Party bus for a "5 guest" booking

My love affair with airbnb is OFICIALLY OVER. I have sent the required info, with GREAT DIFFICULTY, so being asked to resend everything on multiple occasions seems daunting and redundant and unnecessary. I shouldn’t have to be overwhelmed by the process after having being overwhelmed by the unauthorized, destructive party. It’s like a rape victim having to tell her story over and over and over. No thanks. If Airbnb can’t accept my original submission, I will recognize the smoke and mirror routine and just shift my attention towards other booking platforms that are honestly looking out for good hosts.

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This was my message to the abnb team allegedly looking out for me after a destructive booking. They are not protecting us, so don’t be naive as I was!! I will get nothing from airbnb, not even my $1500 “security deposit.” Disgusted.

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None of the regular members here are naive about Airbnb. We expect bookings and payment and nothing more. IF we get something more, it’s a bonus. We see quite a bit of people landing here after they run into a problem. In fact many don’t even know Airbnb policies at all. They fact that Airbnb doesn’t seem to follow their own policies half the time doesn’t mean we shouldn’t at least know them.

How about your STR insurance policy? Too high a deductible?

Speaking of naive. Booking platforms look after themselves. Platforms that have the hosts pay the bulk of the fees are probably better about seeing the host as their customer but there are plenty of unhappy stories about other platforms as well.

If you read the fine print when you start hosting you would know it’s no a real deposit. If you have a big house that is appealing to partiers you should consider making your own website and booking direct so you can get a real deposit.

I’m curious about if you saw all these partiers arriving on your cameras?

Finally, try tweeting your story on the Airbnb account. They don’t like bad publicity about parties.

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@Virgyoung
Did you post this somewhere? Did I miss it?

Based on your cryptic info:
Booking for 5
They took a party bus somewhere
Returned to your place & continued to party thus damaging your home
Airbnb is not being supportive of action against culprits and damage reimbursement

Is this close enough?

About Airbnb support & host guarantee: everything @Kkc shared is correct. Actually everything @kkc posted is correct. I will look on their Twitter page to read what you post. If you don’t tweet, Airbnb help has a Facepage

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@Annet3176 yes, I did share about it somewhere in someone elses’ post, but I’m ridiculously bad at technology and forums.

To briefly recap, The guest booked for 5, delayed arrival until she figured I could no longer wait, scouted the arrival with a friend at 9pm, then at 930pm the party bus and 7 cars full of people showed up. My security camera phone app wasn’t working, so I didn’t see the situation til I returned to the destruction and reviewed the DVR recordings. Sickening.

I get it-- the entire issue is my fault. I let my guard down. I should have listened to my sixth sense. I should have sought someone to help get my app working. I should have been more informed about airbnb’s ways and less trusting–in every direction! I’m sure there’s a long list of failures on my part for this to have happened. It will NOT happen again.

@kcc Of course, I have no doubt there are MANY hosts who have been around and are not naive. I was speaking to the ones in my league who may not be so aware-just figured I’d offer my experience so that others may avoid it. I’m moving forward with open eyes.
Thanks for all the wisdom you offer through this site.

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Being human means making mistakes. Living & learning means making mistakes. It’s easy to look back and see how things could’ve been differently BUT that’s hard to do while in the middle of things.

So the job for today is to post on Airbnb Help’s Twitter a super short request for assistance? You’ve almost got it. The tweet 180 characters go fast.

@kkc was correct about Airbnb being sensitive to party problems being posted on a public forum and racing for resolution

BTW my friend had a damage issue and she said it was like Airbnb just wanted her to give up & go away. She didn’t. It took 6 long frustrating weeks but she got the $$$ from Airbnb

They want you to quit. Perseverance pays.

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I wish there were some way to get the word out to new hosts so they would learn before the heartbreak, not after.

Years ago I wrote this thread:

It’s still relevant.

I’m not saying Airbnb bears no blame. But at some point it seems prudent to not count on them. In any case, don’t blame yourself either. Shit happens, it’s how you move forward that is most important.

And since you didn’t answer about the insurance, I’m going to assume you didn’t have any dedicated STR insurance. If you have a whole stand alone home you have to get STR insurance. YOU COULD LOSE EVERYTHING. YOU COULD BE SUED.

Count this episode as a painful lesson that could have been so, so much worse.

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Yes, absolutely.

