First of all, we let guests know we are just a few minutes away and always send a message when the house is ready to check in early, with: "Let us know if you need anything or have any questions. Enjoy your stay!" A guest who checked out 6 days ago seemed to have no issues, did not contact us once during or after their stay. Then 6 days later, this morning I receive two photos from the guest out of the blue. A close-up photo of a single live ant on a toilet seat (does not even look like our toilet, there is only a little tile visible but it is the wrong color!??) and a photo of a single dead ant on our desk. My partner cleans the unit and would know if there was an ant infestation. We are super wary of any little thing being off because we are trying to get superhost status, and a recent guest left a retaliatory review because we didn't allow weed smoking in the house. Anyways, the guests before AND after these guests did not have any problems and did not see any ants, and the unit is empty right now so my partner just went back to do a thorough check. Nothing.
So, a couple hours after the guest weirdly sent those photos with no message text at all, which made me immediately uncomfortable that we were about to get scammed, he sent this: "Hello, I hope your day is going well. Can you please refund the cleaning fee. There were ants in several rooms and unfortunately they got into our luggage. Thank you for your understanding and have a wonderful day, --- (images included here)." This just seems off to me. If there was actually a problem with ants, why wouldn't he send a message while he was there, not SIX DAYS LATER after we've already had more guests check in and out? He just now discovered these alleged ants in his luggage, 6 days later? I sincerely doubt that there were ants in his luggage at all, and I am honestly wondering whether he put the dead ant on the desk himself and does this to other hosts.
The guest has not reviewed us yet and I have not reviewed him yet. He had nothing but 5 star reviews, which surprises me now, though none were recent. I would not want to host this person again, though apparently the "I would not host this person again" button does nothing, and they can still book again. Any advice for how to report this to Airbnb, in case this is not the first time he's done this?
