Lying guest sneaks in extra guest and requests early leave

I see. Thanks for letting us know. If you’re going to be out of town it would be a great idea to train her to be a real co-host. It could save you loads of hassle.

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Any complaints worthy of refund or otherwise are supposed to be brought to you within 24 hours time. The fact that he never told you any of the complaints leads me to believe they’re all false. Stay on top of ABB. You shouldn’t need to be out every penny and suffer a poor review from him as well. Maybe ABB can block him from reviewing?

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Thank you MissSwan,
I don’t know what ABB will do. But as far as I’ve learnt from their official forum, ABB won’t do anything in this situation.
Actually I’m no more worrying about the money. I think I’ve calmed myself down. I can accept him leaving ASAP and I refund every cent for his remaining days. The guy’s office is close to my home which means he would be a local and he knows where exactly I’m living and when would I be overseas (via checking my listing)…

His being a local also means for him that you can share your experience with him to others in his field and in the neighborhood in general. Definitely goes both ways!!

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I’d give better odds on it snowing in Phoenix tomorrow (July 30).

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I am sorry this happened but hopefully you can learn some lessons from your experience and handling of it.

  1. You need an actual co-host rather than a neighbour who can sometimes come in to clean

  2. If you are hosting remotely always check CCTV on arrival - and checkout - and intermittently throughout the stay. (or it’s rather pointless you having it)

  3. When he complained about the noise you should have arranged for someone to go and verify it/ask him to record it the first time it happened.

  4. Personally I would be asking customer services to keep the long term booking cancellation fee and charge him for the extra guest. I really don’t understand why you state

What is the point of you having CCTV if you aren’t going to use it to reinforce your house rules.

And finally why on earth are you letting him stay at your place - if you are going to refund him for the remaining days, then get Airbnb to kick him out now for having a guest who hasn’t booked and paid staying there (I am presuming this is against your house rules).

It doesn’t matter whether he is going to be local, leave him an honest review and make a claim for the extra guest.

Don’t get into game playing with his employer.

Interestingly I looked back at your post from nearly two months ago when you asked for advice on hosting remotely and I can see I suggested to you

Sounds like my advice fell on deaf ears :frowning:

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Hi Helsi,
I appreciate your input very much. Thank you for your suggestion, again. I’m sorry I was not turning a deaf ear to that. I was just too naive. I thought cohost = cleaner at that time.:cry:
I’ve got too much concern as that is my home. That’s not a holiday home or any occasionally unoccupied premises but my only residential place. I have small collections in the display cabinet which I’m sure won’t be covered under insurance. So I do not want to irritate him to cause any malicious damage.:cry:

Something else which I would be wary of is that as he knows you are away for an extended period and has already lied - what if he is trying to obtain a full refund but thinks he can stay free of charge anyway as you’re not around to enforce him leaving?

Also if he does leave is your cleaner/co-host able to handle making the place secure again by collecting keys or chaning the code on a door lock in case he decides to return for any reason?

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Thank you Snowdon,
My cohost confirmed she would collect the key from guest in person on the day of check out, check thoroughly before the guest leave, and retrieve the lockbox then change the code.
And yes I would occasionally check CCTV as well.

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Get your cleaner to go and move your display cabinet to a secure room, once you arranged for the guest to be evicted @cyjoy

Change the locks in necessary and make sure you prioritise getting yourself a co-host.

If you won’t act for fear of guest retaliation you are giving your guests carte blanche to party, bring in extra guests and damage your home without fear of you taking any action against them.

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After 3 days I was finally managed to let him go. I refund every cent for his remaining days (including tonight) but I’m still happy it’s over.
OK so I’m now preparing for the upcoming retaliate review. I assume he would also prefer to keep his review history good, so chances are we’ll play that “hold on until the last minute” game.

Just need advice if review as below would be any breach of ABB’s content policy?
Thank you all


I’m sorry to say but the guest was evicted from the previous stay.
He’s been complaining about unbearable noisy neighborhood all the time. I contacted several neighbors but none of them ever heard anything unusual. He also declined each time I was actually sending cohost down to help him out in person. He was behaving so weirdly that I had to check camera on the main entrance but only to discover he had sneakily brought in UNAUTHORIZED GUEST and even STAYED OVER-NIGHT. He was just playing a drama in order to terminate rental early without penalty. There were numerous lies and cheating involved and I have every piece of the evidence.
He knows the game well. He asked me to initiate cancellation process. As I declined and told him it should be raised from guest’s side, he didn’t do that, instead, he sent me a money request directly.
So hosts beware. This is an experienced hunter. Think twice about if you are smart enough before you host him.

No.
Do not post that review.
Wait for help here.
Way too long makes you look a bit crazy.

RR

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RR is totally right. I’m sure Ken & Alison will chime in soon. My own head is currently boiling too much to be of help at the moment.

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Try something like this @cyjoy

"Sadly I cannot recommend this guest.

"He lied about non existent noise, from upstairs residents who were actually away at the time, as he wanted an excuse to leave my place early, for longer term accommodation he had found in the area.

"He lied to try and get a higher refund than he was eligible under the cancellation policy he booked under.

"And he sneaked in an additional guest for the duration of his stay against my house rules, and when confronted, refused to pay for her.

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Honestly, if someone is that sneaky and it’s only day 3, just let them leave early. You don’t want to deal with all that. There are a sea of better guests out there. Make sure to review him accordingly and report him to Airbnb. Don’t refund him either. Let Airbnb take care of that.

Also, the security cameras should be mounted in a place where guests can’t reach them. I have mine mounted on the ceiling and I get alerts if they go offline or stop recording data.

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I agree they should be mounted and also declared in line with Airbnb’s policy for CCTV.

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Thanks @Helsi @NE10 @Joan @RiverRock and all others who have posted helpful comments,
I modified the review to make it looked not so irrational. Sorry I was really pissed off at that time.
The guest has yet reviewed me. Obviously he’s very familiar with the game. I guess we’ll both hold this until the last minute.

@Helsi Really appreciate! I have changed some lines according to your kind suggestion. Do you think I should mention “he wanted an excuse to leave my place early, for longer term accommodation he had found in the area”. My concern is I don’t have substantive evidence for this.
I also removed the part “the guest was evicted” as I’m not 100% sure if this will breach ABB content policy “providing specific details or outcomes of an Airbnb investigation”.

Thanks @cyjoy

Perhaps shorten the sentence to ‘he wanted an excuse to leave my place early’?

And yes I wouldn’t mention the previous eviction.

Your views in the main are about warning future hosts.

Make sure you leave him 3 stars as a maximum. This means he can’t IB with future hosts and has to make a request. Hopefully hosts will then check his reviews before considering a booking for him.

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I would be very careful about using these actual words. I have a suspicion it would/could violate Air’s policy somewhere. It can be construed as libel.

You could try ‘‘economical with la verite’’!

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How about “was less than truthful”?

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