Airbnb Party and Events - I fell totally alone!

James1813
Level 4
Almancil, Portugal

Airbnb Party and Events - I fell totally alone!

Hi everyone!

 

I would appreciate your advice and comments on my situation.....thanks in advance for taking the time!

 

A couple of weekends ago we had a booking at our property - our property is a guest house which includes 4 suites and communal areas such as kitchen, dining area, pool, outside seating etc etc.

 

The guest booked the complete guest house for 8 people (max person allowance) a few weeks in advance and asked for a late checkout (6pm) to which I agreed despite meaning we were unable to welcome new guests on their day of checkout.

 

Anyway, in the days leading up to the booking the guests sent a few messages asking questions about the property - does it have a kitchen? does it have a seating area? does it have a BBQ? amongst other things.... all of which made me think, she has not read my listing or the welcome message/house rules sent at the time of booking.

 

I also felt additionally concerned as other things she said made a feel like having a party was her intention, so, despite our refund/cancellation policy (we were 36 hours from the start of the booking) I offered her the opportunity to cancel the booking and receive a full refund as I knew if I cancelled the booking I would have been hit with lots of negative marks!

 

It turns out my suspicions we correct! When the guest arrived they were VERY shocked to find out that my wife and I lived on site despite the fact it is mentioned in the listing no less than 5 times. 

 

Fast-forward to the night of the incident - lets skip the numerous house rules breaks up to this point, including entering my personal area and using and breaking my personal belongings. 

 

Short version, they had a party which went on until 5am, we received complaints from the neighbours and had to ask them to keep the noise down multiple times - the problem was I kept worrying that if I upset them, they will leave me a bad review.....

 

The next morning, I was able to review the carnage in the light of day! I was also able to clearly see the RV camping on my drive way with the additional guests they had invited to their party. There was food up the walls, glass bottles in the pool, BBQ grease all over the floor, spilt drinks over cushions furniture...the list goes on!

 

It was at this stage I decided to call Airbnb and explain the problem to ask for advice and assistance in dealing with the matter. I was told a member of a designated team would call me back and I needed to wait for them but keep them informed if anything else happened.

 

Over the course of the day, I expected them to begin cleaning up from the night before...but no, the party started up again when they woke up and additional people arrived.

 

5 calls later to Airbnb telling them what was happening and explaining that I was worried if I intervened I would upset them a risk a negative review - I was assured they were in breach of not only my rules but Airbnb's policy around parties and event and that I had nothing to worry about, they even confirmed they supported my decision to force them to leave.

 

Now comes the forcing them to leave bit....this turned nasty pretty quick, they refused to leave, demanded a refund as the were leaving before the late checkout time and even went as far as to shout racially offensive comments to my 7 month pregnant wife - we had to threaten to call the police to make them actually leave.

 

Evidence of the party and the events that occurred went submitted to Airbnb and the investigation completed - I thought it was over....

 

However the guests have left us a 1 star review - I have contacted Airbnb about this explained the issue again and request they remove the review, guess what, they have said no!

 

The Party and Events policy says all parties are banned, however how can I enforce a policy Airbnb set if they will not support me when I enforce it. The terms even state that hosts who violate this rule and allow guests to throw parties may be subject to account consequences - I am in a no win situation and feel totally alone without any support from Airbnb at this stage.

 

There are clear contractions between what I have been told by your Airbnb, the terms and rules they have set for both hosts and guests and the outcome/effect of these events of my account.  

 

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

30 Replies 30

Hi Sarah,

 

Thank you for your assistance!

 

We actually contemplated removing the full house listing altogether in order to stop the possibility of this issue but then we remembered the other guests we have had who simply arrived as a family and were the perfect guests!

 

So, my wife and I had decided to create a new and strict vetting process for all large group guests where we require information on the group, reason for the stay and where the guests are from - if I had done this with this group, it would have been obvious.

 

Thank you again for taking the time!

 

 

Hi  @James1813 ,

 

I am sorry to read about your situation. But thank you for sharing your experience, I have found the thread quite interesting and educational.

 

We have a large property that is meant for large groups, but we are aiming for multiple families or sets of mature couples, etc. not 10-20 partiers.

 

I have a booking coming up in a week that I am not having a good feeling about. Would you mind sharing with me (or the community) what your vetting process is/was?

 

Cory

 

@Cory160 

 

What red flags is this booking throwing out? A good rule of thumb is to never ignore your instincts nor red flags. All the more important if you have a listing that's more likely to attract trouble.

Hey @Cory160 

 

Thank you for the message!

 

What I have learnt through this process and from dealing with Airbnb a lot on it is….

 

- Make sure your listing and the details clearly outline the polices you want to work with, Airbnb will review this in the event on any issues and hold you accountable to the listing you write. 

- Ask questions and explain yourself, I’ve found by asking the guests questions and explaining why I am asking the questions, they are happy to help put your mind at rest regarding their reservation. I would ask about the type of gathering/party they are having and apologise for having to ask but due previous disruption from parties we need to check as we do not accept loud music/Late drinking blah blah blah…. I used to run a nightclub year again and it is perfectly normal to ask the reason of the party, numbers of attendees, times of the party etc. 

 

-  I would advise Airbnb of the situation prior to the party, it may not make any difference but at least you have done it and got their input. Also keep in mind that officially you are not allow to host parties, it is against their terms and ensuring your have read their policy’s and keep on right side of them may help you in the event their is an issue - this is what saved me with my original issue.

- Another thing that I have offered when I’ve not felt comfortable is a full refund (dispute the cancellation policy) prior to the reservation starting, this protects you from feedback and the possible issues. Remember to make sure the guest cancels the reservation!

 

I hope everything goes well, happy to share any other points of my experience if you need more help!

