Sneaking pets in

So, I allow pets in my rental and there is a $35 for each pet.

So my renters show up tonight with two dogs that no one told me about. In my listing I also state that the dogs have to be under 35 pounds. One of the dogs they brought is a lab. :roll_eyes:

I am assuming that my only option is to bill them $70. I suppose my question is should I bill them right now as they just checked in or wait until they check out?

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If you bill them now, they’ll leave and give you a bad review.

If you bill them at checkout, they’ll give you a bad review.

Either way, I’d say they’re unlikely to pay.

If you bill them twice what Airbnb says you can, I suppose it’s possible that Airbnb will cancel your account.

I think you’re just screwed. But let’s see what others have to say.

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I state it’s $35 per pet

As far as I’m aware, Airbnb doesn’t “say” what you can charge for pets. It’s just that the way they set it up on the booking page only allows one fee for however many pets and however many days. But hosts can still state a per pet, and even per day fee in their listing info and charge it through the resolution center just like they did before Airbnb brought in the pet fee on the booking form option.

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100% agree. I’ve got a group in our cottage and it seems they have their parents staying too.
and your advice stands:
if I bill them now they’ll refuse, complain and leave a bad review (they won’t leave though)
if I wait, they’ll still refuse, and leave a bad review.

so my 3rd option: hope there’s some extra mess from the toddler and pet and charge them an additional cleaning fee.

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I’d just deal with it in an impersonal but professional way.

“Hi guest. I see you have 2 dogs and the pet fee is $70. I’ll be sending the request via the resolution center and I’ll send the link so you can easily make the payment.”

I know you are kind of new but being hostage to reviews doesn’t seem like a long term winning strategy to me. Yes, they can give you a “bad” review and you can give them one too.

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Where is the resolution center? Does it require them to pay? Does Airbnb take a cut from this payment?

When you “request money” that’s through the resolution center. Once you make the request copy and paste the url link into a message to them. Something like “I’ve requested the payment through Airbnb which you can find here: https://www.airbnb.com/resolutions/xxxxxxx” The x’s in my example represent the numbers in your resolution request.

No Airbnb doesn’t “require” them to pay, they have to accept. But at least it’s then on their record. I’ve never had anyone who refused to pay a fee request who was still in my rental. My god you live upstairs. Go tell them they have to pay or they can’t stay in your house.

No Airbnb doesn’t take a cut.

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And if hosts keep letting guests get away with bad behavior in fear of a bad review, we are encouraging this behavior. They get away with things once, they’ll try it again at the next place, why not?

And all guests aren’t trying to be nefarious. As we know, guests don’t always thoroughly read the listing info. Sometimes they may have simply missed reading about an extra guest fee, or that the pet fee is per pet.

Guests don’t always leave a bad review because they are asked to pay for pets or extra guests, or asked to change unacceptable behavior. Not all adults act like spoiled children.

As KKC said, just be matter-of-fact professional about it. Many businesses have extra fees for things and they aren’t terrified to tell customers, “That isn’t included in the base price”.

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because despite bad reviews on google etc, they don’t have some Overlord who can shut down their business overnight. that’s why we have to tread on eggshells.

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That has some truth to it, but almost all businesses get reviewed these days.

And Airbnb doesn’t shut down your hosting business because of a bad review.

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I’ve seen many hosts with 4.something reviews indicative of multiple poor reviews. Airbnb doesn’t shut down hosts asking for fees listed in advance overnight.

Luckily the negativity and fear mongering on this forum is not the experience of most hosts.

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That’s so true. The one time, back near the beginning of my hosting days, I had a guest who seriously crossed the boundaries, bringing some guy home with her at 3am, both of them drunk and noisy, waking me up. I wasn’t aware of hosting forums back then, and I’m glad I wasn’t, or I would have second guessed myself and worried about calling her out on it.

I just did what came naturally to me and what seemed logical and appropriate. I didn’t get up and make a stink about it at 3am, I just told her the next morning that what she’d done wasn’t cool or acceptable and that it wasn’t to happen again. She apologized and we got along fine for the last 3 days of her stay and she never even left a review.

I messaged him and casually/ nicely said it would be $70 for both dogs and then did the extra pay thing through Airbnb. He responded “ok”. So now we wait and see if he pays!

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Oh, just ignore me. I was in a rotten mood. I should know better than to post here when I’m a grump.

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As far as I know, only your local authority can shut down your business if you’ve forgotten to renew your license or if you’ve been doing something illegal and I’m certain that you haven’t done anything wrong.

Poor reviews aren’t going to close down your business either. Any host who is getting bad reviews frequently should be looking at ways they can improve because there’s obviously room for improvement somewhere.

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I see that you brought a dog I wish you would have let me know! We would have put out the dog stuff for you. There are dog bowls and a mat to put under in the downstairs closet. On the bottom shelf of that closet there are some fleece blankets you can use on the furniture if you need. You can either leave cash for the the pet fee ($40) or Venmo to @XXXXXXXX
Thanks

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He paid!! Does Airbnb transfer the money like they do when they check out?

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Now, please write an honest review. Even if you have to wait until the last moment to do it. As another host that allows pets, I would hope if they try to book my place I would be able to see your review and know to watch out for them.

I’ve had the same thing happen. And, I’ve left honest reviews for other hosts. I don’t understand trying to get away with it just to save $25. If they are that petty, they are not the kind of guests I want.

To be honest, I dont understand guests. We travel with my dogs. I always look for pet friendly places even when NOT traveling with pets because I want to support them. I am also very appreciative of places that allow pets so I always go the extra distance to ensure I’m the best guest they have ever had and there is no evidence of my pets (even if that means going to the store and buying a broom). I am not seeing that from others staying in my Airbnb anymore. I am strongly considering going to “No Pets Allowed” because of all the problems. At a minimum, I will be raising my fees to $50 PER PET… I know Air’s structure doesnt support this, but, I will put it in the listing and I will use the resolution center to collect the extra fee. Or, they can go somewhere else…

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I travel with my dog and I expect pet fees. I confirm that pets are allowed when booking, and when we check in they say the pet fee is such and such and we say fine. Don’t read into it, guests are not going to be experts on your terms. You might tell them now that you only allow small dogs, so you’ll let it slide this time but next time they should make other arrangements for their big dog.

My experience is this info is inconsistently communicated. We just had a hotel stay and the pet weight limit was described as 40, 45 , or 50 lbs, depending on where you looked. The previous trip had postings of “we allow pets” and also “we allow dogs under 50 lbs”

I require guests sign a pet addendum. Pets can potentially do a lot of damage in a short time, and I want it in writing that they know their liability is not limited to the pet or cleaning fees. I’m able to charge about 10% more because I allow pets (plus pet fees pay for for carpet cleaning) and I’ve had no problems except sometimes extra vacuuming.