other hand, besides being confused, this guest was definitely a bit of a jerk as well, as he dinged me for check-in (which he was approved an early one, but didn’t show up) because my mom did not pet their dog. Lied about the broken bed. Gave 4 stars for cleanliness as he could smell the cleaners. You get the picture.
In any case, I’m superhappy that the things turned out the way they did. I’m just sad that there is no way to warn other hosts about this guy. Well, let’s hope he learned something about Airbnb ratings from this whole thing.
They wrote it after. I had to do the request immediately because I had another check in the same day, so I’m sure that it will not be good. I think I’ll wait until the current guests write a review so his won’t be the first one that shows up. Thank you all so much for your support. It means a lot!
Let us know what the AirBnB response is to your claim.
I thought I was having a bad day…your’s beats mine. I hope Airbnb will help you with the resolution.
How horrible! Every host’s nightmare. Hang in there, sending thought waves to Airbnb for a good resolution (= you getting $$$)
I am surprised, too! I had a review removed once because it was third party and the reviewer didn’t stay. The Airbnb CS rep said stars could not be removed however, which didn’t make sense to me.