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Ugh, we thought we had 8 guests meeting for a family reunion in our home. Well, they also had a party. They left a pile of trash (just bags of loosely closed trash) by the door. The trash included chargers that we leave out for guests to use. This is our weekend home (clearly listed in the listing and house guide) and so we keep a plastic tub in a closet with tooth brushes, a the glow sticks, some alcohol and some other stuff we don’t want guests to use. They drank all the alcohol, used all 60+ glow sticks, all the sparklers (as evidenced by them on the back porch), and threw out our house guide!
One set of sheets has pink and brown stains and the TV in the living room has fingerprints all over it and scratches (we think they were trying to use the antenna to get a MLB game and took the TV off the wall…?).
So, we make a claim in the resolution center for the TV and sheets (the rest was there at our risk… we’ll take that). The guest responds to tell us she wasn’t there, she stayed with her old friends and she’ll check with the people she booked for. Um… not what she said in the original booking.
Now that it’s in the airbnb communications that it was a third party booking, will they support our claim?
I am not buying that. Guests have no right to rummage through stuff they know is not theirs or put out for guests. Sickening they disrespected your place partly fueled by your alcohol.
Re the 3rd party booking, I would say keep trying with Airbnb supervisors until you hopefully get the refund you deserve.
The person who made the booking was negligent, doesn’t care and should be given such a review as to alert future hosts and a thumbs down.
You did not knowingly accept a third-party booking. You don’t even know if she is telling the truth that she wasn’t there. She has responsibility - don’t let her get away with this.
And charge her for everything she used that was not out for her.
Give her a big fat thumbs down!
Charge them for absolutely everything and at replacement value! (Your time is valuable too, think how long it will take to get resolution with Aibnb. You will have to take tons of photos and upload them, for example. So tedious!
So if they damaged a sheet, charge them for the whole set (even though the pillow cases weren’t damaged, you will still have to buy an entire set, more than likely). If they drank all of a partially full bottle of vodka, charge them for a whole new bottle. Stupid entitled guests, that just a horrible experience! Sorry you are going through all of this. Let us know how it turns out w/ ABB.
I would definitely claim for the alcohol glow sticks and other stuff - why shouldn’t you.
Good luck with the claim.
Do leave an honest review. As well as your appalling guests behaviour do mention the guest lied to you and claimed she was staying until you had to claim for damages then admitted she wasn’t there.
Good to hear that no one thinks we’ll have an issue with the after the fact admission she wasn’t even there. I thought her claim of third party might be a way to get out of paying.
Yes, we got photos of all the damage and charged for the full new sheet set. We also contacted the guests from earlier that week and they confirmed they did not sleep on pink/brown splotchy sheets and the TV was working without scratches. They agreed to help by talking to Air if needed (they were there the night before this crew arrived).
We debated on charging an extra cleaning fee (it took my husband 8 hours vs our normal 4 to turn the place) and for the glow sticks and all the stuff they used. He felt that because they were there, and our rules do say we share food that’s there, Air might reject the claim. Now, the intent of that rule is to cover the ketchup, mustard, sugar, coffee type items that are in the kitchen, but he didn’t want to risk the entire claim over that response. I agree with this crew, but since he was out dealing with the mess, I let him claim what he wanted.
Also, yes we left a thumbs down poor review. We included that they did not respect our belongings or house rules. They also appeared to have had a party and left trash and our field games out in the grass. When he wrote the review we didn’t know she was going to say she wasn’t there or that would have made it too. I can’t imagine anyone renting to her again.
I don’t see how you can be on the hook for the 3rd party booking when you had no idea the booking guest wouldn’t be staying on site. The guest who booked is responsible for the damages her guests caused. I’m glad you took pictures and documented everything. Take it to social media and hopefully you’ll be compensated.
I agree you should claim your personal items that were taken and consumed. Your claim won’t be rejected if you ask that the alcohol and glow-sticks be compensated. It is possible AirBnB will refund only SOME of the items but you are not jeopardizing your claim by asking. Sharing condiments does it imply guests can go into private areas and rummage around for your put-away supplies.
I’m glad you left an honest review. You CAN and SHOULD review honestly even when the booking is a 3rd party.
Unless you put things that are not allowed for guests behind a locked door, you will have this recur. Good advice is to assume anything out in the open is fair game no matter how you describe it in your house rules.
Different from stored away in cupboards! If it’s a host’s holiday home guests must respect things which are obviously stowed away, and most guests will.
Charge them for everything damaged /taken/ used and your time for excessive clean up. I hate these people were so disrespectful of you & your home.
Review the booker honestly, “ We thought ABC. Would be staying in our home. Turns out ABC booked a 3rd party booking for a group and she stayed elsewhere. The group removed the TV from the wall thus damaging the casing, opened a box of personal items and used /destroyed the contents, and they left our unit extradinarily messy. Surprisingly we found the charging stations we provide in the trash. “
I think @Rolf if alcohol and glow sticks are hidden in a cupboard, it is reasonable for a host and a guest to understand they are not available for consumption.
hear hear. Guest shouldn’t but they do. Guests must respect closed areas, but some don’t. Guests should consume all the liquor and glow sticks and sparklers. But some will!
Hosts should bare that in mind.
That’s why we keep a lot of our doors locked when we have guests. Pantry in the kitchen, our bedroom, our laundry room, and a supply closet downstairs that has things we don’t want them getting into. We even put our cat in our bedroom when we’re not there so I can have peace of mind that she’s safe if I’m not there.
the guests tea and coffee supplies are on top of a chest of drawers full of personal stuff - watches, unused holiday money (€65), passport, etc, and I know the risks. After they leave, I always look in the drawer to see if I notice anything gone. I came upstairs once with a pint of milk for them, and the mum was opening each drawer in turn. She saw me coming up the stairs, gave me a delightful smile then opened the next drawer! “no-ooo” I had to say reproachfully.
Other than wrap a load of string around, not sure what to do.
I find most guests totally normal, they do not rummage like acquisitive, snoopy weirdos.
I will say here there is a section on the listing where you can say if it’s just guest accommodation or whether it’s normally lived in by someone else/the host.
Whether it’s right or wrong for guests to use/take things that are on the premises isn’t really the point. The point is that hosts should expect guests to use them and therefore not leave temptation in their way.
Mostly guests won’t but on the odd occasion they will.
This unfortunately is a fact of life. Just as we childproof our homes when we have young kids, so we should guest-proof them if we have short term rentals. I know it’s a shame, but in our normal day-to-day life we do what we can to protect our property and ourselves - locking the car door when we park up, having a burglar alarm at home, not walking in dangerous localities at night etc. - so we have to use sensible precautions when we host too.
