Seeking Advice: Handling a Challenging Guest Situation

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Hello fellow hosts,

I’m in a challenging situation with a recent guest and am seeking your collective wisdom on the best course of action. The guest, who arrived yesterday, has proven to be quite difficult, bringing up several issues since her arrival.

The guest, who has a certain level of celebrity status, seemed to have expectations not aligned with the specifics of my listing. For instance, she was dissatisfied with the absence of a parking space, a detail that is clearly mentioned in the listing. Despite this, I went out of my way to accommodate her by relocating my own vehicle, a gesture that went unappreciated.

Further complications arose with her complaints about the air conditioning, which, upon thorough checking by my team, was confirmed to be fully operational. The situation escalated when she hinted at the possibility of a negative review as leverage for a refund. Interestingly, she mentioned being a super host herself, which adds a layer of complexity to her demands.

The most pressing issue, however, involved her bringing an unauthorized stray dog into the premises. While she claimed it needed care due to an accident, the dog showed no signs of recent trauma such as hit-and-run injuries. Instead, it was visibly malnourished and appeared to be suffering from severe neglect, likely harboring a range of parasites and skin diseases. This not only raises significant health and safety concerns but also violates the terms of our agreement.

Given these challenges, particularly the guest’s self-assured demeanor and her actions that seem to disregard the agreed-upon terms of her stay, I am uncertain about how to proceed. I am particularly interested in understanding how Airbnb’s policies and customer support might address such situations, especially with guests who may have a public persona but do not adhere to hosting guidelines.

Any advice or shared experiences in handling similar situations would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your support.

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Not a lawyer here!

I wouldn’t see why a phone call to Airbnb’s support host support line wouldn’t already provide some help - especially in figuring out what Airbnb’s stance is on a guest violating your house rules.

BDC (which you are not asking about - I know) acknowledges the host’s right to refuse service to guests who are violating the house rules.

Bringing an animal (besides a service animal) into an accommodation that does not allow pets would fall into such category of house rule violation.

From the sound of the reaction of the guest after providing a parking space for their vehicle despite, also, not indicating such an amenity, I’d assume not to receive a stellar review regardless of your efforts to make things as best as you can.

The AC situation clearly shows that there is another reason behind the complaint if you’re providing a fully functional air conditioning.

Threats about being “a superhost” themselves are another indicator of disconnect with reality. Do not give in to any additional requests that are not listed in your description and stay polite.

I hope this is not a long booking and if the guests really wants to go the way of a discount, reimbursement etc. I’d strongly assume that they are required to provide any proof that your listing did not match what they have received.

“Luckily” this isn’t a problem with the AC as you couldn’t take a photo of “not so cold air” but still you might be able to get a paper documenting the correct functionality of the device. If there is nothing else broken that she could prove to be a reason for a discount I would be surprised for her to get this approved.

From personal experience on Airbnb as a traveller who stayed in accommodations that definitely did not meet the description and where spilled milk in the fridge, sticky floors, a plethora of hair clips (including hair) in the cutlery drawer amongst many other things made it unpleasant to stay at - we needed to fully document that for Airbnb to get a refund. While this doesn’t help you, I just hope that it won’t be as easy as the guest thinks to rip you off. At least you would be able to leave a review for her as well explaining your side of the situation.

Best of luck. Sorry I couldn’t provide better help but this is just very unfortunate to end up with a guest like that.

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Thank you for your insights and advice. I wanted to clarify that my concern isn’t about the potential negative review. Fortunately, the guest’s attempts at blackmail were documented in Airbnb messages, which I believe strengthens my position to have any unfair review removed by Airbnb.

My primary inquiry is about Airbnb’s policies regarding the introduction of stray animals into a pet-free property. The guest clearly violated the house rules by bringing in a stray dog without permission. While I understand that this breach of rules could justify terminating her stay, I’m curious about the financial implications. Specifically, how does Airbnb handle the payment for the remaining days in such scenarios? Is the booking simply canceled and the guest refunded for the unused nights, or are there protections in place to ensure the host is compensated for the inconvenience and rule violations?

Any guidance or experiences shared regarding Airbnb’s approach in similar situations would be greatly appreciated.

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Was your discussion about the dog verbal, or on the platform or by off-platform text/e-mail/social media? If it is not already on writing, you need to raise it with her again on the platform. She is already pissed off with you, so don’t worry about getting on her bad side.

If it was me, once I had documentary evidence (i.e a written conversation where she is defending bringing a stray, diseased-looking dog onto the property) I would be calling Airbnb and asking them to support a no-refund eviction.

Sometimes Airbnb support is clueless (as we all know). They are just as likely to phone the woman and prompt her to lie by asking “Is this a support animal? …because if it is, it’s okay,” at which point she takes her cue and starts lying. Use unambiguous language with Airbnb, both on the phone and in writing::

"The guest is using my Airbnb property as an unauthorized animal shelter for abused stray animals, creating health and safety issues while also violating my “no pets” rule… I want her out and I want her out without a refund, because I’m going to have to fumigate after she leaves to make the place safe for the next guest. I want Airbnb to back me up on this."

Good luck with Lara Trump, or whatever her famous, entitled, celebrity name is.

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thanks, I like your reply, I will contact airbnb, and I do have all of it on airbnb messaging.

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Came here to laugh at this… and her

{{sarcasm}}

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I’ve strengthened my suggested wording to Airbnb by adding the word unauthorized:

"The guest is using my Airbnb property as an unauthorized animal shelter for abused stray animals, creating health and safety issues while also violating my “no pets” rule… I want her out and I want her out without a refund, because I’m going to have to fumigate after she leaves to make the place safe for the next guest. I want Airbnb to back me up on this."

