Hosting guests with dogs

[Carrie30]

What can I do if a guest's dog urinates or defecates in my home? Can I ask them to leave?

I made it very clear in my messages to the guest that all "doggie business" is to be handled in my garden, and not in the house.

[Alice-and-Jeff0]

Why is there a dog in your place?  Your listing says no pets.  Did they bring the pet without consulting you or did you allow this guest a special privilege? It sounds like you went against your own house rules.  

By allowing a dog in  your property, you do run the risk of a doggie accident, much like someone accidentally breaking a glass or cup. To me, this is par for the course with allowing an animal and asking the guest to leave because of it doesn't seem like an extenuating circumstance.  

You CAN however charge the guest for the additional clean up.  If you have to have the carpet cleaned, take pictures immediately, get quotes and a receipt and upload it in the Resolution Center immediately to start the process and make a claim against the security deposit you charge https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/264/how-do-i-make-a-claim-on-the-security-deposit.  If you clean it yourself, you can charge for the additional cleaning time for the dog's mistake as well. 

[Carrie30]

The guest asked nicely if she could bring her dog, so I accepted only with her confirmation that the dog is well-trained and that she would handle his outdoor toilet needs. I don't even want to deal with cleaning the outdoor stuff. She has to handle it all. She agreed, and she will arrive this evening. I sense that I am nervous about the toilet stuff, and so is she.

An accident could really do damage on my wooden floors, which have wide cracks. A urine odor could really set in and make it impossible to go through with my future reservations. 

[Carrie30]

She proposed to bring a copy of her insurance policy and a blanket to cover my wooden floor, but that will not remove urine odors if there is going to be an accident.

[Gerry-And-Rashid0]

You broke your own rules and unfortunately you now have to accept those consequesnces which are stressing about whether or not the dog is well behaved. Any dog can have an accident, just like a child can have an accident. Going forward you should think very carefully about whether or not you really want pets in your property - to me it sounds like you don't.

[Eloise0]

Sorry that this happened, but I am wondering why you broke your own house rules.  You are obvipusly stressed about this and it should be a good reminder that we are not perfect and people don't always tell the truth.  Especially when it comes to their children and their pets.  I have antique hardwood floors and over the years I have discovered that dog poop and urine and not the end of the world. There are several inexpensive spray cleansers on the market that do a great job of cleaning and I keep my hardwood floors oiled with old English furniture polish and as old and beaten up as they are they look great, nicely aged with character.  If you clean the accident up well there should be no problem with future Guests.

If I was as worried as you are about having to clean up after dogs I wouldn't put myself in that situation.  Put NO DOGS OR PETS in your house rules and then don't break the rules as it just gives Guests  implied permission to anything they want.

Hope this works out.  

Happy Hosting,

Eloise

[Roxana8]

hi! had this issue just this week. The resolution center told me I cannot charge for extra cleaning, only damage (I had blood & mud on walls, covers, sofas, etc etc)

quoting the message "Please know that we are truly sorry for any negative experience that has occurred in relation to this reservation. According to our policies, we only provide compensation for physical damages. We don't consider cleaning issue to be a physical damage. Please understand that we are only able to charge your guest's security deposit for direct physical losses or physical damages following a reservation. "

😞

[City-Limits-Ranch0]

If the dog is housetrained then it's not likely to be a problem.  Immediate clean up of any accident should be sufficient to prevent an odor.  You might want to give the guest access to appropriate cleaning supplies that you want to have used on the floor if this occurs.  A couple of old towels for the big mop up, and then paper towels and a cleaning product for the final cleaning.

If you are really really worried you could ask the guest to keep the dog on a leash inside the space (this keeps the dog within a few feet of the owner for close observation but is not relaxing or convenient for the owner) and/or put her in a crate/kennel when indoors.  However, it would be best to ask this before the reservation was made since some dogs are not crate trained and although perfectly well trained in other ways become stressed or claustrophobic in a crate.

We have lots of dog visitors and no issues.  We do NOT ever allow the dog to be left unattended in our property unless the dog is crate trained and the owner puts the dog in a crate when they leave.

[City-Limits-Ranch0]

No, if there is one accident and they clean it up to your satisfaction you really can't ask them to leave.  However, if the dog is out of control and destructive,  noisy or or has repeated urination incidents, diarrhea all over etc then you could tell the guest that the dog is not working out and that they have to leave or put the dog in a boarding facility.

I traveled in Switzerland with my dog on two different occasions for several weeks at a time and there were no problems at all with our accommodations.

[Carrie30]

Well, my guests have arrived and all is going well so far. 

The dog is very friendly, and has even done its first business outdoors, and I pray it stays this way.

Thank you all for the great advice and tips. 

[Sandra126]

@Carrie30, it is a rare thing indeed for a good dog to mess up inside, so try not to stress about it and just enjoy your temporary pet!

[Margaret444]

Regardless of how much actual, physical damage there is, and Even if the pet owner acknowledges that their pet caused the damage, you will not be able to enforce the security deposit. AirBnB specifically excludes all pet damage from their resolution process. Our only option is to refuse to allow pets. When the pet-owning travelers complain that they can’t make reservations, maybe then AirBnB will reconsider its  policy. 

[Aaron307]

If we don’t allow pets and the guest sneaks a pet, how much extra can we charge?

There’s no damage, but there’s an added service. Airbnb has nothing about this and how to address it, I’m wondering if anyone has found an amount you can charge for a reasonable added, “service”.

If not, then why not always bring a dog despite the house rules.

[Helen3]

You can't I'm afraid, you would have to have a cost in your house rules, which you won't have as you don't allow them.

but in your situation I would Airbnb to cancel the booking as your guests have a no pet policy and the guests have brought in a pet (presume you have photo/video evidence).

[Janie43]

Hi, we have wood floors and our place gets booked more, I think, because we allow dogs.