Inappropriate guests violating house rules & displaying public indecency in our family home

[Martina559]

I don't know what to do. I had a guest message me that she is coming to Disneyland and will need a place to sleep for the night with her boyfriend since she is celebrating her birthday. I gave her a free bottle of wine as a happy birthday gift. She claimed she won't be home except for sleeping time but the couple did not leave our home since checking in. The first thing they did was open the wine bottle and have SEX in our pool in the open even though we have security cameras that are motion activated and they make loud noise when they start recording. All this was captured on camera while my 6 year old baby is home and anyone of us could have stepped out to the backyard for any reason.
Then when they got inside, they started smoking WEED while my listing states very clearly no weed or any type of smoking indoors 3x and we warn guests of collecting $200 deep cleaning fees from the security deposit. The whole house reeked and our room is right next to the guest suite being used by the guest. My baby and I can't sleep in our room from how bad the smell is.

What do I do now? it probably was not even her birthday and no disneyland visits happened, they seem to be young guests, I hope I did not gift a bottle of wine to someone underage. I was under the impression that only guests of age can book. What do I do now?

PS. I am aware I could have ended the guest's stay, but I know they are leaving in the morning and it is too late to ask them to leave and be stranded. So out of courtesy we only warned them about the weed and no response from them.

[Rowena29]

YOu're right @Martina559 

The second the inappropriate behaviour started you should have rung airbnb and had them cancel their stay.    The fact that the guests would have been inconvenienced is entirely their problem given their disrespectful behaviour.   ( iIprobably WOULD have walked out onto the verandah, possibly with an airhorn and a fire extinguisher )

BUT it's really easy to be wise in hindsight and it sounds a bit late now.  And I get it - you were probably so gobsmacked it took you a while to react.

It doesn't sound as if you are going to evict, and you have already communicated, so  since they are leaving in the morning it doesn't sound like there's much more you can practically do.

However I would be ringing airbnb CS right now and getting your side of the story lodged first.

Obviously you also need to leave a negative review - don't go into too much specific detail, It seems to me like 1 star for house rules and communication  and give a very definite thumbs down. If the guests don't reivew you first, wait until the last possible minute to do this, so your guests aren't encouraged to  leave a review themselves.   

I'm sure more people will be along shortly to give more advice.

So sorry this has happened!  At least they're out tomorrow.

Regards

[Martina559]

@Rowena29 I want to charge them the security deposit $200 which is the penalty for smoking indoors or bringing cannabis! Which they did both!

i have to hire a professional cleaning company to get the smell out of our place as we have a very high turn over rate! I have been booked 18 times within 30 days! And i have a guest coming right after so I have to get this compensation to cover professional cleaning and so that i don’t guest complaints about the smell of weed.

any ideas about how to go about it? I hear that weed smell is hard to prove.

[Rowena29]

to be absolutely honest @Martina559  I don't like your chances as there is story after story on these boards of hosts being unsuccessful in making a claim for instances such as this.

YOU dont' hold the bond - and most of the time airbnb don't even hold the bond apparently - sometimes they do make sure a guest has enough credit on their credit card to cover the security deposit.

Again, you need to ring airbnb and ask for their direction. If you seem to get a hopeless CS rep, hang up and start again.  Based on what others have said though, airbnb require hard physical evidence   - so unless you caught them smoking on your security cameras I suspect you won't do well.   Other hosts have said boiling vinegar dissipates the smell of smoke - perhaps worth a try.  Keep all your receipts from the cleaning company if you employ one.

Good luck!

[Dimitar27]

"I hope I did not gift a bottle of wine to someone underage"

Hope dies last.

There is nothing you can do now. It's too late. Leave them a bad review will also not be very helpful.

[Petra327]

@Dimitar27 Leaving an honest review and not recommending them to future hosts will help the hosting community.

[Susan17]

@Martina559 

Be extremely careful what you do with the video recording of the guests' naked  antics in the pool. You have very strong privacy laws in California, and you should check out the legalities of sharing the video with anyone, including Airbnb. Last thing you need right now is you becoming the villain of the piece, rather than the wronged party in all of this (always a distinct possibility with Airbnb)

You're correct in that Airbnb's T&Cs do state that guests must be 18 or over to book. However, there are no real security measures in place to prevent under 18s from booking on the site. 

Your chances of getting paid out the $200 for deep cleaning as a result of the guests smoking are slim, to none  Weed smell dissipates pretty quickly though, so just give the room a thorough cleaning and a good airing

You could, of course, attempt to collect through the Resolution centre, but there's a 95% chance that you'll waste endless amounts of time and energy trying to deal with Airbnb's abysmal, incompetent Customer Support system, and get nothing in return except several grey hairs and dangerously high blood pressure (even if you're only a youngster yourself!)

As for the review - if you mention drugs, the review will be deleted. If you mention sex, the review will be deleted. If you mention nudity, the review will be deleted. And on the off chance you do manage to put a few (very) carefully-chosen words together to warn other hosts, that don't violate Airbnb's "review content policy", the guest will probably just shut down her account anyway, and re-open a shiny new fresh one for her next trip. Or use the boyfriend's account instead. 

Sorry to sound so negative and to be the bearer of bad news @Martina559, I completely get how upset you must be feeling about how your guests behaved, but these are the realities of dealing with Airbnb, and every host - new and old - needs to be aware of them. You have a small child there, so it's important that you know the truth (and dangers) of hosting on the platform. You - and only you - are in control of guest behaviour in your home, and don't fall into the trap of believing that Airbnb will have your back when things go wrong. In the overwhelming majority of instances, they won't. 

My advice -delete the video recording,  clean up, move on, and be prepared to deal with such eventualities head-on in future. Otherwise, you're going to have guests walking all over you. Best of luck!