Bed bugs scam

[Junni0]

I have a reservation of total 9 guests stayed in my place this weekend. Sent me pictures 2 days later after check out saying few of her guest have bed bugs bites on their body and asked to request one night refund back due to this issue. My house is a busy Airbnb, I have many guests staying in my house before and after their reservation without any issues. I am considering this might be a scam. My house rated as sparkling clean. 

May I ask have any hosts experience this before? And what actions should I take? What was the result at the end? Thank you very much!

[Nanxing0]

You can simply decline the request saying this is not proved and if Airbnb contacts you, you can see what they say. If they question about the bug problem, you can show them that you have been hosting before and after this group of guests and there's no bed bug reported by other guest this should be enough to prove that.

If Airbnb asks you for further evidence, you might need to order a K9 inspection. There should be a few local companies that do such inspection with a K9 dog. They are the most sensitive ones to bed bugs. 

[Junni0]

Hello, thanks for the K9 dog suggestion. The guest requested money through AirBnB and I declined. I told her to contact AirBnB directly and I will follow Airbnb’s instructions for further actions. 

The only thing I’m worry right now is if the guest complained to Airbnb and AirBnB will automatically falls on guests favor, issue her a full refund and block my list and cancel my future reservations without actually proof evidence. I hope I’m wrong because that’s what I saw in most cases. 

[Nanxing0]

@Junni0 Airbnb is known to favor guests but they still need to be reasonable and show evidence. Some bug bite photos are not going to even prove them the victim of bed bug infestation, not to mention that the bed bug bite can be from your house or somewhere else. If nobody else reported bed bug from your house, most likely they didn't get the bite from your house.

However on the other hand, I'd suggest you do a preventative treatment for bed bug, just to prevent the possibility that this group of guests brought any bug or egg into your house. Simply buy some spray and apply on the bed frame and mattress next time you do cleaning, and reapply after 7-10 days. It'd be strongly recommended that you get a bed bug proof mattress cover for any of the beds in the house. There are good ones on Amazon for less than $20 each.

Another thing I need to mention, is that Airbnb has a pretty strict rule on bed bug infestation. If a property is found to be bed bug infested, their policy is to suspend the listing for 3 weeks and then you need to provide proof of bug free (like a K9 inspection report) to be able to host again. 

[Junni0]

All my mattresses in the Airbnb house are cover by high protection covers. I bought the most expensive like $85/each, its water proof, prevent from bed bugs, any type of bugs, dust and etc. We do a deep cleaning each time when we have guests check out. We had a back to back reservation stayed in the house on the same day they checked out. They stayed in the house for two nights, too. They didn’t have any issues or any bites after they left. They said everything is great.  Bed bugs won’t choose particular guests to bite, if there are bed bugs in the house, guests just left would tell me and AirBnB right away. After these guests left, my parents checked every spot in the house and couldn’t even find one bug. 

[Nanxing0]

@Junni0 By spending more than $50 on mattress protectors you are ripped off actually. I have bought as expensive as $150 mattress protectors sold in furniture stores and compared to some $30 ones from Amazon and found NO DIFFERENCE at all. I'm only using those less than $20 protectors on my mattresses and change them every year and happy with them.

[Junni0]

I got mine from Target and it’s way better than the one from the mattresses stores. That’s what I think. 

[Emilia42]

@Junni0 

Just FYI bed bug bites (or bites from bugs in general) don't affect everyone. They are a reaction and some people are not sensitive. My boyfriend can get eaten alive by fleas and I would never know they were there.

[Junni0]

Okay! However I have two different groups of people (10ppl each group), before and after this reservation. They are completely fine and no issues involved. 

[Junni0]

May I ask, usually how much is the K9 dog exam cost? 

[Nanxing0]

@Junni0 The hourly rate of a K9 dog is about $300 or so. It depends on how large your house is but it's definitely waaaaaaay cheaper than an extermination service. I have had bed bug extermination for a long term rental unit before and it cost about $700 for a small studio. A whole house bed bug extermination you will be looking at $1000-2000 or even more. If you are 100% sure there's no bed bug in your house, a K9 inspection will save you a lot of cost if you need something to prove that. 

[Junni0]

I checked with my local pest control companies and they charge $95 or $145/house to do a pest control exam. If there are bed bugs exist then the treatments are around $1100 to finish. 

[Normen0]

@Junni0 I had this exact scenario.  The guest tired to say it was bed bugs, then next day said a doctor diagnosed it as scabies.  I explained how long ago it was when the last guest was before them and sent a link to the CDC which explains how long scabies live. It was impossible that it was scabies on the timeline.  

 Next day she reported to AIRBNB that there were bed bugs.  AIRBNB suspended the listing until we had a pest control inspection.  We had it done right away - within three days.    Submitted the bill to AIRBNB and they reimbursed it immediately.  We went after the guest for lost income and a pet cleaning fee as they had not disclosed a  dog.  We were only able to get the pet cleaning fee, but we had doubled it.  

[Sarah977]

@Nanxing0 "If a property is found to be bed bug infested, their policy is to suspend the listing for 3 weeks and then you need to provide proof of bug free (like a K9 inspection report) to be able to host again. "

I think you're wrong. It isn't if a property is "found to be infested"- they suspend the listing immediately according to all reports here, then the onus is on the host to hire a exterminator and submit the report- that either no bugs were found, or the property was treated.

@Junni0  This definitely sounds like the typical lying, scammer guest. Since she's probably already in touch with Airbnb, I guess you could either contact Airbnb to say this guest is scamming to get a refund, as you have guests there now who have had no such problem, and they surely would if it were true, or wait to see what happens.

Airbnb is so hard to get a response from now, that might work in your favor- if she can't get ahold of them easily, maybe she'll just give up the refund idea.

Good luck.

[Junni0]

I know. I reported to the Airbnb right away when I received messages from this guest when she told me my house has bed bugs. She threatened me that she will leave me a bad review if I don’t take any further action. I called AirBnB like 3 days before and still has not receive a reply back. I declined her request, I told her communicate with AirBnB and I will take further action when AirBnB contacts me.