Abusive guests

[Charitha0]

i recently had a couple stay at my beach house in Sri Lanka. It was booked for 2 pax. The couple informed me that they would be getting married in SL and requested the wedding to be held at my home. I declined as our home is too small as she wanted 40 guests. I therefore suggested a local restaurant for a beach wedding. They went ahead with this. 

However from the moment they checked in around 20-30 people started to enter our property. They were drinking in the garden and using the swimming pool etc. I sent the guest a messsge saying that only Airbnb guests booked to stay at the villa may use our facilities. I infact informed them of this at the time of booking too plus its mentioned on our Airbnb page. 

The guest ignored my request and the next day they did the same. I sent another message and said I am within my rights to cancel the reservation if they did not respect my wishes. The guest then called me and cried! I felt sorry for her as it’s her wedding and she asked if her friends could come to the property to wish her as she’s getting married the next day. I agreed and allowed up to 40 people into our tiny 3 bed villa from that day onwards! We have 2 staff there and they worked really hard to clean the place afterwards! 

However the following incident happened on the night of their wedding. The staff stayed awake until 1:30am to let the couple into the house after their wedding celebrations. However at 1:30am the guest informed the staff that they would not be back that night. So my staff went to sleep.... 

At 3am the guests had returned to find the gate closed and my staff were fast asleep. They had to climb over the gate and let themselves in. This was unfortunate but the staff went to sleep as the guests said they would not be back that night. Otherwise they would have stayed awake. 

At 3am one of the guests walked into the bedroom where my staff were sleeping and started  to verbally abuse and threaten them. This is all caught on our security cameras. 3-4 mins of shouting by the guest is seen. My staff were just shocked and stunned. 

The next day I requested the guests to vacate the property as I was not willing to accept anyone mistreating my staff. I informed Airbnb also and they suggested I contact the police if it happens again. 

Agsin the guest cried and asked to say. I said they may stay if they apologize to the staff and it never happens again. The guests apologized and they were allowed to stay. But obviously the guests were not happy now as they felt uncomfortable after creating such a scene. 

Then a day later they decided to vacate at 6:30pm saying they didn’t feel safe at the property and requested 2 days refund. I refused and informed Airbnb too. 

The guests contacted Airbnb and said that I had tried to “kick them out”! And wanted a refund of 2 days. 

I sent Airbnb copies of the cctv footage and all messsges between me and the guests. It clearly shows that the guests mistreated our property and abused my staff. 

This matter is still not resolved. 

However the guests has now left a review (after 14days). Obviously this review will not mention their unacceptable behavior and will instead try to discredit me. Even though I was reasonable in the end and allowed 40

people to use my villa without charging a penny more. 

Am I able to stop this review from appearing on my listing? I am a super host and have worked very hard. I know I can put my reply under the review. But I would prefer this review is stopped altogether. If I as a host acted unfairly towards the guests then this review should appear. But in this case these guests mistreated my property from the onset by bringing 20-30 strangers into a home without asking the permission of the host and then they threatened and verbally abused the houseboy and the chef. 

Please advise if there’s anything I can do.... thank you! 

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Charitha0 

first of all, if you still can, you should review your guest. This way you will be able to comment on their review, otherwise not.

Your review of them and your response to their review should be no emotional and factual, you are addressing your future guests and their future hosts. So write something along the lines you already wrote here: these guests mistreated my property from the onset by bringing 20-30 strangers into a home without asking the permission of the host and then they threatened and verbally abused the houseboy and the chef.  Therefore I can't recommend this guest and they are not welcomed back.

In the future don't fall on fake tears, stick to your rules and maintain control of your property. Your house, your business, your rules.

Hosts should always be very careful with guests coming for weddings.

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

ps

you can try to remove their review, it depends of what CS rep you get and what your guests wrote. If you have enough time try to contact Airbnb and get their reveiw removed before you write your review or respond to theirs.

[Charitha0]

Thank you. Yes I’m trying to raise this with Airbnb as the case is still ongoing. Thank you so much for your feed back. 

[Helen3]

Oh dear what a horrible experience @Charitha0 and particularly for your staff that had to cope with 30-40 guests when they were only meant to be looking after two. And then to be abused by these guests for something that was completely outside of their control.

