Help with review - party averted!

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Whereas I typically don’t post, I peruse the site often - your insight has helped me to learn a lot!

I host remotely, so there are security cameras on the front and rear of the home. They are disclosed in the listing.

Guest checks in yesterday. My internal alarm bells were going off when the reservation was made (local/new ABB account) but I didn’t follow my gut as the guest said they were in town for the Bloomsday run, which made sense.

Fast forward, I check the cameras about 8pm to see if guest arrived. Yes. Shortly thereafter they left all dressed up. Funny thing, the only reason I watched them leave is that I wanted to see the dresses. :slight_smile:

As they were leaving, they readjusted both security cameras (video here if interested - https://arlo.netgear.com/hmsweb/users/library/share/link/B89FAE8489917ACD_201905. Called guest immediately, she said home is lovely. I asked about the cameras - yes, they don’t like “strangers” watching them (keep in mind they’re on exterior of home). I shared that they are disclosed in the listing and are there as folks have tried to sneak in pets and extra guests. Offered to allow her to leave w/refund or stay with cameras working.

Now I’m thinking more and more about their formal wear (I originally thought “wedding”, my hubby said “prom”), I’m thinking party. Guest called back, they opted to stay. I informed the guest that we were coming to correct the cameras - she offered to do it for us, I said no, we’re on our way now to take care of it. As we were en route to the home, she sent me another message stating they opted to leave instead.

Thankfully the home wasn’t damaged. They had moved the living room furniture (pushed against the wall) to allow for more floor space, raised the light in the dining room (likely for a drinking game) and moved the decorative items into the closet. A party was forthcoming but thankfully averted!!

Thanks to this site, conversations on the phone were reiterated via ABB message. After a 40ish wait on hold, ABB customer service said they’d issue the refund and help find the guest a different place to stay.*

** Note to self, if ABB ever calls to place a guest with me, ASK if house rules were broken!!*

Bad review likely coming, I will wait until 13 hours, 55 minutes after email notification to issue my review if guest doesn’t issue review.

I’m thinking of: House rules 1, cleanliness 3 star, communication 3 star, recommend to other hosts NO, with the following:

“Shortly after arriving, guests rearranged furniture, had more guests than reservation was for and disabled the security cameras. Guest was asked to leave. Guest is better suited for a hotel.”

Thoughts?

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I would add the words “outside, disclosed” to security camera and take off “Better suited for a hotel”.

I hope ABB is not counting this as a cancellation against you.

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You may want to add “Guest appeared to be setting up to host a party.”

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First, good job! Thankfully you were on your toes.

You’re welcome. We’ll all message you with our addresses so you can send us our stipends. LOL.

Leave this off; it’s meaningless without context.

Days, not hours

It certainly is Prom season as well as other end of school year events both high school and college. Based on appearance of stupidity I say Prom. Seeing them look up at those cameras and then move them is both laughable and infuriating.

“Yeah, sorry girlfriend but my neighbors across the street called me when they saw you walking out with your friends and then I checked the cameras…”

And now you’ve lost out on a night’s booking. Party averted along with $$. I’d push for at least one night’s payment.

BTW, I have a ring doorbell which could be easily covered but also two exterior cameras which have covers which make them tamper proof in terms of moving. Anyone with ill intent would have to cover them up and need a step stool to do so. You might consider and upgrade on the cameras if you are going to attract partiers.

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Honestly, your guests did the right thing and left your property. If I was going to review, which in this case I would not, I would stick to the facts. Were there more guests in the home then on the reservation, not just because you had a feeling there would be? You probably just busted their party plans crisis averted be grateful. I would write… Upon mutual agreement the reservation was cancelled because of the actions of the guest in repositioning our exterior camera and observing more guests than registered. While I can not recommend this guest I am grateful they did the right thing in cancelling the reservation averting a possible negative outcome.

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Oh no, I have to disagree here.

They didn’t do the “right thing” they simply avoided getting confronted in person. They had no intention of doing the right thing until the OP said they were on their way over. Do the right thing would have been put everything back like it was. In fact, that would have been the smart thing as they would have then looked innocent and the OP would have questioned if they had been too harsh. No, these hooligans booked the hell out of there full speed.

