What is defined as an "additional guest" versus "a visiting friend".....complete communication failure left me (the guest) utterly confused

[Timothy282]

Dear AirBnB

I was wondering if you might be able to assist me in deciding whether or not I should leave my hosts a bad review for my recent stay. I have never left a bad review before and doing so leaves a bad taste in my mouth because I have worked in hospitality for many years but in this instance I feel like one may be warranted. In part this is because of the way the AirBnB review system is designed and I feel like if they were to leave one for me then my ability to book future accommodation through the site will be affected so I feel the need to share my side of the story. So here is what transpired, although please bear in mind that as always with every story there is my version of events, there is their version of events and somewhere in the middle there is the truth. But I will recount the facts as best I can from my own perspective:

I live and work in Tanzania and I decided to travel to the nearby island of Zanzibar for a working holiday. I wanted to find a place that would allow me to do my work on my laptop in privacy but also I wanted to be near the beach and I wanted to be near a dear friend of mine who I haven't seen in a long time, who manages a fancy hotel in Zanzibar. While perusing places I noted that some had explicit rules regarding visitors of guests in their house rules. To double check what that meant I phoned up AirBnB and was told that these rules are put in place to avoid any confusion between guest and host. AirBnB were very clear to me that any host who wished to avoid having visitors or friends visiting their guests would explicitly say so in their house rules. So I duly avoided booking these places because I wanted my friend to be able to visit me at our own discretion.

In the end I settled on a private apartment which had a "lap-top friendly work space" that said it could fit four people and I booked the entire place for myself under "one guest". In my mind I am the only guest because I am travelling alone, booked and paid for the accommodation alone, will be spending the majority of my time at the AirBnB alone and when I leave to continue on my merry way, I will certainly be doing so alone. I checked their house rules and noted that there was no mention of any restriction regarding visitors or friends or unregistered guests. In fact when I changed the number of guests from one to two on the listing, the price remained the same at $40 a night. Since the place met all my needs, I duly booked the place for an entire month.

Now my aforementioned friend was kind enough to come and pick me up from the ferry port and drive me to my AirBnB where we met the hosts. The hosts were welcoming and friendly and told me that I was welcome to make myself at home. I was duly informed that the four dogs that lived on their property weren't allowed inside the apartment. That was the only rule which was discussed upon check-in other than deciding that the house keeper would come once a week. Three weeks then passed without an issue. In those three weeks my friend would visit me two to three times a week when she could get time off work from her busy job managing a hotel in the high season and when she did we would explore the island together in her car before returning to the apartment where she would stay the night before going back to work the next morning. Paradise!

But then my friend got suddenly sick. Since there is a hospital located near the AirBnB I invited my friend to come and stay with me so I could take her to the doctor early in the morning. The doctor diagnosed her with a respiratory tract infection and prescribed her anti-biotics and told her to rest and recuperate for a few days. Since my hosts had never said anything about having an issue with my friend staying in the past and since I had hired out an entire apartment for myself and since there was no explicit mention of a restriction of any kind listed in the house rules, I presumed that there would be no issue having my friend stay with me for a couple of consecutive nights while she recovered.

But this is when things quickly became sour between the hosts and myself.

Upon returning from fetching lunch from a restaurant for my poor bed-ridden friend, the husband of the host asked to speak to me. Apparently my friend had pointed out to the housekeeper that there were some dead cockroaches on the floor that the cleaner had missed. The housekeeper had reported this information to the husband and the husband had taken umbrage with this fact. He told me that my friend had to leave because "she was making complaints" and I had booked the place for "one guest and not two". I considered his request but in the end I declined his offer on the grounds that my friend was sick and could barely move. Instead I asked the husband why on earth he was choosing today of all days to start all this unnecessary drama when my friend was sick and they hadn't mentioned anything in the past regarding my friend coming to visit from time to time. After some discussion we ended up reaching a stale-mate in which I simply refused to throw my sick friend out as the host demanded on the grounds that there was no mention of any restriction regarding visitors in the house rules. From my perspective the host simply seemed to be introducing arbitrary rules without any prior notice simply because my sick friend had innocently pointed out a few dead cockroaches to the housekeeper.

The following day I received a message from the host, the wife, through AirBnB saying that she wanted to do things officially through the platform. In her message she said she wanted to charge me an additional $400USD because I have had an "additional guest" staying with me for the entire month when I had only booked the place for "one guest". In reply I sent what I considered to be a rather diplomatic response in which I told her what I had told the husband the day before. I stated that I am sorry if they felt imposed upon or that I had tried to "trick" them by sneaking in an extra guest but I had checked the house rules when I booked the private apartment and there was no mention of any restriction regarding visiting friends or visitors not being allowed past 10pm or additional fees that would have to be paid for unregistered guests staying the night. However if it were her wish then I would respect her property and my friend would never be seen again from the following morning. I told them that in future I hope they introduce house rules regarding visitors so that there is no confusion from either side. I received no reply to this message.

