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However you do need to take some responsibility for going outside of BNB and letting this guy stay. You didn’t need to let him in. You could have called BNB advised them on what had happened and they would have reached out to the guest who booked and cancelled the booking.
I can’t believe you value 750 over the safety of yourself and your guests
When he came into your private space, why didn’t you ask him to leave? Why didn’t you call the police if you felt threatened?
As you should know if you have your cancellation policy set to strict, you would have still been paid if the original guest or BNB had cancelled the booking as they had lied and misled you.
I agree that you would be better off not operating as a host but see no good reason for you to contact your local councilman. You had an option not to let this guy in and to have a stricter cancellation policy.
How is it BNB’s fault that you choose to do neither of these things.
I am 59 years old. I have been married twice. I have lived all over the world. When a man touches you without you permission a la Trump it is assault. This man said the following things to me, “my wife and I decided to swap partners with our best friends and the god parents of our children. My wife’s favorite position was the ultimate position where I had my dick in her ass and my best friend had his dick in her pussy.” I won’t go on but he did for 20 minutes. He described his sexual positions with his friend’s wife and then he described how they all went to swap clubs (very popular in Seattle) and what they did there in graphic detail. I was trapped in my basement with a 17 year old guest upstairs. This man was using me to excite himself sexually. It was very frightening. While it is not technically a crime, I would characterize this as “verbal assault.” You don’t have to touch someone to threaten them and he threatened me.
Kathleen please don’t get me wrong, this is a horrible thing this man did to you and is completely unacceptable. I hope you asked him to leave immediately.
I have been the most vocal advocate for Airbnb in Cambridge. My airbnb is highly successful and I have testified at city council meetings about how valuable Airbnb is for the city economy and for people like me. All I am asking for are policies that help protect me from this kind of situation. Better fast tracking of the problem within airbnb and stricter cancellation policies.
The problem is that you are so frightened by this that you are afraid of how he might react if you ask him to leave. It was 11:30 at night and as I have mentioned I had a young female guest upstairs. And it took me a day to really understand what was going on there.
I have been asking Airbnb for a stricter cancellation policy so that I am fully refunded. Now all I get is a day. This was a big weekend where I would have lost a significant amount of money. I am willing to take the risk that I lose bookings with full protection but Airbnb won’t let me. I always allow people full cancellations when they ask. They don’t even have to have a good reason. If they aren’t happy here they can leave at no charge.
You are an adult person. Instead of staying there and allowing him to, as you put it “verbally assault” you, perhaps you could have removed yourself from the situation. You actually should have removed him from your house.
This sounds utterly horrible and repulsive. Was there a reason you couldn’t walk away from him or say you had something on the stove, anything?
I’m amazed that you allowed him to stay after this evening. I would have thrown him out and eaten the loss if I had to. (although I agree Air shouldn’t refund guests like this. Unfortunately, since this was a 3rd party booking, you didn’t have a leg to stand on with AirBNB).
the cancellation policy which is at the heart of this problem only covers me for one night out of four at a rate of $250 a night (raised due to a large event taking place here). I realize now that I could have taken action by refusing to let him in but I was mistaken in believing that he was part of the reservation. What I want is to find a way so that this doesn’t happen to anyone again and I believe Airbnb could have taken more responsibility in how it sets up reservations–they scrub out the personal data which means they could scrub out third parties or alert you to a third party reservation and how it handles emergencies and cancellations. Instead I get blamed and called a troll.
I will repeat what others have tried to say. AirBnb has NO responsibility here. All they do is provide a platform where you and potential guests can “meet” and agree (or not) to share your space; they collect money and pay you and taxes. That’s it.
It is YOUR HOUSE – YOUR RULES. You let this guy in knowing that AirBnB does not allow 3rd party bookings. YOU broke the AirBnb rules because you were greedy. Because of your greed, you did nothing to remove these people from your home. Your high & mighty councilman will tell you the same thing – Air is NOT at fault here. YOU are!
