Airbnb. parties, events, gatherings + unconfirmed guests

[A-t0]

Here is the case (ongoing): 

A guest makes a reservation for one. Then, he sents an alteration for 3. I've become good at smelling so, do you need the apartment for a party? He says, afterparty and approx 4-5 people (max capacity of the apt is 3)! (here is me glorifying myself for my new abilities). I decline!  

Then he changes his story to well, ok we will have no party, and we will only be 3 people just lodging. 

After confirming in written several times, that he will have no unconfirmed guests, and no party in the apt, I accept (well I didn't want to lose the reservation, just want normal people, doing normal stuff). 

Unfortunately It became a scary night as he didn't kept his promise and 5 people dressed in halloween costumes, going in/out of the apartment. Now this for me is considered breach of my house rules, a violation of terms & services of airbnb. I have in my house rules that if you have breached my house rules for unconfirmed guests and/or events/parties violation fee is 100eur. 

Well, the guest threatens me that his lawyer wants to contact me :), I show him his place and forwarded him to airbnb!  Now, a representative of airbnb tells the guest the following

**

Airbnb rep, without hearing my side of the story, without reviewing proper documentation and security footage, without probably reading my house rules, goes ahead and advices the guest "there is no reason why you would have to pay this extra fee" 

well mr. representative

1- I don't allow unconfirmed guests in my apartment

2- I don't allow parties/events or gatherings in my properties

3- I have stated that a specific fee to be charged (security deposit) if my house rules are breached, simple! 

Now, when you don't specify it in your house rules, you say you should specify it in your house rules, when I do you say well, I cannot charge the guest without his consent. Well can someone please clear these muddy waters of airbnb policies please? 

Investigation is on-going, I have informed airbnb reps that the case will be all public as I think I'm not Alone in the not knowing "how to protect our properties". 

**[Private conversation removed in line with the Community Center Guidelines]

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@A-t0 Airbnb don't like/allow 'fines' for non compliance with the rules. The only thing you could do is remove the guest and refund the remaining stay. Also cancelling for a party will make it possible to get their review removed as it will surely be bad.

If this happens again I assume you will reject the booking rather than risk your place being wrecked.

[A-t0]

@Mike-And-Jane0 we have instant booking on so we cannot "select" guests. This was for a last minute, one night reservation which you cannot control either. You don't want to cancel last minute because you need to do it on host behalf which is bad by itself. 

Well if airbnb doesn't allow/like "fines" than why do they keep saying me, well but you don't have it written on your house rules? 😄 

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@A-t0 With IB you get 3 penalty free cancellations.

[Sarah977]

@A-t0  These CS reps should be relegated to emptying garbage cans.

As you probably know, this reps decision will probably be overturned if you are persistent, but I don't see any hope of collected that money from the guest.

And as you probably also know, "normal guests doing normal things" don't ask to break your rules with over max guests or change their story just so you'll accept the booking. And a last minute Halloween night booking from a guest who does this is a triple red flag.

"This was for a last minute, one night reservation which you cannot control either."

??? Of course you can control that. Change your settings to require advance notice of one or two days so you don't get last minute bookings, and change your minimum night's stay to 2, unless most of your bookings are one nighters.

[A-t0]

@Sarah977  You are probably right when saying to change the staying on min 2 nights. I will probably do that, but even then, there are empty days in between which makes you want to fill them.  Mostly my guests are cool people and I have had no issues when agreeing something beforehand. 

My point is not about the money, or the guest who did what he did (because he could), my point is why Airbnb is allowing it, when they themselves have banned parties globally and what IQ level a person needs to just understand that, you have breached a contract from the moment you had more people than allowed.  And you just waive any liability on guest side like it never happened.

[Sarah977]

@A-t0  The CS reps couldn't be more clueless, unable to understand an issue, and host-unfriendly if those were the requirements for their hiring. It's been getting steadily worse to the point where they might as well not even have a customer service dept.

The number of posts here on the forum concerning CS reps giving out totally false information, being completely unaware of Airbnb policies, making terrible, unfair decisions annd even being blatantly rude to hosts is staggering. 

One host who just posted his issue a couple days ago had to have his gas turned off, meaning guests had no hot water, and he contacted CS to ask about cancelling upcoming guests because of it. He made the mistake of mentioning that the gas was turned off because the gas company had found a leak outside and haven't been able to fix it yet.

So the CS rep jumped on the words "gas leak" and suspended his listing due to it being "unsafe". The gas was turned off! The leak wasn't the issue- the lack of hot water was.

[A-t0]

@Sarah977  yeah i saw that post too and I agree that the level of support for hosts is nearly non existent. We are in a position of not knowing who will be faster on destroying what we have built, the guests themselves or the airbnb reps 🙂

Hopefully no @Brian will come "to the rescue" when everything has crappled out, as it will be too late.