Guests admit breaking my House Rules but won't leave. Airbnb are faffing and not enforcing them

[Yan49]

I've been hosting for several years on different platforms and have a couple of hundred reviews under my belt on ABB alone. My top listing is a premium property in the heart of London and because of the nature of the home, strict regulations and neighbour considerations I have set very clear House Rules which every guest needs to confirm they have read and understood in order to have their booking confirmed, by way of mentioning a "hidden" keyword I place at the very end of my House Rules section. One such rule is that should my home be overoccupied or used for a party, the guests will immediately be ejected without a right to a refund for the unspent nights.

I've not had any major problems so far, but although confirming they were on board with them, my (unfortunately, still current) guests broke that rule and another saying kids must be cleared by me first. They admitted by airbnb message to having 7 occupants vs the 6 max allowed, 3 of whom children, who are neither quiet nor well behaved. I immediately called Airbnb to notify them of this and they've been faffing for the last 24h. They did confirm the guests had broken my House Rules and I was within my right to cancel and keep the entire payout, but at the same time asked if I would make an exception and offer them a partial efund, which both me and my co-host declined to do.

Before going to bed, I once again emailed the case manager with a 2-point summary: 

1) terminate reservation immediately and remove guests

2) no refund of any kind

This morning I received a message from the lead guest stating some of the members had left and checked into a hotel and thay could provide me proof of booking, and if I would allow them to stay on. This was followed shortly after by an email from the case manager, stating the same and asking if in the view of the change of circumstances, I would allow the rest of them to stay.

It seems Airbnb are set of "fixing" this, whereas as far as I'm concerned, my House Rules are clear: break them are you're out.

Case gets passed on.

Second case manager - Randolph: "Right now, xxxx is not eligible for any refund, but I am reaching out to see if you would be willing to refund any amount to your guest. You do not have to, as this payout does belong to you, but any help would be greatly appreciated". I declined and expressed my will to have them removed with no refund.

Case Manager #3 - Megan: "I understand that you do not wish to have xxxx in your listing any longer due to the violation of the house rules. Generally, when a guest breaks a house rule, we do like to allow them a second chance to follow the house rules and save the reservation. The same respect as if a guest reports a travel issue, we ask that the host is given a chance to resolve this problem for them. Or if we can in situations like this, we attempt to alter the reservation for an early check-out and a refund for nights not spent in the listing. However, with your denial of any refund this is not an option. 

It seems like they're not getting the memo...

Case Manager #4 - Rose (seriously, I've never been able to get a new case manager assigned to a case before even when there was a claim for damages and the assigned case manager was off sick for 2 weeks they wouldn't re-assign it and it took 6 weeks): "It seems as though they have checked in the 4 guests into a hotel room and will be continuing the reservation as is. The guest has mentioned tha they will send in documenation showing the other guests checking in to the hotel for the remainder of the reservation". 

Holy crap, they really aren't getting the memo.

"and will be continuing the reservation as is."??  No they bloody well won't cause I'm calling the cops. The payout has already been issued and I'm booked out solid for nearly the next 2 months. I genuinely  hope they won't change their mind on their initial decision as they're notorious for doing and corner me into cancelling all future reservations and re-routing them directly through my website and completely switch to HA, Expedia and Booking. This is quite a large reservation and mine and others' experience is that they're more willing to "bend the rules" when large sums are involved. 

Airbnb, you don't own any property stock. Don't bite the hand that feeds you.

I'll be updating this in real-time as more info comes in.

[Helen3]

Sorry to hear this happened to you.

However you should be contacting your co-host to handle any eviction rather than the police as this is a civil matter. 

Calling the police should be reserved for criminal rather than civil matters.

We have limited resources for our emergency services so should use them for just that emergencies.

[Kenneth12]

Huh?  

a) it's not an eviction,  but if it were,  only the police can evict someone
b) civil assist is perfectly reasonable if you expect potential violence 

[Helen3]

@Kenneth0Thank you, but I understand how the law works in my own country. In the UK evictions are a civil not a criminal matter and are not handled by the police. This is any case is not an eviction as in court ordered activity.

In the UK the police can only be called if there is threats of violence made or actual violence. There is nothing in the OPs post that indicated the guests have made threats of violence.

[Yan49]

Thanks Helen for your input. My co-host is a physically small female who has no business evicting guests and the City of London Police are very a well funded force with my Council Tax money.