Instead the following day I received a separate email through AirBnB from the host, except this time the message was written in Portugese, a language the host knows full well I do not speak. Luckily a Portugese friend of mine translated the message for me and I realised it was a threatening demand notice which stated that "the host is demanding I pay additional funds and that I had one day to reply or my account would be subject to an analysis by AirBnB". Naturally I declined their kind offer to pay but I was left puzzled by the message being sent in Portugese so I contacted AirBnB support.

AirBnB support told me that the host had now escalated the matter so that a mediator would be reviewing the case and getting in contact within the next 24-48 hours and that I should keep my phone line open and await their call. This caused me some distress because I now felt like my otherwise relaxing experience thus far was being soured by an entirely unnecessary and unpleasant experience thanks to these hosts. As a result I no longer felt comfortable staying at the AirBnB so I started staying elsewhere, despite having paid in full for the AirBnB apartment for another week. Eventually AirBnB support messaged me again and told me that they had received a request from the host that I pay additional funds for my stay and asked whether I would like help in processing the payment. Once again, I declined the request and explained my reasons why and concluded by saying:

"My argument and rebuttal is fairly simple.

Surely if you book an entire apartment for yourself for an entire month then you are allowed to have friends visit you at your own discretion, unless the house rules or the host explicitly state otherwise. If the host did not wish my friend to visit me from time to time then why not just include such a rule in her house rules or say so from the start. Waiting until my last week to cause all this drama and demand $400USD is not an appropriate way to handle matters. Not when she could have exercised her right to turn my friend away from the beginning or make me aware of any additional cost I would have to pay. Quite frankly, this whole experience is making me feel uncomfortable and I am counting down the days until I can leave this place and move on with my life!"

Since sending that message two days have now passed and I have not heard a word from either the host or AirBnB support regarding the issue so hopefully the matter has now been dropped.

So I return to my original concern about whether or not I should be leaving a bad review for these hosts when I leave since I am sure they will be likely be kind enough to leave one for me. From both sides I admit that there has been a communication failure which has led to all of these silly issues. Frankly I would usually just chalk the entire experience up to misunderstanding and human error of judgement in the heat of the moment.

But then the fact that they completely ignored my diplomatic response trying to defuse the situation troubles me; coupled with the fact that they send me that odd message in Portugese trying to demand an additional $400USD; and the fact that they seemed to contact AirBnB repeatedly trying to get AirBnB to take money from me on their behalf while making no attempts to communicate with me directly; and the fact that they had ample opportunity to discuss their policy regarding friends visiting from the beginning but chose to stay silent until demanding a significant sum from my pocket in the last week of my stay; together with the overt lies they seem to be telling AirBnB in trying to charge me for an "additional guest" who has stayed with me for the entire length of my stay, which is a pure fabrication on their part; and the fact that I have noticed that they seem to have changed the pricing on their listing so that "one guest" is now $38 a night and two guests is now $46. All these actions cause me some consternation concerning their behaviour.

In short, in my mind all of their actions are adding up to something more malicious than simple miscommunication. 

So I wanted to ask the esteemed sages of AirBnB for guidance regarding what you think I should do in this matter. After all perhaps I was completely wrong from the start. I admit I am not all too familiar with AirBnB policy regarding friends visiting your private apartment. For the most part I simply assumed that if you hire a private apartment for yourself for a month then you would be allowed to have friends visit you from time to time, unless told otherwise. But I do know that I certainly don't appreciate the way they have handled the matter. In all my years in hospitality I would never have spoken to a guest in the manner that they have spoken to me. But my natural tendency would be to just move on with my life and say nothing. Yet I do not want a terrible review posted about me that would affect my future bookings through the site without a chance to share my side of the story. And I cannot see the review they will leave me until I post one myself and once I do, I cannot change it.

Thanks for taking the time to read this silly story and thank you for your suggestions regarding this matter! Essentially it seems to boil down to what constitutes an additional guest versus a visiting friend of the guest. Any guidance you could offer would be appreciated. 

TLDR: Miscommunication or avaricious behaviour or idiocy on my part or a combination of all three has led to the hosts demanding an additional significant sum from my pocket and I am not sure who has the moral high ground in this matter. 

[Brian883]

Hi, I'm Brian, an experienced host from Ontario Canada.

The facts that YOU have presented puts the host in the wrong. If they want to charge extra guest fees or don't want visitors they should have mentioned that in the app and/or in the house rules and policies so you, as the guest, is completely aware in what to expect before you book. It is completely wrong that they tried to change the extra guest setting while you had already checked in. Airbnb shouldn't be able to charge you either if their rule wasn't already in place. I would fight that if they did. Sometimes you get a rookie ambassador that might make a bad call.