guest mid booking, after being asked to not damage hot tub by a hot tub professional, retaliates against us, and requests a full refund, BUT IS STAYING FULL STAY

[Mickayla2]

Hi all, 

In short:

We have a guest right now that is 5/7 nights of the way through their booking and that we have asked multiple times to leave due to breaking our house rules. We have even asked Airbnb to get them out. Airbnb tells us they will contact the guest and place them somewhere else, but they have not ONCE contacted the guest! We tried changing the reservation, the guest declines it!!! The guest has created an insurance request claiming a full refund BUT IS STAYING THE FULL BOOKING!! This goes against Airbnb's own terms and conditions! We are for a loss of words! Please see the below story, should we call the cops?

The backstory:

Upon arrival to the property the guest made a complaint against one of our 4.8-star historic cleaners we use for all of our properties. The guest stated that the house wasn't ever cleaned before their arrival and that the maid never cleaned before the last guest! 😵 

We became worried as this either meant someone broke in or the guest was lying (here we go again).

As a side note, our maids photograph all of the properties after they are completed with cleaning (even taking photos of garbage's, underbeds, and fridges open). We do this to ensure that our properties are always clean and to standard. We checked the images, and the house is spotless....

Regardless we apologize for any hardships our guests have encountered and our maid is there in 30 MINUTES to ensure the guest is happy. I even tell the guest anything at all please show to the cleaner and she will provide you with a more customized experience. The guest says ok, maid goes there does as directed by the guest, and then we don't hear back from the guest. 

On the 4th day of the 7-day booking. We advise the guest through Airbnb chat that one of our hot tub professional cleaners and repairmen has caught them damaging our hot tub with unwarranted chemicals (non-safe hot tub bubbly soaps) and has been drinking near it making the hot tub incredibly unsanitary and damaging the system (it's an older hot tub that works great but is just very sensitive to non-safe hot tub friendly chemicals). This is breaking our house rules. We send a guest a photo of all the bubbles they have made in the hot tub. Our professional has told us that he found them doing it and even found bottles of soaps and beer cans tipped over nearby it but didn't get photos as he is not there for this. He sent us a written statement explaining what he found suspecting the guest of this damage and his findings of the garbage nearby it.

Of course, the guest says a long list of "I would never", "You're not going to hold me responsible for any damages", "I'm not ignorant", "your place sucks".... We simply asked her to just not continue putting oils into the hot tub and sent her snapshots of what the hot tub professional found and got that response. She even admitted to putting on sunscreen and then peddles backwards saying she didn't.

Then all of a sudden, several messages flood into our inbox with photos stating she found women's underwear (that she was moving around), in the dresser, but she took it out of the dresser and then put it back in the dresser taking pics each time... I don't know about you guys, but if I find underwear in my hotel room, the hotel is going to know immediately. The prior guests to this guest were 2 gentlemen, we are going to ask them if they are theirs, but I can only assume that they are not.... This guest did not say anything relating to any of this to us, until after we asked her to stop... Our cleaners' photographs are evidence that this underwear, did not even exist and yes, we will be going into the property to ensure that those are still there upon this guest's immediate departure. 

At this point we are being forced to keep this guest there until the end of her booking since airbnb has lied to us about rebooking her somewhere else and the guest will not leave herself!

I guess my question to you is should I call the cops since this guest is initiating a refund but is at the property? What would you do?

[Anonymous]

@Mickayla2  Airbnb does not have the authority to force you to keep someone in your home against your will, but they also can't send someone over to evict the guests . If you've ordered the guest to leave, they are trespassing, so I would suggest contacting the police to at least find out what your rights and obligations are here.

"Rehousing" is basically a myth. Airbnb doesn't have a backup inventory of last minute homes to move guests into, and no host wants to take in guests who got kicked out of the last place for breaking rules. So don't bother waiting for Airbnb to do anything for you here; just take whatever action you need to take to protect your home and report it to CS when it's done. 

[Mickayla2]

It's unfortunate as Airbnb is going against their own terms and conditions and promises to host on this platform. It's very unreliable.

Also, I am unsure where everyone is getting the word "evict" from. Eviction is for a tenancy; these are guests at a licensed vacation rental that are now not paying for their booking. Two completely massively different subject matters. Now if these guests try to claim tenancy that then turns into an eviction.

[Anonymous]

@Mickayla2  Sorry if I caused any confusion; you're talking about the legal definition of eviction, whereas I meant it by its literal definition ("the act of expelling or forcing someone to leave" ). You can also say someone was "evicted from Congress," but "booted" or "ousted" are more common. 

