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I have been hosting for over 3 years now and had over 800 reservations. I have instant book with ID required for guests who wants to be at my place. I also live on site and have two security cameras.
I had a serious issue yesterday. I had a guest who booked a room the same day for 1 person only. This is unusual so I asked her to confirm the number of people coming and what time is she going to check-in. She ignore second question and had to ask her 3 times until she told me 2 people were coming and not 1. I sent an alteration request which she accepted.
Late at night around 10PM I see both of my cameras disconnected. I go upstairs and I see 3 people all smoking weed in the room. They perfectly knew they could not be in 3 and that smoking is also against my house rules let alone any kind of drugs. There were also several boxes of pills which I don’t know what it was.
She was suppose to stay 3 nights but I couldn’t take the risk to let her stay so I asked them to leave. She had the audacity to tell me to give her a full refund and also insulted me numerous times and called me an asshole.
I contacted airbnb and explains them the situation. Despite the cameras being offline I still had footage of them being in 3 people which I sent to airbnb. Long story short, they sent her a full refund from my payout but airbnb offered me to pay me the first night as a “courtesy”… I was dumbfounded that people can come to my home and deceive me, insult me, use drugs and bring trespassers, yet they can still get away with a full refund and still leave me a shitty review… This is not fair at all.
Airbnb response was that before to ask them to leave I should have contact them first which is true that I did not. One of the reason is that I needed to address the problem right away and it takes a long time to reach the host support team over the phone. Sometimes I have to wait 30 to 45mn…
I had a similar issue two months ago when someone brought 3 guests at my place. I told her it was not possible and that they could not be in 3 people. I did not kick them out but told them to find a solution and to keep me updated. They did not and sneaked in again in 3 people. I contacted airbnb but the guest had turn her cell phone off so they could not reach her. Airbnb did not offer me any other solution… What the hell? The irony is that when airbnb contacted me for the guest smoking weed they ordered me to sent them all documentation needed within the hour… otherwise they were going to decide without my statement.
What should I have done differently? It seems really unfair to me and I am not sure what to do if it happens again. Maybe I will just call the police and have the extra guest arrested for trespassing as well as for using and possessing drugs in my home. I really feel airbnb doesn’t give a shit about their hosts, I contacted the supervisor but she cared even less than the first guy I had on the phone.
This is really sad that you have guests like this. What an awful experience.
But you know what you should have done differently. Get on the phone to Airbnb straight away. Say that the guests have three people there against your house rules and the guest confirmed only two staying. They have taken your CCTV down and are smoking drugs.
Message the guests with the same.
I haven’t experienced waiting 30 minutes for them to answer a call, but I would rather do that and get paid, then not call them and risk not getting paid.
@Helsi What if airbnb can’t reach the guest? That what happened to me also one time and they did not offer me any solution. I am curious what is airbnb actually going to do about it. Are they just going to tell them to fix the issue and let them stay? I obviously don’t want to keep people like this in my home but at the same time I don’t want to lose my payout either.
I am trying to understand their procedure and how to proceed next time. Ultimately I would like to be able to kick them out and keep my payout as well.
The first thing I do is send a message to Airbnb through their messaging system so that the date and time are documented. Send photos too. Then I call Airbnb. Also, in my house rules, it’s against the rules to disable the cameras, bring in extra guests, and smoke anything or take any illegal drugs. It states that these infractions will have your reservation cancelled, you will be asked to leave and will not be provide a refund. I’ve never had to actually enforce any of the above since I put the rules in my listing so I really don’t know if ABB would support.
I don’t know @Oby what did Airbnb say in that scenario?
I presume they message them to tell them the booking is cancelled and you then ask them to leave as you did with the recent guests.
I know you want to cancel and get paid out in full for the booking but don’t know if Airbnb do that any more. They should. What does it say in their T&Cs?
That’s just wrong. Its totally not ok for people to come into your home and do that. Airbnb is wrong for giving them a full refund. Thats not your fault.
