After more than 15 reservations this year - my first bad experience with a host

[Kian60]

I am messaging from my son's account as I am in the process of deleting mine due to the events below:

I made a reservation for a 2 night stay, checking out for 2 nights and then in again for a week.

The morning of check-in the host messaged to tell me there would be no TV for my initial 2 night stay as the guest who had checked out that morning had "dented it".  Not her fault at all and myself and my son had our laptops to watch on if need be.

Morning of check out we cleaned the place, top to bottom as we always do (hence the good reviews) and checked in again two days later.

All well still.

We stayed indoors and had an early night.  The following morning we went to the store to get supplies as my son was going to braai for us that afternoon.

When we got back he started cleaning the braai area and I started preparing meat and salads.

I went outside to help him light the fire

And thats when I noticed a wasp. I looked up and inbetween the beems and the corrugated iron slats, I noticed at least 4 maybe 6 wasps clinging to a nest.

I told my son and upon investigation he found at least 5 more wasp nests on that one area.

My son spent the next hour with a can of doom and a broom, attempting to hit the nests down to get rid of the wasps - runnng inside every now and then when they came after him - unfortunately he broke the broom on the last attempt and we gave up and spent the next two days indoors with the windows tightly shut. At this time there was still no TV and no word from the host about it.  

We ended up having to cut our trip short due to a family emergency and the host conveyed that this was in order.

I'm going to try make this short. Basically, check out went fine and we left on good terms.  We left the house spotless as usual (apart from the broken broom) and I told her we had used it to try get rid of the hornets nests (which she said she knew nothing about) and she thanked us. She asked me very nicely to please not mention this on airbnb as it would impact her ability to make money over xmas and she promised to sort the wasp problem out before her next guest.

So I gave her a good review and did not mention the TV that was not there or the hornet infestation.

The following day I received a bitter message from her stating that she is at the SAPS laying charges as i broke her broom and her kettle and I left a pot of oil in the pantry!!!

1.  Yes we broke the broom trying to help her get rid of the wasps.

2.  The pot of oil was from the previous nights cooking where we had deep fried (dishes washed and packed away) and as the oil was too hot and I couldnt find a jar to put it in (and at home I would reuse it once or twice to deep fry rather than throw away) I put it in a put to cool down and also thinking perhaps she would like to pour it iinto a suitable container for reuse.

3.  The kettle Im afraid we did not use as we couldnt find one!

PLEASE NOTE that upon checkout I also transferred R200 to her account as a tip for the cleaning lady (who had nothing to clean as the place was left spotless) as I had no cash on me.  We also left at least R700 worth of food, meat, groceries, etc in the fridge and freezer for the cleaning lady or next guest.

Now she is laying charges; AND more worrisome for me, destroying my excellent airbnb rating which i have worked hard to maintain; because i broke a kettle, a broom and left one 'dirty' dish behind!!!!!

When I had to stay in a place with windows and doors sealed due to a wasp infestation and, amongst others,  there was no TV as advertised. And after begging me to not mention any of this in my review and my feeling sorry for her, I did not mention it and then she goes to lay charges against me at SAPS!!!

I really do not know what to do or how to proceed and at this very minute, see no recourse other than to delete my airbnb account due to the false allegations and....I am just beyond upset and shocked

[Anonymous]

@Kian60  You say that the host has gone to the police to press charges, but have the police actually contacted you? It seems rather implausible that law enforcement would intervene over a broken broom, so there must be more to the story than you've revealed here.

Airbnb does have an internal process hosts can use to pursue compensation for damage, but for something as minor as a broom and kettle they wouldn't ask for a police report. 

What did you think deleting your Airbnb profile would accomplish? 

[Kian60]

@Anonymous Yes that it what I thought i.e. why would the SAPS follow up on something so ridiculous!  So no they have not contacted me.  That said, it is the fact that she went to the SAPS to lay charges for something so ridiculous that bothers me!!  What is the thought process that goes into someone doing something so mean! Your comment did however shed some light on the situation for me in that I was not aware that airbnb offered compensation to hosts as such, I now see what the motivating factor was i.e. she was hoping to get compensated.  BUT surely my R200 tip for the cleaning lady and the R700 groceries I left behind covers that.  It just seems so silly to harm someones reputation for a broom and a kettle and one 'dirty' dish.

Re my deleting my profile - the reason being that this one negative review will certainly impact on my chances when making my next reservation - and that it is a false one, made with ulterior motives in mind, and not based at all on honesty, bothers me.

[Nick]

Hi @Kian60 

Upon reading your post, I would strongly advise you to contact Customer Service (from your personal account) and report this. You can do so by clicking here.

Unfortunately, I can't escalate on your behalf as this is not your account and won't look to another person's (even if it is your son) for privacy and security reasons. It needs to be from your personal one.