But I digress. You're right, this is not a question of tenancy rights after just 5 days, but some jurisdictions will still require the host to file a formal trespassing order before the police can force an unwanted guest out of a property. I truly hope it doesn't come to that. 

[Mickayla2]

100% I appreciate you. The guest finally has agreed to leave my property. Hoping to provide updates to everyone soon, so it may help someone in the future. This has been an absolute nightmare!

[Mark116]

@Mickayla2  This guest is going to get a free stay.  What  you should have done at the first sign of trouble was tell them if they are unhappy you will refund their stay and they are free to leave.  I would try contacting Airbnb directly and tell them the guest has broken multiple house rules, is threatening and argumentative, and you feel uncomfortable and unsafe hosting them any further.  Demand a PENALTY FREE cancellation and then evict them.  There is still a good chance that they will get a refund because Airbnb CS is incompetent.

[Mickayla2]

Thank you for your insight, we will definitely be implementing this structure more often as you hold a valid point. We have told Airbnb and they just pass us around ten times and give us empty promises for getting the guest rebooked somewhere else. 

[Mark116]

@Mickayla2  Airbnb's goal is mostly to do as little as possible so that the host/guest just gives up and lives with whatever it is.  This guest getting rehoused is not your issue and that should not ever have come into play.  Your issue is a threatening guest that is/has broken house rules and damaged expensive equipment and getting the reservation cancelled without being penalized.  I would absolutely expect this guest will lodge some type of complaint, but hopefully given the photos and the reports from multiple witnesses you will prevail here and they won'tget a free stay.

Sometimes simply threatening to call police is enough, but the reservation would have to be cancelled before any hope of LE involvement to remove tresspassors.

[Mickayla2]

They just cancelled their reservation so I will give them 30 minutes and then i am calling the police. I held off on contacting the PD just because we all know they usually won't help unless there is no reservation. Now there is just cause. 

[David8879]

I am surprised that for such a long time hosts did nto comeup or just posted eviction procedures. To expect ABNB to help with "eviction" is ... well..childish.

Calls to police will result in police telling disorderly guests to behave and nothing more as your notice to vacate the property means nothing to police.

I am so glad I do not do ABNB in USA - where I host - kick in the below does it 

[Mickayla2]

I'm a licensed real estate broker in my state. This is not considered a tenancy. This is a vacation rental, and the guest is trespassing as they are not paying now. Cops are being called today on trespassing claims as they are not claiming tenancy. Guests and Tenants are very different in this state. Now if they try to claim tenancy, I will need to go to the courts to evict. Also, I do not expect Airbnb to do anything except follow their own terms and agreements they have created, and we have all agreed to. Airbnb states hosts can cancel bookings and remove guests from their homes, and they have also guaranteed us they will book the guests somewhere else. 

[Helen3]

So to clarify  - you have told Airbnb to cancel the booking and they are refusing to do so @Mickayla2 ? 

In your situation I would call back tell Airbnb that your guest is continuing to break your house rules and trying to claim a full refund while continuing to stay. Insist they immediately cancel the booking.  Tell them you are on route to make sure the guest leaves .

go to the property to ensure the guest leaves .

this is not a police matter it's a civil matter relating to your STR business 

[Mickayla2]

Correct no one was helping us. We just started seeing changes on the reservation where the guest has now agreed to leave our house. We will be driving by in 30 minutes to ensure the guest has left if not now it will be considered trespassing since there is no longer a reservation and they have overstayed (checkout is at 11am). This all has been a nightmare.

[Huma0]

@Mickayla2 

You keep saying the guest is not paying, so do you mean Airbnb already issued the refund and are going to take it out of your upcoming payouts (surely the payout for this stay was issued after the guest checked in)?

If no refund has been made yet, it's not correct to say that the guest is staying but not paying and therefore trespassing. It doesn't matter if the guest is asking for or threatening to ask for a full refund.

I am afraid Airbnb CS is a mess and if they haven't sorted it out yet, then when will they? On the other hand, how do you know the guest is telling the truth when she says Airbnb haven't contacted her? She doesn't sound trustworthy to me, so why should you believe her?

[Mickayla2]

I'm moreso basing ACS performance on the fact they haven't spoken to the guest... At least not until now. We finally see the guest has agreed to leave the house, but why we do not know. I'm sitting still on hold with ACS. Check out was at 11am and now it is 2.30 pm just about, so we will see if this guest is actually leaving. We asked the guest to leave earlier today, and she declined our request, but then now has accepted it. I don't understand really what is going on anymore, but I am definitely upset with ACS performance and the guest's dishonesty and deception.