Guest vs. visitors - big party reform please help air bnb

[LaCooVs0]

We have a very serious problem with air bnb. Same problem that most people seem to have quite frequently and honestly the reason why cities across the world are banning air bnbs and every neighbor I’ve ever had at my 10 air bnb properties hates me. Air bnb needs to deal with this issue especially now that it is a publicly traded company and especially if they want to remain profitable and forego being band everywhere. 

Guest regularly list a  number of guests who will be sleeping at the houses and then proceed to have 30, 40, 50 or even 100+ guests to our house some times. We very aggressively try to prevent this with a $50 per extra guest over 6 fee. We write no parties on every description, house rule and information page of our listing possible. We clearly say that there will be a $50 charge for each person over 6 who enters the house. We are very good at catching parties with our cameras, around the outside of our smart house we document the people coming in and we even have full remote control of wifi, lighting, TVs etc. and we shut them all down during parties. Unfortunately that doesn’t always stop them. Our neighbors constantly are calling us and complaining, this is the reason why we have converted 9 of our 10 properties to regular rentals because it’s to much hassle even though we love air bnb when we have respectful and honest guests.

Here is the biggest problem, when we catch these parties and we submit our charges to air bnb for $50 per extra guest air bnb regularly states that since the extra guests didn’t stay we cannot charge them - This is completely absurd! If guests want to turn our house into a nightclub we should be able to collect our door fees and air bnb should enforce these for us when we have proof. Listen, if you say you’re  having 6 people and 10 show up and they don’t trash the house we don’t make a big deal or try to collect this but if your disrespectful throw a huge party and trash our million dollar house you should be held accountable. Especially during covid times when they are potentially putting our lives at risk when we have to clean up their filthy nasty messes. I guarantee that if air bnb starts enforcing these fees the first time a guest throws a 50 person party and gets a $2500 bill they are not going to do that again. But you guys do not back us up on this at all!!!

This is me calling out to air bnb executives -   @Brian chesky @Nathan Bleckarczyk @joe gebbia  @Beth Axelrod, and especially @Catherine Powell as head of hosting. Please for the sake of dedicated hosts / shareholders such as my wife and I, please I am begging you to update this policy. People are running rampant on your platform throwing huge house parties and smearing the name of air bnb in communities across the globe. This problem needs to be dealt with and this is a solution that is proven to work for me in my 8 years of experience in the platform. Usually just threatening the fees is enough to get the parties shut down but when it isn’t we need you guys to step up and collect the charges! I need you guys to back me and other hosts up on extra guest fees and these are not only for guests spending the night but also guests entering the house. We are not hosting nightclubs and party dens. Trust me every host on the platform will thank you tremendously for allowing us to charge and collect these fees with documented proof - This needs to change! 

Please feel free to reach out to me directly if you need any clarification or if there is anything I can do to help you guys implement these changes. It would make the community so much more respected and trusted.

[Lorna170]

@LaCooVs0    I was being sarcastic.   Seriously, you have a 3 bedroom place.  Change the number of persons down to 6 and up the number of nights for your minimum rental.  Unless your demographic is party-goers, you should still rent very well.

No one from Air is going to support your claim for additional person fees when your guests throw a party.  Quite honestly, if so many of your guests are constantly throwing parties and you are feeling cheated out of fees for "extra guests",  submit an event contract to the primary guest and collect a huge fee up front.  

[LaCooVs0]

so your suggestion is to reduce the value of our listing to prevent parties that we deserve to collect more on? Lol okay - I’m sure you don’t have many vacation rentals and I’ll be surprised if you last long on the air bnb platform.

[Sarah977]

@LaCooVs0  Having partier guests trash your house as opposed to cutting down on the number of guests you accept and upping the minimum night stay doesn't sound like a very cost-effective strategy.

[LaCooVs0]

It’s silly if you think that air bnb is going to deter parties with anything other than fees. It’s hard for me to believe that you folks can’t understand that....

[Sarah977]

@LaCooVs0  It isn't up to Airbnb to deter parties, it is up to you as a host. 

[LaCooVs0]

@Sarah977  Another smart comment from an upper aged host with a tiny little cabin in the deep woods of Mexico this time lol 

well, our method is to charge rather than to discriminate.... how could one possibly decide if a renter is going to have a party? 

maybe you guys have special crystal balls in Mexico that tell you when a booking plans to throw a party. We don’t have those in seattle. 

