A new system to hold guests accountable

[Sybe]

When you welcome guests to stay in your space, it’s essential that they respect your home, follow your house rules, communicate promptly if issues arise, and avoid creating a mess. So, we’re introducing ground rules for guests – a new set of enforceable standards that all guests must follow.

If a guest breaks ground rules, they get a warning the first time. If the issues persist, they'll be suspended and, if necessary, permanently removed from Airbnb.

You’ll still be able to write any additional house rules for guests to follow. And if a guest violates any of your house rules, we’ll support you if you need to cancel the reservation early. 

Read more about it on the Resource Center.

[Carolyn693]

Thank you for your help.

I'm still at a loss as to why the so called Airbnb Support for superhosts keeps determining the review as not removable only based on the public review.

Forgive my understanding of the word review as I would consider it to be ALL of the questions and answers from a guest would determine the complete review and all of the content contained in the same questions would be the complete content. Mathematically the review requires all of the ratings to determine the average as part of the complete review.

Its the same as agreeing the to house rules, you cant pick and choose which rule you agree to or not agree to. The support team should not pick and choose that the public review is the only part of the review or content to make a determination on.

This guest broke their agreed house rules, they broke the Airbnb Ground Rules for Guests and failed to communicate any issues to me during their stay.

In their complete review she low scored my continuously five star property. This review falls into into the category of unfair, bias & prejudice, as they did not communicate any issues during their stay or allow the host any capacity to remedy/rectify any so called issues during their stay. That in itself is a major bias or prejudice for or against one person or group, especially in a way considered to be unfair.

Have a look at Brian Cheskys video of the Winter 2022 release Point 7 where he specifically mentions the words "unfair, retaliatory reviews.
If the CEO states this, then the company he lead should 100% back up his promise to all hosts. This is called trust, apparently the Airbnb platform is built on trust but I'm not feeling it.

@Emilie

@Catherine-Powell 

[Tom934]

Totally agree, hosts are still being held to ransom or punished by guests playing the system. If a house has a repeat rating average, anything way off the this should be a red flag and be reviewed with the host involved to being allowed to respond prior to posting.

[Michele1348]

thanks for the ground rules.  It is truly necessary today.  I’ve been with Airbnb for almost 10 years and I can say the guests and how they act has changed.  But again I think it’s because Airbnb became less of a sharing of your home or space and more of a hotel alternative.  For the first time I have had 2 guests tell me they would like theirs sheets changed weekly like they do in a hotel.  One even said like other Airbnbs.   These are young people who have never traveled but there is this “hotel” like expectation.    

The ground rules help.  

i would like to make a couple of recommendations on the whole review system.   Idea 1:  if a review is clearly abnormal from host’s other reviews - allow the review to be removed.  

2). Create a step before a review is posted where the host and guest must approve each others reviews.    

thanks again. 

[Bhumika]

Hey @Michele1348 ,

Thank you so much for posting your suggestions as well. I will make sure to pass it to the relevant teams.

You can also pose this feedback for Airbnb directly via the Feedback Form, in case you would like to elaborate on it.

[Laurelle3]

I thought health and hygiene would be a natural state of changing sheets weekly. I leave clean sheets and towels with a linen bag to place used linen in if they wish to change after 4 nights. Explain to guests when showing through cottage. No one has changed the sheets but have used the towels. We also have a washing machine and supply washing powder l.

[Sophannara0]

Thanks for your this community and we are really got some good guest now.

[Downtown6]

Hi, when do the bad reviews drop off for the ground rules? After how long? 

[Shawnee8]

Greetings Sybe,

We are new to Hosting and we have had our 1st long-term booking. The person has a “verified” profile using the name, **. However, the actual name in the NY State issued identification is ** (age 20). She and her male partner, ** (21) signed a written agreement and began their stay on August 1st. It was supposed to be a 9 month stay. They violated House Rules, damaged the property, took towels and wash cloths, and decided to cancel the reservation after our 3rd meeting to discuss House Rule violations.

The issue that We have is that AirBnB opens the door for scammers and people to engage in criminal behavior by allowing verifying profiles using an alias. How can you foster trust when the person’s profile is verified based solely on a picture and phone number. Thankfully, they decided to end the stay early; however, after leaving they gave us a 1 star review which was taken down because it was deemed baseless. 

There should be a way for Hosts to post pictures of Guests who engage in scamming, damage property, and violate House Rules so that other Hosts can be alerted. Is there a section for this on the Host Resource forum?

**[Name hidden due to privacy concerns - Community Center Guidelines]

[Victoria-Joy1]

Agreed. And people who violate and then are malicious should be permanently removed. This is not a joke to hosts, their homes, their income.

