Difficult Guest Prior to Rental Dates - How do I handle this?

[John9483]

We are fairly new to hosting. We closed on our home on 03/03, put up the listing on 03/14 for rentals to start on 03/21. I use PMS and it required that the listing be live on Airbnb to import the listing to them. I was working on the listing and had issues with what is managed through the PMS and what is required of the booking channel.

Immediately after going "live" (though I didn't feel ready to go live, but didn't have a choice) she booked an instant book for 07/11-07/15. This, of course, is during peak season. She got a crazy good deal to begin with, and the listing didn't yet have the cleaning fee or pet fee listed. She said that this was going to be a last getaway for her and her twin boys before they go to college. I wondered if she was really renting for the boys to have party-time. I reminded her that the primary renter must be over 25 and present throughout the reservation. She assured me that it was just going to be her and her boys.  I let her know the amount of the cleaning fee (which is exactly what we have to pay our cleaners) and she had a fit because it wasn't in the listing. I explained why, but that didn't matter to her. As a new host, I didn't want to cause problems from the get-go, so I waived the cleaning fee. There is also a pet fee, but she didn't tell me, or put it in her reservation, until now. I know that if I try to get that from her now, she will have another fit. She told me when I mentioned the cleaning fee "that may not seem like much money to you, but I am a single mom of two boys going to college". 

I have sent a rental agreement to her a couple of times and she has not responded. I sent her a message that this needs to be completed in order to stay at our home. It is a law in our state that the host has a rental agreement signed by the renter. Now, she is upset about the rental agreement because "it wasn't disclosed in the listing".  She finally agreed to sign it, and then said the boys are bringing their girlfriends, and there will be a total of eight people. So, she wanted to know how to handle that on the agreement.

My feeling is that she is renting our home for her boys and their friends, and that she does not plan to be there. Regardless, if she does plan to be there, I don't feel good about how she has bucked me the whole way.

I need to respond to her about the rental agreement and that she needs to put everyone's information on the rental agreement, but honestly, I would like to cancel her reservation because of the problems that I have already had and what that most likely means going forward. But I don't want to be dinged by Airbnb. I do not have "proof" that she is going to break the rules (as is required by Airbnb), but how does one have proof until the person is in the home? I've already been lied to once by a renter who "left early" and "truly thought her adult children (18-20 years) would behave". Instead, they totally trashed the place. Thankfully, this renter agreed to pay for the extra cleaning fees, etc. 

She only has three reviews on six trips in five years. Last one was October 2025. They are positive reviews, but it's only three. How do I find where she has written reviews on hosts?

How should I handle this reservation?

Thanks in advance for your thoughts and recommendations.

[Shelley159]

Hi @John9483 

This is a very tough situation. I'll start with the easy stuff and then I'll leave it to someone else to address the difficult parts 😀

How you see her reviews of hosts: You can do it if you want to go through the effort, but I'm not sure it'll be very useful as she's already booked. For each review, look at the date she stayed at that listing, click the listing, arrange the reviews by date, and then scroll until you find hers. Keep in mind that she may not have posted a review.

Charging extra: The booking is the contract with the guest. You didn't charge a cleaning fee or a pet fee at the time, so I'm afraid she's right that you can't add those now.

After checkout, if there's damage or chargeable extra cleaning, you could ask her to pay (but whether it's a good idea to do so in any given situation is another debate).

Should you cancel: In most situations I would say host cancellation is a very hard no, although in this case I understand why you're nervous about the booking.

You'll be fined by Airbnb, the dates will remain blocked on your Airbnb calendar, you won't qualify for Superhost if this makes up more than 1% of your bookings in 12 months, and your listing will be hurt in guest favourite rank. None of this is ideal if you're just starting out.

If you had evidence that the guest is planning to host a party, which is not allowed by Airbnb, you could ask Airbnb to cancel. I haven't done this myself and some other hosts should jump in here, but I do know - if this is an option at all - you need to make very sure that the Support agent understands it shouldn't be processed as a host cancellation. It's the guest who's planning to misuse the property.

[John9483]

@Shelley159 very helpful information. This reservationist continued with her argumentative statements. She said that at this point, she doesn't feel like she is going to be able to relax being afraid that she might break "some rule". She also said she felt like there might also be videotaping. I sent her a message explaining that it is our goal for our guests to have a relaxing trip and it sounds like this may not be a good fit for her if she feels this way. I offered her to cancel without penalty. I also told her there would be no videotaping, as we would never invade anyone's privacy, and it is also illegal.

I talked with Airbnb to find out about host cancelling and they gave me the information on what happens if I do, so of course, I decided it was best not to cancel her reservation. Airbnb said they documented my concerns so that if the guest gives a review that is retaliatory, then they can remove it. I was concerned that she would give a bad review just because of our interactions (though mine to her were professional and non-adversarial).

Hopefully, this will turn out to be a positive experience for all involved.

[Joelle43]

Hello @John9483 

To see how guests have reviewed previous stays, I now use AirReview by rankbreeze and wished I'd known about this before.  Some parts of their services are fee paying but this part is free and has to be dowloaded via Chrome and is a great time saver as you have access to a guests profil in one step plus other information on views and click through rates.

