Flooding Chaos caused by guests! Suggestions??

[Leigh45]

Hi all! So this is my very first day hosting an AirBnB. Since we had no reviews yet, we decided to let ten 20-year-old guys rent our place (although we were nervous about it). They were adament that they wanted to arrive early to ski, so we let them know that the maids would be cleaning but they could drop off their things before heading to the slopes. The toilet aparently overflooded and they just LET it run for 20 minutes before seeking help from the maids! It got everywhere, and the maids turned off the water and are not sure how to fix it. We are hoping to get a plumber in today for them, but the boys left their clothes everywhere and the maids cannot clean. Any suggestions on what we can do?? We have a $300 deposit that we could keep and then we could just refund them if we can't get a plumber in time, but at 20 years old, I'm not sure if they can rent a room at the lodge. Any suggestions??

[Helen3]

Oh dear, that's not a good start.

You don't need to let guests in early. It's your place and your rules. If they wanted to arrive early thats down to them to find somewhere to go if that want to arrive in the resort before your check in time. You should just have just reminded them of your check in time and that they can't arrive at your property before this.

Letting guests  arrive while your cleaners are still cleaning the property is very unfair on your cleaners and as you have found leads to problems.

 You don't have a deposit you can keep through Airbnb. The deposit is something Airbnb can charge against a customers payment system if they agree that a guest caused damage  (please see Airbnb Help Centre).

It is not up to the maids to fix this situation. If you are hosting remotely you need to have a local manager on hand to sort out these sort of issues.

Do you know what has caused the problem with the toilet (presume the property was checked out to ensure everything was working properly before you started letting it out? If this was caused by the guests you can raise a request to cover the costs of sorting the situation out in terms of plumber and extra cleaning. If this is a pre-existing situation, it's not something you can take out of a deposit.

In your situation I would drive down there and sort the situation out directly if you don't have a local manager.

Personally I would never let out a property to a large group of young single men.

[Emiel1]

Hi,

Bad luck on the first day...

Looking at the 2 toilets on the photo's in your listing: if the cistern is overflowing, it's easy to stop this inside (if there is not an outside stop valve) by some handy person. Guest can temporary use the other toilet until final repair.

[Linda108 · Accepted solution]

 @Leigh45  I checked the listing and understand that the listing belongs to Lauren and you are managing it, right?  It appears that neither of you are local which can be very difficult in these type of situations.

Both you and Lauren have been guests on Air BNB and have many positive reviews.  You may have made a common mistake thinking that guests will be like you and treat a place with respect.  Here are a couple of thoughts.

Reduce the size of the number of guests from 10 to 6 and charge a fee for each guest over 6.

Set up a security deposit that will be accessed by Air BNB in case there is a claim for damages.  Even good guests can cause damage.  

Do not assume guests will be respectful by leaving important personal items available to them.

Do not accept guests without good reviews until you have experience with how to vet newbies.

Have a local contact that can help with the inspection of the property before check in and after check out.

As to your current problem, if you cannot fix the toilet problem, you need to relocate the guest.  Air BNB will assist if you contact them and this booking will be cancelled with no host penalties.  Probably best to do that as this group may not be the best for you to deal with at this time.  Here is a guide for contacting Air BNB found on this site.

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Help/Contact-Airbnb-A-Community-Help-Guide/m-p/16165#M728

Don't get too discouraged as this business is not as easy as you think.  I have gain valuable understanding by reading the postings on this forum.  Learned to avoid a lot of mistakes.  Hope this helps.

[Leigh45]

Thank you very much for your comments and thoughts! We have certainly learned our lesson about renting out to a large group of young men, and about having guests come early. The contacting AirBnB guide is very helpful - thank you! I think we assumed that guests would be respectful, and that's a good idea to reduce the number of guests and to do more guest vetting. My sister and I co-host the place, and it is 4 hours away from either of us. We have a plumber on the way and we're hoping to get this resolved. I appreciate the insights.