I'm glad you're lucky enough to have a co-host who would take it upon themselves to clear your home of unwanted guests for you without questioning the legal or safety implications - I just don't have the heart to ask that of my own staff.

[Helen3]

I don't have a co-host @Yan49. I am not sure why you thought that I do.  I too am a small female and handle any issues myself.

In the vast majority of cases guests do not have to be asked to leave, but do so voluntarily when a booking is cancelled. All the co-host would need to do is check the state of the property and record any damage.

It's irrelevant whether the City of London police are well funded (we all pay for the police through our council tax). My point is that limited police resources should be prioritised for dealing with crimes not civil matters.

I agree if you don't want your staff to deal with issues like this, you need to put other resources in place. What I don't agree with is that Airnbnb businesses like ours should expect our police force to put resources into dealing with civil matters.

[Lynn259]

CoHost Airbnb want help you either they say for you to contact them but they do not back you up; I had a problem this past month.

[Jessica-and-Henry0]

@Yan49

So good to hear you are not putting up with the bullying from ABB.

 Really am curious to know how things turn out so I'll be keeping an eye out for updates you post!

I am actually waiting for a payout from a cancellation..... for some reason ABB has not issued the payout and is keeping it as "pending" THANK GOODNESS Henry and I didn't issue or agree to an additional refund. I also had a CS person nag me about issuing an immediate additional refund - I shut them down with a firm NO - the cancellation policy MUST be respected. And besides, I can't issue a refund when I never got paid in the first place! 

[Glenda49]

I am experiencing something like this right now. Guest confirmed stay. Never checked in. Guest told ABB that they felt unsafe in the neighborhood. Guest was able to retieve key,  in which, he came back & stayed at property. ABB has sent email of deposit from guest, but what they have done in the past is they substract amt from a future guest deposit. I have notified ABB by email & phone that guest is staying at property, but no response. If I do not hear that guest has checked in to ABB, I am going to have the locks changed or call the police. I think guest is playing games. 

[Yan49]

Sorry to hear that, Glenda - having strangers intruding your space must be a truly horrible experience. What you describe is Airbnb standard procedure: when there's a problem they just disappear off the radar counting on you to either give up and let it go or trip yourself into a scenario where they can turn around and say "oh but you then went ahead and did x, y and z and that meant we could cancel your payout, as per that very vague clause in our T&Cs stating that although we have that joke that is the Host Guarantee, we reserve the right to override anything at our discretion. Thank you for being such a great host."

I hope you get it sorted out. As a suggestion, Tokeet and other channel managers have a "build your own website" option that's very easy to set up and you can re-route all your future bookings through it if you feel a deduction from your next payout will occur. You should have a backup of all your confirmed guests' itineraries and contact details so if need be you can get in touch with them and explain your situation. 

Best of luck!

[Vickie5]

I've changed my locks to keypad entries so that guests can't copy or lose keys and I don't have to change locks which can get expensive.  

[Kelly149]

Airbnb does NOT believe in fines.

You can refuse entry to a guest but you will not be paid.

You can remove a guest but you will not be paid for remaining days.

You have the power to not allow a guest to stay but ABB will not pay you for days that a guest does not stay.

A guest can light your house rules on fire in a teleconference with ABB support and they will allow you to remove them but you will not be paid.

ABB is an either/or proposition. Cancellation policy does not matter, House Rules don't matter. If the guest doesn't stay, ABB won't pay.

[Yan49]

@Kelly149: you are SO right! That's been my experience so far. Airbnb will bend over backwards to make up ad-hoc rules and use their universal "get out of jail" clause that say they may, at their own discretion and under some (undefined) circumstances, override your cancellation policy - when a reservation is cut short. I suspect as they collect and process Hosts' payments it's easier for them to withhold those and dump the burden on to the Host than to risk being out of pocket due to a guest doing a cahrgeback on their credit card.

What most people seem to be unaware of though is that these are merely Airbnb's internal "rules", they are by no means legally binding and can be challenged through the legal system, which has the last say. Indeed, several people have taken Airbnb to court and they backtracked.

[Kelly149]

Quite true. In fact my rental contract reiterated that it is the guest who is responsible for the bill. Just bc abb says they can cancel without penalty does not mean that you have to drop it at that. Just depends how far you want to carry it. 

[Yan49]

I'm £1200 down and a Small Claim costs me £69 to file... It's a no-brainer.