Hi fellow Hosts. I am a fairly new Host. We started in June of this year and have had a dozen or so groups stay at our 2 bedroom Airbnb suite. I must first say that we have had excellent guests to date. Great experiences and reviews had by all. That was until last Thursday. We live 2 ferries aware from the mainland of Vancouver so it takes people most of the day to travel here. I always contact guests ahead of time and ask them more about their group, what they want from their holiday, what they take in their coffee etc. I recommend they contact me before coming to get better directions too because it is tricky to find. This particular guest was the first time there was NO response from my messages. It is clear on my site that we live above the suite in a house on a private property on the ocean and that we will be around. It's ok to bring A dog if you tell me about it and it is going to get along with my 2 friendly dogs.
In a nutshell this particular Guest booked the 2 bedroom suite for 2 people with no dog. When they showed up at 5pm they had 2 vehicles and brought 3 extra people and 4 dogs including a pitbull! I should have sent them away right away but they were charming and my husband works late that night so I was alone. The said that they would pay me money on the side for the extra. I just said I would have to think about it. They had a 3 year old child with the 2 couples and it was late and impossible for them to get back to Burnaby. So the evening began...The male pitbull was very boisterous jumping and mounting my retriever constantly. Jumping on me..I don't think he was neutered. I finally just retreated upstairs w my dogs and waited for my husband to come home around 11pm.
They smoked pot in the unit and were rowdy all evening. Dogs barking, babies crying, men talking loudly...Needless to say I did not sleep well. The next day I got my husband to come with me and asked to speak to the young man who booked privately at the beach. He brought his buddy and the pitty & another of the 4 dogs with him. I worked out a high price for them to stay which I hoped they would not take and he freaked out. He was swearing at me calling me a F***ing Bitch over and over very aggressive his PB was jumping all over my dog & my husband... of course we asked them to leave immediately. I stayed away at the beach while my husband calmly supervised their departure which was dramatized by a spin out of the driveway with rocks flying everywhere. But at least they were gone. The suite was a mess it smelled of dog feces and pot. My cleaner could not believe it was just one night.
I contacted Airbnb and had a telephone chat and lodged a safety concern and complaint about them. They handled refunding the group for 2 nights and myself for the cleaning. The Guest cleverly lodged a complaint against us saying there was a gas leak so AirBnB wanted me to get a technician to confirm there was no issue. I was on that immediately and had it done is a couple of hours. We have a brand new gas furnace & hot water unit installed a few days before and it was just a bit of smell from the new unit but no leak. AirBnB also reimbursed me for the Gas Technician's invoice. I was really hoping to put this stressful experience behind me. I have made changes to our listing and have taken insta-book off for a while until I am more confident again. I was happy with the way Airbnb handled the situation so I did not have to deal with his aggression again.
Then I see the Guest has left us a review which I can't see until I write one about him. GREAT! Now what? AirBnB says the review process it important. I don't want to provoke him with a bad review but if his (I'm assuming) bad review is allowed to be published I guess I will have to speak my truth. I'm not comfortable with this. I'm sure it's not the first time something like this has happened. Can you please advise? Thank you for listening to my long winded story. It still has me shaking.