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What a nightmare. Glad you are not afraid to kick her out. I would just tell her…
“you really don’t seem happy here so I think it is best for all concerned that we terminate this situation so we can both find a better fit. I am canceling your booking effective noon tomorrow. I will need you to completely be off property at that time. I will refund you the remaining nights.”
And don’t worry about the review. She’s going to leave you a bad review you know anyway. That is a foregone conclusion. The good news is you can leave her one. Hope she never visits Hawaii. I don’t think even the Justin Timberlake suite at the 4 seasons would satisfy someone this horrid.
She has had an account since 2015 and only one review. I imagine if I leave an honest review, almost no host will take her. We have 80+ five star reviews and room to respond to any of her public remarks.
As an update, we sent our cleaners there to do an additional deep clean as per my agreement with Airbnb to at least have it on record that we tried our best… so that I can terminate her reservation without punishment. She has been consistently texting us every day with different complaints ranging from “There’s nowhere to plug in my Apple TV” (we have Amazon Fire TV), “There’s no base to this blender” (a guest left that, we have a Nutribullet and that’s it). And even asked our cleaners if they will be cleaning the garage. **The garage is not a feature we provide to our guests. It is a working garage filled with my partner’s tools and assorted garage-y things. Access is only given for the purpose of allowing guests who stay for 4+ nights to use the washer and dryer that’s in there. We said no.
Our cleaning team even remarked in a text message to me that they were horrified by how messy and “lived in” the home looked after just 24 hours. One of the photos our cleaner sent (I had her take photos of their clean as evidence to Airbnb), showed our XL glass dry erase board which we provide for work meetings to our usual guests, had been drawn all over by her children already. The ENTIRE board. It’s like they are forming a symbiosis with our property.
If a guest wants to save money there are other places they can stay.
And the majority of young people who can afford to be students are those who come from middle class or wealthier backgrounds - I definitely need the money more than they do
I add value in lots of other ways which they appreciate as guests and which leads to five star reviews and me being booked when I want. I would rather charge more and work less.
I keep relaying the story of a woman who instant booked my place a month ago at 5 am. As soon as I got up I saw her 4 stars overall and recommeded by far fewer hosts than hosts who reviewed her so obviously multiple thumbs down. All of this within a two month period. She said she was traveling through and visiting El Paso but all of her reviews are in my area. So I cancelled her reservation penalty free within the hour. Over the last month she has added reviews but the proportion of thumbs down as a ratio of reviews has remained constant. Some reviews say she is a great guest but muliple reviews mention that she left a mess, checked out late or asked to check out late or a vague mention of disregarding rules.
She’s mostly stayed with less experienced hosts but she’s also stayed with some of the most experienced hosts and they are still hosting her, even sometimes indicating that they had seen her poor reviews and hosted her anyway. I don’t know if they don’t realize they can cancel penalty free or they are desperately trying to build up their reviews or just need money. I’d be curious to know how many declines and cancellations she’s gotten.
Update: After both Airbnb and I both found comparable size, location, entire house options to move her to, she decided she “didn’t like those options” and decided to stay. I guess all those numerous problems she was complaining about weren’t actually so intolerable after all…
Anyone who lives in Texas should really have no say in what is “not enough for the money” when it comes to Silicon Valley/Bay Area real estate. One may throw down a lot of money for a 3-week vacation once a year but that would barely cover our property tax.
Final update: They’ve checked out. They PEED in our vases. And they destroyed our kitchen. Absolutely filthy. They FREAKED out on us and demanded access to our Amazon account so they could download the apps that they wanted. They only downloaded the Fox News app. And keep in mind, we also have cable. Money doesn’t buy class. And I’m horrified for how their children will probably turn out. This is America.
I had an enquiry 3 days ago, they asked how to get to the university from my house, and also, can they have a discount. Couple of red flags there, but as they were staying for 5 days, they nearly qualified for my weekly discount, I thought I’d throw them a bone, offer them £30 off. 40minute bus trip to get to university.
Next message “how can I get the discount?When I pay for the booking or when I check in or out?And how can I go to London from here?Sorry for so many questions.It’s my first time booking through airbnb,you know.Thanks!” Oh no, now asking for info on trip to London, that makes quite a collection of little red flags.
I replied that I didn’t think my place was right for her, best of luck in your search.
Then just as I was pondering the decline button, do I get penalised etc, she Instant booked.
So now I have a guest coming, whose last communication was me saying 'clear off, I don’t want you!"
I just did an interesting deal – I rarely give discounts, but mostly play with my nightly rate to fill in the gaps between reservations. I finally hit on the right number and am getting those gaps filled in (the 2-3 nights in the middle of the week gaps). Tomorrow, I have a woman coming in who lives in the mountains in Colorado. She works for the Prana clothing company and will be in Boulder for her job. I had already discounted the nights for the “gap” that she wanted to stay. She asked for a discount. I did my usual – “Boulder has many lovely Airbnbs and I am sure you will find one to better fit your budget.” It’s summer. All the good, reasonably priced places have been long booked (mine is not so reasonably priced!). She was back in ten minutes saying that she could not find another place, but perhaps she could do a trade with some Prana clothes. I have my daughter, and I have taken in one of her friends; both are 18. They get to shop at thrift stores for clothing. The only items they get to buy retail are underwear and bras. So I worked out a deal with the Prana woman for clothes for the girls. My payout will be $400, $150 of which will go to my daughter for cleaning. I am hoping the girls will be able to get bathing suits. I’ll let you know how it turns out.
Just a thought…and I don’t mean to look a gift-horse in the mouth but since your girls will be primarily interested in swim wear, you might consider double-checking with the woman at this point and see whether she will be able to fill that need. (Better than finding out she will only be offering a couple of tees.)
It is what it is – I’m really looking at this as an experiment. I’ll be $250 better off and my daughter will have more money for her gap-year trip to Europe. If Prana girl doesn’t come through, I’ll have learned a lesson
From Airbnb support
" to inform you that I will cancel the reservation without penalties host one time courtesy.
I would like to inform you that the calendar will be unblocked and your guest might try to book with you again I am advising you to change the setings of your listing, at the booking settings you have to set that only people with:
Government-issued ID
Recommendation from other hosts can instant book with you, all the rest they need to request to book so you can have a better control of whom is booking with you."
They are First Timers, so I doubt that they are indeed saving up for a bad review. They probably don’t even know much about the whole review thing and don’t know that google is a much better to-go friend for all their questions.
yup! a bit needy. Maybe not saving up a bad review, but after the holiday, when asked for a review, that would be their chance to call me a 2star spud.
Yes, or you take the ball in your hands and wow them with your friendly cheerful self and help them understand that a 5 Star means that their stay was good, a 4.7 Star merely average and a 4 Star means the host might soon no longer be hosting.
oh dears, now that that booking has been cancelled, I received this from the guest “HI,Nick!Why did you cancel my booking?Is it because of that 30 pounds?You can cancel this.Any way,you have agreed my booking and I have already paid for it,how can you cancel it?You owe me an explanation.
Today at 03:37”
Copied and pasted into the Airbnb customer support message, I think I’d better ignore…
