We have a strict no pet policy due to white carpets throughout the property but keep catching guests on our outdoor camera with dogs.
Opinions? Any recourse?
Thank you!
Put your penalty in your House Rules. Cancellation, high fee, as you prefer. As soon as you catch them, download the camera video and report them to Airbnb.
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Do not let them in to begin with, if it is happening often then I would start meeting them at the door.
RR
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If you are having problems it also wouldnât hurt to mention your no-pet policy explicitly in your welcoming message. If it really matters to you, you can use pretty strong wording:
âWeâre glad you chose our home for your stay! Just a reminder, we have a strict no pet policy. Guests arriving with pets will have their reservations cancelled with no refund.â
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I have a fine in my rules $100 per day. Iâve only had to collect once on Vrbo, and it went well. Not sure if I would get push back on Airbnb.
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Depending on the cost of your listing and the costs of other pet-friendly places in the same area, I can see people gambling on a fee of just $100/day. For people who have money to throw around, they might assume that if they donât get caught theyâll get away with it, and if they do, they can âjust pay the fineâ and continue to stay at your place.
I would change the penalty to something truly punitive, like $100/day for any days they stayed there, plus a significant additional cleaning fee, plus a cancelled booking without refund for the remainder of the stay. That will remove people from rolling the dice and trying to get away with it, because the result would be way worse if theyâre caught.
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I also have a $500 security deposit. So I would try to collect damages if Fido also caused damage.
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Good luck!
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dont you have everyone sign and intial a contract before coming in your door? with penalties and costs for violation?
If you are trusting a listing site to enforce for youâŚwell âŚhello dogs.
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Why are you (or your co host) letting them in in the first place?
When you say âany recourse?â what are you doing now when you see them on the camera? And it doesnât sounds as though your âstrict no petsâ policy is strict enough.
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I think I will need to start doing this. Airbnb doesnât seem to be supporting me with my house rules as a host with guests who violate them so having a separate document will at least provide another avenue to try to compel compliance.
It just sucks though that in order to so do requires an entire small claims court process because there is no actual deposit collected by anyone.
It sounded to me like the pets were not made known to the OP at all, so were hidden during check-in (either in the vehicle or off site). I have had this happen before with not only pets but extra people.
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Once the host or co host has seen them on camera, the guests should be told to leave though.
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Agreed. The difficult part with that though is that the guest can refuse and/or do more damageâŚ
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Thatâs true. Guests check themselves in, we never see them. Once in a while I review security camera because the house is in a remote spot and thatâs how I started noticing dogs. I never check while the guests are there because it seems creepy (although itâs an outdoor/driveway camera) but itâs annoying and disappointing.
Thanks, yes, it would work but weâre not there and they know they are checking in by themselves.
I recommend that you DO check while guests are there.
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Itâs your property, and the cameras are outside. I presume you have disclosed that you have outdoor cameras - you have the right to use them. Our disclosure on the (outdoor) cameras says they are there âso we can monitor the property and compliance with house rules, and in case of an incidentâ.
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Good luck. Airâs âdepositâ is not a true deposit.
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Why would anyone put WHITE carpets in a short term rental.? Are you entirely daft?
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