I have so many stories, i could write a book.
The most “respectable” people, i thought they’d be, somehow turned out to be thieves. It’s almost like nobody is honest these days. When i heard the CEO or the UK Stena lines ferry services talk on tv once, his stories were so so familiar to what we see in North europe. When he started to offer low cost ferry service, he noticed more and more of the lower budget type of tourists started to take his ferries, and also: more and more problems arise (drunk on board, breaking stuff, stealing stuff, pulling a friendly fraud on their credit card etc).
I had a guy from the world bank in DC (he gets a tax free salary did you know?), who sent his daughter to study ballet: he pulled a friendly fraud on me (charged back on his credit card AFTER his daughter enjoyed her stay with no complaints, ever).
I had a guy from a spanish bank working in London, again with a good salary, who too put me in problems. Initially he was booking a small place for his daughter (she was going to start a study) and he swore that he needed a “small place” because he and his wife would stay in a nearby hotel. I could just “smell” he was lying.
And he was.
Neighbours had called in the police to verify the headcount in that 1p studio. Sure enough they were all 3 in a small studio of not even 20m2!!! hiding out. Not in the least worried about having signed a Building insurance doc which warns to NOT overcrowd, or else the insurance will be rendered invalid (during the illegality), meaning if fire breaks out, it’ll be me to pay for reconstruction.
In big cities, these things are pretty much the norm. To enforce their laws the big cities started to put in place extreme penalties and even send out police squads to raid homes (it’s in several news papers too!). They showed up with 5 (!!!) police men at their door. They showed paperwork that said “do no overcrowd”, so the police knew we instructed them correctly. The only way to avoid the penalty, was to kick them out the same day, which i did. And luckily it was a “Warning” we got, but the police told me that they didn’t care “how” i would get to control the flats, but “next time, the bill will be written out, instead of a warning”.
This whole mess, led to a huge fight with airbnb call center, who understood my point, but still asked me to “do an exception” (without realizing just how -real- the risk of the fee was, if the police visits the place the next day).
I also had a case of an employer (a multinational for crying out loud) who booked a place for 1 month for a new employee. A nice commission for airbnb, ca I only bring it these kind of longterm bookings. Long story short, this employer, half way, sent back the employee " cs he was not suitable" , and then straight after wanted to put yet another (!!) employee in the same flat!! despite signing off that the place will be occupied by that ONE person only, the employer just tried.
The condo board gets a “presence list” of each tenant who moved in, and we aren’t allowed to swap tenants more than 1x after a minimum of 30 days stay. So, i explained that i “was not allowed”, cs otherwise i face a 1200euro penalty for each day that the “new” employee stays (an illegality in the eyes of our condo board).
Evidently i told the employer: if you need flexibility LIKE that of a HOTEL, you need to book a HOTEL, and not book a HOME!!! yes, we’re 50% cheaper, but…that does mean that it comes with RULES, RESIDENTIAL rules, to be precise.
Again, another fight with airbnb call center, who again, couldn’t understand the risks i would run (the – (!)daily 1200euro penalty). Asking me to “just allow this, this one time”.
Property owners, are liable. Big time. But renters, whoever they are, always try to get the best of you. That- is the problem (in big cities).
Instead of having to lie down in front of the door of each flat, the only way i could figure out (took me 3 years of thinking about this) how to control it 100%, was putting some kind of biometric entrance gates, or, hire a person full time to sleep in front of the door (or watch a camera). I don’t make that kind of margins, like hotels do, to be able to afford a 24x7 receptionist. I’d be bankrupt. Mostly, i am happy i thought of it, because it finally will remove the need to speak to airbnb callcenters about any illegality whatsoever, because they simply can’t even happen, ever, again!
I do realize, that if you are living in the airbnb too (like if you rent out “just a room”), then you’ll hardly face illegalities. But i rent out entire flats. So, it’s a different ball game. Almost with no exception, the renters ask me “do you live nearby”, often a big red flag to see how well i -can- monitor the homes. In any event, all this is luckily sorted out.
I got my life back! and won’t have to fight airbnb callcenter ever again!!!
But their money doesn’t spend any better than anyone else’s.
