Tenant refusing to leave

I think I remember seeing an option on Airbnb to cap the maximum nights they can book.

@Paul_Janaway There is such an option.

@Gnome Very creative. How about tripping the fire alarm and screaming FIRE!, that would scare them out. LoL

This was last year, what happened to Luke? How did this get resolved?

Well in @luke case it was just a 10 day listing so there are probably a lot of things he could have done to try to get them to leave, like changing the wifi password. I don’t think this could happen to me but if someone barricaded themselves in the guest room and refused to leave then yes they would find themselves without power, AC or wifi. It’s hard to believe ABB wouldn’t do anything. How is the next booking going to check in? There is something off about this story.

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Those of us in South Florida could catch a few roaches and let them loose in the rental. That’d shift 'em. :slight_smile:

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What can ABB do? They don’t have any authority to intervene in what became a civil matter. All they have done recently is to change the consequences of overstaying… So if you overstay, you owe double or something along those lines. The Palm Springs case was famous. Or infamous, probably, is a better word. And it was an absentee owner who let the guest book longer than a month. So the situation was a cautionary tale.

Not sure what you mean by “off.” This incident really happened, as reported by numerous news outlets. It was the most famous one, but I am sure other hosts have had this happen to a lesser degree. It can be prevented by knowing the laws in your state about when a tenant is converted to month-to-month status. (For instance we have heard it is only two weeks in Florida) and not accepting reservations longer than that time period!

See story here, but if you google you see it was picked up all over the world.
http://www.cnn.com/2014/07/23/travel/airbnb-squatters/

I thought they could continue charging the credit card. Almost every horror story I’ve read about ABB guests have been people who booked more than a month and/or started with ABB then booked off of it.

I believe in 2014 when this happened, ABB had no remedies and the person was stuck catering to these nasties like they were month-to-month tenants. So when they changed the TOS, they enlisted some penalties for overstaying.

Looks like ABB was trying to do something at the end. I guess it was such a new/unusual occurence that they weren’t quite sure what to do initially.

I’m not talking about the Palm Springs story I’m talking about Luke’s original post. He said it was a 10 ABB rental and there was an extra person not on the agreement, cops won’t intervene and he offered to pay for them to leave. Why would you do that? Finally he never reported back.

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Oh… Right. Unknown… Maybe they did just leave. Hopefully so! Having a guest overstay with hostility has to be the worst thing ever.

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Hi mine got resolved by airbnb paying them to stay elsewhere. it was a nightmare whilist it lasted.
My lesson is proper vetting of guests and being wary of long stays very wary. do your homework

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@luke How many additional days did it take to get them out, that is, how many days over the original booking did they stay?

@luke
How do you now vet your guests? And what was wrong the first time? Could be very helpful to all.

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I am brand new to this and someone just against what my listing suggests attempted to book a stay for 41 days. Fortunately I know the laws and realize that anyone allowed into your home that goes beyond thirty days must be removed through a legal process. I wrote them back suggesting a different length of time with 29 days, but then changed my mind more considering that they have as toddler and my home is far from childproofed. Imagine the legal ramifications that could ensue from that. I saw comments of turning off amenities. This is highly illegal unless you have a written agreement. I am looking forward to welcoming my first guest and am considering drawing up a separate document for them to sign on check in. Simple and to the point to include such additional services, such as Cable and Wi-Fi, laundry to not be included if the stay exceeds what is paid for.and will be considered to be Trespassing beyond that date. You cannot shut of “Utilities” I have no worry with the booking I have now, but the other gave me great pause. I do want to make sure I don’t get into a mess I will be far pushed to correct. I am excited and looking forward to being a great Host!

I see that this is a two-year-old thread, but is quite a useful one to read.

Air did it the smart way of just paying them to leave.

My line to them would probably go something like this: “It sounds like you’re in a bad situation: how can I help you move on from it? I’m willing to work with you to try and make this easy–can I book you a stay at a motel for a week? How about $250 to get you wherever you need to go? Because right now, your stay is costing me a lot of money and I think you know that. It’s true that I will lose this money today, but I guarantee you that I’m going to get it back from you in the long run. We know how this will go–I’ll sue for an eviction, and I’ll win. I will also make sure I’ll win every cent back of every night you stay. You think you don’t have money now, but any job you get in the future will be paying me part of your salary until I’m paid back. Doesn’t matter where you go, because it’ll be on your file. We’re talking over $100 a night for every day that you stretch this out. So: how does that motel stay sound? Should we get you packed and checked in, or do you want this cash to get out now?”

Hi @caroline1

Why did you include a link to a college offering paralegal training. How is this relevant to hosts on an international forum, or the topic. Are you suggesting we all go and train as paralegals :slight_smile:

In fact most of your posts have links to third party sites selling products.

Feels a bit spammy to drop these in.

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Indeed. I don’t think this post adds anything valuable to our community.

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Sorry for the delay in replying. it might look spammy. But I always share everything I come across online. I have been around for more than a year. I love contributing. To be honest I read every article or link I come across in this forum. If we look with suspicion everything would look fishy.
Who wouldn’t wish to get badges and rewards

For Floridians, be advised that there IS a law, passed in 2015, that says the police can remove an unwelcome guest. Florida state statute 82.045
HOWEVER, just because the law exists, doesn’t mean all cops know about it. 1guy had to argue his case at the police station, FORCING them to look into the statute before they would act.

https://browardlandlord.wordpress.com/tag/82-045/