Hey all, I'm Alex, a new host from Seattle, WA. Any advice...
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Hey all, I'm Alex, a new host from Seattle, WA. Any advice about taxes for a new host? How much of an issue are taxes for h...
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I just started renting two rooms in the home where I live. I am keeping bookings super open because I need to get bookings before I can be picky.
Last week, my second guest, was a terror. We were home when he arrived and he sent his Lyft driver to ask how to get into the house. I'd sent out a house manual with all of the information with these instructions and pretty much answers to all questions. I'm a registered nurse and could tell that this guymost likely has bipolar disorder and in an escalating manic phase. He was super invasive. I immediately blocked off the other room since I couldn't have other guests around him. I also contacted Airbnb support for a safety issue. They have yet to help me. I was concerned that if I threw him out, he'd become violent.
Come three one night bookings, I figured out how to block him and told him, the day before, that other guests would be coming soon he needed to leave.
The morning he was supposed to leave, he wasn't in the house but all of his stuff was. My partner and I left at noon, the checkout time, and I tried support again.....no luck. At 4 we went back and knew he'd been there due to things moving around. We packed bags and stayed at my parents house for two nights.
Shortly after this he messaged me and said he was in the hospital and I could pack up his stuff. I went back, packed it, and took it to the hospital that had no record of him. The next morning, I bought chains for my doors, went in, installed them and called the police. They know the guy.
Following day, the police call me and tell me he's in a different hospital and they have my key, which they bring me.
Now, I still have all of his luggage and will be installing cameras today. He destroyed my home. Like I pulled a fill bag of food trash from the room he was in, burn on my comforter, debris everywhere and somehow got poop all over the bathroom along with some kind of air freshener that made a greasy mess over everything. I have pictures of most everything I could get.
What can I do now?
What kind of vetting process do you use for guests?
Unlike @David8879 , I will accept locals, but it just depends on their circumstances. I host long term stays, so it's not uncommon to sometimes get someone who is waiting for a rental to be available or in the process of a home purchase. The trick is to ask plenty of questions first to get as much sense as you can of what that person is like and keep your eyes peeled for any red flags.
I'm not doing any long term stays right now because of football season coming up. I can probably get triple the price for those weekends or stay at my parents' and get $1k for the whole house.
I am not vetting anyone till I get some bookings since I know that a lot of people won't stay somewhere without a history of ratings and I don't think they can see my customer one
@Laura5631 This is a mistake. Not vetting guests=bad guests=bad reviews+damages.
And I'm actually also terrified he's going to review me poorly three times and ruin any possibility of me renting again
Hi @Laura5631, I'm so sorry to hear about this. I can see from your message that you contacted Airbnb, however, I've sent another message to the team asking if they can follow up on this asap.
Thanks
I wanted to give people an update on this situation. I received a message from Airbnb today telling me that they have been trying to get in touch with him and they cannot and I should get back in touch with the police to see what to do next. The police told me that he is now in the regional jail awaiting trial for trespassing and disorderly conduct. I called the jail to see if I can drop his stuff off there since I want no more contact with the guy and was told that I cannot but they gave me two emergency contact numbers to try to get in touch with so that I could drop his stuff off at one of those places. Strangely, one lives about a mile from me and I'm wondering why he did not stay with that person. The other one lives about 45 minutes away but I will be happy to drive anywhere to get rid of the stuff so that he does not have to come back on my property. On a side note, they told me to be very careful when touching his stuff because there could be fentanyl in it