I was scammed by professional "guests"

Stephen1120
Level 2
Ellicottville, NY

I was scammed by professional "guests"

Air Bnb has responded with the same generic robot response to about 50 of my messages. I have received multiple commitments to calling me and have not been called. They even scheduled a phone call and never called. Now they are refusing to help. I have been hosting for 2 years and never had a single issue with a guest until I ran into these pathological lying maniacs. I am simply going to post the email I sent to Airbnb so I don't have to type it out again. In short, they intentionally dirtied my place, PEED on the toilet and bathroom floor, put a nose snot in a glass, fed there dog out of my people bowls and left the dog food in the bowl to rot, put balls of dust on all of the surfaces, etc. in the most staged and psychotic way in order to get a free weekend trip and full refund. 

 

Here is the email: 

The guest arrived at my townhouse at approximately 5:00pm. Upon arrival, it appears they inspected the place and notified me that the cleaner we hired missed a few locations in the house. (Based on the dialogue, it was clear to me that they had done this before in order to attain discounts and refunds, but that is just my personal opinion. I'm sure you could determine that is correct upon review of their travel/account history.) I immediately began searching for a cleaner who could come to the house to clean the areas that were missed. The one cleaner who was available on a holiday weekend told me she could be there the next day (Saturday 11/28) at 10:00am. This did not suffice. The guest called me and began harassing me. The guest told me they worked for the district attorney's office in Rochester and knew the "health department inspector" directly. The guest told me they would have my air bnb shut down permanently and that I would be fined thousands of dollars if I did not send a cleaner immediately. 
 
Following that harassment, I called the cleaner and BEGGED them to go to the townhouse to clean that night. At approx. 6:00pm 11/27 the cleaner showed up. This was LESS THAN AN HOUR after the original complaint. Upon arrival, the cleaner told me the guest was belligerent and drunk. The cleaner tried calming the guest down and said he would be done in an hour. The guest continued yelling and shouting hysterically at the cleaner and once again repeated the claims that my townhouse would be shut down by the health department. The guest told the cleaner that he was a district attorney in Rochester. The guest was NOT HAPPY that the cleaner had arrived because the guest wanted to stay at the townhouse the entire weekend FOR FREE. After about 20 minutes of harassing my cleaner, the guest SENT THE CLEANER AWAY and DID NOT ALLOW the cleaner to clean even though he had showed up in under an hour and told the guest he could be done in under an hour. 
 
After the cleaner left, the guest called me directly. At this point the guest was even more belligerent, maniacal, and insane. The guest once again threatened to shut my place down. He said he would call the cops and the health department and that they would show up the next morning if I did not immediately send them a full refund. I asked the guest why he did not let the cleaner perform his duties and he said quote "suck my **bleep**ing **bleep** faggot. If you don't send me a refund I will **bleep** your life up and destroy you. I am a **bleep**ing district attorney" among many other things. Out of fear, I immediately sent a full refund and had a conversation with an air bnb rep letting them know what happened. I also told the guest that they would have a few hours to leave my townhouse because I was concerned that they would damage or destroy the place and/or personal items in the townhouse. I have not yet inspected the townhouse, so I do not know if they caused any damage or stole any property. 
 
Following the conversation with the Airbnb representative, I simply googled the guests name and found out that he is not a district attorney. The internet showed that he works for an exterminator company in Rochester. At that point, I realized I had been completely fooled and that everything the guest had been saying was a lie. He was threatening me and my airbnb and scaring me and my family with these false accusations and fabricated fantastical lies. The man was clearly drunk or insane. 
 
I do not believe I should be liable for the full refund especially when I lost the opportunity to book to guests that are not psychotic and deranged. I also had to pay TWO CLEANERS a total of $225 which means I lost out on over $700 from the weekend. I am also terrified that this psychopath will return at some point to cause damage based on his threats. I am requesting that Airbnb cover the costs for the reservation and remove that guest from the application so that no other hosts have to deal with them. 
 
EMAIL FROM THE NEXT MORNING: 
 
Although this is hard to believe even for me, I just inspected the home and I am 100% positive they dirtied and stained the place intentionally. When I arrived for my morning inspection on 11/27, I noticed that the carpets had been cleaned, all plates, dishes, glasses, etc had been washed and put away, the beds were made with brand new sheets (been using brand new linens for each guest since covid), and the bathrooms had been bleached (still smelled the bleach product). Now, upon arrival, I found a glass in the sink with a strange black disgusting object in it, I found dirt all over the carpets, urine all over the toilet seat, etc. 
 
Although I have not seen any of the pictures the guests sent to Airbnb, I would bet my life these are the pictures they sent. After I refunded them and asked them to leave they spent the next two hours performing these stunts and taking pictures. 
 
Some of my electronics were found in the trash. The planter in front of my house was destroyed. This confirms my worry that they would cause damage to my property. 
 
I have no idea what to think or feel. It's incredulous, odd and terrifying to say the least. 
___
 
Still no legitimate response from Airbnb which is why I am here seeking help. I need this income as my small family of 4 (5 year old and 2 year old with special needs) has been devastated by covid. 
 
Thank you!
 
29 Replies 29

@Anne1005 If it's an IB booking and you feel red flags, you can ask Airbnb to cancel penalty free for you, saying you are uncomfortable with the booking. If it's a request that you accepted, then not much you can do about that without incurring penalties.

 

You can save yourself a lot of grief with situations like that by not accepting same-day bookings. So unless last-minute bookings are your bread and butter, set advance notice to 2-3 days. That way you have a chance to communicate sufficiently with guests to make a decision.

