What to do when a guest sneaks a cat in when my listing was not pet friendly

[John6402]

Presently I have a guest who I know has snuck  a cat with them -- in my not pet friendly listing because I saw from day one that there was cat food containers in the garbage.  I also saw in previous comments that the cat was mentioned but did not result in a negative review.  I sent a picture to the Ambassador who requested a pix of the cat food in the garbage receptacle. The guest must be keeping the cat in the Master bedroom. The guest is still in residence as I write this.  Recently i noticed that the guest has left cat food on the porch perhaps and may try to say that  cat food was brought to feed the neighborhood cats although the guest  only did that after a month of staying and (I never stated that I wanted the neighborhood cats fed either in my listing -- inviting pets into my yard is technically a violation of pet friendly no?)  I have not confronted the guest because I don't want to be kept up all  hours or induce vindictive behaviors and really dont like confrontations ( I know attorneys who say it is a little unnerving to even call out deceptions on the stand - that ego you know can be stubborn  and In all fairness I was less than a perfect host: I had a  recurring leak in the frig  2 xs ( first time after 10 years of ownership). I also left some food in the freezer & cabinets and the wi fi only worked in the kitchen until the guest got   another router I immediately reimbursed for the router this was real inconvenience for the guest-- granted --so I was considering giving the guest  a few days gratus -- but I was reluctant knowing that there was a  deception going on. Instead,  I was thinking that I would charge $ 20 dollars a night for the cat and also in exchange give back 3 free nights which would end up as net increase of $500. I get the feeling that guest will deny having a cat though --what should I do? I know it is tough to prove something on a guest.  I have another guest coming a week later I hope I will be able to get the smell out of the room. I have been in touch with Jay at Air bnb and he assures me that this is adequate proof.  But with all deceivers there will always be push back. I may not be a perfect and an inexperienced host but I have a policy of honesty and I always make remedy ASAP. Leaving a damning review is useless since I was told they only get published if both sides review. To wit I have given everyone stellar reviews no one has ever bothered to comment back even when the thanked me for a " great " stay.  So nothing ever gets published. Kind of BS if you ask me. I live in a sought after resort area I give my listing as a relative bargain but I know that there are absolutely no pet friendly listings available.

[Kate867]

@John6402   Firstly, with regards to reviews, you have been wrongly advised.  You have 14 days after a guest leaves to write a review for them and they also have the 14 days to write a review for you.  Both reviews will be published either once they have both been written, or in the case of only one party writing a review, once the 14 days have elapsed.  It is important to write reviews for your guests, particularly if they have broken house rules etc in order to warn future hosts.

With regards to the cat, this is not a permitted/recognised service animal and you would be quite within your rights to ask the guest to either leave or remove the cat from your property due to breaking your house rules. I think you will really need to address this issue with regards to a pet fee sooner rather than later as I suspect you will find it difficult, now that you are aware of it, to try and claim fees in retrospect.  However, you should be able to claim additional cleaning fees if necessary.  It seems as though you have solved the other issues already with the guest (leaky fridge and WiFi) and hopefully you have all the communication with regards to this on the Airbnb Messages just in case the guest becomes difficult over them after check out.

[Huma0]

@John6402 

@Kate867 is correct RE the reviews. Your review of the guest will be published once the 14 day deadline has passed even if she doesn't write one.

RE guests not leaving reviews, perhaps you can politely and kindly remind them to do so. Even though Airbnb already sends them loads of reminders, a lot of guests don't have their notifications turned on, or simply ignore them, so when I was a new host and trying to build up my reviews, I would politely mention it, first thanking them for being great guests and then saying how much I'd appreciate it if they would leave a review. I would either do this verbally when they checked out or in a message after they did. I found that guests were generally responsive to this.

[M199]

@John6402 , @Huma0 , @Kate867 

I'm a little more subtle about reviews.  I meet and greet guests and mention the guestbook. I ask guests politely to leave a message as I don't know from year to year if I will continue hosting and that will be my most treasured memory. I also remind them in the check out message.  95% do leave a written message.

The other nice thing is that, if, I have a positive written comment the guest tends not to leave a negative review.😉

[Huma0]

@M199 

I don't normally ask guests anymore to leave a review, nor do I ask them to write in the guest book. Many write in the guest book and most leave reviews, but when I was starting out, I wanted to build up those reviews faster so I would remind guests and no one took offence to it at all. Some hosts believe that if you have a guest book, guests who write in it are less likely to leave a review because they feel like they've already written something nice and the job is done. I haven't found that to be my experience though. Guests who don't leave reviews never write in the guest book. It's the ones that make the effort to write in there are the type that are going to write a review anyway.