Your town or county probably had a Police to Citizen function where you can look up police reports by area, day, time, etc… might be interesting to do a screenshot if you find no police came out – that would be something you could prove was untrue.
I wonder what she expected the “neighborhood” to do about it?
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We called the police and they did not provide any information that makes her claim concrete. I relayed this back to Airbnb via the message. I have a camera that dis not capture any police presence.
I mostly agree, but Airbnb’s business model presents some challenges. First, everyone needs to understand that hosts effectively pay AirBnB for advertising and payment processing, so hosts are AirBnB customers, too, and as such they deserve some customer-centric consideration. Airbnb has millions of listings and being guest-centric definitely helps Airbnb. However, it can devastate individual hosts. A host that happens to get a high number of reservations with problem guests (guest is a scammer, guest wants to leave on a whim, guest lies about host ToS violation, guest does significant damage, etc.) in a short period of time could literally lose both their livelihood and their property even though Airbnb benefits overall.
On top of that, it only gets worse for hosts because when you start rewarding bad guest behavior, that behavior becomes more common. We can only hope that AirBnB is somehow keeping track of guests that abuse their guest-centric customer service, but outside of the party ban stuff, there’s no evidence of it.
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That makes sense – In some ways. Do you really think bad behavior becomes more common when others get away with it? How would others know? I’m imagining a subreddit r/AirBnB guests who sucoidirrjeekbb4zxxxc iiio and we like it. Do you consider not punishing the same as rewarding? Not trying to be argumentative, more like wondering out loud.
In my experience, as a rule, most people are good, upfront and honest. But sometimes it seems like purchasing lodging – both traditional and AirBnB – can bring out the worst in people. I wonder why that is?
Do you think the calibre of guests has changed as the general public has grown more aware of AirBnB?
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I have neither high speed internet nor high end sheets (but the bed is comfortable). My guests have been perfectly pleased and left 5* reviews.
Good guests who actually read the listing description thoroughly don’t expect anything that isn’t offered.
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I agree with you!! I have high speed internet at no extra cost. New queen beds and high end sheets, extra towels all new bedding. I have Alexa.
I will note to remind guests to review the Listing content and rules after bookings. Hopefully, they actually do that.
Honestly wish I have an answer to this question. I have adjusted my price to deter some people from booking. Minimum days os stay is 3 days . This guest stayed for 1 month and brought all kinds of people to the listing and some of them spent more than 1 night. She lied about 2 of the children, saying that they will be staying for 1 week only but they were there the entire time. There was pet poop on my carpet in both the living area and room after she checked out. The whole place was a mess. I have missing and broken glasses. By swivel dinning chair was also broken. Thank God my 65 inch TV’s were not broken.
This happened to me too
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Added a ring doorbell camera. As required by Airbnb TOS & to benefit me, it is prominently mentioned in my listing description. Best $90 purchase EVER
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Beach location. I explain to long term renters if they have occasional guest ok but they cannot stay longer than 3 days and I need to know names & ages & stay dates for insurance reasons
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If guest says, “I would like 2 friends to stay a week” Me,”happy to. Due to increased utilities & wear & tear, there is an additional fee of $$$”
Living & learning
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Just received this email. Should I be worried??
"My name is Rain, a Support Ambassador with Airbnb’s Claims Team.
After further review, this case is being forwarded to a senior Safety agent for additional support. Someone will be in touch very soon.
If you have any additional information or questions in the meantime, please reply directly to this message. We greatly appreciate your patience.
Kind regards".
Perhaps the report or article I was reading was in reference to city listings only. It has been quite some time and as I was starting out so absorbing everything and anything. High speed internet and great sheets worked for me – markets are so different.
When I started listing my place I read that you should cut your price a bit to get some activity and traffic going and, then, after you had managed to get 5, 5 star visits you could start to raise it. I got 4 5-start visits and the 5th customer was in the house. I went over to the house about 6 one evening to help them with the smart TV and we chatted and they were very pleased… THEN, they left me a great verbal review but only 4 starts. I wrote the woman and asked her what I could have done to give her a 5 star experience and she said “Nothing. I never give 5 stars.” I was so disappointed.
