Bad Guests how to review them

[Kellie145]

I am new to Airbnb and have had 4 people stay.  The last person who stayed was a nightmare.  He threw a party and disrupted our neighbours. Even though we have strict no party policy and no extra guests.  The places was in such a mess. There was vomit on the breadspead and beds, the walls marked they urinated in pot plants and broke them too and we have had to throw out the linen. So we are in the middle of the claim process. I want to give him the worst review but if I do he will probably say something unjustified back as that is the type of person he is, so I leave him unrated. But this will not help future hosts.  He has 2 ratings on there which were good reviews but nothing since 2019.  Is there way around this ?

[Elaine701]

@Kellie145 @Anonymous 

The plain reality is that:

A) "House rules" are in all practicality, unenforceable. 

B) Unless you have irrefutable proof that a party took place (guest admitting it in writing is the best there is, though unlikely), you aren't likely to get much support. 

C) Damage claims under "Air Cover" are likely to be declined, unless again, you can furnish irrefutable proof, and get the guest to admit it in writing. 

So, as Andrew rightfully points out, particularly in your case (off site host), your best defence is prevention. You need to screen guests to the best of your abilities - ask questions, if the answers aren't answers or appear evasive, you need to decline them or better yet, scare them away. You're better off losing the booking than paying for the damages - and even potentially the guest soliciting a refund for some fabricated atrocity you (Imaginarily) committed. 

Lastly, as @Helen3  has pointed out, some means of capturing the evidence photographically. CCTV is allowed by Airbnb, however be very careful with that, as it too can become a refund excuse, as the final judgement is at the discretion of some faceless person in the safety department. And they don't always collect all the facts before rendering judgement. And overturning a flawed judgement is very frustrating and difficult, if not impossible. 

The upside to having CCTV prominently displayed in your listing description, is that it tends to scare away those who have something to hide. 

Sorry for your misfortune. Many of us know very well how frustrating and depressing it is when this happens. 

Good luck in the future! 

[Gillian166]

hi @Kellie145  welcome. 

firstly i would have waited until the end of your 14 days to write the review. 
if they do write a review be sure to respond to it calmly, with facts and keep it short. 

I had some guests vomit in my little cottage (they'd been to a wedding and clearly overserved!), they were super nice people but didn't mention the vomit and even tried to hide it. took me hours to do the turnover, and i even found more vomit the next day inside the bathroom cabinet and on the curtain!

I charged them $135 clean up fee, and they meekly paid it. 
from what i hear anything around $200 abb will try to enforce it for you, over that and you're in for a fight. you need to take photos of everything, and video too.  

agree with the camera thing, we have cameras on our property (although we had them before becoming an airbnb cos we had someone steal equipment from us), so we can see if guests are sneaking in extra people, or pets, or having a party. (we also live on site so that's a plus). 

I would agree with @Anonymous  here, as usual!, guests know they can't throw parties in an Airbnb, that's a standard rule, so they look for opportunities with new hosts. 

It looks like you're doing everything right with your listing, although you don't have a house rules listed.  

[Huma0]

@Gillian166 

Vomit inside the bathroom cabinet? That's creative.

[Gillian166]

@Huma0  mmm. that's why we didn't catch it the first time. but after we spent hours cleaning, and ran the ozone machine, i could still smell vomit, thought I was going mad. so we pulled everything out of the cabinet and found vomit traces inside, astounding. she/he vomited on the doona cover, the pillow, the floor, the curtain, thank god not on the new sofa and rug, then made it to the bathroom and vomited in the sink (the tiny sink!) and then presumably the toilet, which they had attempted to clean. there was vomit on the hand soap and lotion bottles too, oh and the architrave and door into the bathroom. A spectacular effort. 10/10. the whole place reeked, and to make it worse we didn't go in until 12pm and had another guest arriving that day!  

I am still very tempted to tell people we'd prefer they vomit outside on the grass, but not sure how to get the wording just right 😂

[Huma0]

@Gillian166 

Oh no, what a nightmare. Look, I enjoy a drink (the names of my cats is a bit of a giveaway), but why do people let themselves get to that stage? I'm guessing we are not talking about teenagers here?

Luckily, I never had anything like that, although I have had guests break things when coming home drunk (colliding into furniture etc) and one who passed out in the downstairs toilet for a few hours. 

Then there was the poor couple who got food poisoning in Paris right before they came. Despite my instructions, as per usual, they went next door and ended up throwing up in my neighbour's driveway. I was calling out to them from my front door trying to get them to come round to my house, but they were in such a state, they just stared at me in utter confusion. I had to go round and physically drag them to my house.

[Gillian166]

@Huma0  it was a wedding, it happens. I keep assuming it was the woman as she was a bridesmaid and often they will start drinking early during the prep and they don't eat much all day. But it could have been both of them for all I know.  It happens. We are in a wine region, i'm surprised it doesn't happen more! After that episode we put those fizzy tablet things (vitB) that are supposed to help with hangovers into our spaces. 

haha, your infamous front door that no one can find, omg your poor neighbours. 

[Gillian166]

Berocca! just watched an ep of 8/10 cats does cd, and they mentioned berocca. then looked at the box, it's a Bayer product so everyone must have it. 

[Huma0]

@Gillian166 

Yes, we have it here. Never used it for a hangover though. It was suggested to me as useful when you are feeling ill and run down. I was given a load of it when Berocca sponsored an event my magazine held, but my housemate stole it all.

Yes, of course people overindulge at weddings. I'm certainly guilty of it. Perhaps I have a strong stomach, but what I meant was, eat, drink, be merry, but maybe not so much that you make yourself VIOLENTLY ill and replicate a scene from The Exorcist.

The first and last time I did that I was 16. It was my brother's 18th and we were staying with a school friend and her family on their vineyard in France (wine country again!). Her parents were most unimpressed and I was painfully embarrassed as well as sick as a dog. Lesson learnt!

[Fred13]

An ounce of prevention is worth more than a pound of cure, and prevention could only occur by taking  certain defensive steps before a booking and preventive ones during the entire length of the actual stay.