Guests urinated on walls

[Tyrone11]

I had guests that threw a party which meant there were not enough bathrooms for the amount of guests. The guys all used my yard and exterior walls to relieve themselves and I have it on camera. Guest admits urinating around the house but refuses to pay for cleanup. Airbnb claims it is not physical damage so they will not assist either with the costs for the chemicals or cleaning fees to get rid of the smell. Any advice recouping these costs? I don’t feel it is right that guests can urinate all over your property and you aren’t protected in any way by Airbnb. To me, this does damage the home. 

[Linda108]

You have a lovely home with great value and positive reviews.  I am surprised this is the first time you have had a party.  Air BNB is quite sensitive to being blamed for any party that gets out of hand and having to find bushes and walls to urinate on is definitely a sign of an out of control party.  With your cameras, was there no way to realize there was a party going on?  Given that you are a remote host, and the City of Indiio requires a complaint response within 45 minutes, do you have a local co-host?

As to you question about damages, if you have additional cleaning expenses related to the property and you can show receipts for that service, hosts have posted they have been reimbursed from the "security deposit".  If you think you have been given wrong information from a customer service rep, just call back and speak with another rep.  Just follow the procedure for filing a claim exactly.  As so many hosts faced with your situation have posted, prevention is the best way to deal with this.  You might add to your rules that no unregistered visitors are allowed.

[Anonymous]

@Tyrone11  I'm also confused here - how were these guests able to have a party like this when you had cameras monitoring the home?

[Tyrone11]

It’s not so easy to keep track of exactly how many were on site at any one time. With all the coming and going, counting all the ins and outs and recognizing who has been counted and who wasn’t would take hours to discern. They booked for 10 which was fine but I reckon had at least another 6 which I only realized going back through the footage after the fact. 

That’s not the point though, the point is, how is urinating all over a property exterior not considered damage? It is disgusting, smells and most certainly at the least, needs proper chemicals to get rid of it. How is the guest or Airbnb not willing to make sure at least the chemicals are paid for. If Airbnb knows a house has been peed all over, wouldn’t they want it cleaned properly for their guests?

[Sarah977]

@Tyrone11  You said you have the guys urinating on the walls on camera. It doesn't really matter if there were 10 or 16 doing this, if you saw it on camera, why didn't you call a halt to it at the time, is the point I think others are making. And it's pretty easy to see if there's a party going on, no matter how many people are involved, as opposed to folks just hanging out respectfully.

I can assure you that hosts have incurred far more egregious damages they were not successful in getting reimbursed for than some urine on the outside walls. Not saying that's okay, but it certainly isn't anythung unusual when it comes to Airbnb's support of hosts.

And I can't imagine why you'd need special chemicals- it's just pee- hose it down good and it'll be a non-issue. It's not like some alleyway where homeless people and drunks have been relieving themselves for years.

Also not having enough bathrooms for the number of people has nothing to do with pissing on the walls. I've been to plenty of restaurants that have 50 diners seated and only one men's room and one ladies room. That doesn't mean patrons went out and pissed on the walls. Your guests were drunk and didn't give a d**n.

[Tyrone11]

I did not see it at the time. I don’t sit and watch the cameras the entire time I have guests. I got a complaint from a neighbor about them urinating outside on the walls. I immediately contacted the guest who admitted they had done that and promised to get the group under control. 

Maybe I am a clean freak but for me and my kind, I’m more comfortable knowing chemicals to remove urine were used. I’m fine with dog pee in the grass since it gets consistently watered but human pee on the walls does need extra care. I’m not satisfied with just spraying it with water and I’d expect the same high attention to cleanliness anywhere that I stay too. 

To me: a person that urinates on your property, should pay for the disrespect and contamination. Asking for the extra fees to clean, whether chemicals are used or not, it does cost more to clean even if just time is paid for. Either way I feel this should be compensated for. To one person pee may not be a big deal but to another it is and to me, it is unsanitary, unclean and unacceptable. 

[Sarah977]

@Tyrone11  Well of course people should be responsible for their behavior and any aftermath clean-up. But if you ask them for compensation, and they refuse, the reality is that you can't do much about it when it comes to listing on Airbnb, because their so-called security deposit is bogus. And people who act like animals aren't likely to be responsible about paying up.

And it wouldn't be considered damage, but I know some hosts have been successful getting paid for extra cleaning (for which you would need invoices from professional cleaners). However, you have to weigh the time it would take you to pursue this against the time it would take you to do the clean-up.

If it sets your mind at ease at all, urine isn't unsanitary. It's actually sterile. Believe me, you don't need chemicals, which are likely more toxic than the urine issue. Water and the UV light from the sun will take care of it. It's not like future guests are going to be preparing food on the outside walls.

What many experienced hosts do, knowing how hard it is to collect for damages, is to set aside a certain amount from every booking, put it in a special fund to cover minor damage and extra cleaning. Raise your price by a few bucks a night if you need to for this. Then your own private str insurance would be used for anything major if Airbnb won't come through.

But make sure to leave an honest review of these guests.

[Linda108]

@Tyrone11   I must agree with your outrage about the behvior of these guests but I believe the feedback you are getting is that to have Air BNB support your outrage with some sort of fine is not going anywhere.  For you to transfeer your outrage to Air BNB is also not going anywhere. 

The feedback is for you to have boots on the ground, as is required by your city ordinance to address out of control situations and to write an honest review of the booking guest.

[Fred13]

"...house located in a quiet well kept neighborhood with everything you need from gas bbq, coffee machine, blender, towels, sunscreen, ping pong table, pool floats, dart board, bicycles, big screen TV’s, surround sound, a spacious backyard with a beautiful salt water pool and hot tub."

10 allowed, a small crowd, easy to sneak in another 10 while the host isn't looking. 

Make it $295 for 6 max and keep a close eye on your place and end of your problems.