When guests want to stay over a week, I require that they let me come in and clean – change the linens.That way I could check up on what was going on in the house and they were aware of that. I could also bring it up any rules that were being broken
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That’s really terrible. It doesn’t cost a thing especially if you had a great stay as a guest.
I was asked to turn in a police report by Air for claims I put in for missing items. This is so new to me. Has anyone come across this before. Below is the actual email content.
"1/ Police report detailing item(s) reported as stolen
- Missing Hangers
- Missing Plastic plates for kids
- Missing Set of wares…4 plates and 2 cups
- Missing Bath towels, face towels and hand towels
- Missing Mop and bucket
- Missing Wine glasses and drinking glasses
- Baking ware missing
2/ Receipt/invoice on company letterhead showing the cost to replace the following missing items (must show in the police report to be eligible)
- Missing Hangers
- Missing Plastic plates for kids
- Missing Set of wares…4 plates and 2 cups
- Missing Bath towels, face towels and hand towels
- Missing Mop and bucket
- Missing Wine glasses and drinking glasses
- Baking ware missing"
So you knew she was ignoring rules yet did nothing about that at the time you were aware of it?
If you just let guests do things that aren’t allowed without putting a stop to it in the moment, or telling them they have to leave if they won’t comply, you are facilitating that behavior and letting the guest know that you won’t take charge.
I wouldn’t say that I didn’t do anything about it. I sent video clips and every document to Airbnb. I also confronted her about it on the message and she ignored me. I asked her to leave and Airbnb said that I will have to refund them for the remaining stays and “encouraged” that i let the guest complete her stay and then go through the resolution center. Which I have completely given up in that after they decides to give me $40 for 4 extra guests for 21 days.
Umm, so in real terms you did nothing about it.
Serious question, what did you think Airbnb were going to do, send in the CS ninjas?
JF
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Honestly John, ninjas was too much to expect. Again, I am new at this and that was why I sought direction with Airbnb. But I now know better. This is an experience for me. What I wanted was for them to cover whatever damages or missing items that the guest leaves in her wake. I honestly didn’t even expect any compensation for the extra guests from Airbnb. I had never heard or been requested to provide a police report for missing items In the past by Airbnb.
Okay, well when you have a guest who is ignoring your rules, not insisting that they leave is in fact doing nothing.
Taking the advice of some lowly Airbnb rep “encouraging” a host to allow an objectionable guest to stay is not something that will help you in any way. A rep who’s sitting somewhere halfway across the world and couldn’t care less if a guest destroys your house.
And yes, if you boot the guest out, they will be refunded for the unstayed nights. You have to decide if you are willing to let a guest do whatever they want, or boot them out and take the financial hit. Which is usually less than what you will spend putting the place back in order and replacing damaged and missing items, not to mention the extra cost of utilities and other amenities used up if a guest has unregistered people stay.
If hosts aren’t willing to deal with a bad guest themselves, complaining afterwards doesn’t make much sense.
That’s what was meant upthread about running your business yourself. It wasn’t referring to whether you do your own cleaning, it means being the boss of your listing and what goes on there.
As mentioned, Airbnb isn’t going to send some savior in on a white horse to read guests the riot act.
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While a couple of posters thought our resident Yorkshire harridan was being harsh, or an idiot, or whatever, her comment is solid.
If you have guests breaking the rules, or taking the piss, then YOU need to deal with it, not rely on some distant San Francisco based corporation, or their highly buggy messaging app. You’re running an STR business, and need to have the backbone to deal with the shit that accompanies it. Being “new” isn’t an excuse.
I’ll stop now 
JF
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Well, it is my excuse…if I had all the answers, I wouldn’t have come here. So I clearly needed the opinion of more experienced hosts in this forum. Again, berating me or making me feel like I didn’t put in any work at all shouldn’t be the goal in this group. I am not sure if this is funny to you but it’s not to me. I have noted a lot of comments that has been very useful to me in this group and I appreciate it. Again sensitivity ans empathy goes a long way.
Things are going missing with multiple sets of guests and yet you are new? I’ve hosted over 1000 guests in my 7 years with Airbnb and have had things go missing 3x. I’ve had damage 2x (both from people with dogs).
Yes, you should. Fair or not Airbnb is not going to help you and they aren’t going to be willing to deal with a host that is more trouble than they are worth.
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