Shocking encouragement of guests disregarding checkout day & time

[Mary419]

These are just a few images of Airbnb's twitter page including their own reps condoning guests not leaving on time. On Wednesday this week I had a distressed call from my housekeeper about someone's stuff still being in a condo that was supposed to be turning over. I called the guest repeatedly, sent texts and airbnb message saying you were supposed to be checked out at 11am... no response for hours. We had new guests waiting to arrive that same afternoon. I will glaze over the details in this initial post to not muddy waters for my point but it took hours to get Airbnb service which was useless once I got someone. I should know that by now but was desperate and thought reporting would be important protocol. The Airbnb agent gleefully informed me that she would be refunding the next guest... not out of any Airbnb insurance/fund but out of my payout which instantly became zero...  SO if your guest does not leave, you lose your income from the next guest and you are supposed to thank them for canceling the next guest without penalty for you... and on top of that you are stuck with getting rid of them and their belongings if they do not willingly leave.  Robots talk to you for hours about emergencies like that Airbnb's got real humans posting replies like this making a joke out of people not leaving your property. 

[Lisa723]

@Katrina79 not in current TOS. They have been updated to say only "reasonable overstay penalties" without definition.

[Katrina79]

@Lisa723  Oh really, I wonder what they  pay out for this pain now!? I suppose I will find out I’m the future. Any hosts have current info on recent resolution claims regarding late check out with same day turnover? 

[Emilia42]

@Katrina79 What happens when you try to collect the additional overstay fee from the guest and the guest rejects it? Airbnb will not charge the guest's credit card and make them pay. Who pays it? The "right" to charge an overstay fee may have been in the terms but it doesn't mean a host will get any compensation. 

[Katrina79]

@Emilia42 You treat an overstay as any other request in the resolution centre. Guest can accept and pay, decline, or ignore. If it is declined or ignored by the guest you may choose to involve Airbnb. I’ve only attempted this once and I opened a resolution centre request for damaged items and missing items all in one claim. It took me a long time to clean up and I was working fast so I was happy that I could charge an overstay. The next guests were okay with checking in a bit later. I have taken pictures of vehicles and people inside past checkout and sent them through the Airbnb app to the booking guest. The guest usually responds to that right away and apologizes with some sort of reason and timeframe to leave. Once you have that response it’s an admission on the guest’s part that they haven’t checked out on time. I don’t usually charge an overstay, I usually walk in and start cleaning and ask them to leave. Sometimes I’ll give them 15 minutes or sometimes an hour, it just depends what is feasible for me. 

[Ann72]

@Emilia42  The good news is that the right to "impose reasonable overstay penalties" is still in the TOS Guest Terms 2.3 https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/2908/terms-of-service

The bad news is that there's no way to define "reasonable."  🙂

[Helen3]

Hello  @Mary419 I've been hosting and co-hosting for five years and hosted hundreds of guests so am well aware of problems with Airbnb 

I wonder what it was about my post that made you think otherwise ?????

where did I state anywhere that 'all problems would be paid for by Airbnb

On the contrary I suggested a solution to your issue which would have avoided you having to cancel the upcoming guest. 

[Roberta2]

I believe that one massive pain point is that guests are allowed to create multiple accounts - if they get a bad review, they just start over.

There is no reward for them to keep the account - some time ago there was a talk about "super guests" badges and rewards, like "superhosts", but that never lifted off. Airbnb is good at coming up with blue sky ideas, and forgetting about them a few months later.

Guest, on the other hand, are rewarded by creating new accounts - they collect multiple sign in bonuses, they start with a clean slate. It is very difficult, for hosts, to ensure that the guest with "no reviews" did not play some kind of stunt before.