@Ute42 - Well, thanks for your frankness.....
I think you have quite a few misunderstandings of the situation.....
* I do not allow instabook because I filter my guests, I only let professionals coming for work stay with me. I do not ever accept vacationers ... that invites a whole set of issues that are not a good fit for my property or neighborhood ( I do like vacation, however). I also specialize in longer stays - 1-3 months - so I cannot allow for 3 day stints. I live in Boston - I would get a ton of bad matches if I allowed instabook. I basicaly rent to MDs & PHDs as I am close to a major medical area......
* Yes I approved him after a too brief conversation due to late night/ time differences - and my lapse - However, it is still the guest's responsibility to read the listing and by making the reservation - they are agreeing to the content of the listing and the stated house rules.
* I never said I argued with him and I did NOT hang up ON him. I can see my language could be misunderstod the way I wrote it - I meant upon hanging up I called AIrbnb straight away - I would not hang up on someone - and if the situation were so bad to neccessitate that - I would have canceled right away - this was more subtle.
* All of this hapened in quick succession - his request, my approval his call, my call to Airbnb - all happened in somethig like 24 hours or less. I did not wait around and then decide to cancel a few days before his arrival.....you are putting your own spin on this......
* What made me believe he MAY be different in person than he was in writing or on the phone is
- he is a research PHD - sometimes they are socially awkward
- English is his second language sometimes that causes misunderstandings at first
- He is from a very different part of the word - cultural differences exist - sometimes there is a learning curve for people coming to the States for the first time.
- His problematic behavior was at first subtle, not blatant - I could not be sure of his intentions - Typically, if people have read my listing carefully, they arrive - we talk in person - we come to a good understanding.
Even if there are cultural differences, when each of us has good intentions we make it work on both ends. I have a very high success rate with this kind of guest.
Unfortunately, his behavior did become more blatant upon arrival ..... but not so outrageous as to send him packing the moment he arrived - AIrbnb advised he had to actually break the rules before I could cancel - and he could not break the rules until he moved in - then - unfortunately, my husband was out of town - for most of the first 2 weeks - and I was really unsure about the possibility of this guy getting hostile when no one else was around. ...
* Now, I am prompted to cancel or shorten his stay as he has made clear he is not going to cooperate wth my checkout policy - causing further problems...... he has broken a lot of rules - and yes, I do not think he should be allowed to leave a review -
* Yes, you are correct my last guest was also not great - I think my worst review ever - I broke with my usual rules and allowed a different kind of guest - she was working - but in a different industry - she was a SMOKER despite my very clear rule that not only can you not smoke here- you can't be a smoker - there is no place any where near my property that is appropriate for smoking. She broke a fundmental rule - so each night - very late - she was creeping down the stairs of our very quiet house in our very quiet neighborhood to go have a smoke and not get noticed (ha) - in addition to getting late night food dleiveries every night - we are a very high end, residential, quiet neighborhood - she said in her review she felt like she was sneaking around because she WAS sneaking around - she was only staying a week - so I let it pass - and I did not OUT her as a smoker and rule breaker in my review of her - I wasn't sure what to do there - but I try not to be a jerk - I just privately told her she should respect people's house rules and you can't hide smoking..........
- Why did I break with my usual formula and let this women stay with me for a week ? Because Airbnb has flooded the market with a gazillion listings (many not appropriate - with no real person on site - or even in state) and supply is WAY UP - thanks AIrbnb - but that is a different conversation -
- Lesson learned - I am not lowering my standards any more
I guess I am feeilng pretty cranky with my current guest, the last short one, and Aribnb's lack of support thus far - we will see how it goes tomorrow when I call them.
It may be my current crankiness but your response did not seem to be along the lines of productive advice on how to proceed - starting with "You screwed up" and ending with "You did not handle this well". Thanks for all that wisdom UTE, you are a real peach 🙂 .