I deleted my post. Thank you to the people that gave me good suggestions. To the rest, DO NOT private message or email me to insult me. There’s a reason why people I know refuse to post on this forum.
Contact Airbnb now, tell them of the situation, ask how you can get the video to them, tell Airbnb that the reservation should be cancelled without any refund immediately. Ideally you get them to agree to this and your actions below (confirm in writing) before proceeding.
I assume you are in the U.S.
If guests beg forgiveness or ask for a reprieve, do not give it.
Be prepared to physically go to listing site and ask them to leave. Have your camera with video ready to take pictures. Ideally you go with a witness. Tell Airbnb, ideally in writing even if after a call to summarize the call, of your plan.
Be prepared to call the police to have them ejected. Do not use word ‘eviction’ which applies to renters. These are GUESTS and a different legal standard applies. If police or anyone says that this is a contract issue, be prepared to explain that it is not a contact issue for you, As the homeowner you have the right to eject a guest. It can be a contract issue for the guest if they believe that you have acted wrongfully.
In the future you should have rules that state that you will take these actions and can enter the unit with video and sound running to eject guests for such a violation of the house rules.
At this point your priority is to get them OUT. You can discuss with Airbnb the additional charges but this is not the priority, If you focus on the money the guests might offer to pay and then argue that they should stay.
No. Airbnb will not ‘handle it’ – you need to.
If you can prove it. Do you have a time-stamped video of the property before they entered? That would be ideal. If not, it’s possible that it will be a he said/she said situation that will not be easily resolved.
This is a legitimate concern. That is why once you start on this path it is not a matter of ‘trying’. You must get them out, while you wait, ideally inside the property, with a witness in the form of a person and also your camera recording.
If you are out of town and have no co-host to do this I will leave it to others to advise you.
Contact ABB Support via their Messaging System (6 guests only, city ordinance, breaks HR) and get them evicted. Their bad review will be removed by ABB for breaking rules for parties, etc. Tell them what you’ve written here.
ABB and you need to cancel this TODAY. Call the local police non-emergency line and ask for backup to be at the house - the teens are abusive, partying, etc. The police will back you up and their presence should mitigate any out-the-door damage.
Why do you have a $25 per guest fee over 6 people if you can only have 6 people? No wonder you’re being abused. Your total guest count should be 6 people due to county/state/wherever regulations.
Send Ring video to ABB with abusive audio.
- Message ABB with this info
- Call once you send info.
- Make sure ABB cancels the guests RIGHT NOW
- Call local police non-emergency and tell them you’re evicting partiers from an ABB.
- Don’t worry about reviews
- Fix your listing - MAX 6 people ONLY. This one kills me. You clearly are breaking your own county rules.
Good luck . It’s a learning curve.
BTW, the minute they were up until 2 am pissing off the neighbors, you should have called the police and shown them the door the next morning - with po-po in attendance.
You’re not their friends - you have a business to run and laws to follow. Fix your listing.
If you are limited to six by your city, it’s a huge risk to just ask the guests to pay more. I’d contact AirBnB and tell them you CAN NOT accommodate them without breaking the law.
@HostAirbnbVRBO gave you a good process.
Sadly the OP has already hosted them with only a couple of days left on the booking. IDK why the OP has an extra guest fee if their local laws say MAX 6.
I thought that this was not carefully written, but if your listing says this then it creates an inference that it is OK to bring more than six people so long as you are willing to pay the $25 per person.
I think you need to explain here is this is really what the listing says because if it does then it is arguably not clear that the maximum occupancy has been exceeded.
You would be relying on the noise and their vulgar language to you to have them ejected, which I think is a far weaker case.
I wait to hear your reply and others’ thoughts.
Deleted the post, I have the suggestions I need
@casailinglady is absolutely right about the extra person fee starting at the seventh person.
And $25 is a ridiculously low price to take the risk of being shut down by your city.
They just checked in late last night.
Check them out today. Please. The abuse means your place is getting trashed.
The extra fee stated in your listing means that they can abuse the LAWS in place that max you out at 6. If your max is 6 to follow the regulations, yet you have extra guest fees, it’s confusing. $25 doesn’t “cover you,” and you need a co-host if you’re remote.
But I don’t think it covers you at all.
It hurts your case, confuses the guest (or so they might argue) and puts your listing at risk with the city. It was not a good idea. The penalty for exceeding the maximum occupancy is ejection, maybe also a flat dollar penalty, plus cancellation without refund.
To me it suggests that it’s OK to have more than six people if you are willing to pay the $25 per person above six.
At the very least the inconsistency between the maximum occupancy limit and this rule gives some wiggle room if not an ‘out’ to the guest who says 'Fine, I owe you $X." Even then they might say that the additional guests did not stay overnight and left in a way not recorded by camera(s).
So do you not have a local co-Host?
