Guest lighting campfires on our cedar deck!!!

[Heather1086]

I am going into year 3 of hosting and 99% of the guests have been great. My last group upon leaving left a garage full of garbage, damage to towels & blankets (which I look at as normal wear & tear) but the kicker was they were setting fires on our cedar deck near the hot tub. As the snow has started to melt the evidence is quite clear that there were multiple fires with kindling lit and going during their stay. I took pictures (we happened to come this weekend to reset for all the skiers the next two months) so are able to deal with what they left behind. I took pictures, called airbnb to let them know this happened. This is a huge safety concern. Have any of you had guests do anything that is dangerous to the property? How did you handle it? and I'm curious how airbnb handled it?  I'm guessing it will be escalated to their safety team... just don't want some weird retaliation on the platform for reporting them.

[Colleen253]

@Heather1086 Overall, I’d say best to avoid ‘getting into it’ with the guest and Airbnb whenever possible. The number one thing to do is avoid problematic guests in the first place. Of course that’s not always dead easy, but be mindful of red flags, and don’t be afraid to decline any booking that smells ‘off’. Rarely worth the payout. 

Think about raising your rates just a bit and start putting the extra aside into a damage fund to draw on when needed. This way you avoid dealing with the guest and Airbnb both. Smile and wave as the guest leaves and just say ‘thanks!’ Let them think they got away with whatever they did, and all is good. Leave an honest review right away. They’ll likely leave one too, with no reason for it to be retaliatory. 

[Heather1086]

@Colleen253  yeah already set aside for situations like this. In 3 years have only filed 1 claim (which then led to the guest falsely reporting me). They had a very high rate since it was over peak holiday. I can absorb all… but if there is damage to my deck that is more than the bent griddle, blanket with burn mark and 10 stained hand towels.

[Sarah977]

@Colleen253  It looks to me like there was damage- it looks like the deck planks are scorched.

[Colleen253]

@Sarah977Hard to tell from the pic, closeup looks like the dark area is wet from melted snow and ice and I see the remains of embers. Hopefully it’s not extensive @Heather1086. 

[Heather1086]

@Colleen253  @Sarah977  thankfully we have a beautiful sunny bluebird day here today so we will be able to dry and get the rest of the snow off the deck to see what the damage is. From what we can tell there were at least 2 locations on the deck where fire is evident. It appears they were building fires on the snow… which obviously melted through. Out in town getting supplies now and may need to pull out the hairdryer to get the wood dry to see if there is true damage. Fingers crossed!! 

[Heather1086]

Thank you all for the advice up to here. Airbnb closed the case since I can't prove any damage since the deck won't be dry until the spring. Thankfully I think the most damage that will be evident is deck staining with charred wood that got into the woodgrain. I have 3 days to write a review. Will obviously do it at the last minute. The guest has not written a review for me and I don't want to spark one if he thinks a negative one might be coming his way.  Here were the issues during the stay. I need to warn other hosts and let them make the decision if he should stay at their houses.

Concerns:

Left the house in a state that took my housekeeper an extra long time to clean. Just really dirty, stained a bunch of towels, left a stain in a dresser drawer, nothing broken.

Fire on the deck

Excessive trash left in garage and overflowed the cans. I had to pay for someone to load it all in a truck and to the dump. Garbage left around the hot tub (beer cans, etc.)

Pro: Communicated needs throughout the stay.