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1 night guest said it was for her and her son who was getting setup in college. It was actually a rental for her son to have a little party. She didn’t stay there. There was smoking, a smoke detector went off and was removed. The airbnb guest in the other unit can corroborate all of this (and the offending guests’ own airbnb messaging can too). The guest was not at all contrite when I reach out.
Emotionally I want to report but I feel pretty certain the rational thing is to just move on and not report. The smell is gone now according to new guests (I guess one day smoking is not permanent), there was no damage besides above average cleaning effort, the offending guest is local and obviously knows where I live so I don’t want to bring anything bad onto myself or my family.
I know from reading on these boards most would feel I should report to protect other hosts. In reality the warning signs were pretty obvious (very poor writing, guest had to go to bank in order to pay, didn’t seem intelligent, guest was local). I was feeling liberal but most hosts would be smart enough to say no. Though some might be fooled/busy like me.
What would airbnb do, ban the person from the platform? Would they do anything for me? I feel like life is short and I don’t want to blow this up into a bigger problem for me if the person becomes vengeful.
The only problem is…that you would be reporting her and not her son who caused the problem. Maybe it was for her son to get setup in college and then he took the initiative to invite friends over. Since she was not there and you are not sure how much she knew, I am not sure how useful reporting her would be.
ive been here, you feel bad and don’t want to report, but you will regret it later, definitely leave a bad review, even if it is the mums account, she should have made her son make his own account,
You definitely need to report this. The mother lied and told you a third party booking was for her.
Please leave an honest review. Mark them down for communications, breaking house rules, smoking, removing a smoke detector (safety risk), holding a party (against house rules).
Give them a thumbs down so they can’t IB.
What do you mean by guest had to go to bank in order to pay. Did they not book through Airbnb?
She should have told you she wasn’t going to be staying. Third party bookings are against TOS because it puts you in a terrible situation! You have NO liability coverage under Airbnb when the booking party doesn’t stay.
This group violated the entire “trust” aspect that makes Airbnb work. I don’t want these people in my house next. Please give them a thumbs down and report them to Airbnb.
Wile 3rd party bookings are against the TOS it also means that the person booking is the responsible party thus should be reported for the rules violation.
I don’t understand your comment about the guest needing to go to the bank to pay. Since Airbnb collects rentals directly on this platform, what happened?
This is a cruel thing to say but someone once said something similar to me (in a non-Airbnb situation) so here goes. You might want to forget it and move on, that’s understandable.
But imagine that you’re browsing here in a few weeks/months and you see a horror story from a host. You’re horrified to realise that the dreadful guest who has just badly abused another host’s hospitality and trust was the very guest that you DIDN’T report.
They never got banned, they continued being idiots, they removed a smoke detector in someone else’s place and the house burned to the ground.
Sorry, that was revoltingly harsh but, well, cruel to be kind, I hope.
I am pretty sure that at that age or even older at college I would have behaved like the son and ignored rules about smoking and having a little party. But you only grow up and learn to respect other people’s property (I am now like my parents of course) if you get caught out and pay a penalty.
Your comments should be in the main review: mother booked for son who smoked (and removed the smoke detector so clearly knew it was wrong) and had a party against the rules. A future host will decide based on whether it is her or the son coming. Then in the private review tell the mother to stop booking for her son or she will be reported and it is against ToS.
ask local paper to publish an article about it = name and shame… what are they going to do -
its not like any of the other airbnb’s in the area will accept them after its in print… probably no hotels also -
All of these responses have been trying to convince me that reporting would help other hosts, which I agree, but all of them also ignore my concern about retaliation of some kind for someone who lives locally. For me to report or even leave a bad review, I’d need to be convinced that the risk is low.
The guest didn’t have room on their credit card (or bank connected to debit card) to make the transaction until they went to the bank. There is a correlation between money drama and behavior, sadly.
That’s really not a good idea. We only have one side of the story and, although my instinct is to side with the host here, the guest also has a tale to tell and who knows what it might be? Surely you’ve read reviews and responses to reviews that have made you see that there are two perspectives?
The host says that there was no damage - just a bit of extra cleaning - so it’s hardly a scoop for a local journalist. And in many areas, Airbnb is seen as being a bad thing and there are always people who have a certain amount of jealousy towards Airbnb hosts (who ‘must be making lots of money illegally’) so there’s no guarantee at all the this story could capture the public’s imagination.
The last thing Airbnb or its hosts want is to give potential guests the idea that if their behaviour isn’t perfect, or if they get and unreasonable or grumpy host, they are going to be named and shamed in print.
This would invite scrutiny on myself from the city, damage airbnb’s reputation in a city that is getting close to outlawing it and people are always trying to say that airbnb guests are hedonists who don’t contribute to the fabric of the city. It also wouldn’t work, people in my area don’t have any empathy to landlords.
