Airbnb Guests filming Pornography

[Chris16615]

Hello Everyone,

This is a heavy post to have to type out and seek support for. We recently had 4 guests at our condo plus one infant. The guest who booked our place for 3 months and listed the other three guests on the reservation decided to leave without telling us. This left 1 couple behind 

The couple contacted me and seemingly out of pure frustration towards the guest who booked our place, sent me links to websites where multiple people were filmed in our home engaging in explicit acts in various rooms of our condo 

To add to this , the infant was apparently at the condo at the time of the filming as well.

By the time I had all of the information,  there was less than 72 hours on the rental and the couple who sent me the links were acting increasingly irratic (sending me questions at 4am, repeatidly asking to stay longer despite other guests expected to arrive after they leave)

The airbnb safety team was notified as well as child welfare and police report started. Once they left, I had access to our condo and found enough damage that I had fo cancel the next guest. The couple continued texting odd messages which forced me to buy a security system for the condo 

The airbnb support team called me back and asked me to send an email with all the links and images which I did. It's not been 7 days since sending the links and no one from the support team will call me back. When I call airbnb about the damages , they direct back to the person on the safety team "in charge of my case" but this person has not sent me a single email or text 

We have decided to cancel the next guests as well as we wait for confirmation of next steps. We typically charge $675 per night and this loss of funds has been very tough to accept knowing that the guest continues to post their videos that were taken in our home 

Any suggestions would really be appreciated 

[Emiel1]

@Chris16615

You need to wait for Airbnb how they will decide about your damage claim .

If you want to "fight" the filmed and published material, you probably need a laywer.

Maybe take control back yourself and "restore" the property asap and start receiving guests again.

And write a bad review for the guest who booked the property for "filming", so other hosts are warned.

It is a simple advise, but looking forward with pleasure gives more joy in life then looking backwards with anger.

[Huma0]

@Chris16615 

So sorry this happened to you. It sounds horrible.

I am not sure at which point you realised that the booking guest left (was it when the remaining couple contacted you and when did this occur during this rather long stay?) but third party bookings, i.e when the booking guest is not staying, are not technically allowed on Airbnb and this was reason enough for you to ask Airbnb to cancel the rest of the booking penalty free, although you probably would have had to issue a refund for the nights not used.

I host long term guests, so a three month stay is nothing unusual to me, but I am a live in, homeshare host. You really need to keep an eye on what is happening within your property and on who is staying.

I don't really know what to suggest for your current situation. You will need to badger Airbnb CS if you are looking to get some kind of compensation but I feel that @Emiel1 is right that if you want to minimise your losses, it's better to get the listing back up and running as soon as possible.

If you want some sort of help stopping the pornographic imagery shot in your place from being distributed, then I am afraid that Airbnb CS will certainly not be willing nor able to help with that. That's going to require some sort of legal action and you have to decide whether you can afford the time and money and stress to deal with that.

Sorry, none of this sounds ideal. No one wants to get in this situation but it's difficult. All you can do is try your best to screen your guests to try to avoid circumstances like that. However, as soon as you realise it'[s turned into a third party booking situation, that's where you should contact Airbnb and INSIST that that they cancel the booking penalty free to you and tell the guests to vacate. CS might not comply the first time but you need to quote their own policies back to them and insist.

[Chris16615]

Thank you so much for taking the time to respond. The 3rd party situation is interesting actually. This guest (call her sam) called me on a Sunday night to say that the other guests had left and requested to stay longer with her child.

When I contacted airbnb about this, the representative said that the girl who did the original booking listed Sam on the reservation and according to airbnb policy, Sam was allowed to continue with the booking which was really strange considering I could not vet this person or choose to have her at our place 

[Huma0]

@Chris16615

That's interesting, but actually not that surprising. 

So, Airbnb policy says third party bookings are not allowed:

https://www.airbnb.co.uk/help/article/427/booking-for-friends-and-family

unless they are part of a business booking:

https://www.airbnb.co.uk/help/article/1311/booking-trips-for-someone-else

which is a whole other scenario.

However I have found that many of the CS reps I've spoken to when a guest made a third party booking (usually when I still used instant book) were a bit dismissive of the policy. While they admitted that third party bookings were not technically allowed and that Airbnb's insurance cover does not extend to those (important point to notice), some of them said it was up to me, the host, to decide and take that risk or not.

I choose never to take it. There are may risks involved, not just in relation to not being covered by insurance. Unfortunately, these days a lot of CS reps are just outsourced and have limited knowledge of Airbnb policy, let alone any power to make decisions.

I have no idea what happens when the booking guest originally stays and then leaves and other guests stay behind who were also listed on the booking, because there is nothing that I can see in the policy that explains what applies after that, but I would say you had grounds for terminating the booking as the primary  booking guest was no longer staying. You cannot rely on the initial response that you get from a CS rep. You have to learn which policies apply and repeatedly quote those back to them. Frustrating, I know...

[Quincy]

Hello @Chris16615, I am very sorry to hear about the experience you have had with your guests. I could see that you did report this to the team, however, I will make sure to pass on the message you've shared here as well. 

[Chris16615]

Thank you Quincy. We are on day 8 and I just received a message yesterday asking for more info about the child on site.

I have 8 more days to leave a review and will do so but I'm nervous it will scare the guest away and delete their credit card 

[Helen3]

Horrible situation. 

Can I also suggest going forward with such an expensive property you install CCTV and also invest in vetting your guests more carefully.

For example do you arrange to check photo ID on check in. Do you arrange regular cleans to monitor the property? @Chris16615 

[Chris16615]

Interesting. We have had older couples undergoing house renovations that insist on seeing the property before agreeing to pay for 1-3  month stays. We are basically vetting each other in-person and getting a sense if it's a good fit. The guests these days are in their early 20's and don't ask many questions which should be a red flag although they have entire story planned to explain why they are staying with us.

We don't ask for ID to confirm actually and moving forward it seems like an absolute must. I could reference this experience to justify the ask 

We do arrange cleanings with the same person from the same company and ask them to report back any issues