Hi fellow hosts,
We're looking for some advice on how to proceed with an unresolved issue.
We had a guest who showed up with a dog. Our policy is no pets allowed (HOA rules). When we messaged him about it, he admitted to not having read our house rules, then claimed we had nothing about pets in the house rules. I sent him a screenshot showing that in fact, we do. It's also in the welcome packet we email to every guest. It was clear he had read none of it.
We told the guest he could either find a kennel for the dog or would have to look elsewhere for accommodations. He requested a refund. We said, no, we cannot refund your money now as it's too late to re-list those dates.
He then claimed that it was a service dog. From what we saw on our Ring camera, the dog had no vest. The guests arrived without the dog, then brought the dog in and left it in the condo to go out for the evening. This behavior does not indicate any need for a service dog.
We contacted AirBnb customer service. The case manager said she would call the guest and ask them to send proof that they had a service animal. If they could show no proof, she said they would cancel the reservation through the guest, so that we would still get our payout. She said she would call us back and let us know the outcome.
Of course, no one called us back. Not long after, the guest did cancel, and they left. The guest messaged that AirBnb had called him and asked for proof that he had a service dog. He did not confirm whether he actually had any proof.
The next day, the guest requested a refund, stating "host was uncomfortable with a service dog." He then left a review, which is not published yet. I'm pretty sure it's not a good one. We have not refunded their money, nor have we left them a review. We wanted to hear from the case manager as to the actual resolution before proceeding.
I tried calling again yesterday, and was told the case manager would call me back. Still today, no calls. When I tried to open another support ticket via chat, they just merged that with the other one and said someone will respond to you there.
So...what are our options here? Do we try to call Airbnb back? Do we go ahead and leave an honest review of the guest, stating that he did not show proof of having a service animal? Do we ask AirBnb to remove his bad review since he broke our house rules?
