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Sorry if I misconstrued, but you sure made it sound in your OP like this was more than a simple relationship break-up argument.
And where did I suggest you bust into the apartment? Try not to take everything so personally. I wasn’t grilling you- I was suggesting that just because a guest tells us something doesn’t mean it’s true. I don’t see how a host could know whether these were people who just met on Tinder a week ago or whether they have been dating for a year.
Agreed.
Don’t get involved in a domestic dispute… It’s not your place.
I understand it is an emotional experience.
Never happened to us yet but we played the scenarios
Disturbance call the local law,
Serious breakage / damage call insurance first, take their advice and/or follow their procedure.
If we can’t be hold of them call local law.
Any issues with guests always in writing or confirm any agreed actions in writing (no just calls) with copies to whoever maybe involved.
Sorry but anything that is not to be used by guest does not belong in a property except in designated & locked spaces.
May be a mod can open a tightly moderated thread what if…issues with guests
It is a high risk business. Forums like this are great to vent and share experiences but also to pick up valuable tips,
I know it is never easy to have something one cherishes “misused” but detach, pick up the pices and go forward,
I don’t understand this sentence.
Maybe a moderator can open and own a tightly moderated thread about
What if… issues around or with guests.
Like in most forums threads tend to “frizzle” out if not kept on a tight line.
Just an idea…
It doesn’t work that way here, the threads wander with a life of their own and can change into something hilarious or interesting. I wouldn’t like it if the moderators were that focused.
We have those threads regularly and they aren’t tightly moderated. And since we are volunteers we may be around to moderate, we may not.
I still don’t see the point. What is missing in this thread that made you think of this idea?
It is the nature of internet forums that threads wander and go off in tangents. That is very human. Interesting and often funny comments and viewpoints develop.
One of the things I like about this forum is that the mods aren’t even slightly anal and have no intent to “tightly moderate”.
If I’m reading correctly, he left on Saturday and returned on Sunday…so if a host had called on Saturday and had the rest of the reservation cancelled pro-actively, this may have been avoided? But I’m not sure I would have wanted to waste my time calling if I assumed the guest was gone for good, either. I hope you get to review him, at least.
I haven’t had this experience. Airbnb’s resolution team has seemed balanced to me in cases where I needed mediation with unruly guests. They do have many poorly informed customer service reps in general who can only repeat FAQ information that you have already read, but their conflict resolution folks are trained to handle host-guest conflicts with urgency and following a consistent rule book. As a host, you need to read that rule book (aka terms and conditions and their policies) and speak to them using the right language to get the outcome you desire.
Of course, any rep can make a mistake, and it’s unfortunate that in this case, the rep didn’t try to correct it as it seems; maybe they were afraid of losing their job.
This guy is an a-hole! End of story. You didnt have to let him stay after he had put in writing that he had checked out. Thats his problem. Keys were inside, again his problem.
Up to you, but I would be demanding my payment back from Airbnb. The customer service reps are notoriously bad at their job, have no formal training in handling anything difficult. I feel for them sometimes because they dont know what they are doing.
But you must must must warn other hosts about this guy via the review. Dont hold back.
This lack of respect that some people have for other peoples property is just not on.
Have a break and then open your calendar up again in a couple of months.
Do you have a big dog? Might be worth getting one to keep you a big safer.
This is one reason why I like to email Airbnb customer support instead of talking on the phone. I like to have in writing whatever they tell me. Often one representative tells me one thing and another tells me something completely different. I realize this is harder to do in an urgent situation.
i cant even get a person at airbnb to talk to me! ive tried multiple times, but just get the same badly trained people in vietnam who are overly apologetic but screwed this up in the first place and seem powerless to fix it. the money seems long gone (they kept the $ from my next two reservations to account for the refund) and they seem to be ignoring me.
i removed instant book from my listing, and actually tried turning my listing off but still got requests. feeling really sad about how down hill airbnb support has gone - ive been doing this for almost 10 years! and when you called you got people in california who were able to resolve your issue quickly (and would have never accidentally refunded a bad guest in full)! and im just feeling like its not safe to host on this platform anymore. looking for other options / considering taking short term tenants instead.
I hate all this happened. Have a beverage. Get some sleep. Tomorrow is another day. I hope you are blessed with the gift of clarity and can see your options with refreshed eyes. One bad apple can make me feel uncertain too
Posting to their Twitter account seems to be the only way to get their attention.
UPDATE: after the totally negligent airbnb case manager who never reached back out, someone new from airbnb wrote last week saying they had been assigned to my case because that former case manager was now gone. the new person basically said we can see that the guest was wrongly refunded, plz confirm the amount is 422$. i said yes it is, and they gave me the money back! 2 months later exactly. no clue if something outside of the “resolution” process happened (that they saw this post?) but it was def weird - however, also very appreciated.
but also, why the hell couldnt the first case manager have just done this - looked at the correspondence / phone calls and been like “clearly this was an error to refund a guest that wasnt asking for a refund and a host that wasnt consenting to a refund” ?
during this time i turned down reservations, start researching other sites, blocked out periods i would have otherwise accepted guests, took a reservation from someone i know outside of airbnb (something i wouldnt have done prior)… all because this situation unresolved left such distrust twds airbnb. and then in the end they resolved it - with the damage to our working relationship already done. so strange.
just wanted to update everyone!
That’s unlikely. If they don’t have time to resolve formal, open cases they don’t have time to read this forum, much of which would be completely irrelevant to them.
When only one side thinks it’s a relationship, is it one? They talk a good game but I’m not convinced that Airbnb really thinks of hosts as people with whom they have a working relationship. It seems that in many cases it’s just easier to replace us with new hosts. OTOH I’m reading more positive outcome stories so maybe there is a change.
This alone is worth it. You shouldn’t be giving Airbnb a hefty share of the profit to facilitate a booking with someone you know. As you are now aware their “host guarantees” and “protection” are spottily awarded. Airbnb deserves a cut for finding you guests and processing payment. Don’t count on them for anything else and don’t pay them for anything else and you will have a better “working relationship” than ever. Though it was frustrating and painful for you it seems you learned a lot that will be of value going forward.
Thanks for returning to update.
Because the bulk of their outsourced customer service staff are entirely clueless, don’t know policy, get paid by how quickly they can close cases, don’t care at all about being competent, or treating hosts fairly. They are given a ridiculous amount of decision-making power, completely out of proportion to their intelligence and competency level.
They’re like surly, snotty brain-dead 7-11 employees of the online customer service world.