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Hi folks,
I’m new to this group but hoping for a bit of advice. I’ve just had a group of 6 check out and thay have left the house in a terrible mess. They haven’t broken anything but here’s a few of the issues:
Used and unbagged medical waste in the bin (colostomy bags)
Dog pooh in the garden (no notification of a dog given)
All cushions and throws left in a pile in one of the bedrooms.
Half chewed sweets on the window sills.
Bed had been wetted by a child (it happens) and sheets left wet and stinking in the garden
Furniture moved around and not replaced
Wifi and TV boxes taken out and not replaced
Neighbours have complained that they were noisy and left the dog barking in the garden all the time.
The rest of the house was just generally grubby and dishevelled but nothing is actually broken. I can and will leave a well worded (hopefully) negative review but can I claim back on their security deposit for the extra time I will have to pay my cleaner to get it all sorted?
Our router is behind a locked door, and if someone did a reset, after breaking into that room, of course, we would notice immediately since our own devices would not be able to connect. For people hosting in a separate space, changing the password after each guest seems quite prudent, much like we change the lockbox combination. It is a great idea, which I won’t use since my space is within my home.
I would be hugely annoyed if that happened to me and would stomp around for a while, yell at the cat and probably have a consoling glass of wine. But I don’t think I’d want to go through the hassle of trying to claim. It would probably be a long and stressful process.
It’s just me, I know, but I’d just get it sorted and forget about it. Claiming would prolong the mental agony.
Give them a negative review and suggest that other hosts avoid booking them. Then move on. Since nothing seems broken or stolen, trying to get Air to pay you for the mes is not likely.
I think having the unauthorized pet is grounds enough to claim the deposit, but AirBnB will want pictures of the pet waste and damaged sheets (presuming the dog chewed the sheets) as well as the rest of the mess.
Bringing a dog is a violation of the rules and getting all the dog hair off everything is essential and very time consuming. Since you are not living at the rental I think it is absolutely essential that you get security cameras installed on the exterior of the rental. Put pictures of them and disclose it in the listing. This will discourage people from booking who are planning to violate the rules. You can tell if they bring in extra guests, have a party, smoke on the outside of the property (if you don’t allow smoking at all) or if they have a dog. If you had a camera you could have seen the dog first day, sent a request for payment or even completely cancelled their reservation. You absolutely should make a claim for payment through the resolution center and if they don’t pay it will be escalated after 72 hours and ABB with mediate.
This is such egregious behavior that I believe you will be able not only to claim damages, but also to get these guests Airbnb account cancelled. In addition to causing you a considerable amount of extra work; it can be extremely dangerous to handle medical waste.
The reason I believe that you will be able to get these guests’ Airbnb account cancelled is an experience we had. Our guest fell asleep with an open bottle of tea tree oil which spilled all over the mattress. Thankfully the odor dissipated in a few hours. He apologized profusely and said it had never happened previously. I saw that a future host wrote in a review that he smeared makeup and candy all over the walls of the guest room. His account was cancelled.
Thanks all! Yes, sorry it was ‘Chewed Sweets’ as in ‘candy’ not as in ‘sheets’ - typo. Im still a little unsure what to do. I have since confirmed that the medical waste is in fact either catheter bags or feed pouches but these are un-bagged and are just thrown in the main bin. There is also what appears to be traces of blood in a bowl under the sink. To clarify on the dog, we do allow dogs but that should be by prior agreement and the manual does state that dogs should not be a disturbance to neighbours and that all dog mess should be cleaned up - it wasn’t. The house was messy and dirty and furniture re-arranged but otherwise nothing broken, They had made some attempt to clean, washed dishes and left to drain but had left food debris all over the counters, tables, oven etc and had not made any attempt to apologise for the ‘wetted’ bed sheets. Trouble is, I will have to pay my cleaner double for her time so the question is whether I should claim back for this. Also, do I leave the review before starting a dispute in the resolution centre so that the resolution request doesn’t affect their review of the house? Oh, and it’s worth adding that the guy in the family is a retired lawyer!!!
You are not wrong to be peeved at the deplorable guest behavior. If just one of these things occurred I’d be livid. If all of them, I’d be beyond livid. This is not the way to treat someone’s personal home, and is stunningly disrespectful.
So how to handle it. As some have suggested, try to put this through against their deposit or beyond that, resolution. If Air won’t back you, DO leave a bad review for these clods. They deserve it and none of us want to host them.
Just because they did not break anything does not mean they did not cause damage. They damaged your trust and that says a lot.
