Nightmare Guests show up w 3 extra pp & 4 dogs including Pitbull

[Nancy1588]

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.

[Nancy1588]

[Sarah977]

@Nancy1588  I lived in Courtenayfor 25 years. It's so cool that there are tropicals that handle Canadian westcoast winters. Do you have to insulate and wrap the palms and bananas in the dead of winter?

Another really tropical looking plant that does well up there and is evergreen, in case you  don't have one yet is Japanese aralia (Fatsia japonica). 

Grows well in shade.

[Nancy1588]

Thank you for the tip on the Japanese Aralia. I don't have one of those. I'll check it out. We have lived here one year now so are still learning lots. We just cut the banana plant which was about 15 ft high from one season! We were told to use the leaves from the tree to shelter it. Some people use straw. But you do want to make sure there is airflow or it can damage it. The palms are amazing. They just do their thing all year round. I was told not to mulch around it and to give it fertilizer made with a beer HA! I'm going to put your Airbnb on my must visit list. I have lots of friends who love Sayulita and I have never been. Do you know the Artist Effie Baker by chance? She has a large white dog. Just thought I would ask as it is a small world. Take care and stay in touch. 

[Sarah977]

@Nancy1588  It's a small town. I definitely know Effie. We've been trading books and I did a lot of upholstery work for her. She also  kindly transported the baby quilt I had made for my newest granddaughter up to Canada a couple summers ago and mailed it to my daughter in Merville.

[Nancy1588]

I just wanted to say a BIG thank you to everyone who supported me in this post. I did as you suggested close to the 14 day mark I submitted my guest review. I used the wording that @Laura2592 proposed and was careful to not use his name just "the guest". Honest, short, factual. Of course that revealed the long horrible personal review. I was able to smile when at the end he said "Nancy is a KAREN!" I kept cool and honest, brief & factual in my reply ending with "I don't know what it means to be a KAREN but I know a lot of really nice Karen's so I'll take it as a compliment." 😉 Then I contacted Airbnb on the previous Support Thread on the incident and told them that the review did not meet their standards and had many personal insults and improper language. After a couple of days I got an email to tell me that they agreed and took down the review. So this process, with your support, worked in the end. I see that my review of the Guest has been allowed. He has responded in an inappropriate way which will not serve him well going forward. I have faith in the Airbnb system and most importantly in the fantastic Host Community from around the world. I am inspired now to help other hosts. I want to continue learning and improving the host & guest experience for all.  Happy Holidays everyone!

[Flavia202]

Hi @Nancy1588.  Good to read about a happy ending for you even though the guest behaved badly.

I second that about the fantastic Host Community on this forum. Always a pleasure tuning in.. Happy Holidays!

[Nancy1588]

Thanks Flavia from Jamaica. I am feeling your warm vibes here in cool Canada 🙂

[Laura5144]

Hi there! Thanks for posting your story, because it's really helpful to me. This is my first experience hosting and I agreed to host to a woman, her husband and thier 14 year old son. Three is the maximum for my listing. The day before they were supposed to arrive the husband contacted me, still on the woman's account, and told me that his wife and child would not be able to come and that he would be coming alone.  He also told me what time he would arrive in the city. He shows up 3 hours later, but he's not alone. Now he's got three random guys with him. I've contacted Airbnb support, but everyone who responds and then hears my story sends me to another person. I'm still waiting for some kind of official response from Airbnb support. So I'm really glad this resource was here!! Hugs!!

[Nancy1588]

@Laura5144  I would probably had let the new guys stay as long as they are respectful of your unit and your rules and pay the appropriate fee.  I was annoyed by the additional people but that could have been worked out. The 4 rowdy dogs that I wasn't expecting and the disrespect of rules (smoking pot in the suite) was really the issue and then the outburst of aggressive language was a reason to terminate immediately. If that ever happens to me again I will not let them check in. I guess you have to trust your gut sometimes too. Good luck with that. 

[Inna22]

@Nancy1588 i’m so glad that your story had a good ending. One thing I do that for some reason other hosts are really reluctant to do is call those guests who do not reply to any of my messages. Often it turns out they don’t have their notifications on but sometimes important details come out about their stay that they were trying to withhold prior to their arrival.