If you lay down with dog, you get up with fleas! Guest from hell tale of WoW!!!

[Deborah1208]

Lately I noticed the price (smart pricing) put on my house on AirBnB had gone down. Not because it was a bad place, or because of any bad reviews. In fact the opposite is true, I have gotten great reviews. But simply because school is back in session, and the vacation season has come to an end. This, of course, decreases market pressure in the short term housing sector. I did not think much of it. But then through the month of August and a listing into September I noticed a really bad trend. The nice families and small groups that were coming had ceased, and this lower price point had brought in a less amiable element. Three out of my four guests have been challenging when it comes to pushing the boundaries of the rules, if not just stepping all over them.

Guest number 1 – long term stay of 1 month (July into August) for whom I negotiated a monthly discount (significant), as it was only him and he was an older professional gentleman. This soon turned into a second guest with hints that there would possibly be up to 4 guests total. I intervened, and enforced my rule that all guests have to be registered, and paid for. After this he limited to just him and another man (who also wanted to park a camper on my farm, but let’s not get into that). This reservation was cancelled a week early, and I was asked for a week refund. Now remember, that I gave him a monthly discount, but he did not want his rate adjusted to a weekly rate, of course not.  Please keep this trick in mind when setting up your refund policy, because if you are a contractor or traveling employee and you know the assignment is for 3 weeks, you can easily negotiate a steep monthly rate and then cancel if the cancellation penalty is not too steep.  He also was subletting that other room to his co-worker. In the end, I got about $50/night for a 2800 sq ft, 4 bedroom house in which I also set up an office. He was making money off his friend for the stay. So, he essentially stayed for free.

Guest number 2 – 3 day stay, awesome family with two smaller kids. Took great care in the house and of their kids. The children has so much fun fossil hunting, and feeding apples to baby pigs and sheep and exploring the woods. They were great, and smart and funny and a pleasure to host. They are the goal.

Guest number 3 – 1 day stay, booked for one guest. Then a total of 5 guests showed up, with several trucks, boats and trailers.  Again, I got the “but I booked the whole house?” I send him an invoice for the balance of guests and he paid and gave a good review. Because in the end they really liked the house and the porch and the proximity to the lake. So not bad guests just someone trying to take advantage. If I did not live on the property, they may have gotten away with this.

Guest number 4 - booked for 2 guests for a 9 day stay. Brace yourself, because this is the good one. The one that is really making me rethink my choices to host at all, and it only took him 24 hours. I’m going to just bullet point this one to save everyone’s eyes