AirBNB allowed a malicious renter who violated vaping policies to get a refund on their stay, taking away an entire month's worth of income for me. Not a joke. I am not a hotel chain. And the AirBNB process does not follow good-faith principles. Not at all confident of the legality of processes at this point.

[Cathy170]

My apology, I just saw this.  My recent Airbnb experiences have really not been good at all.  I had two rentals back to back that trashed the house I was renting.  The damages were very high and Airbnb did not pay enough to even pay to fix the beds that were broken, forget anything else that was damaged.  I still find things periodically that were damaged.  And I found out that one daughters boyfriend was local and known to break in and hurt people and Airbnb cared not at all.

Now since my last rental, I should have received payment by the 22nd but still not payment and it has been escalated, but no one contacts me to let me know what is wrong.  I have a homeowner that is furious and blames me and I’m not sure if he even believes me.  I am very unhappy and may take the homes off Airbnb at this point.  I don’t need the amount of stress this is giving me.

[Jaime810]

Hello Sybe,

As a new Airbnb host, I recently encountered a situation where guests violated numerous house rules, including smoking on the property, damaging pool equipment, attempting to kick in the front door, and displaying hostile behavior. Despite clear communication of rules through our listing, electronic guest book, and reminders, the guests disregarded them shortly after arrival. We were forced to involve the police for the safety of our property and neighbors, resulting in their eviction approximately 13 hours before checkout. The damages caused amounted to around $1,000, prompting us to submit claims to Airbnb's coverage program.

However, the guest managed to persuade SOME Airbnb support person to grant a refund for the night the guest was evicted, falsely claiming I had undisclosed cameras on the property. This assertion is untrue, as all cameras are visible and their locations are clearly stated in the guest book and listing description, including the use of a Ring camera. It's frustrating that despite our efforts to uphold rules and ensure transparency, the guest was able to manipulate the situation to their advantage. This reservation was NOT cancelled; the guests were removed from the property by the Police Department for being hostile, breaking house rules, kicking my front door, and being highly intoxicated.

Out of the $588 reimbursement from Aircover, only $132 was received, as they refunded the guest for one night's stay and deducted it from the reimbursement for damaged pool equipment.

I find it concerning that Airbnb failed to connect the dots, allowing the guest to manipulate the situation while I deal with an ongoing investigation into the events at my property. It's disappointing that Airbnb didn't thoroughly investigate before issuing the refund, which likely would have prevented it. I would really like to know how someone who was lawfully evicted, causing damage to property, kicking in my front door, breaking numerous house rules, flipping me the middle finger on my Ring camera, being highly intoxicated, can receive a refund?

WITH ALL of the appropriate documentation, pictures, and a police report send to Airbnb. 

Ultimately, I've decided to withdraw my investment from the platform after my last guest, as I no longer feel supported by Airbnb.

I would like your advice and take on my situation. 

[Stephen1004]

Wow.  Reveals a dark side of the Aircover process. 

[James3985]

Terrible, this is definitely a horror story. Thanks for sharing and best of luck to you going forward. 

[Colleen-and-John0]

My situation wasn't as bad as yours, but I've had a few incidences were AIRBNB has not supported the host/me. I had a lady using my apartment as a lock in weekend with a friend to partying. They smoked in my non-smoking residence. The place smelled like pot for weeks. They burnt holes in my couch and flipped the beds, moved furniture, broke a table and I didn't receive any reimbursement from AIRBNB.  I couldn't get the smell out for weeks. Guests who already had bookings after this complained about the smell and gave low reviews due to this bad guest. As we all know ratings are everything, this truly hurt our bookings. I thought about finding a replacement to AIRBNB, I just haven't made the move yet.

[Alexandra85]

Reading all of these concerning reports is worrisome. I have the same experience with Airbnb now with false claims, rule violations, disregard for me a Super Host with excellent reviews. It is a huge risk to continue with Airbnb for all of those I am reading about here. The insurance process sounds about par for the course. Airbnb told me to get me to take a four month rental that the cancellation policy for that stay was strict - it is not. Airbnb is refunding after guest is leaving due to my 48 hr. notice to  inspect property with inspector for maintenance,  cleaning - this is just the tip of iceberg for this guests violations, guest exceeding guest's own guest use of a single occupancy guest house, and much more. There is something wrong with Airbnb that is attracting the wrong guests. Hosts need to be careful to review esp. long term guests that could scam and become squatters, which is happening quite a lot. Airbnb administration is convoluted and in other countries. Not all have the same values, rules, etc. as in US. All I can say - I feel for all of you. Maybe long term rental is a better choice?