@Virgyoung if you are a new host you can be replaced easily in Airbnb’s system. For them it’s only a loss if you hound them until they pay up. But I can also see where you just cut your losses (also remember to count them at tax time) and move on.

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@KKC Correct. I didn’t have separate STR coverage 2 weeks ago…but I sure do now! Again, I was under the wrong belief that airbnb had host protection in place… protection that they would actually enact. I will be conducting business as an independent operator moving forward. I now consider Airbnb to be nothing more than a platform that assists with bookings. ALL the rest falls on me.

Yep-every booking has been an illuminating, educational experience, and I have learned and grown from each one in some way. This one was certainly by far the the most painful. I hope I’m all grown up now. Lol

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I’m in my 7th year of hosting. Every day is a new experience. Because it is a changing environment, hosts are a bit like Peter Pan, we don’t ever grow up.

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It seems no matter how long people have hosted, when a situation goes south and Air is not there for them, people are in disbelief that it works this way. I am in disbelief just reading them.
I read what guests post in the complaint section, and it’s the same. No one likes or trusts what Air does any more. Guests hate hosts and Air, hosts hate guests and Air.
OT, Air sent out a short survey, I’m sure because I’m not a super host yet in this rental. It was about Super host perceptions, are you aware of super host, what do you think is the most difficult part to become one? blah, blah, blah.
For me, so far it’s not been difficult, but some of the choices were, 1 It’s hard to know what guests want, 2 some guests lie in reviews, 3 two bad reviews and you’re out of the super host category. There were a couple others to rank, but once you finished the survey, it disappeared and you couldn’t read questions again. If I’d known, I would have copy and pasted as I went.
Looks like they’re aware of the “bad guest reviews”.

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You are aware that what you read here or elsewhere is not a random sample? It’s a self selected sample of pissed off people. The majority of hosts and guests are satisfied with airbnb and that’s not newsworthy.

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How can you trivialise the experience of rape victims by comparing your experience of having to supply information to airbnb twice regarding a claim with the devastation and pain rape victims face when having to retell what happened multiple times @Virgyoung :cry::cry::cry::cry:

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You can never let your guard down. Guests are liars, cheats and can’t be trusted and this thread is a perfect example to illustrate this fact.

Whenever I say that guests can’t be trusted Muddy, johnF and jaquo always oppose this view. Well where are you guys at now?

If you haven’t already, invest in the following

  1. Wired doorbell camera (Ring Eufy or Nest)
  2. Buy a proper CCTV NVR security system. 5MP or 4K quality with person detection
  3. Nest Protect to notify you of smoking
  4. Noise detector
  5. Smart door lock

Booking.com is even worse than Airbnb. Have a read of this thread to gain an insight

Nest alarms are not sensitive enough for cigarette smoke - or candle smoke, for that matter. Your Nest alarm is for kitchen fires etc. Source: I own seven of them. Also, Nest does not claim to be that sensitive.,

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I understand, empathize, and pretty much agree with the reality you have just now discovered. But please I wish to warn you that, … there are no “other booking platforms that are honestly looking out for good hosts.”. There are platforms where you can control your listing and income, bookings and payments, but otherwise they all have flaws and the only focus is the bottom line or stock holders.

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That’s a harsh judgement. I didn’t read what she wrote like that at all and I thought it was a pretty good analogy.

It isn’t the retelling of it that she was comparing to a rape case, it is the fact that she as the host, and her home were violated, trashed, damaged, and as if that isn’t awful enough, when you tell the people you expect should help you, they don’t quite seem to believe you, and instead of helping you, demand that you tell the story of what happened again and again, trying to find some hole in the story that can be seized on to show that, in fact, this never would have happened had you done or not done this or that.

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We’re all still staying if a host consistently gets guests like that, the HOST has a problem. Something is attracting the wrong kind of guests. Location, type of property, host’s attitude, poor marketing of site, mediocre reviews, pricing… all of them can attract problem guests, or not. Something needs to be changed.

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Please pause. We don’t know the Ops prior experience. My knee Jerk reaction was similar to yours but then introspection triggered the thought , “she would feel this way if been there done that” so I left it alone. After this thread calms we can revisit this if needed

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@KKC I’m aware and I don’t have the dramatic complaints. But, I sometimes read guests/hosts complaints on Site Jabber and Trust Pilot and it’s one after the other of bad news.

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