• Texted him two days in advance and asked if he needed office space, and if he needed 1 or two beds. Fair questions. I try to set up the house to accommodate people’s needs. And I do lock out extra bedrooms to cut down on my work load. He said he needed all the bedrooms and was coming on vacation. So, had to remind him of the rules and then wanted to know if he could cancel the whole reservation. I outlined the rules, parameters for cancelling and that it was his choice if he wanted. No pressure.
• He messages me that he will be in very late on check in as they got a late start. “OK, fine – I will leave the key in door and am right next door if you need me.” (Both houses are on same farm and it is very secure).
• He calls at 1135 that night, and is lost. He is belligerent, and wants to know why I can’t give proper directions. (My directions have gotten many dozens of people directly to my door, same directions.) He won’t listen to my questions or suggestions, and another person in the car is also talking to me, and neither of them sound friendly, and in the background I hear faintly, “F*&^ing B!&*h, too stupid to give directions” . So, now I am a little on edge.
• Midnight, or a little before they finally make their way to the house. I meet them, and make sure they are counted. Three, so far so good. Then the youngest of the three walks up to me and says. “Where do I put these dogs?” I was stunned. Not a dog, dogs? “What dogs? I don’t allow any dogs here.” They had brought 5 hunting beagles. Anyone who knows anything about these hounds knows that 5 is a lot, a lot of noise, a lot of pee, a lot of poop, a lot of digging, a lot of energy…..not your everyday pet. (I used to Fox Hunt, so I know a bit about hounds). He said he could just stake them in the yard….”absolutely not!” As it was late and I was tired, I showed him my horse barn and said they can go in a stall, but you need to figure something else out as I do not want dogs here. I have my own dogs and livestock and you have no proof of vaccines, or insurance on these animals. (I have traveled cross country with show horses, these things are required). So the dogs are secure. I am tired. I try to chalk up these guests rudeness as fatigue and I go to bed.
• Next morning, the dogs are howling up a storm in my horse barn. My mares will not come to the back of the barn for grain, hay or water, as they don’t understand the noise (sensitive pregnant broodmares). And they have taken up 2 stalls. My husband is not happy, I am not happy, the dogs are not happy. The guests are asleep, past 9. I finally do what I have a farm for and go ride my horse. Return from riding to see 2 guests smoking on back porch, and a third is having a conversation with my husband in the barn. It seems that they knew someone who could come get the dogs and they would be leaving. So, I thought things might turn around. My husband and me went to town for errands, and returned a few hours later.
• Upon return there is another truck in drive, with a dog trailer. I think, good, that guy is coming to get the dogs. This is 6pm. then 7…8…9…I do chores and night checks and the dogs are still in barn. There are now 4 men on the porch, smoking, drinking and throwing their cigarette butts out in my drive. They have been drinking beer, from the cans it looks like a LOT of beer, and I am just going to say at this point they are having a Party.
• At 835pm, I text and ask if they can move the truck with the dog trailer, as it parked in front of the garage and blocking me from getting my car out in the morning….crickets, no reply for 2 hours. The reply I got was true to the nature of these beasts, “If we are an inconvenience we will leave and you can just refund us in full”.  Really, I just need to go to work in the morning. I just said, “I need the car moved. Just move the truck to the end of the house please.” Seriously, what if I had an emergency?
• At 1130, the truck is still there. I show my husband the message and said, I really don’t want to get in an altercation with the 4 drunk guys but I need my car in the morning. So my husband walks over there and asks them to move the truck. This turns ugly fast, and they basically feel they have rented the “place”, that they are not breaking any “rules” and that they are well within their “rights” to do what they want.  Wow, just…wow. Then the guest who booked, said he will just go, plus some other unsavory words and my husband stepped aside. It took them about an hour to pack up and get the dogs and get out.
• Then the messages started. Hateful, demanding and threatening. Now by this time I have had several calls with AirBNB and all of these messages are going through the AirBNB platform. I had already worked through AirBNB to line up a refund, and to me, just move on was the best way forward. He pursued these messages, demanding a refund, even after he had been refunded. I had to get AirBNB to share a screen shot of his refund to get him to stop.
• Now the aftermath. They used up a bottle of air freshener on the house, trying to mask the smoke. There are cigarette butts all around the house (I must have picked up 50), there are areas where they staked out dogs around my house and they dug holes, pooped, peed and barfed up their food. My barn smells like dog urine, and it’s stronger than the horse smells. All this in only 24 hours. Imaging what 9 days would have been like. I also have to get my energy down, figure out how to feel good about this, and less threatened.

So, I am analyzing this horrible experience. Spinning it around in my head and trying to figure out why I am having so much trouble since AirBNB dropped the price. But that is easy. It is because AirBNB dropped the price, and I am setting too low of a bottom. I now have the bargain shopper looking at my house. The guys who stay at the $60 motor lodge, or hang out on their buddies couch. Incidentally $68/night is the suggested price AirBNB has for my listing and my bottom price is almost double that. But these shoppers will not value what I have to offer, or how hard I have worked to get to where I am. Truly, anyone who would stake out 5 dogs in someone else’s yard really has no regard for anyone, probably isn’t even too fond of themselves. So, no more $110 nights at the 5 bedroom house, it is too tempting to be abused. It’s too nice of a place, and I work too hard to be treated so. I am not competing with the cheap motor lodges, and they can’t compete with me. I am setting my minimum much higher, but what is still really very reasonable for the size of the house and quality, and amenities. If I get fewer bookings fine, I bet I get better customers, the ones like that nice family with kids, who had a great time and who I would love to have visit again.

[Elaine701]

@Deborah1208 

Horrible. Yes. Just horrible. 

I've had them too. And over time, we've found that reducing prices is apparently a magnet for this type of guest. 

In fact, we now cringe when we get a last minute cancellation, knowing that we're unlikely to get another booking at full price, so we have to consider dropping prices to attract a booking. And that's just asking for trouble. 

First, you become extremely attractive to the ones who care only about whatever is cheapest. Next, for their 3* price, they almost always expect 5* service. And if they don't get it, they want a refund. Some will fabricate something to get a few hundred or even a couple thousand. Then you have to deal with airbnb, who already presumes you're guilty. It's up to you to prove them wrong. 

So, we've come down to this: keep the prices up. Better to go without than suffer the bottom dwellers. And you know what? We usually get a replacement booking anyway, at full price, often at the last minute. Which we find really surprising. 

Oh, and never, ever let Airbnb set your prices. Like you, we tend to stay fully booked at double the price Airbnb recommends. 

Really sorry to hear this. Again. Live and learn.. Good luck. 

