I have been hosting on Airbnb for about 1 year now and just had the unfortunate experience of asking guests to leave my home. My home was booked for 2 nights this Memorial Day weekend and my house rules are clear; no parties and all guests staying in my home must be mentioned by name in the initial booking as well as their relationship to the person who booked my home.
Long story short, as I have Ring doorbell, I was able to see 4 people entering my home prior to my 3:00 PM checkin time, 5 more people entering my home in the following 2 hours. I tried texting my guest; no response. I tried calling his phone to inquire as to why there were 9 people in my home instead of 1. No answer. At least 7 of the 9 people had backpacks or bags as if they were planning to spend the night.
I called Airbnb and was told that I was within my rights to ask everyone to leave as they had clearly violated my house policies, and because my cancellation policy was moderate I would be paid for 1 night as well as my cleaning fee with no penalty against me for cancelling the reservation. Airbnb did ask me to wait before taking any action while they tried contacting my guest. Airbnb was not able to contact my guest either.
Finally at around 6:00 PM I went over to my house to inquire what was going on as I could not get any response via the app or phone. I had to BEAT on my front door in order to be heard. The young man who came to the door was not the person who had booked my home and told me there was no one at my house by my guest's name. I was momentarily speechless. I asked several more times and he continued to deny there was anyone by that name in my home. Finally I said I was going to have to ask him and everyone in the house to leave. At this time, the man who had booked my house appeared at the door and I was able to ask him and everyone in my home to leave.
I contacted Airbnb again to let them know that I had asked my guest and all additional people in my home to leave. At this time I was transferred to a different department within Airbnb and the representative I spoke with, Aysia, questioned me as to whether or not I really would need to clean my home and said Airbnb would not be compensating me for 1 night's rental fee. She said, "well, you could have a rule about not wearing shoes in your house and ask everyone to leave because they wore shoes in your home" as if I was the one being completely ridiculous. I tried to point out that my house rules clearly state no parties and that the names of all guests staying in my home must be mentioned when the person is booking my home. She told me that if I could provide proof that my home needed to be cleaned, Airbnb would compensate me for my cleaning fee. I told Aysia that I would not be able to return to my home until the following day in order to assess the condition of my home.
What I found when I went back to my home: during the five hours that 9 people were in my home, the bottle of complimentary wine and brownies I leave for my guest(s) had been consumed, both bathrooms/towels had been used, and all beds had been slept in. The kitchen had been used and trash left. No one bothered to lock my doors when they left my home, so it was left unlocked overnight and into the next day.
I uploaded the pictures proving that my house would have to be cleaned and again asked Airbnb representative Aysia for 1 night to be compensated as well as the cleaning fee as I would not be able to rent my home out over the weekend to someone else. Aysia said that because the guests didn't actually stay in my home overnight she would not be able to credit me for one night. However, my guest was refunded the entire amount of his stay while I was left unable to rent my home out or recover any loss of income due to HIS violation of my home policies. I let Aysia know if all 9 guests had slept in my home overnight, I would have been in violation of my City of San Antonio STR permit as only 2 people per bedroom are allowed. I have 3 bedrooms. It made no difference.
I am left feeling very unhappy with Airbnb. In all probability, the guest I had to ask to leave will go on to do this to other hosts as there was no penalty to him whatsoever. Airbnb has taught this young man that it's perfectly fine to disrespect a host's home policy. In fact, they refunded his whole fee and offered to find another Airbnb house to stay in. Airbnb has taught me that they don't care if my house rules are disrespected either.
When I asked Aysia if the first Airbnb representative who told me I would be compensated for 1 nights stay as well as my cleaning fee could be located, I was told that because I didn't have anything in writing from this representative, it would not be honored. I reminded Aysia that the call was recorded, so surely they could listen to it in order to confirm. Again, I was told no.
I think I am finally understanding why Airbnb is offering $360 for new host referrals.
Although I asked for a supervisor, I was told a callback would be scheduled. I'm still waiting.......
It also appears that I am unable to upload any images to this post. I get this message when I attempt to add images, "Your post has been changed because invalid HTML was found in the message body. The invalid HTML has been removed. Please review the message and submit the message when you are satisfied."
Does anyone else hosting on Airbnb also feel that they are biased against hosts? Or, that bad guests are rewarded for their bad behavior while the host is penalized?
Julieanna
