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.

[Clare167]

@LaCooVs0 an idea occurs to me. Would it work for you if Airbnb imposed a big fine on party givers, didn't give it to the host but put it in a trust account fund for hosts generally? The fund admins would grant compensation to any host who satisfied them that they had suffered damage or loss despite having taken all reasonable precautions. The thing is, after everything that's happened, Airbnb cannot be seen to be rewarding "party house" hosts, so they will not do what you are asking. And for the same reasons, Airbnb cannot be seen to be profiting from parties. And we don't want Airbnb to have a financial interest in rejecting claims, as for the Host Guarantee. So it would be important that the funds be unavailable to Airbnb itself.

[Marit-Anne0]

@LaCooVs0 given the fact that airbnb have measures in place to prevent party bookings, it is unlikely that your suggestions will be considered.

It is also my understanding that airbnb will not enforce any payment requested through the resolution center as that is regarded an issue between guest and host. So if you hit someone who knows how to work the system and refuse to pay, there is no recourse through airbnb other than terminate the reservation and evict the party breaking your rules, then leave an appropriate review to warn your fellow hosts. 

When your measures in place continue to fail, you will need to find other ways. Listening to experienced hosts trying to help you instead of calling them names would be a good start.

[Helen3]

You know the demographic who are likely to party at your place younger locals ...  so what are you doing to additionally vet these guests to minimise your risk of people partying at your place?

why do you feel the need to be rude and patronising to your fellow hosts?

Seattle is hardly unique in having young locals who want to party - it happens in London, Paris, Bangkok, New York, Budapest, Bristol (where I host) etc

Other hosts with similar properties in destinations much more likely to attract party goers aren't encountering your issues - why is that?

As a business person you should be asking yourself - what am I doing wrong as a host in terms of my vetting process that means I am letting party guests slip through the net?

Why are my security systems so weak that these guests are having 50, 100 or more guests on the premises without my CCTV picking this up and my management ie you, not closing down party activity and evicting guests before it starts rather than letting full scale parties rage which affect the neighbourhoods you list in?

Why are you opposed to increasing your day rate and minimum stay as measures to help prevent party goers wanting to book your place?

this is your issue as the business owner to resolve - if you don't like how Airbnb works - list elsewhere and take direct bookings 

[Ann72]

@LaCooVs0, you've just gotten the wisdom of the crowd and it's sad that you can't see it.  Most individual hosts don't have advisory committees, but that's what you've got here.

@Susan1188 @Pat271 @Mike-And-Jane0 @Melodie-And-John0 @Fred13 @Clara116 @Inna22 @Lorna170 @Sarah977 @Clare167 @Marit-Anne0 @Helen3 

[Quincy]

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