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KKC…you are right they should have. This still would have been my review but we are all different and having to recently clean up after an “Airbnb Party” I would still be grateful they did the right thing. But that is me and everyone reviews differently.

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I’d be grateful as well but I would not reward the person booking with any kind of “atta-girls.” It doesn’t matter though. She will just close her account and reopen another. And all the other kids can open their own accounts.

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Thanks everyone for the feedback! I will add “outside, disclosed” and “appeared to be setting up to host a party”, and I’ll remove the “better suited for a hotel.” As much as I’d like the payment for the night’s stay (just to cover my time and effort), my hubby and I were ok with foregoing it in lieu of any additional drama or issues.

I really like the idea of adding a Ring doorbell to the mix - thanks for that suggestion as we’re reevaluating our security setup.

We have been lucky thus far that we haven’t had any parties (that I’m aware of). Our prices are a bit on the higher side for this area, along with the two night minimum on the weekend and the cleaning fee, I think they look for elsewhere to go, but obviously not everyone!

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And I checked, Air did not count this as a cancellation against me.

On a side note, we were approved and went live a few days ago for Plus - as of right now, we are the first (and only) Plus listing in Spokane. :slight_smile: Given the feedback and concerns shared on this site, we’ll see if Plus works for us or not. They did the photography at no charge so I said let’s give it a try.

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Our home has to watch for this stuff about once a year since we are in an affluent area with lots of high schoolers with dad’s credit card. We have added this to our listing and it has helped keep these incidents at bay:

“ALL PARTIES FOUND TO BE SERVING MINORS UNDER 18 YEARS WILL FORFEIT DEPOSIT, BE SUBJECT TO IMMEDIATE CANCELLATION, AND REPORT TO THE LOCAL SHERIFF.”

The biggest liability with a high school party (aside from the unpredictable) is having a house filled with intoxicated minors. Once they start drinking the Sheriff will most likely recommend they stay the night.

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That is also what my agreement says about tampering with cameras.

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After prom party! It amazes me that parents allow this and if anyone got hurt, they would be the first to sue!

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In my city there are plenty of parents at the door collecting payment for the “house parties.” There used to be a family near the school where I taught wherein the mom was a teacher, dad was retired military, all the kids were active and highly regarded in school activities. In addition to being a family fund raiser the parents justified it as being preferable to the kids going over to Juarez (Mexico) to party.

OTOH when I graduated high school the drinking age was 18 and the debauchery would amaze people now. My senior yearbook has a picture of kids partying at a bonfire in the desert, drinks in hand. LOL.

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I just wish we could return to the days of just waiting til mom n dad were out of town and throw the party in their own damn house. :joy:

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In surprising contrast, I had a guest check in last summer with his girlfriend. They were in town to visit her relatives. I usually clean out items that prior guests leave in the refrigerator, but in this case there was some good beer that had been left. I don’t drink, so I left it for the new guests. As I was taking them through the place I mentioned the beer in the refrigerator. He then turned to me and advised that he couldn’t accept it because he was not yet 21.

I removed the beer, and thought to myself, that I was not going to have any problems with this set of guests.

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I think if guests do not stay and you report them to Airbnb you might not be able to write a review. Recently I had “2” guests who stated their reason for their stay was to see a local tourist attraction. It was a last minute booking on a Saturday night.
Next minute carloads of people with cartons of beer and speakers start walking up the stairs and they moved the fire extinguisher out onto the front lawn. I asked them to cancel and they became verbally aggressive. I was frightened, so to calm them I offered a full refund if they left immediately. They did, yelling out “f**k you” as they drove off. They also left an abusive message on the Airbnb message thread. I hit the “report this guest” button and called Airbnb to let them know I was scared that these guests might retaliate. They said to call the police if they returned and that they had already booked another Airbnb.
Anyway, I wanted to write an accurate review, however I never received the “write a review for this guest” message.

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That’s why we don’t do last minute bookings. Maybe in the dead season if I can thoroughly vet them

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Having told my “bad guest story” I must add that I’ve had probably more than 2000 stays and only ever had to report one lot.

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Because of the cancellation you might not receive the request to write the review until the actual check out period, or at all. However, you can still review them.