Guest roommate claims cleaner stole him money and wants me to refund it

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Guest roommate claims cleaner stole him money and wants me to refund it

Hello everybody, I am still in a state of shock. I need your advice.

Five hours ago I received a message from one of the roommates of my airbnb guest. They are four.

They are renting my 3 bedroom apartment since January 5.  When I got in touch with the girl who rented she told me a friend of hers was arriving first and he was going to do the check in. So in fact I only interacted with him. (During this month I had some issues with him: 1) they left the air conditioning on with the windows wide open and nobody there, I asked them to kindly turn it off while they were away but they ignored me for some days later he contact me to send someone to see the air conditioning that was full of ice, luckily it did not broke. They had the remote control badly set with the fan at minimum, the temperature very low and the windows open 2) another day he sent me a message to bring him a big fan over because the one he had in his bedroom squeaked uncontrollably. I went that day to buy another fan for him, when I went to replace it I found he had the fan placed on a chair with a rounded seat. Obviously the fan was not supported correctly. I brought it home placed it on the floor and works perfect. well never mind)

Returning to his messages: 

14:40 I think your cleaner stole $140 usd from me

14:40 I have cash missing and she is the only person who came into the apt

14:41 I need you to pay me that money back for the lack of security

14:43 The cleaner is here now. You can confront her or pay me, but this is terribly unacceptable

14:46 I will write a review that this happened and no one will want to stay ever again.

14:52 ??

Me: 14:53 Josefina is first time going to clean the apartment. She was in holidays in Paraguay. The other person who was cleaning the apartment is Martina. I will ask her but is very strange  that she has taken the money. Where did you left the money and when?

14:53 It was in my backpack

14:54 I had $200 usd this morning and now only $60

14:54 Fix this immediately I am catching a flight and leaving at 3:45pk

Me: 14:54 This morning? Oh!!

I will call her

After that message I called Josefina who was cleaning there and explained her all the situation. I know for sure she did not took the money. I know her for ten years now, she worked all this time for me, she comes home and to my apartment to clean, I know her family, her husband and kids, we have a close relationship. I had plenty of guests during all these years and nobody ever complained about her. Nevertheless I told her to show him the bag with the sheets and towels the only thing she had with her over there. All this situation made her cried, she offered to take her clothes off. I asked her to handle him her phone so I could speak with him. He insisted in me refunding him the money. He tried to coerced me telling he was going to write a very bad review . I went immediately to the apartment and handle him the warranty deposit. Face to face he told me he could not tell Josefina took the money. When Josefina went to clean at 13:00 there were his roommates there.  I told him I was not going to pay him the 140 dollars because he was responsible for taking care of his money, there were other persons in the apartment before and during Josefina went to clean so perhaps one of the other persons took away the money, or he thinks he put the money there with the rush of the flight and then he will find the money in other place or he thinks he had that money and he had spent it, who knows. I did not see his money nor he asked me to take care of it. He threatened me with the terrible review he was going to write over and over again until I told him: I do not care, I know for sure Josefina did not took your money, I am very sorry with all this. He froze and told me Ok. Then we both left, someone was waiting for him downstairs.

What do you advice me to do now?. I have 35 wonderful reviews 

Thank you in advance

Best regards

 

PS : has he made up this story for me to pay him money? Why would someone steal part of the 200 dollars and not all? If the money was in his backpack how would Josefina could ever know where to search under the eyes of the other roommates clean the kitchen, bathrooms, change the linen, the towels, make the beds, clean the floors in two hours? 

 

 

 

1 Best Answer
Lisa723
Level 10
Quilcene, WA

@Hortensia1 where to begin...?

 

1) Third-party bookings are a violation of Airbnb terms of service. Ideally you should only be communicating with your actual guest, not her roommates. Nobody else should check in in your guest's place.

 

2) Your guest's roommate cannot leave you a review. Only your guest can.

 

3) Obviously this was a scam on the part of your guest's roommate, or he's just really dumb. (I'm sorry your cleaner was subject to that treatment.)

 

4) Always keep all communication on the Airbnb platform so Airbnb CS can review it.

 

At this point, you should stop communicating with anyone other than your guest and on any platform other than Airbnb messaging. I would send your guest a message saying "Hello, X, your roommate has falsely accused our cleaner of theft, which is very concerning. I understand he has left. Please do not allow him to return; and if you or any of your party feel unsafe or uncomfortable in our place please cancel your reservation and vacate the premises right away. If you choose to remain please reply to this message assuring me that you agree the accusation was false, and that no other members of your group will harrass my staff in this way. Thank you."

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16 Replies 16
Lisa723
Level 10
Quilcene, WA

@Hortensia1 where to begin...?

 

1) Third-party bookings are a violation of Airbnb terms of service. Ideally you should only be communicating with your actual guest, not her roommates. Nobody else should check in in your guest's place.

 

2) Your guest's roommate cannot leave you a review. Only your guest can.

 

3) Obviously this was a scam on the part of your guest's roommate, or he's just really dumb. (I'm sorry your cleaner was subject to that treatment.)

 

4) Always keep all communication on the Airbnb platform so Airbnb CS can review it.

 

At this point, you should stop communicating with anyone other than your guest and on any platform other than Airbnb messaging. I would send your guest a message saying "Hello, X, your roommate has falsely accused our cleaner of theft, which is very concerning. I understand he has left. Please do not allow him to return; and if you or any of your party feel unsafe or uncomfortable in our place please cancel your reservation and vacate the premises right away. If you choose to remain please reply to this message assuring me that you agree the accusation was false, and that no other members of your group will harrass my staff in this way. Thank you."

