No pet policy, guest stayed with 3 dogs in our apartment

[Sal-and-Rob0]

A company booked our apartment for nine nights for a worker. No mention of a partner and infant that was staying with 3 dogs. We have a not pet policy which is listed on the booking and inside the apartment as it is in the first floor and 2 separate businesses operate underneath. We received a complaint about the barking dogs in the apartment. We reached out to the person who booked and the guest with no response. After knocking at 2 separate times on the door, three dogs were barking and scratching at the door. After 20 minutes we opened the front door  to visualise what was happening as we thought the dogs were unattended. A mother came to the door and gave us permission to enter. The apartment stank of urine from the 3 dogs and there was dog poo on the carpet.  Lounge covered in dog hair and fabric chewed. They had also blocked access for the business owner down stairs trying to fence off a pathway for the dogs. The commercial cleaner noticed that the dogs had chewed the handles on entry stand and the chair in the bedroom. Now the worker is sending messages about us unlawfully accessing our property and denying the other damages. So frustrating when we love hosting and but the guest have no responsibility or respect. We are hoping the Airbnb resource centre will continue to advocate on our behalf. 

[Helen3]

an awful situation to be in

Hopefully you accepted this booking as an Airbnb at Work booking - as third party bookings are not covered by Airbnb - which means Airbnb don't need to cover any damage under their guarantee. @Sal-and-Rob0 

In your situation I would have asked Airbnb to cancel the booking straight away as two people are staying not the one booked and they have three dogs staying against your pet policy.

Tell them you  went to the premises after complaints from neighbours about dog noise and that the guest didn't respond to messages regarding this  .

say you were knocking at the premises for twenty minutes without response and that eventually a female visitor not on the booking let you in and there  was clear evidence of three dogs at the premises and  dog mess and urine smells everywhere. And that they had blocked off access for a commercial tenant occupying a separate part of the property .

presumably you took photo/video evidence ? 

what did the female visitor say when you told her that she and the pets needed to leave as they were not on the booking? 

And who is the commercial cleaner you mention  and how did they access the property?

your issue may be that it's against Airbnb T&C to enter the premises while a guest is in residence so be careful that Airbnb don't suspend your listing because of safety complaints by the guest.