Hope this helps

[Anonymous]

@Kian60  Most hosts would be much more comfortable accepting a booking from an established guest with 15/16 good reviews than from a new profile with zero. And besides, you can always post a public response to a review if you feel it misrepresented you. If you intend to continue using Airbnb, I think it would be a big mistake to delete your account.

Regarding the rest of it, I really can't imagine why someone would go to the police over minor breakages, unless perhaps there's more to the story than you've shared here. But from a host's perspective, I wouldn't consider the tip and the leftover groceries to be acceptable compensation for damage. The tip is for the cleaner, not the host, so it would have been unethical for the host to take it for personal use (you may feel that your cleaning efforts eliminated the cleaner's workload, but this is not true - Airbnb's Covid-19 protocol requires elaborate sanitation measures that can only be performed after the guest has vacated). And a guest's unused groceries are not necessarily desirable to someone else, especially if they are perishable items such as meat or tainted ones like your used cooking oil. I'd never advise a host to pursue compensation over something as minor as a broom, especially when there was a missing amenity, but Airbnb has a form for requesting payment directly from the guest, so by all means this should have been her first course of action.

A final note:  the host was wrong to seek to influence your review - this kind of behavior is a warning sign that the person is not a trustworthy operator. But if you're having regrets about publishing a dishonest review, you as the author are always entitled to ask Airbnb to remove it.

[John5097]

My only guess is that there was film of grease from the act of cooking. It was good you didn't pour the grease down the drain as most people should be aware that it clogs pipes. You mentioned that you went to light a grill or something but that a small wasp nest prevented you from access. It sounds like an excuse for frying in grease inside. Most people don't cook hamburgers inside and have a grill for this reason in their own home. I'm just saying that would be my guess. I tried to offer a cook top as a bonus that wasn't in the listing with instructions not to cook greasy meats, but straight away a family cooked hamburgers inside the entire four days leaving a film of grease over the cabinets, counters, wall and even the floor was slick with a film of grease. Or municipality only allows STR to have a microwave for this reason, as an exception to the rigorous code for commercial businesses that serve food that require a grease trap and additional inspections from both the zoning and fire department. I did a lot of research on this issue and decided to charge less and not offer an over or cooktop that would have been illegal. Thankfully most guest are here for the city and to go out and eat which is why I keep stays short. That would be my guess as the root of the issue. Also the wasp you described seem similar to the harmless ones here and are beneficial insects. I also have to remove these all the time but in this climate some insects are part of ecosystem and always around. However I don't think any of these things were grounds to file a claim, and the host would need to update their house rules, although it appears that he did expect guest to grill outside so don't think guest should make a huge greassy mess after disturbing a wasp nest that could have simply been left alone and let the host have it removed. 

[John5097]

I also wouldn't be surprised if their weren't more damages, maybe with this broken broom and the windows, although given what was said the host seems to be at a disadvantage. 

[Mark116]

@Kian60  I agree with the other comments that filing police charges over a broken broom, which here in the US costs about $12, is ridiculous.  As a guest I would probably have left the wasps alone and contacted the host to inform.  As for leaving the used oil,  you may have thought you were being ecological, but what you really did is leave the host the problem of how to dispose of a large pot of oil and that is bad guest behavior, but it isn't illegal and isn't a damage either.  However, I would recommend not doing this again. 

[Sarah977]

Sounds to me like the host was just making empty threats. No police anywhere would bother with charges over a broken broom, a kettle, and some cooking in a pot. That's just laughable.

I agree with what Andrew said regarding deleting your account. Hosts are not going to pay attention to a negative review among a bunch of other good reviews, and you can leave a response to the review. But many hosts will decline bookings from a guest with no reviews at all, with what looks like a brand new profile.

No one is going to reuse a pot of used cooking oil someone else has left behind ad it's kind of bizarre that you think they would. You should have asked the host if they had something you could put it in for disposal.

Nor should you take it upon yourself to try to remove wasp nests or anything like that from someone else's home- first of all, one doesn't remove wasp nests by batting at them with a broom- that's a really good way to get severely stung. Secondly, you could have broken more things than a broom in the process. You should have contacted the host about the nests.

@Kian60

[Susan1404]

@Kian60- I'm puzzled by something you stated.  First you called them wasps, then referred to them as hornets.  There is a huge night and day difference between the two.  Either way, attacking them with a broom was not a very sensible way to get rid of the threat.  Here in southern U.S., wasps generally don't bother anyone unless you antagonize them.  They are literally everywhere in my rural area and you learn to co-habitate with them when outside.  Hornets on the other hand, need to be avoided at all costs because of their aggressive nature.  I agree with what others have said in regard to your account - you should not delete over one negative review.  Learn from it and reply as simply, but to the point, as you can so that other hosts will realize this negative review is superfluous at best.  We hosts deal with all too many false negative reviews, but most of us realize that a professional response with a logical explanation can dispel anyone's doubts.