Wow @Colorado and @chicagohost. I assume that you don’t know that alcohol is a drug that causes aggression and violence. I grew up around a lot of alcoholics and I know that if you try to stop them from their rants and/or leave they can become violent. You can call it what you like, but the “guest” was putting her in a position where she felt she had to listen to him describe something that very few people would want to hear or deal with a potentially dangerous drunk. Also, she may have been concerned that if she didn’t listen to him rant, he might have decided to tell his story to her other guests.
She also has a point that if a guest violates the Airbnb Terms of Service, especially in such an egregious manner, they should have to pay for the stay if the place can’t be rebooked.
My question wasn’t rhetorical – I was asking for more context as I assume she felt threatened into staying. I would not try to deal with a drunk guest like this, but in the morning, after he was sober, I would have asked him to leave.
I also agreed with her that when guests pull stuff like this, they ought not to get a refund but unfortunately, once she’s accepted a 3rd party booking, AIR can wipe their hands clean and claim no responsibility.
Kathleen you’ve said a couple of times you’ve asked Airbnb for a stricter cancellation policy. Just to confirm you control your cancellation policy not Airbnb.
Sorry you went through this. What you can do now is protect yourself for the future; I’m certain had you called Airbnb you would have received the payout anyway.
The cancellation policy is only in effect when the guest cancels, not when the host cancels. I believe that the original poster wants Airbnb to create a policy where if a host cancels the guests’ stay for cause, the guest will not receive a refund.
The cancellation policy remains in effect if a guest fails to comply with Airbnb policy. I had a third party booking where once I found out what was happening, told the guest they needed to cancel (which they then called air about). Air called me and asked if I wanted to keep my payout… I said no because it was a genuine mistake on their part and I was sure I could get another booking.
In this case the host isn’t cancelling per se; the host cannot host because the guest is not who they said they were. In these situations they lose their money.
First, set your cancellation policy via dashboard. Second, decide what’s more important, money or safety. Third, stand up to for yourself. In you place I’d have said, it’s late, I’m tired, good night and left the room. Then Gone to my room and blocked the door. If he still continued to harass you or other guests, call 911. It’s not difficult to figure out any of these actions.
Blaming anyone but yourself for such foolish actions as you’ve described is moral cowardice. I hate that people won’t take responsibly for their actions and expect the world. Airnb and the town council to make it all better.
I am shocked at everyone who is piling up on the poster. When someone posts that a guest used too much toilet paper, took too many showers, used a washcloth to remove make up, etc. people here are sympathetic. What the original poster here is describing is truly scary. Can’t people either offer constructive advise or sit on their typing hands?
I’m also surprised by how harsh the responses are given how vile this guest was. (I think this is the most repulsive behavior I’ve ever read about on this forum). Even if Kathleen didn’t follow protocol by accepting a 3rd party booking, that’s no reason to diminish what she dealt with or to blame her for what happened. 100% of my 3rd party bookings have gone off without a hitch and it’s incredibly unfortunate that this is what she ended up getting as a guest.
Unfortunately it’s the classic response when a woman complains about feeling threatened or unsafe. Saw similar in another thread and was equally irritated.
it’s all to easy to get yourself in a bad situation; hindsight fools us all into thinking we’d never let it happen to us.
I have had to log in under a different user name to address these issues. I have set the strictest cancellation policy possible and it only refunds me for one night even if someone has booked for a month and cancels when they arrive. If I had known that I would recoup the full amount I would have sent him packing at the door. I have sent many email and made many phone calls asking for one higher level which is not a setting but which Airbnb grants on a case by case basis. They refuse to help me. I would prefer to assume the risk of lower bookings knowing that a cancellation is not going to hurt me financially. I am fully sold out all the time. I have hundreds of glowing reviews. This is a policy issue. Not a settings issue.