I am fighting it. I am fed up with this kind of guest. I work super hard all year and this people just come, insult me, trash my place and get a full refund. Now she left me a one star review, all one star :
I messaged her the following :
To which she replied :
She is blackmailing me… I do think she is freaking out a little. I replied this :
I do intend to file a police report and small claim if necessary. I can’t take it anymore and I am tired of the stupid airbnb support and review system that defend this kind of behavior.
I don’t think your responses to the guest are particularly helpful @Oby. I understand you are upset but you need to remain professional and factual and keep emotion out of it.
And why are you asking her to take down her review. You know neither hosts nor guests can do this.
There is no point in continuing to get into a slanging match with the guest. It will not help with your objective of getting paid by Airbnb.
Oby I think you’re well within your rights because thats your home. If this was a public hotel, that’d be different but you live there, have an expectation of privacy and peace there.
Good luck with the police report. Personally, I don’t think it’ll turn anything up unless you have the full name, address and DOB for the guest though. I always check ID to make sure I know who is staying with me in case I need to make a police report which I never have.
While I think the guest abused you, your home and rules, I would be very surprised if the police have any interest in your case at all. Weed is legal in your state and “other drugs” is your word against theirs. Airbnb usually doesn’t remove reviews but if they remove hers they will probably remove yours. Please keep us updated.
What I meant by fighting the good fight was to fight the decision Airbnb made.
The barnyard animals have left. There’s nothing you can do about them. And unfortunately it doesn’t bode in your favour if you quarrel with them. Especially in writing.
What I meant was to fight Air’s decision. And to resolve your issues with them.
I am not hoping to get paid by airbnb. I talked twice to the support and asked to talk to the supervisor. They told me there was nothing they could do.
You are right I can’t prove it regarding the drugs but on the other hand I can prove the trespassing. I sent a last message to the guest telling her that I will file a police report on Monday. She replied and told me that if I was going to remove my review she would do the same — sure…I won’t remove mine, other hosts deserve to know what happened. It was her first review and a new profile.
Yes exactly. The quicker we weed out guests like this from our community, the less expensive and more enjoyable it becomes for everyone who uses Airbnb to host and to travel. It just isn’t about profit. I’d rather get a lower nightly rate and avoid guests like this who are going to do drugs in my house.
Yes, it was definitely not worth the money. I don’t know about you but have actually realized that I get the worst guests where the prices are the lowest. She was one of them and paid $69 a night which is low for my area.
Some updates here. After reading again my messages with the nasty guest I realized that she told me on airbnb after she checked in “I’m all checked in. The place is really comfortable. Thanks again.” (that was of course before the extra guest and weed) but then she left me a one star on everything in the review and on cleanliness with suggestion “Entire Place”.
I contacted the support without much hope but to my relief they were able to delete her review!! My own review is staying and still on her profile. I asked the case manager how did she determined her review was against the content policy and she told me the following :
“You’re most welcome! I considered her message saying that your place is really comfortable. Then provided a one-star rating for the cleanliness. We are removing reviews that do not represent the author’s personal experience or that of their travel companions, as outlined in our content policy here: https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/546”
I thought I would share this with all of you. An idea came in mind that I will now send a message to the guests asking them if they like the place, are comfortable or if they are experiencing any issues etc… that way if a problem arise and they leave me a fake review that could be used against them and be ground for removal.
@Oby new profile can mean non-genuine guest. It also happened to me with bad review and guest just wanting free accommodation. Lesson learnt but does not necessarily mean it won’t happen again. There isn’t alot you can do about it and Airbnb is not pleasant to deal with. I also didn’t win and the scammy guest were awarded full refund. I personally feel airbnb doesn’t care about the host or your situation regardless of the proof offered.
Sorry for you but don’t think you will win this one.
As soon as you think you may have a problem, contact Air. They track issues, so if your relationship with the guest goes south, they have a record. Do not try confronting the guest and dealing with them yourself. Take your cues from Air.
This worked for me on several levels. Firstly, they were able to offer some perspective and deal with the guest themselves. More importantly, they have your point of view first. And that worked in my favour.
Thank you for your advices. Indeed I should have just keep dealing with airbnb which is what I usually do but I lost it with her. Never seen such dishonest and malicious guest she just messaged me the following :
I have blocked her and reported her message. Unbelievable.