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While “creating health and safety issues” is certainly true, that’s the kind of thing that leads Airbnb to suspend a listing. I wonder if that could be stated differently. Like “I am concerned that having what appears to be a diseased animal could possibly present health issues.”

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“I am concerned about an animal that has been brought into my airbnb by my guest, which is a violation of my house rule.”

‘Diseased’ will trigger a shutdown.

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Good point. I have removed the words from my suggestion.

However I would still leave in the " using my Airbnb property as an unauthorized animal shelter" because it frames the issue much more clearly and emphatically for the simple, guest-biased minds at CS.

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i already used the first version, I am still waiting for 8 hours for a response, they just asked first to show them proof, I told them to check the messages and if they need video of the doog to let me know where to send it, still no response.

So if my listing gets shut down for cleaning, at whose expense is it, doesn’t the guest or airbnb pay that?

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It won’t get “shut down for cleaning”- if they suspend your listing, they will say the property is “unsafe”. And it might take weeks for them to unsuspend it. But hopefully that doesn’t happen at all.

Good luck getting this rude, entitled guest to pay for any extra cleaning- and I doubt Airbnb will, but you can certainly try.

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well if it is considered unsafe, it is only because of the actions of the guest, I never authorized them to bring a sick dog to the villa. The guest checked out by herself now, left early, absolutely no help from airbnb in emergency like this. They just ignored me after the initial message to send them proof.

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I’m just letting you know how Airbnb deals with what they deem “safety” issues. I’m certainly not saying that their policies are fair or even sane.

There are many many posts from hosts on the Airbnb forum who had their listings suspended because they reported the guests throwing a party, even though the host did nothing wrong. Or hosts getting their listings suspended because the guests reported that there were hidden cameras or that the host violated their privacy, when none of that was true, the guests were just lying to try to get a refund.

It makes no sense at all, and as I said, hopefully you won’t have anything like that happen. Glad your guest left- that must be a relief. (It’s possible that Airbnb contacted her and told her she couldn’t stay with the dog- they wouldn’t necessarily tell you they did that)

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I need to vent about a crazy situation with Airbnb customer service that’s left me shaking my head. After a guest left early from their 3-night stay (and broke the no-pet rule), they asked Airbnb for a refund for the last night. But get this, the booking was still showing as active on the site.

Then, Airbnb customer service contacts me and asks if I’m okay with refunding the guest for the “unused” night. How is it “unused” if the booking is still open? It’s like they’re not even trying to make sense. It feels like they don’t understand their own system.

Dealing with this level of nonsense is beyond frustrating. It’s like they don’t train their people, or maybe they just don’t care. It’s tough enough being a host without having to deal with this kind of silliness from Airbnb’s side.

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I don’t understand how Airbnb can make this so unnecessarily difficult if you can just provide footage of the guest dragging in a dog into a no-pet accommodation. That’s not a “I thought it was a pet-friendly place” situation as far as I could understand what you wrote. In that case, the guest would clearly have to pay for the time that you wasted on them just because they are unable to comprehend what “pets not allowed” means.

Not to mention the fact that you’re facing extended cleaning efforts to provide a proper and safe place for future guests. Who is going to pay for that? Not sure if you’re able/going to charge the guest extra for this?

I hope Airbnb is able to have someone with more common sense get in touch with you to sort this out. All the best.

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I’m utterly drained and have zero patience left for Airbnb’s customer service clowns, especially over cleaning fee debates. The only silver lining is that the troublesome guest has finally vacated, yet they didn’t even bother to cancel their reservation. How on earth is Airbnb justifying a refund for their unspent night? It’s ludicrous.

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But this is how it works, @balivilla. CS isn’t “justifying” a refund, they are just asking on behalf of the guest if you will refund. (You should just say no) If the guest just left, but didn’t cancel, the unstayed nights remain showing as booked.

The CS rep who called asking if you would be willing to refund is just following the script- the guest asked for a refund and CS calls to see if the host will agree. They may not even know the guest has already left- the guest might say, “I’ve decided not to stay here my last night, I’d like a refund”. But unless the guest cancelled, the guest could decide not to leave if the host won’t agree to a refund.

Unstayed nights remain blocked unless they get cancelled by the guest, the host, or Airbnb, regardless of refund requests.

I got a “Guest is asking for a full refund” call not long ago. In that case, she was not in residence, it was one day before her arrival. The guest hadn’t cancelled. I told the CS rep that no way would I agree to a refund- the guest’s one week booking had blocked my calendar to other bookings, in my high season, for a month and a half.

So at that point, it was up to the guest to either show up for her booking, or not show up and pay according to my cancellation policy.

At 4am that night, I got a notification that the guest had cancelled- I guess she decided that having to pay according to my cancellation policy (moderate, so she had to pay the first night and 50% of remaining nights) was preferable to showing up.

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BINGO!

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202020202020202020

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Airbnb seems to have a policy to ask their CS reps to ask Hosts to consider giving a guest a refund (they don’t bother to see why the guest left, ie. something came up, violation of rules, etc.). Remember, Airbnb looks good if a guest is happy and gets a refund, so it seems like their protocol to their reps is “why not ask?”

My response to that protocol is “always say no!” That is usually my response but I also add, when it is something like a guest had to change their plans for something reasonable, “should I book the dates in question, I would gladly issue them a refund for the dates that are booked.” I send that message to the guest as well.

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