Trust your fellow hosts of their bad reviews for guests!

[justMandi]

I think if I was very new and had a bomb review from a nasty person, I might consider another account. But it never happened. Or if I had a steady diet of low reviews. But I didn’t. I see this kind of thing more when a host is trying to corner the market. Or committing fraud. People can play fast and loose, but they don’t stick around.

[Helsi]

You were the one who talked about am having to trawl through 24 hour a day footage so not unwarranted at all

[Letsgo]

If you say see your guests have a party and you say no parties in your rules- what then? Can you kick them out? what do you do? Perhaps they are drunk and refuse? How do you handle it?

[Nigelknows]

I have now idea what you’re talking about? Are you implying those things about me? If so you’re are way off course!

[Nigelknows]

I had to google what a pillock was, never heard of the term before, and I find it very insulting.

As far as understanding the industry, I’ve been a host since 2016, I have almost 1,600 reviews with a 4.97* rating.

But regardless of all that name calling is not appropriate.

[Helsi]

Really @Nigelknows

So when Airbnb says in its terms that you are not allowed to have multiple accounts and can be banned from the platform for doing so - they’re just having a laugh are they @ Nigeldoesn’t know

[Rolf]

The third paragraph in section 6 of the terms of service says:

Airbnb reserves the right to suspend or terminate your Airbnb Account and your access to the Site, Application and Services if you create more than one (1) Airbnb Account, or if any information provided during the registration process or thereafter proves to be inaccurate, fraudulent, not current, incomplete, or otherwise in violation of these Terms of Service.

[Nigelknows]

Yes absolutely, I know 4 people who have between 2 & 3 accounts each. I’ve also stayed at places that when I’ve gone back to book them a year or so later I’ve found them listed with the same main photo but different accounts.

I have 3 accounts, one I set up in 2014 and forgot I had as Airbnb was in it’s infancy. When I go to log in to my account with my phone number I get a message from Airbnb that says; “there are multiple accounts with this phone number, try logging in a different way e.g. email”.

Nigel knows.

[Nigelknows]

Can you give me an example of them following through on this?

[Ritz3]

I too had to look up “pillock.” I guess in Spanish it would probably translate to “pendejo.” As a foreign language teacher I love learning new vocabulary : )

[Nigelknows]

I think we can all agree that it’s not a nice adjective to describe someone.

[Debthecat]

Can be very accurate though!

[HostAirbnbVRBO]

@HostAirbnbVRBO

Plus, is the Host

‘the Host’* referring to @Amy_nyma , not me. I have the August motion-activated system. I was distinguishing between security cameras simply ‘on’ 24/7 and motion-activated cameras.Processing: IMG_2327.MOV…

@HostAirbnbVRBO

Plus, is the Host supposed to watch 24 hours of security footage to see if their guests work masks or made noise? Or even an hour without someone pointing them to a time?

I read elsewhere on this forum somewhere. that security camera footage is notoriously tedious to go through. The poster there was saying to get a ‘game camera’ [don’t know what that is] because it is much easier to fast forward and find what you want.

So when you say ‘obviously’ and ‘you’

@Helsi

Obviously you don’t proactively look at 24 hour coverage @HostAirbnbVRBO .

it is indeed

@HostAirbnbVRBO

Not so, an unwarranted assumption.

because

@HostAirbnbVRBO

This Host had limited access to video footage, not me.

Remember, she said:

@Amy_nyma

We have security cameras on the public areas but we need to put requests to view them. It usually takes one or two days to get approval.

[Helsi]

No-one likes a know it all particularly when the know it all clearly doesn’t .

Just because you choose to act against Aurbnb’s T&Cs and risk being banned from the platform doesn’t mean you should advocate that others do so.

@Nigeldoesn’tknow

[HostAirbnbVRBO]

Let’s see what the others say, but based on what I’ve been reading here, I think these are the steps:

1. Contact Airbnb to let them know that a party is occurring against both Airbnb and your rules (hopefully your rules say this), that you are going to:

a) at least ask them to stop, and
b) based on their reaction and the scope of the infraction (e.g., is it just the registered guests? Is it more than 16? Is it a ‘little’ noisy or quite a ruckus? Do they appear under the influence? ) decide on your next step.

Ideally your rules state that in the event of a party you have the right to immediately cancel the reservation without any refund and immediately eject them. If not, you’ll need to decide what to do. See below.

2. Then you go there and ask them to stop the party. If they’re disrespectful or the infraction is egregious then, regardless of whether you have the rules above, you ask them to leave immediately while you wait.

If you feel uncomfortable or feel threatened you call 911 and request police assistance. Your point to the police is that they are guests, not tenants, and you as the owner have the right to ask them to leave at any time.

3. If your rules don’t cover this situation you might not be able to avoid giving some refund or being penalized by Airbnb for the cancellation.

[muddy]

@HostAirbnbVRBO

Contact Airbnb to let them know that a party is occurring against both Airbnb and your rules

Yeah, if you want to get your listing suspended. That’s what Airbnb does to hosts who report parties these days, regardless of what you have written in your house rules.

[HostAirbnbVRBO]

OMG! That is blaming the victim. SO, then I should eliminate that step.

I was thinking that my rules should also say that if there’s an event or party the Host can enter the property and with video and sound recording devices. I’m not sure if I need to say that but I want to eliminate any defenses that the guest might have, and also have something that I can show the police.

Is the rest of the guidance OK – How would you improve upon it?

[NordlingHouse]

@Nigelknows

They are expecting a bad review so by leaving a generic “I trust they enjoyed their stay” and 1* tell’s the next host that something dreadful went down but the guest thinks “ok, I got away with it” so they don’t open a new account. That’s how we protect ourselves.

No. No. And NO again. That is NOT how we protect ourselves. We do it by honest, concise reviews. Your method is entirely wrong headed, a code that only YOU know.

[NordlingHouse]

@HostAirbnbVRBO

Your approach doesn’t create any chance. It gives up on the guest.

Hosts are not in the “giving chances” business. We are not effing social workers.

When guests cause damage or extra work, other hosts deserve to know THE FACTS, from which they can make their own decisions. Egregious guests don’t get an exemption. This is business, not a kumbayah campfire.

[muddy]

I may be wrong, but as I read what HostAirbnbVRBO said, he/she doesn’t mean accepting awful guests with terrible reviews, but that if a host does not leave an informative written review, it does not afford other hosts the opportunity to decide for themselves whether what the host is calling the guest out for is something that would be a decline for them as well.

For instance, if a home-share host gave a guest 2 stars for communication, because they had poor in-person social skills and were therefore uncomfortable to share a home with, but didn’t explain in the written review about the nature of the communication issue, a host of an entire home listing, for whom a lack of exchanging pleasantries with the host day-to-day wouldn’t be an issue, could assume the 2 stars meant the guest never answered any messages, ignored requests for an ETA, or complained in the review about things they never brought up during the stay.

So in that sense, NigeKnowitAll’s “strategy” does indeed not give a guest who may be objectionable to one host, but not necessarily to another, a chance.