Suspicious tenants

[Michelle4157]

Ahh where to begin . I had a guest or should I say nitemare guest who disturbed  my entire  community  with screaming, fighting , slamming doors, pounding, throwing suitcases in truck,  peeling in/out of driveway,  foul language and a verbal fight lasting several minutes in middle of nite outside the home ending with three police cars  called by multiple neighbors .They were extremely intoxicated  and fighting about another woman in the bar !  told by police to stay  in house only to go out after they left and disabled exterior security cameras, telling neighbors to go in their  house and stop being nosey!  Agreed to discuss situation in the morning at set time. Upon morning arrival they had trashed house and harrassed female neighbor calling her names I couldn’t say and   left skid marks all over newly installed concrete besides several other things  and departed. Now they asked for money back! I said u left you were not told to leave. ( I was going to have them leave on their own will but they chose not to discuss and vacate ) They destroyed guest log , flooded brand new bathroom soaked 5 rolls  of tp, smashed security camera, bent hinge on door, ripped off all bed linens in there rooms, dumped out all towels  and on and on.  Left front and back doors wide open upon leaving  for anyone to enter took all trash bags and left evidence of drugs  behind. Air bnb so far has been helpful . A word to others, Do not have any conversation outside of the thread so air bnb can see. That was my saving grace. She never denied  they caused a problem just decided to avoid dealing with consequences of actions . I’d planned to refund some of rental but after I heard story from  neighbor and condition of house  I said nope. Wish air bnb had a do not rent list of tenants who are redlined so we could look up . This guests with zero air bnb rentals prior  , no instagram no Facebook so no way to look her up!  Thinking this isn’t worth the few thousand and after this year summer rentals getting out of this. Too much aggravation for seniors  and certainly not not making friends from neighbors who are now angry with me.

[Shelley159]

Hi @Michelle4157 

Apart from all of the obvious reasons why it's so terrible that this happened to you, I also find it quite unlucky that your profile shows you're relatively new to Airbnb, with 9 months hosting. It's good that you've at least had some good guests before this last one to give you a comparison as to how guests normally behave. I hope you update us on how things play out - will you be able to keep hosting despite what the neighbours have been put through? It's so unfair on you and all others affected.

[Bhumika]

@Michelle4157 , I am so sorry to hear of the whole situation that happened with the guest. From your post it seems you've already been in touch with the Customer Support teams.

Have you also raised a claim for Host damage protection since you posted? 

As Shelly mentioned, I hope this incident does not keep you away from hosting and meeting some wonderful guests in future. Hope you're doing safe🌻.

[Michelle4157]

Yes we are certainly extremely upset at this situation.  We are hearing from additional  neighbors and  furthering the horrific events of that evening or should I say middle of night. Incident unfolded at 1215 am and continued until the police arrived in three patrol vehicles approx 1235 am. From what I am told the profanity, screaming, banging, slamming and screeching awoke many people in their homes in this quiet community. What I was left with was a big mess of water, papers, broken camera, bent hinges and mountains of laundry. I suppose it could have been worse. Unfortunately they were so intoxicated. ( they admitted that they had been drinking and driving) they tore up my guest information instructions, destroyed my guest log and soiled 5 rolls of paper products. I was told that one neighbor was so terrified he grabbed a baseball bat fearing this guest. Just to mention I never summoned police bc several neighbors had by the time I got dressed and arrived. He then was screaming and shouting that we are "nosy and get back in our house". Now we are left to hire a commercial service to clean entire house from top to bottom and pull out every piece of furniture to check for contraband and malicious objects/dirt etc. I agreed to meet them at 9 am to discuss options for immediate  departure or rules that must be followed to remain. They chose to tear out of the driveway leaving large black tire tracks everywhere on the new concrete just poured as well as hitting the concrete wall. In their crazed state they kicked the oversized sand pail with years of shells from many islands scattering them about. They departed on their own will refusing to face the consequences of their actions. Strangely they were super paranoid and every singe plug in the home was unplugged from the stove, lamps, tvs, toaster, coffee pot,  etc! There was urine all over bathroom and on and on. A word to others, if the guests has never stayed at an Air bnb, is from out of state, has zero social media accounts, and you have zero info refuse the booking! Its just not worth the trouble.

