AirBnB Guests - Pure **

[Trevor243]

Some AirBnB guests are pure **, thinking they can trash a property and get away with it.

Thing is ..... with AirBnB policies on damage deposits and the sheer amount of time and effort required to claim on a damage deposit, yes, they almost certainly can get away with it.

AirBnB want evidence of the original cost of the property, invoices for cleaning and repairs etc - the endless list of evidence that AirBnB wants is ridiculous.

Property condition before damage is clear from the photos on listings.

Damage is clear from photos submitted as part of the damage claims.

Yet AirBnB are NEVER satisfied.

AirBnB prefer ** guests to decent hosts with decent properties.

[Emiel1]

@Trevor243 

Never use "Instant Book" but vet and accept all guests yourself.

Be in control upfont instead of complaining afterwards.

I never experienced such damages or had to make a claim

Hope this helps,

Emiel

[Sarah977]

@Emiel1  I've never had any guest cause any damage, ignore house rules or behave in unacceptable ways.

The difference between the way you and I host and what a host like Trevor is doing is that we host where we live, and personally interact with guests- the hosts who have these "trashed house" issues are those who seem to think that Airbnb is somehow set up to protect them in an off-site host, entire house for rent, IB, situation, which it quite obviously is not.

While people are free to use whatever business model they choose, there are "hosts" and there are "property managers" . It's a totally different thing. Airbnb was originally set up for hosting. While they welcome and encourage property managers with scores, if not hundreds of listings to list on Airbnb, they never changed anything to address the fact that it's a completely different business model.

The kind of guests who are looking for an entire place and have zero interest in meeting the host would be much more likely to not give a **bleep** how they treated the place or left it, than guests who are happy to have a comfortable, clean room in a home shared with others and a host who deals face-to-face with guests.

[Huma0]

@Sarah977 

I very much agree with you and, as a live-in, home host, I never worry about guests trashing my place or causing wanton damage. However, I have still had numerous damages here. Most of them were small to be fair, but there are far too many to list and they really do add up over time, especially as my house is not IKEA identikit but furnished with love and care.

A few examples would be (and this is nowhere near all of them):

- Broken front door lock (an expensive one) from guest repeatedly slamming door with the dead bolt out, despite my instructions. Cost of emergency locksmith and replacement lock =£400+

- Shower panel yanked out of its fittings. This has happened three times and the last time, the guest destroyed the fixings too. I can't find anyone to fix this, so have had to put up a shower curtain in an expensive walk in enclose.

- Countless marks and scuffs on walls from guests banging their suitcases or moving furniture.

- Water damage to ceilings, furniture and fittings from guest flooding showers, breaking radiator valves etc.

- Scratch left on top of a beautiful dressing table that I had just bought because the guest cut a watermelon on it (I am not joking).

That's just some that I remember off the top of my head, but there have been numerous ornaments, pictures/picture frames, a birdcage that I have cherished for years, as well as the sundry wear-and-tear items like ruined bedding, towels, broken kitchenware. Door handles and light switches also seem to encounter a lot of abuse.

I the majority of cases, the guests do not admit to the damage and can often become very hostile. The only cases where they do confess is for very minor things, e.g. a broken wine glass.

I do really try to vet my guests as carefully as I am able, am adamant that all of them confirm they have read the house rules, and I give them a thorough house tour, pointing out areas that have been problematic before, e.g. explaining how to use the front door lock, how not to flood the showers.

Still, sometimes it seems that the damages are never ending. I had one very nice guest break three different bathroom fittings in as many days. He never said a word and never offered to pay, but admitted he had done it when asked.

[Sarah977]

@Huma0  I'm sorry you've had so many damages- even if some seem small, they do add up. I don't know what kind of karma I have with guests, but so far, no guest has damaged anything. Well, one did, but she didn't even realize it, and it wasn't actually breakage- she carried something that dripped from the bed area to the bathroom sink, and the drips ate the sealer right off the floor tiles. I didn't even notice until she was long gone and I was washing the floor in prep for the next guest. Luckily, I use a sealer that's water based and really easy to apply, so it wasn't a big deal and likely nobody but me would even have noticed.