 

By the way, you have an epic property!! 

@Colleen253 @James1813 

 

Colleen, James, 

 

Thanks for your thoughts and suggestions.

 

We are fairly new to hosting and have had one bad experience so far. They clearly had more than the 10 people than the claimed in the booking (they used a lot of extra towels/sheets, mattresses were moved between buildings, etc.) It was also clear they had a pretty large party by the mess on the main room floor.

 

This upcoming booking is a similar demographic guest, same ABB history of only 1 review so far (5 star but I think that is easy to do/get) and hasn't been responsive to a few messages I have sent in the mean time.

 

The booking is a week from tomorrow. I just sent a pretty clear reminder of the rules and requested more information on he and his guests and why they are getting together. Per James' note I gave the guest the option to withdraw without any penalty or call me to discuss the booking.

 

I know this isn't cool after accepting a booking, but from reading many threads on this it is clear it is up to the owner to stand up for their property and not be fearful of a bad review or not achieving Superhost. We are also not concerned if we get a bad review for cancelling - our place and other reviews stand for themselves.

 

I hope the guest responds and we clear it all up and they have a good visit or they politely withdraw.

 

Stay tuned... 😉

 

@Cory160 Preventing undesirable situations is really so important on Airbnb. The thing is, your listing is naturally already a huge party magnet, and your setup further encourages it. The bunkhouse alone sleeps 10! Peoplewill take advantage.

 

I would not advertise the bunkhouse (you should also restrict access), and remove the mention of sofa bed. This would also allow you to lower your guest count which would help too. You'll get the same rate, but less bodies means less wear on the house, and further deter folks who have visions of throwing big parties.

 

You would do well to beef up those house rules. Expand to say max occupancy is 'X', period, booking will be cancelled and all immediately evicted with no refund, if rule violated. That language sends the message you won't be trifled with. 

 

Turn off instant book if you have it on, and question guests thoroughly before accepting. If answers aren't forthcoming or you're not happy with them, decline. Require the booking guest to supply to you the full names of all persons on the booking. That way you have a clear record of registered guests. Don't advertise that you live 45 minutes away. If at all possible, do in person check in. Require all guests to show ID. 

 

All of these things can help deter sketchy guests, but guests you have nothing to worry about will not be put off. Good luck!

@Colleen253 @James1813 

 

Took me a bit, but thought I would follow up. I pressed the potential guest with a few more questions and highlighted the rules (via AirBnB message, then via text and screenshotted and captured in AirBnB) and stressed how communication is key to the AirBnB community. He was not forthcoming about anything so I suggested maybe the best thing for everyone was for him to cancel and he did, which was a big relief.

 

Thanks for you support on this topic...I believe it prevented an issue and I didn't have to be the part that cancelled.

 

Cory

 

Hey Cory!

 

Great news, glad it all went well and turned out positive for you!

@Cory160 Perfect outcome. Well done!

@James1813   A general thing to understand about how the customer service operation works:  Airbnb outsources it to a company that sets quotas for its contractors, who must close a fixed number of support tickets per shift. They're monitored for the average length of time they spend resolving each  support issue, and as non-employees they risk losing work and pay if they're found to spend too much time doing actual service. It's as dystopian as it sounds.

 

When an agent feels an issue is to confusing or complex to resolve in the tight time window, they immediately move it onto someone else's desk. Then it goes around like a hot potato nobody wants to touch. This is obviously no help to the customer, but that's the way it is. And the fact that so much of these operators' time is wasted all day by people trying to make complaints or get reviews taken down only makes it worse for people with real problems. What this means for you as the customer:  if you want to get an agent to stay on your case, you have to be completely clear on what the applicable policy is and reduce your request down to something that the agent can resolve in a minute or two.

 

Anything that involves them having to intervene in communication between host and guest is a non-starter. They're very responsive when the action or decision has already been made, and it just needs to be confirmed in the system. 

Hi Andrew,

 

Thank you for this information, it’s extremely interesting and valuable - I will ensure I keep this in mind when dealing with them.

 

I am left pretty surprised to be honest, there is a definite theme running through the comments which all say the same thing about Airbnb and I’m shocked that they run their business in such an unprofessional  way. 

It is what it is, if we want to host our properties on their site we have to live with it!

 

Thanks again! 

@James1813  Airbnb wasn't always like this. They used to be quite supportive of hosts, and their customer service was not outsourced know-nothings, but were informed about Airbnb policy and tried to come up with reasonable resolutions and actually be helpful. Cases were dealt with in a timely manner and passed on to the correct dept. instead of getting held up by a clueless telephone robot who just wants to dismiss you asap.

 

The company just got too big, and their ideas and arrogance and greed took precedence over being what their rhetoric still falsely promotes.

 

Like Facebook, which started out as a unique idea, by what some referred to as a programming prodigy- just a way for people to connect in positive ways, that took off in ways Zuckerberg could never have imagined, and look at it now. Now he's a "media mogul", a billionaire, just like Brian Chesky, who was a design major, and now a billionnaire CEO. As they say, money corrupts, and people forget their roots, except to talk about them as if that's still who they are, just regular folks. While in fact, they no longer concern themselves with the actual regular folks, they keep themselves at a far remove and probably don't have any real concept of how those who use their services are being treated, nor do they care.

Hi Sarah, 

 

Thanks again for the reply!

I have some great news, I got an apology from Airbnb a few hours ago explaining they made a mistake and removing the review!

My faith is restored!

 

Thank you again!

@James1813  Congrats! It really isn't worth getting stressed out about these things- you just have to be patient and persistent, and a poor decision will often be eventually reversed.

James1813
Level 4
Almancil, Portugal

UPDATE: The review has been removed!

 

Thank you to everyone for their support and help! Happy Hosting!