Quite honestly, your guests inviting their wedding party onto your premises when you had expressly told them not to, was a huge red flag and it would have been better to have told them on the first day these extra guests needed to leave immediately, rather than letting them abuse your hospitablity and more importantly your staff for the duration of their stay.

It is not your fault that the party getting married hadn't made provision to have a larger place for their guests to stay.

Guests like this will not appreciate your flexibility and are never likely to be happy however much you bend over backwards.

I think after they abused your staff you definitely should have asked them to leave. What sort of message is it sending out to your guests and more importantly your staff that you let these guests stay after they had treated your staff in such an appalling way.

I definitely think you should be leaving an honest review. I would also give your staff extra payment for putting up with these awful guests, all the extra work involved in clearing up after these extra guests  and being abused and assure them going forward if guests behave in this way they will be asked to leave immediately.

[Charitha0]

Hi Helen

yes I should have asked them to leave immediately. It’s totally my fault. They had no regard for my house nor my property. I know what to do next time and I won’t hesitate. 

My staff were brilliant and I do feel bad that they were abused in such a manner. 

Im waiting to hear back from an Airbnb rep regarding the review placed by the guests. As this case is still ongoing,  I don’t see why the guest should be allowed to leave a review without a proper investigation into the matter. These guests violated my house and my staff and surely this can’t be acceptable behavior for Airbnb to promote or ignore. 

[Ton11]

I fully agree with the former comments. When a guest violates a house rule, especially as serious as this one, they should be "kindly" invited to leave the listing immediately.

Regarding the review, please check if the content violates the Airbnb Content Policy: https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/546/what-is-airbnb-s-content-policy

If it does, the review can be removed by Airbnb.

[Charitha0]

Thank you Ton I will check the content policy link. 

[Cormac0]

@Charitha0 

No good deed goes unpunished, this is what happens when you flip flop on your decisions, this guest used and abused you, and now to add insult to injury they want compensation.

Admittedly its very difficult to act unilaterally knowing that there’s a high probability that Airbnb will not support your decision, particularly with the emotional blackmail (their wedding) going on in the background.

These guests booked you listing in the full knowledge of what was about to unfold and you like a schmuck fell for it (this is a little bit of tough love btw).

I know how much my wedding cost and it was exponentially more then the cost of a few days in an Airbnb, and now this scum have the audacity to implicate you in their malfeasance, you’ve learnt a valuable and costly lesson here so put it to good use in the future.

Thumps down and don’t let them book your listing for the Divorce.

[Charitha0]

Yes I agree with you. I should never have allowed them to stay. Now I have to pay the price for it. 

[Cormac0]

not justifiable so, but on the balance of probabilities you’ll be bearing the cost.

[Charitha0]

I have refused the 2 night refund.

Im trying to stop Airbnb from posting the review as the case is still unresolved. I have not as yet had a final response from Airbnb regarding the violation. 

[Gordon0]

Assuming we're talking about 'Luke', @Charitha0, the review has already been posted and is on your page. Why on earth didn't you review them? 

[Charitha0]

Hi Yes that’s the one. I just saw it. Do you know if I am able to add my response below? I can’t seem to find a way to do it.

 I had no idea that he left a review. I did not receive a notification from Airbnb that he had written one. If I had known I would have had the opportunity to write my response below. 

Also as there’s an ongoing case regarding this client I did not write an initial review as I wanted the matter to be resolved. As they threatened my staff etc, I was waiting for Airbnb to resolve everything. 

It just seems unfair that I am not even able to respond to his comments. He even says that I may have cameras in the bedrooms!!! He’s just trying to damage my business 

[Mark116]

@Charitha0  Yes, you can write a response.  I'd make it only a paragraph or so.  Be super professional not emotional.  You will also want to remind the guest that all the cameras are for guest protection and that they are all disclosed in the listing [some guests have used cameras to get refunds]. Stick to the facts of the rules the guest broke and maybe that they were extremely ungracious despite the fact that you made many exceptions due to the wedding.  But, I 'd keep it short, factual and basic.

Don't mention anything about the case with airbnb because they can use that to delete your response.