Thank you very very much for your answer and tips. I will send the message you kindly typed for me to my Guest and see how it works. Now I am feeling much better. 
Best regards 

Hortensia

Hello Lisa! I just received an answer to the message you wrote for me from my guest. She says as follows:

”Hello Hortensia. I’m so sorry that there was an issue with my roommate. I have never felt unsafe or uncomfortable in your apartment (in fact I have had a wonderful month here!). I will be leaving tomorrow morning and look forward to writing a review about my great visit. I’m very sorry about the confrontation the other day and how hurtful it sounds like it was. Thank you.”

 

Thank you again!! You were of an enormous help!!

best regards

Victoria576
Level 3
Western Australia, Australia

@Hortensia1  what a relief. I'm very pleased for you. Still a stressful situation though.

Thank you Victoria!! At last it all turned up well. She left the apartment very neat and clean. Nothing to complain about. She was also stressed about the whole situation her roommate created. We ended up in very good terms. Thankfully is all history now.

Maia29
Level 10
Anchorage, AK

More than likely the person making these accusations has a drug problem or someone else in the unit does. 

Now that you mention it .. perhaps. I really do not know.

Jennifer1897
Level 10
Irvine, CA

I am sorry this happened to you. Situations like this are hard.

 

When you say roommate, do you mean he showed up in addition to the guest who booked the reservation without approval, or was he listed as an occupant in the initial reservation. If he is staying without being a "registered guest" this is not ok. Always make sure you have the exact number and names of all that are staying at the home. And as Lisa said, third party booking are not allowed. You also have the right not to allow unannounced or unapproved guest in your home.

 

That being said, this is a he said she said case. Did the housekeeper take it? Most likely not. Did he misplace it? Possible. Is it a scam? Maybe. There is really no way to prove what happened. He can't prove without a doubt the housekeeper took it, and you can't really prove without a doubt that she didn't. 

 

I would alert airbnb about what happened. Include your exchanges about the money when you present your case. It is not ok for him to threaten a bad review in an attempt to get the outcome he wants. I would not allow him to return, as it is a hostile situation. Also decide if you feel comfortable hosting the rest of the group for the remainder of the stay? If you do not, you need to enlist airbnb to assist you in handling the cancellation of the stay. 

 

As for the negative review, that will depend on the actual guest who booked the reservation, as they are the person who is allowed the opportunity to write the review. Assuming the main guest was friends with the "roommate" he may factor this incident into his review. Just keep in mind you have a right to respond publicly to the review, as well as leaving one for the entire party who stayed in your home, which includes the guest who had the issue. 

 

Thank you Jennifer for your message. 

The only registered guest in the reservation is Susannah. The reservation is for 4 people (I do not know the names of the rest other than the problematic roommate). When I got in touch with her for the check in she told me her friend was arriving at the morning and that he was going to do the check in. I asked her to sent me his flight information. The day of the check in I was waiting during the morning for his arrival and as I did not have any news I got in touch with Susannah if she could send me his telephone number so I could ask him his whereabouts. 

Then during there stay all the communication was with him. He was the one who sent me messages to my phone, not Susannah. I saw him twice, the day he arrived and on Monday with all this issue. Susannah never introduced herself. I know by the cleaning lady that she saw two girls at the apartment. I asume one was her.

With respect of your advice "I would alert airbnb about what happened" could you tell me how I do this? Thank you. In all these years working with Airbnb I did not have any kind of problem so I do not have a clue where to contact them for this.

I sent Susannah the message Lisa wrote for me. I will see what she answers. Nevertheless the check out of the reservation is tomorrow. This last night was not payed yet.

About the negative review you are right there is the possibility to reply.

Best regards

Mike-And-Jane0
Level 10
England, United Kingdom

A very sad situation. My advice would have been to offer to accompany the guest to the nearest police station so that he could record the alleged crime and allow him to claim on his insurance. I can almost guarantee that he would not be willing to lie to the police

Thank you for your advice. Yes I did not have any problem to accompany him to the police. I think it is the right thing to do. But he argued he was in a rush to take a plane, to exchange money, he only wanted me to give him 140 dollars. 

Helen3
Level 10
Bristol, United Kingdom

@Hortensia1  99% a scam.

 

If it happens again. Say you are sorry to hear that  some of his belongings are missing. Say the best procedure is to contact the police to file a report and then make a claim on his travel insurance.

 

Hopefully he made the threats of a bad review if you didn't pay on Airbnb. This is against their terms and can end up with the guests account being suspended.

 

I agree that you should only let the person who booked check in and all your communications should be with them not their fellow guests. 

 

Do call Airbnb and message your guest who booked on the platform to repeat advice about the police and remind them it is against Airbnb's review policy to exhort money from a host in exchange for a positive review. 

Thank you Helen very much! I also think it was a scam.

Fortunately the guest answer that she never felt unsafe or uncomfortable in my apartment and is sorry about her roommate behavior. Tomorrow I will meet her at the check out and speak more about it.

For next reservations I will take all your advice in consideration. We have in Argentina a say: Prevention is better than cure.

 

Helen3
Level 10
Bristol, United Kingdom

Glad to be helpful. Please before you meet the guest do call Airbnb and put your advice in writing.

 

And leave them an honest review.

 

Do let us know how it goes? @Hortensia1