[Mary1523]

Hi

I'm so sorry this happened to you. Stressful when you have police involved. I understand it's caused a major headache for you internally and hope you can get some financial compensation via airbnb or your own landlord insurance.

Do you have instant booking on? That will filter out such guests, as guests with 0 booking history cannot book, and have to enquire first. It is a learning and experienced hosts do not take 0 history guests likely, we ask lots of questions. 

I think your biggest problem now moving forward will be your neighbours. Were they aware (did you let them know before you started airbnb that you were doing this?). It does go along way to them being on your side. It's ok to say that you are still learning in how to screen guests. But have learnt and will careful for next time.....

If you still want to be in the hospitality business, then smoothing things over with a gift to your neighbours (maybe a case of wine, case of beer or the option of weeks night free use of the house for any friends they might have stay?). We go out of our way to be kind to our neighbours as they often are our first line of defence if in the rare occurence something goes wrong....(we had guests hit golf balls once into a neighbours paddock trying to hit the sheep, neighbour went over and asked them to stop politely otherwise he would call the police for me....). 

The other option is to find a professional airbnb management company that does this for you (you might find your ratings will lower but less stress), if you still want access to the property as a vacation for yourselves.

You've certainly got a gorgeous place, fabulous reviews so none of this will stop you getting more reviews. You just need to decide whether you actually like hosting yourselves or not,

Best of luck and again, sorry you had an awful experience

Kind regs

Mary

[Gary1337]

I am a neighbor of an AIR BNB and share the driveway with the property for about a year now.  I cannot speak as to how trashed the house gets as I quit talking to the host all together.  But I get this about once a month.  I just turn the generator on that my RV has in my driveway to drown out the noise.  I do not have a lot of experience with AIR BNB but this seems fairly normal to have every so often, especially if you have a larger home.  

[Michelle4157]

Not sure what you are referring to. When tenants have police at my home in middle of night and many many many neighbors are out in their pjs bc of it you can not turn up any volume to drown out. Local noise ordinance starts at 11. When police arrive at 1 am for intoxicated screaming guests outside the home that’s it. Then to find home trashed is another chapter in the story.  Please respond to article not generalized statements

[Gary1337]

I get it and did respond to your article.  You had a bad tenant and maybe I did not communicate myself clearly. You had a bad situation but from my experience/research these events are going to happen at some point with a STR and I turn the generator on outside my bedroom.  Keep in mind it is loud, not some little Honda.  Now I can sleep with it because I am used to that sound from camping.  My area has a sound ordnance just like your area.  The point was that I do feel for you, I also feel this is something you will just have to learn to deal with.   See below as to what I am referring to.  

10/6/2023 House party in which the party had 10 foot flames and I saw it from my bedroom.

10/7/2023 Dodge charger doing burnouts in driveway at 1 am

10/11/2023 House party unable to leave my house

11/10/2023 Police report E8892164

11/19/2023 Blocked in by car and could leave on vacation at 5am as planned

12/12/24 Host trespassed

1/8/24 police report E8998405

1/12/24 police report E90006579

1/17/24 police report E90006579

1/25/24 house party blocked in my property

1/26/24 3:45 am drunk guests trying to provoke fight while I was closing my gate trying to go to work

3/9/24 police report E9108551

3/15/24 trespassing by employee of air bnb

3/15/24 E9123509 trespassing and had to close all windows for the weed smoke

3/25/24 owner had to call police to have guests removed 1 am 

4/6/24 blocked access to the road E9158640

4/30/24 host hits my house sign because he has too many cars in his driveway

[Gary1337]

I also do not want you to think I am here to troll hosts.  I am here to learn how the hosts deal with these issues so I can try to make my experience better.  I have learned a lot.  I have learned things to suggest to the host and resources about hosting.  Not much has come of it but I am doing the best I can to co-habitat with a STR.  And do truly value this forum for the knowledge of how good hosts operate.