I am thinking that you don’t.
Did you have a conversation with them through the camera? If so, is that legal in your state? I am in MA and I don’t know if that would be legal here without a noticeable disclosure. All of our audio on cameras is off for that legal reason, and for privacy.
Without you being there or a co-Host, you really can’t force them to leave.
I think now you should contact Airbnb, advise them of the situation, that you fear they are causing damage as well as a retaliatory review, that you know that they have violated the local noise ordinance (that should get their attention), and still ask that the reservation be canceled without refund. [If Airbnb asks, explain that the $25 per person fee was not permission for exceeding the maximum occupancy, which is mandated by the city, but a penalty.]. Ask that if the guest/coach does not vacate the listing that he should be removed from the platform.
Again, once you go down this path, I would not agree to letting them stay.
I expect that there will be some damage no matter what you do. Hopefully the coach tries to minimize the damage here, but expect the coach to either beg to stay or insist on its right to stay.
The way many Hosts deal with this is to plan for its possibility, and by that planning hope to deter it from happening and, if it does happen, arm you with clear rights that will make the ejection of such guests easier and freer from arguments from the guests, Airbnb or the police.
Such planning might include:
- Including in the confirmation message (and within the listing’s rules) that the maximum occupancy, whether overnight or not, whether inside or outside, is six people and further limited to the number of registered guests.
- House rules that state that if the maximum occupancy is exceeded that the reservation may be cancelled, without refund, that the Host and their representatives may enter the property with recording equipment on.
- Having a local co-Host, with whom you’ve discussed this possibility and ‘played out’ the scenario,
- General cleaning up of rules to avoid inconsistencies or confusion.
- Being a contributor to your local fraternal order of police, with the decal on your front door (Ha ha).
Great ideas, thank you!
Please let us know what you chose to do and how it worked out – also whether you have takeaways not mentioned in this thread.
Let’s have this be a learning experience for the whole community here on the forum.
Good luck.
EDIT:
I believe that you’ll find that if you research and plan for contingencies that they’re less likely to happen, and if they do happen that your confidence will ‘leak’ out to all you interact with. Plus, you’ll have your ‘ducks in a row’ in terms of listing rules and messaging, including terminology, that strengthens your case and avoids time-consuming detours.
For example, in Worcester MA if someone parks in your driveway you cannot by law tow them unless you follow certain rules.
- You must have a sign saying no trespassing and that vehicles may be towed.
- Before your towing them you must fax a notice of your intent to do so with the police, and that notice must state certain things like the license number, make of car, fact that you have the appropriate signage, pictures attached. Interestingly the police say you have to fax this but do not provide the fax number. I had to contact the police to get the fax number. [You might get the police to tow the vehicle but the above is part of the procedure here if you wish to tow the car.]
Similarly, you want to have your plan in place if you ever need to eject a guest.
If you use the word ‘eviction’ the police might well say that the sheriff not the police evicts, that eviction is a legal proceeding that must be initiated in a court of law. ‘Eviction’ is a detour, a trap.
The person is a guest, not a tenant or renter. You need to anticipate the argument that this is a contract dispute, but it is not. It is about a homeowner ejecting a guest. The guest might have contractual remedies if the ejection is unlawful and THAT is the guest’s potential contractual remedy. You might even have a file with the appropriate references to local law that you can print out for the police if need be.
If you’ve really planned this out, it will be apparent and I believe you’ll be more likely to succeed. Everyone will know ‘you mean business.’
By the way, a guest who stays when asked to leave is guilty of criminal trespass, a good term to use. In MA, a trespasser who was initially a guest or invitee can be asked to leave but the homeowner cannot initiate force (otherwise ‘reasonable force’ can be used against a trespasser). It is helpful to know what the law is in your area so you can be sure to say the right things and do the right things.
So, not only are you breaking local ordinances by allowing more than 6 guests, but you’re out of town? It sounds like you don’t have a co-host to handle any issues that could come up at your listing.
There are so many things wrong about this situation you now find yourself in, I’m just shaking my head. Just out of curiosity, how long would it take you to get to the property? Bc that is where you need to be, ASAP!
Deleted the post. I have the suggestions I need.
Oops, I thought you were posting on this forum looking for advice from experienced hosts. My bad, guess I overstepped! Anybody else going to weigh in to spank me?
Btw, there was no “emailing”….
Yet another host who comes here for advice, but actually isn’t interested in advice, unless it exactly what they want to hear.
And @BearsLair How do you think anyone would email you? No one here has your email address unless you give it to them through a private message. And I can’t imagine anyone is so invested in your dilemma that they would bother to private message or email you to insult you.
I did not give anyone my email address, yet your post showed up there.
I have had my unit for over 4 years, and I appreciate the good advice I got. I don’t need to defend myself to you. The situation is being taken care of.