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Just dodged a bullet with a guy who listed “Prosecuter” as his profession in his profile. I plan to review him at the last possible moment so he doesn’t review me. Although, I could likely get it removed since he never actually checked in. He has not left reviews for the 3 hosts who reviewed him so the likelihood is low anyways.
This is just an initial first draft and I really doubt I would include the last couple lines of it anyways but it felt good including it here. I thank, in advance, those of you who help me whittle it appropriately. Oh, and I haven’t gotten my $64.02 yet but I assume I will. What I do doubt is that the customer service will actually get back to me. They were supposed to be back with me more than half an hour ago (5-10 minutes they said).
I cannot recommend Andrew as an Airbnb guest. He booked a single bedroom suite in my home with check in time within minutes that morning. I informed him I would need some time for a same day check-in and could probably accommodate him early afternoon, potentially late morning. When he finally responded later that evening he realized he mistakenly booked a day early and demanded to be refunded. I offered to try to get the night rebooked to refund it. Instead of being gracious for the potential refund of his nightly $54.90 (10% discount of the $66 rate for week long booking) he stated he would only be happy with a full refund for the entire 9 night booking or would be staying at my house as an unhappy guest for the remaining 8 nights. He continued to threaten to stay as an unhappy guest but eventually accepted my change request that only charged for the first night, but not before claiming I overcharged him. Then he contacted Airbnb claiming I took advantage of him and charged him even though he didn’t stay so they refunded him and he wrote back to gloat and tell me how I knowingly took advantage of him. What a bully and what an ass!! Soo glad I dodged that bullet and didn’t let him stay at my house for any amount of money!
You might want to somehow reword the part about him calling Airbnb and them refunding him. I have read that they will remove a review that mentions their involement and decisions.
I do not recommend Andrew as a potential guest. He made a mistake in booking and demanded that I refund him or he’d stay the entire 9 nights as an unhappy guest. After several futile attempts to find a mutually agreeable solution, he never showed and for that I am grateful.
Did the refund demand etc occur in the app messaging?
Also, there is a setting you can use to prevent bookings that you do not have time to prepare for. I’m a bit concerned that you do not have check in time specified and have enough time to turn your room around. For me, our airbnb has check in at 3 pm but will not accept bookings after 6 am on the same day.
Unless a listing is such that they get a lot of last minute bookings, like they are close to an airport, where guests might need aplace because their flight was cancelled or overbooked, etc., I would guess that last minute bookers tend to be bad gambles.
While there can be legit reasons why someone needs a place last minute, seems like most are either poor planners, got kicked out of their last place for bad behavior, or are just really entitled, like the OP’s guest.
I wouldn’t be inclined to ever take last minute bookings (I require two days advance notice) unless the guest offered a believable explanation of why they needed a place so quickly, without being prodded, and was understanding about the host needing time to prepare, rather than being demanding about checking in almost immediately. Seems like a big red flag.
I did have time to prepare for the booking. But regular checkins are never in the morning when checkout is noon.
I have checkin time as flexible and the first house rule indicates they must make an appointment for checkin and the same is indicated in the Arrival Guide. They receive the smart lock link once they have scheduled their check-in appointment.
The morning checkin time was just a 2 hour window chosen by radio button during the reservation process. Bad he actually complied instead of just instant booking with no message I probably would have let him checkin early. Regardless, he hadn’t intended to check in until the next day so it didn’t matter. And he didn’t tell me that until he finally replied in the mid evening telling me he made a mistake booking for same day. Then of course quickly blamed it on Airbnb canceling his previous booking because he didn’t have a drivers license in the system.
I’m curious- what is your guest demographic or location that results in the vast majority of your bookings being same day or within 2 days of check-in?
“I do not recommend Andrew as a guest. On the evening of the first night of his stay, he contacted me to say he wasn’t arriving until the next day and demanded a refund for the first night. When I offered to refund the night if it rebooked, he escalated his demand to a refund for the entire stay (9 nights) and told me he would stay as an unhappy guest if I did not give him the refund.”
Currently it is in close proximity to a resort golf town. But I had the same thing when it was not. I think it is more a function of price. I am usually at the low end. Which is also why I usually increase it ($1-$15, incrementally and up to $25 if it happens to be immediately following a booking) for the 5 days closest, most days. This particular listing is a private suite at the front of my house w/ private entrance and a privacy screen separating it from the rest of the house. I also had just dropped it from $78 (w/$50 cleaning fee) to $66 (w/ $50 cleaning fee) because I had gotten no bookings and the house is empty while I am out of town. I also had not done my usual price increase for the 5 days closest. The usual base is $48 (w/ $30 short stay cleaning fee and $50 for more than 2 nights). I had to raise the short term cleaning fee while I am away because I can’t get a cleaner to come for less than that, for just a bedroom, en-suite bathroom and a foyer. Normally I do my own cleaning because others are expensive, unreliable and don’t do nearly as good a job as I do. Currently my number one frequent guest is a traveling night nurse and she is often booking the night before.
