Guest operating business from our cottage

[Cheryl133]

We had an incident this week and I was curious to know how other hosts would feel about it.  We have a small two person cottage on our 5 acre property.  We had a reservation made by Eve for four nights, one person.  She stated she was in the El Dorado Hills area (10 miles from us) on business.  About 45 minutes before check-in time my husband was finishing the yardwork and a man shows up stating he is renting the cottage.  Seemed odd so we called Eve to find out what's up.   She stated that was her husband, Adam.  My husband got a really bad feeling from the guy.  Adam stated he was a law enforcement officer.  So when I get home from work I see a car leaving the driveway and another car immediately pulling into the driveway.  Our listing states "no extra guests, parties, or events."  I turned security cameras back on and a short time later same thing.  One car leaves and another arrives.  So I google Adam and find out he's a retired ice skater (not a law enforcement officer) and claims to be a holistic healer.  So he has "clients" coming to our home for "healing."  He claims to heal drug addiction, cancer, infertility, pretty much anything.  We went up and told him this is not okay and he will need to leave.  He told us he had a client inside and would be out within an hour.  At that point Eve starts sending lots of threats through airbnb.  Mostly about a lawsuit she is planning to file.  Adam left within an hour but he left the front door open and took our housekey.  Eve denies he took key.  They were in violation of airbnb policy because it's a third party booking so airbnb backed us on evicting him.  We agreed to refund entire payment hoping to stop the harassment and threats.  Airbnb gave us $50 for new deadbolt.  Further internet research shows quite a few articles about him being a fake and bilking money out of desparate people.  So my question to you is have you had any similar situations?  How would you feel about a guest scheduling clients to come to your airbnb? 

[Sarah977]

@Cheryl133  I've never had that situation, but you can rest assured that other hosts would not be okay with this at all. There have been other posts over time about the same type of issue. In some cases it wasn't even one guest's "client" at a time, but someone having set up a workshop with 10 people showing up without discussing this with the host before booking.

I'm glad Airbnb had your back on this one. 

I hope you leave an honest review for this guest to warn other hosts. If you don't see that the guest has left a review, wait until day 13 and a half to submit yours- that way the guest may not see you've left a review in time to leave one of their own, which you can guarantee will be bad. But as Airbnb has a record of this situation and supported you, I'd hope they would remove any bad review from these people at your request.

[Cheryl133]

Airbnb blocked reviews for this reservation so at least they won't be able to leave a bad review but I won't be able to warn other hosts about them.

[Elena87]

@Cheryl133 

If the guest is candid enough beforehand about their intentions, you can make an informed decision about this.

Lots to take into consideration, such as proof of public liability insurance, zoning restrictions, possible material changes to your covenants and insurances, assessment of the impact on your property depending on nature of the business, additional wear and tear - and so on.

Your guest appears deceitful from the get go - you can't work with people with this type of conduct.

Chalk this up to experience, I think you dealt with the matter competently and patiently.

[Ute42]

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@Cheryl133 

From the airbnb terms of service.

8.3.3 You may not bring any additional individuals to an Experience, Event or other Host Service unless such an individual was added by you as an additional guest during the booking process on the Airbnb Platform.

[Sheila316]

I thought I had a nightmare 

I am trying to get out of instant bookings

thought a good way to avoid hsssels 

But have found most trouble if

they are new  like first  or second 

booking 

after reading yours I have nothing 

to complain about 

angry neighbors drunk guest and they lost my cat... major thunderstorm 😞

[Tim-and-Holly0]

@Cheryl133:

Over the course of our hosting we've suspected 3 "night" businesses run out of our homes. The only thing we were able to do in our situation was leave bad reviews for the guest since we could not prove what was actually happening in order to take action.

[Christine615]

It's not okay. And you didn't owe them a refund for the time they stayed. The problem with bad reviews is some of these people just start a new account. Not sure why Airbnb doesn't have a way to ban them permanently and keep their ID on file.

If you get a bad review, you can show Airbnb the threats and make them take it down. Or you can use your public response option to outline what happened as a warning to other hosts.

What a mess. And even if third party booking was allowed, the woman lied about his occupation and his marital status.