Now onto the tricky part and @Shelley159 has already covered most of the bases - if something isn't disclosed on our listings prior to accepting a reservation, then we unfortunately won't be able to charge the guest as it goes against Airbnb's new price transparency for guests. 

So you've had to forfeit the cleaning fee as it wasn't disclosed but was the pet fee active on your listing but this guest omitted to disclose a pet in the reservation process? That works in your favour.  Do you have an extra guest fee for all the extra people that will now be staying?

Having to sign a rental agreement was also not disclosed on the listing right?  So this is something that this guest could use against you unfortunately but you're right there do seem to be a lot of red flags and I would feel uneasy about this booking too but there is very little chance that this guest will be persuaded to cancel as she is getting a great deal.  Without written proof that this guest will be breaking your house rules, I very much fear you will be penalised by Airbnb if you cancel.

Tell them that you are a meet and greet host and that you need to know when they will be arriving, especially the booker!  Will the mother be there on check out?  Hopefully there will be something in her reply that will give you grounds to contact CS to ask for a penalty free cancellation 🤞  Do you have quiet hours indicated on your listing?  Have you reiterated that parties are forbidden by you and by Airbnb and that you wish to maintain the good relations you have with your neighbours?

You've probably done this already but I would remove instant Book on Airbnb and ensure that your House rules are explicit on what is acceptable and what is not.  I send my house rules to guests when they first make a trip request and ask them to reply to me ASAP so that I can go ahead and confirm their booking.  I want to be sure that my listing is a good fit as those reviews have become so important and I think that some guests know this and play the system.

I hope things go OK John but keep us posted on any developments,
Joëlle

[Shelley159]

Hi @Joelle43 ! Great advice, the only thing that worries me is telling her that he's a meet-and-greet host. Although the idea could work very well, the listing says prominently that it's self check-in. If he changed it now, it'll still have been self check-in at the time of the booking on the activity logs?

I've thought of one possible silver lining: maybe the pet is a good sign ...

A group of underage boys planning a house party would probably not be inclined to include the family pet in their festivities. Maybe it means that an adult is planning on staying ... at least for part of the time 😀

[Joelle43]

Yes you're right @Shelley159 - I hadn't looked at the hosts check-in policy so that's a non starter then. 

John's house rules are very good so hopefully this was in place when this guest reserved.  No parties, quiet times in place and a reminder to be respectful of the neighbours.

Yes the dog is a good sign as  you say 🤞

[John9483]

Hi @Shelley159! Thank you for your response. 

I thought about the pet issue later and that teenagers wouldn't want to care for a pet on vacation. I should've thought of that sooner. She is bringing TWO dogs now.

Question: How do I access the activity logs? Would this give me the information that was on the listing at the time?

Thank you for your advice.

[Shelley159]

Hi @John9483 

As far as I know you can't see the activity logs of changes to the listing yourself, I just meant that it's possible to verify on the Airbnb system what was changed when.

When are they staying? Please let us know how it went 😀

[John9483]

Thank you @Shelley159.  How do I verify on the Airbnb system what was changed when? I haven't seen this previously.

They're staying July 11-15. I'll let you know how it goes! Hopefully, all will go well even after all of the contention on her part.

[John9483]

Shelley and @Joelle43 , I wanted to let you know how this all turned out. Of course, I decided not to cancel her reservation and just chalk it all up to a learning experience and whatever happens, I'll deal with at the time.  I decided to keep any negative emotion out of the situation. I continued to communicate with her as I would any other guest.

She finally signed the rental agreement. She ended up bringing TWO pets and adding another son and his wife as well. I just let it go and didn't say anything.

Everything during the stay seemed to go well, but I still wasn't sure how she was going to handle a review. On the day that she left, she contacted us to say that her boys threw away a bag of dirty clothes and toiletry bag. She asked us to check in the trash and get it out for her. We did this, and then she went back and forth about when it would be convenient for HER to retrieve it. 

She ended up leaving a five star review with nice comments. We're just glad that it is over. Thank you both for all of your advice and help with this situation. It is much appreciated. 

[John9483]

Thank you, Joelle.

I don't know what was in the listing at the time, as I was still new and trying to set everything up. She could be just saying "it wasn't disclosed", but I don't know. I asked Airbnb if I could get a snapshot of what the listing looked like when she booked, but the only thing I could get was ALL the data from day one to present, which would take up to seven days to receive. I didn't need all data, so I didn't process it.

No, I haven't removed instant book yet. When I was setting everything up, Airbnb recommended setting instant book to avoid missing people who would rather instant book. I now know and will do that. I also learned the hard way when a pop-up asked if I wanted to reduce the cleaning fee on a short-stay rental. At the time, it made sense, as I wouldn't want to pay that much for a short-stay; however, I have to pay my cleaners the same amount regardless of the length of stay. Of course, I changed that right away.

Thank you for your insights and recommendations.

[John9483]

Thank you very much for the recommendation of AirReview. I really appreciate it. Though it is too late to help with this situation, it will help with future renters.