I'm also lucky with my house construction that:  it's all concrete- doesn't matter if the bathroom gets flooded ;  no shower door or curtain is needed (the water couldn't even get from the shower head to the floor unless someone turned the shower head on purpose to face the opposite direction); hard to break my door locks and there aren't even any door knobs or door  handles- the handles are iron bars welded to the iron door and it's only to grab- it's not in any way connected to the locks.

But I know there are people who can manage to break or damage just about everything they touch and I'm certainly not immune from that- had some housesitters once who managed to break or damage an unreal amount of stuff in the 2 months I was away. I figure they ended up costing me about $300.

[Huma0]

@Sarah977 

We all break stuff of course. I tend to do it when I am cleaning too enthusiastically or if I'm really tired. I recently smashed part of a chandelier with a magazine while trying to swat a fly. The annoying thing was that I knew it was going to happen. I was really resisting swatting that fly because I knew I would break something. I just wasn't expecting to break the chandelier! Maybe it's karma. The fly got away.

Your house sounds like Fort Knox! I guess I have quite a lot of breakable things, but the stuff that guests tend to break is pretty weird. A wine glass, okay, but that front door lock was extremely tough. The locksmith was astounded that this guy had managed to break it. He said those locks don't just break. They are built to last decades.

I don't think I have ever in my life broken a doorknob or handle, but I've had to replace the one for one of my guest rooms three times already. I have had three light pulls broken this year alone. Why? How?

I think it's a combination of people being in an unfamiliar environment, but I've also found that, while female guests do damage things too, guys are more likely to break things like door handles and other fixtures and fittings as often they are just too rough with them.

And of course, guests of many different nationalities break things too, but I'm sorry to say that most of the breakages have been from American or Chinese guests, with Americans in the lead. Meanwhile, out of all the British guests I've hosted, only one has broken something very small (he both bought and fitted the replacement, so no big deal). I guess that goes back to the familiarity thing. I reckon if one only hosted guests from one's own country, there would be far less damages.

[Mark116]

@Huma0 @Sarah977 

Off the top of my head--old stove, new stove, metal towel bar, countless towels, some sheet sets, one quilt, a few dishes, a few utensils, antique lamp, so far no guests have broken the locks or knobs but the knobs do often need to be tightened, fair number of paint scrapes, one gouge in a solid oak bed post, some glass ring discoloration on wood furniture.  Other than the stoves, I feel like this is fairly minimal and we've never asked anyone for $$ for anything, although a few, very few people who ruined the towels offered to pay. 

[Huma0]

@Mark116 

Yep, stained (or sometimes torn) bedding and towels, paint scrapes and ring marks on furniture are very, very common. The latter has decreased a bit since I started reminding guests to use coasters, but still happens.

I don't know what it is about the door knobs, cupboard door and drawer handles and pulls, and light pulls (here in the UK we have to have pulls, not switches in the bathrooms due to strict electrical safety regulations). I have never broken any of these things in my entire life, so I don't know why they are constantly getting broken by guests. It's not like I buy cheap fittings. Not at all.

[Huma0]

Oh, and as for guests offering to pay for stuff they damage, I find that happens very rarely. Most don't even mention it, which I think is pretty rude, let alone offer to pay. 

I have found that if a guest does not tell you themselves that they broke something, in most cases they are unlikely to admit it if you bring it up. Some will just shrug it off or casually deny it, while others can become very hostile, like Watermelon Girl, who tried to hide the damage under folded towels and then tried to blame my cats. She got very angry when I responded that, unfortunately, my cats can't fold towels.

Likewise, the girls who damaged the radiator valves. I only realised when another guest told me water was coming through the ceiling below. Upon entering their room, I could see that not only was the floor wet, but the heavy silk curtains were soaking wet. How is it that these girls did not notice? Then they said, if they had broken them, the valves must have been old and cheap.

Well, actually, they were neither. I updated the whole central heating system here using high quality everything. You can buy easily buy a pair of valves for around £6. Mine were £60. The plumber confirmed they were in excellent condition but someone had forced them so hard that they broke the threads inside. Luckily that was an easy fix but, the water damage was already done because these girls hadn't had the decency to tell me when water started coming out of the valves.

The only time I have actually asked a guest to pay for anything though was the broken front door lock. He didn't want to pay for it and initially tried to blame other guests (not realising they had checked out some time before). Anyway, Airbnb refunded me but I have no idea if they took anything from the guest's deposit or not.