 

Try not to be intimidated by guests telling you they are lawyers- many of those are lying anyway. And I've never heard of a host actually being sued or anything by a guest who has used these sorts of intimidation techniques.

@Anne1005 

Anne1005
Level 2
Scotland, United Kingdom

Thankyou Sarah that was helpful.  

I think I should have canceled this booking asap as it was IB, and I knew in the first sentence that it was a train coming down the track .

She booked only a few hours before arrival this put me off canceling.

 

My understanding of your advice is that it does not matter if it is only 2 hours before arrival. or if they have arrived but not in the house even? All Penalty Free. 

 

 The lawyer fib bit did not phase me just showing how people tell lies and try to intimidated. I was out of my depth by that time anyway and on to a no winner. 

Thankyou for your time . 

Mark116
Level 10
Jersey City, NJ

 

@Stephen1120  In the future, you or your cleaners should take video of the unit after cleaning.  This will help protect you and prevent future scams.  In this case, if a person was unhinged and threatening me, I would stop trying to appease them and tell them to cancel and find a place that suits them and would have attempted to involve airbnb at the first sign of trouble.

Thanks, Mark. I did try to involve airbnb, but they were unresponsive. Good point on taking a video of the unit after cleaning. 

Branka-and-Silvia0
Level 10
Zagreb, Croatia

@Stephen1120I am sorry for your trouble. To avoid such and similar situations I have a flexible cancelation policy. Whoever wants to cancel is free to do it and be refunded so there is no need for any drama, lies etc. The same is with my long-term tenants. Yes, I occasionally lose some money but it's not a big deal. Whenever some of my guests ask for something I don't offer or show he isn't very happy about something, my first question is always: " Do you want to cancel and look for another place to stay? If so, you will be fully refunded."  I don't want unhappy guests.

.

@Branka-and-Silvia0 

 

These guests would have been out of my place within minutes.

 

 

If I was able to get them out of my place without chaos I would have done that. 

Mark116
Level 10
Jersey City, NJ

@Stephen1120  My guess is that the guest assumed you wouldn't be able to get a cleaner on a holiday weekend and that was how he was setting himself up for getting a free stay.  He would have said that he gave you a chance to fix it, according to Airbnb policy, and you failed, hence he would want a refund.   When you were ultimately able to find a cleaner within an hour this meant his refund scam wasn't going to work, that's why he ordered the cleaner out.  But, unless you were going to let the crazy scammer stay for the duration of the reservation then this was always going to end in a cancellation and Airbnb pretty much 99% of the time will refund a guest when the reservation is cancelled, so I'm not sure what you could have done that would have given you a better financial outcome.  You didn't say how  much of the back and forth with the guest was on the Airbnb platform v. phone calls, but if you had done it all on Airbnb you would have a record of the guest's unreasonableness and you might have gotten at least one night back from the guest/Airbnb.

About half of the interactions were through the airbnb app including most of the lies and threats. It's funny you say that because all I asked from airbnb was to cover one of the nights lost. I wasn't looking for them to cover the cleaning invoices or the full trip. I was hoping that they would see through the scam and see that I had no choice but to send a refund so that they would leave. Airbnb could have put a hold on the refund. The reason they didn't is because they were now in a position where they did not have to refund the guest out of pocket so it was a win/win for them. 

@Stephen1120  It might be worth it to keep pressuring Airbnb depending on how  much energy you want to give this.  I have never done it, but some hosts say that they've had luck simply recalling and asking for a new case to be opened so they get a new rep who will sometimes decide differently.  

 

I would focus on the statements the guest made that were threatening.  You felt threatened and unsafe having the guest on your property...which your view turned out to be correct based on the damages.  You were able to get a cleaner in an hour, e.g. you fulfilled your end of the policy, you were able to remediate the alleged issues but the guest sent the cleaner away and for this reason, you want a refund of both the first night $ and the fee for the cleaner's time.  See what happens, if you are willing to spend more time on this.

Holly474
Level 2
Milford, DE

What is their name please? Airbnb should never allow them to make a reservation. Again

Personal information, like the names of guests, will get deleted from posts here. @Holly474

Holly474
Level 2
Milford, DE

Bummer!  Interesting where the loyalty lays. I’m so sorry that happened to you!

Cormac0
Level 10
Kraków, Poland

@Stephen1120 

 

The first thing you should have done was to tell them to bring it on, and you'll meet them blow for blow, this sort of scum are relying on your fear of being delisted or losing your 5 star rating.

 

I had guest intimating they give me a bad review if i did not play along with there bad behavior regarding additional not paying guest, I lulled them into a false sense of security and then wrote a honest review and gave them a thump down, needless to say she went nuts and threaten all sorts of retaliation but I had documented all correspondence on the Airbnb platform and told her to bring it on, needless to say I heard nothing and another set of scum were dealt with.

 

If you do not have the stomach for dealing with people of this ilk get someone involved that does.

 

 

Yes, I am absolutely sure the cleaner is doing a great job. I have checked the place 3 times in a row now and she is excellent. 

 

Two, I do have the stomach for dealing with people like this and would happy to go blow for blow. If you read the details I was completely vulnerable because they were still in my home and I was not able to get there. If someone is in your home they are in your safe space. If they are threatening you there are 1000 different things on your mind to worry about. Telling them to bring it on while they were in my home with me hundreds of miles away would've been suicide. They could've destroyed more property and/or stolen more property. I appreciate your response, but in this particular situation I literally had no choice.