[Sarah977]

@LaCooVs0  And how is charging as as deterent working out for you? Not very well, it would seem.

How could one posssibly decide a guest plans to throw a party? By reading a guest's past reviews and primarily by hosts becoming adept at recognizing the warning signs. And also having deterents to party behavior in place.

A guest who books a listing that sleeps 8 for 1 or 2 people is a red flag.

A guest who lives locally and books for 1 night is a red flag.

A guest who is evasive when answering your questions is a red flag.

A guest who has obviously not read through your listing information and house rules is a red flag.

As a host, the deterents you can put in place- cameras, acting swiftly to evict the guests when you see activity that contravenes your rules, not accepting one night bookings from locals, communicating with guests during tbe booking process and before arrival to get a sense of this person, asking the right questions, letting guests know that attempts to throw parties or admit more people in than they booked for will result in immediate eviction, etc, etc.

You aren't some helpless victim- obviously the way you have been running your business has a lot to do with getting partiers after partiers.

[LaCooVs0]

Lol @Sarah977  I guess you didn’t read previous posts about what we do or check out our listing... we do all these things, we’ve been doing this for a long time . Big cities houses are a bit different tiny 1 bedroom cabin shacks. And FYI yes charging fees works great, we’ve never had someone get charged come back to throw another party and I assume once we charge them they probably don’t go on to throw parties at other places. But it would be nice for us to get a little more support from air bnb on enforcing extra guest fees. Thanks for your suggestion though! 

[Sarah977]

@LaCooVs0 You would do well to listen to the advice of "upper age hosts", as they obviously have more life experience and understanding of human nature than you do.

And I don't have a tiny cabin in the backwoods of Mexico. I have a private room rental in a major tourist beach town known as a party town. I have had several inappropriate requests from those who I could tell were looking to try to sneak in more people, which I declined.

There's no crystal ball anywhere and the methods hosts use to deter and catch partiers is the same the world over.

[LaCooVs0]

@Sarah977 and I own 10 million dollars worth of real estate in seattle..  Your suggestions are basic and I’m not asking for them. I’m asking for air bnb to implement my suggestions which actually work. 😁

[Sarah977]

@LaCooVs0  Owning 10 million dollars worth of real estate in Seattle is relevant how? You think it makes you smarter, wiser, or more experienced?

Airbnb enforcing your extra guest charge may discourage those who have already thrown parties from ever rebooking, but it certainly won't prevent others from booking and throwing a party. Your attitude is one of damage control after the fact, rather than prevention of damage in the first place.

[LaCooVs0]

@Sarah977  yes, I do think that - thanks for your opinion **

**[Inappropriate comment removed in line with the Community Center Guidelines]

[Mike-And-Jane0]

Oh dear @LaCooVs0 I always know when an argument is lost when a participant starts to argue their **

**[Inappropriate comment removed in line with the Community Center Guidelines]

[LaCooVs0]

Yeah, this thread is pointless now - everyone with a tiny house in timbuck too thinks they know how to end parties in a big city house by implementing all the strategies already in play. Bravo  👏 

btw @Mike-And-Jane0 your comment is being reported for inappropriate language. Who would have known air bnb community forum was full of so many trolls! 😆 

Those of you so opposed to party fees must be using air bnb properties to throw parties 🎉  

[Melodie-And-John0]

Wow @LaCooVs0 , if your rudeness here is a barometer of the quality of your hosting, looks like bad hosting weather for your guests on your block in Seattle (I guess thats nothing new there).  Nobody here is impressed by you and your banks financial holdings except maybe the IRS.   

Let me remind you, you came here looking for advice (which you received from all over the world), nobody forced you, then you urinated on your virtual neighbors Wheaties when they told you that Airbnb really wasnt a party house platform and your not charging enough.    Im not sure what it was that you expected or wanted to hear but you seem to have been successful at doing here exactly what you have done to property owners that live near your party palaces.

One last thing about Upper aged hosts (this one from the crochity old Inn Keeper of Bearpath Lodging in East Bumfart NY, most of us have forgotten more than you have ever learned and still have way more in reserve than you may ever attain (even if your lucky enough to survive the rage of your neighbors and their pitchforks).  Have an awesome day, JR....