Regardless of the money, I just wish people would have the courtesy to own up when they break something. It especially annoys me when they try to blame other guests, and that has happened a few times. They don't realise as a live-in host, I have a very good idea of people's comings and goings, so trying to pretend it was someone else usually doesn't wash.

[Mark116]

@Huma0  Yeah, I would have asked for the cost of stove repair, $300! but I felt it was a long shot. The wife had already attempted to deny they ever used the burner, but the husband admitted he used it but said it was always like that.  No, it was not like that, with a gas leak and completely unhinged knob.  The repair guy actually believed that it must have been done on purpose because he couldn't imagine how anyone could have done it accidentally.....in any case, they would have said 'it was always like that' and how can I prove otherwise? Can't.  They were a family from France who I knew was trouble from the outset because they never responded to any messages, never uploaded their photo, and she left a scathing review of how awful and unfriendly we were.

I sometimes to amuse myself will send a message like, "There seems to be a wine glass missing, possibly someone put it away in an odd place, do you know where it might be?"  when its clear something was broken and not admitted.  

The last bad guests who broke the flower pot and stole a throw, I just wanted them gone and am happy to eat some $$ to never interact with them again in this lifetime. 

[Huma0]

@Mark116 

Some hosts say they take time stamped photos before a guest checks in. I don't think that is feasible in my case as the house is big and there's a lot of stuff. It's impossible to photograph every fixture and fitting. It would take a whole day.

Plus, you never know what's going to be broken next. Like your stove or my front door lock or radiator valves, it just seems so unlikely that someone would break them and not even the repair person can explain it. When I called the locksmith back to tell him that people were having problems operating the new lock, he said, "Then they are stupid. This type of lock is in 85% of homes. It's not rocket science."

I agree that it's just not worth pursuing smaller damages. However, it was actually very straightforward when I filed a claim for the lock. I had to ask the guest for money first and explained to him that I could not file for Airbnb insurance until I had done that, so he didn't take offence (actually left me a five star review). Then I had to provide the locksmith's quote, a photo of the broken lock and one of the door. I got a full refund within a few days. I was surprised actually at how hassle free the process was.

[Debra300]

@Huma0,

I ask guests to pay for things when they don't tell me about accidental damage or when it's obvious that they were being careless or deceitful.  If they'd just fessed up, I probably wouldn't bother. 

[Huma0]

@Debra300 

Yes, I have the same attitude. I have never let a guest pay for something when they have told me about it, except for my current guest, who insisted, even though I told him not to worry about it and a girl who left me £20 for laundry due to an accident.

The problem with the ones that don't tell me is that they will almost never admit to it and often become very hostile. Although I've only had one really bad retaliatory review, which Airbnb actually removed, I have expected more, but often badly behaved guests don't leave a review. Perhaps they are hoping they won't get one in return.

[Sarah977]

@Huma0  It's probably partly being unfamiliar with things that may be different than what guests are used to, but I just find that may people are rough on things. It's not just your stuff they are rough on, they wreck their own stuff, too. And so many people don't get the concept of  'if it feels like it's jammed or not working easily, you don't just force it until it breaks'.

But that girl who broke your door by slamming it with the dead bolt out, and even continued to do it after you told her not to, that's just brain dead.

Also many people have always just rented- they've never had to pay for repairs to any part of a building, they just call the landlord- they have no idea of how much it costs to fix or replace things, not to mention the time involved.

[Huma0]

@Sarah977 

Actually it was a guy who broke the door lock and he was actually a host as well as a property owner. I should have seen the red flag though when he arrived and asked me, "What happens when I come home late? Won't I disturb other guests when I slam the door?" Why would he need to 'slam' the door, rather than just close it like a normal person?!

But yes, you are certainly right RE renters V homeowners. I was thinking today about my terrace (block of houses). My neighbours and I follow the Council's rubbish collection rules to the letter and the pavement is always tidy outside our houses, except for the one house on the corner, which is divided into flats that are rented out. They leave the bins out all week and when they are full, pile loose rubbish on or around them. Right now it's a total mess.

It's not just, like you say, that renters tend to damage stuff, but that they take less pride in their homes. Of course I am generalising.