Hi all and a very Happy New Year!
We have a bit of a problem. We have two Airbnb properties. Both across the hall from each other in an old Art Deco style building with old style wooden doors, frames and a landlord who is really quick to repair but never replaces anything unless completely buggered. But he loves Airbnb so we replace stuff if needed ourselves.
In between our two places is a woman and her husband in their thirties who knew the places were Airbnb when they moved in. They have their eyes on everything, know everything and are curtain shifters (if anyone walks past they probably know what colour undies they put on that morning, their political persuasion and their mother’s maiden name within thirty minutes). They also always leave their door open to ensure they don’t miss anything.
When we lived in LA they were fine, never an issue, but my Dad got terminal cancer so we had to go back home to Australia and will be here until he passes away. We put our two Airbnb places in the hands of a reputable agent and it was all ok.
But now we are getting text messages all night if our guests close the door. They say they slam the door, they are always slamming doors and that their life is being made into a total misery by the constant loud slamming of doors…she won’t just text once, she does this long string of texts that lasts thirty minutes and wakes us up. As you can imagine when you get a call late at night your heart hammers and you think something bad has happened. Especially with my Dad so sick and now my partners Dad only has months to live as well so this texting is turning us into zombies that jump at our own shadows.
We have put up signs, foam around the doors, put it in our house rules, reminded people when they arrive but to no avail. She still says the slamming is making it impossible to live there. But I have been asking our guests over the last month and they say they are closing the door normally. One told me today that she closed the door and the handle rattled softly, and this woman stuck her head out and yelled at our guests, her husband now does the same. She has reported our guests twice for parking over the driveway and they get fined for it (she parks so our guests can’t get in properly). I’m sure it’s on purpose.
I’ve asked our manager to intervene, I’ve been polite, I’ve tried telling her it’s the doors as they are wooden like hers and poorly fitting but she won’t have it, I’ve texted her back to say we have reminded the guests. I’ve asked our other neighbors if they hear anything and they always say they only ever hear her yelling at our guests and never the doors. In fact one of our neighbors is on the point of complaining about this woman screaming about slamming doors all the time.
We have tried everything. My husband says to just let it go but this sort of stuff escalates in my opinion. We often have single women guests who don’t always speak English and can you imagine how scary it would be if some guy was yelling at you. They don’t even come to the door to ask politely for the guests to close the door quietly, now they scream from wherever they are in their house (as I mentioned, their door is always open).
Does anyone have any ideas? Our landlord won’t allow us to change the original doors and so we either need to reduce the door noise to a whisper, placate these people somehow or get them out! Lol!
It’s 10:30pm here and I’m just waiting for the first text from her! It usually goes on all blooming night until around 4am.
It’s making us just want to forget the whole thing but we need the income badly.
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