[Huma0]

@Deborah1208 

That all sounds horrible and I'm sorry it happened to you. There is not much point saying, "Coulda, shoulda, woulda.. etc." but there are some lessons that might be learnt from this:

- NEVER let Airbnb determine your prices. Ignore their price suggestions. They are absolute nonsense. Airbnb is only interested in getting their commission on as many bookings a possible, as quickly as possible. 

- From what many hosts report on the CC, lower prices are more likely to attract problematic guests. I have experienced this to a certain extent too.

- It is better to have less bookings at a higher price, which means less work and hassle for the same money. Do the maths and figure out what works for you. You need to find that sweet spot where it evens out. Do not chase to get every single night booked. It's often not worth it financially, let alone effort-wise and emotionally.

- Target your listing as much as you can to the type of guest you WANT to attract and do what you can to deter the less desirable guests from booking. If that means being very heavy on the wording regarding no parties, smoking, quiet hours, parking, fees for extra people and pets or whatever, so be it. You will deter some guests, but those are the guests you do not want.

- By all means, give longer stay discounts, but don't make them so high that it is not worth it for you and a hassle if the guest is not ideal.

- When long term guests decide to leave early (especially if it's because they won't follow your rules), do not offer a refund. Tell them the cancellation policy is such and such and that you will only consider refunding extra IF you get the nights rebooked and only when you get paid for those. That is, unless, the guest is so bad, you just want them out asap.

- Confirm and reconfirm the number of guests and pests asap and reiterate that any not included and paid for in the booking will not be admitted. Full stop. You do not want to be dealing with that on check in.

- Your questions are fair, but two days before the stay is far too late to be asking them. Ask straight away, ideally when the guest is still in the cancel penalty free window. Guests are much more likely to be dishonest when they are in danger of losing their money.

- By the time your guest party starting calling you “F*&^ing B!&*h, too stupid to give directions” that would have already been the final straw for me. I would not have let those people on the property. There is no excuse for that kind of rudeness and you could clearly see at this point these guests were bad news. You could have tried calling Airbnb to explain that you felt not only uneasy, but unsafe hosting these guests and that you wanted a penalty free cancellation asap. I'm not saying CS would have helped, because it's a bit of a shambles, but they have certainly backed me up in situations where I wanted rule breaking guests to leave.

I could keep going, but the long and short of it is that you need to be selective about who stays on your property, even when times seem rough and bookings are slow. It's just not worth it otherwise, unless you are very thick skinned and don't mind the extra hassle and clean up and dealing with the consequences if something goes really, really wrong, which it could have.

[Ernie-And-Felicia0]

yes if I have a guest wanting to cancel, I tell them they must cancel the booking, that I cannot, and that they will receive the cleaning fee back, and IF the property rebooks , I will refund them after air bnb pays me. Guests so far have been totally fine and understanding of my policy and it’s worked out well. As far as the cursing guy in the truck- at that point I would have IMMEDIATELY contacted air bnb and told them I did not feel safe, made up some excuse to get them out of there before they even got out if their truck, just tell them they’ll get a full refund , and get them the heck off your property, and yeah raise your rates !!!!! or you will get low life scary dregs of society!

[Earl169]

Wow!  How can some people be that way?!  Well, they are.  Sorry for your experience.  In conversations with other hosts I repeatedly hear, "don't lower your price too low or you'll get low lifers."  I drive for Uber and Lyft and I learned over the years that when the rider complains before I even get to their location they are bad news.  I now cancel the ride as soon as they begin to complain.   Wish you the best in the future.

[Fred13]

@Deborah1208Well written post, and yes indeed, what a nightmare.

I wish I would have learned something long ago when I started hosting, but something that was said to me by a friend in passing over lunch 3 years ago (after 4 years of hosting) turned out to be good advise.

   "Market better and charge more".  Had a decorating sister perk up my offering and presentation 3 years ago and started really charging more and the clientele has been a pleasure. The occasional knuckle-dragging ogres are then much easier to handle. 

   People that are for real and honest oftentimes are usually very humble, and very hesitant to add 'sizzle' (beautification, enticing photos, better wording, etc) to their place, but its business and if done for the purpose of attracting a better clientele it is an honest approach. Of course, one must always deliver a good experience to the guests no matter what the price.

   Your pricing of going up only $35, perhaps can change to $50 more per guest/per night beyond 4 people, it  may serve you well and discourages groups composed of cheapo 'friends'. Nine (9) perhaps could be cut down to eight (8) or four couples, a more natural number.

   Just a though and the best of luck.

P.S. Amish in Kentucky, never envisioned it.

[Jenny]

Hi @Deborah1208 

So sorry to hear about this experience.  I really hope that future guests are perfect, and that you don't have to go through something like this again.

Jenny