My 1st experience with a Scam in progress

My 1st experience with a Scam in progress

 

Hi, I just wanted to share what just happened and identify the **red flags**.

I just received at midnight local time. 

 

Let's begin:

 

I have a reservation in progress from Nov 3rd to Nov 8th. The guest registered in **October (late October I presume) and Booked on *Nov 1st.*

 

The day of check in (Nov 3rd) at 7pm, he writes to me that he's at the airport and would like to know if there's 24hr Check in and that he first  wanted to go **Site seeing**. (more on that later) before heading to the apt.  I replied only until 11pm, but If he shows up after 11,  just give the guard a tip.  I told him that I  was waiting at the apt to welcome him and to shake hands but, If he wanted to go **Site Seeing** 1st there no problem , and I will lock up and leave the key at reception. 

 

He writes one more time, "I’ll let you know in ten minutes waiting for my car rental".. I waited more than an hour for a response, so I left the complex.

 

At 2:30 in the morning I wake up to a notification from the app, it's him stating that he's lost and then a few moments later he calls me to tell me that he's lost and he's in a taxi. he than puts him on so i can guide them. While on the phone, I can hear in the background the typical late night chatters of people who were out partying along with **Ladies**  talking loud in spanish. I knew what was going on, and I know why these men came to my country and area.

 

Ok, no problem, as I stated on my profile, I'm available 24/7 for my customers during their stay. I guided them and they reached the complex, I talked to the security, he handed them the key immediately and they entered the apt. The last message I received that night, came from the taxi driver wanting to know where the controller for the water heater. I instructed him  and After that I sent the guest extra info about the area, beach and also phone numbers of the best restaurants that have delivery.

 

After that night, no further messages were sent by the guest, no complaints and  no questions. So I presumed everything was going well. I have employees that keep me up to date with guest that stay in my apartment. They had a bit of loud music from here to there, ok no problem, just normal people enjoying themselves, a bit of partying, booze and off course...**Site Seeing** (Lady friends that you tip)

 

So during 3 days, no complaints from the guest until......Tonight at midnight ..wait for it..

 

 

"Hey Jose ‘ I am leaving the apartment as I have the worst experience ever with this stay . We were suppose to leave on Monday but I have vacated the place and going to a hotel . I have booked through my card and I am not going dispute so kindly refund the stay for Saturday and Sunday . Here is why I am upset :

1) You did not bother to come see me .
2) There was no hot water .
3) Floors were filthy
4) No towels
5) The third room did not have an AC
6) The guard has no idea what he is doing .
7) The whole apartment smelled muggy .

I can continue to go on and on

I am not going to leave a bad review just refund my three days stay .

Kindly confirm .

 

**Guest name**

--

 

This guys thinks that after 3 nights of Booze, partying and spending who knows what amount of cash on Lady friends, I'm going to issue a refund? I wasn't born yesterday, I had already experience before joining Airb, hence why I earned Super host status and my guest have giving me positive reviews, especially about the cleanliness of my place. 

 

To respond to his message:

 

 1) You did not bother to come see me .

 

I was waiting for him at the apt but he decided to go *Site Seeing* . I don't always have the chance welcome, in  person,  the guest because most come late at night, I try to.  But off course it's not an obligation.

 

2) There was no hot water .

 

The heater was used before he came in to clean some pots and dishes, It was working 100%, I tuned it on myself.


3) Floors were filthy

 

The floors were filthy after 3 nights Booze, partying and lady friends!

 


4) No towels

 

I left 12 Towels in the master bedroom.

 


5) The third room did not have an AC

 

it's stated in the description. 

 


6) The guard has no idea what he is doing .

 

 ?? The guard is there to guard, he handed you the keys immediately after I authorized him at...2:30 am.

 


7) The whole apartment smelled muggy .

 

Yeah,  It would smell muggy after 3 night of you know what. I always leave my place clean, and use lysol products.

--

 

I already reported this , chatted with support and even talked on the phone with them, they were very swift about my concerns. I will update this after they investigate. Thank you for reading.

 

I will go to the apartment early in the morning to inspect it, hopefully there's no damage!

 

13 Replies 13
Normen0
Level 10
Canada

Wow.  Update?

Morna5
Level 2
Cardwell, Australia

@Jose5045 Jose5045 Good luck! I am looking forward to hearing more. I have only had a late nighter, getting lost and a theft. No one has demanded a refund yet. 🤞You certainly sound on top of everything. Great work!  Cheers Morna5

Mark116
Level 10
Jersey City, NJ

@Jose5045  Don't give in to this scammer! Good luck.

Thank you to everyone that replied and also read my post. I'm happy to inform everyone that Airbnb investigated my case and sided with me. 

 

This guest clearly tried to scam Airbnb and me, but the evidence I provided prove him wrong. But of course, I would like to present the details to anyone reading this. 

 

After reading his message I went to the apartment 1st thing in the morning and recorded the state in which he and his guest left the apt. Just as I knew already, they invited prostitutes, had drugs, had parties, exceeded the limit of guest allowed and left a mess. I Immediately sent the video and the pictures to the support team. 

 

People like him leaving at that time of the night, was a clear indication of issues with prostitutes'. They usually have a dispute over money or something stolen, so they leave to a hotel and hide until they leave to the airport.

 

****

Here's where things got interesting a day later. He actually sent a  request for a refund of $350 stating:

 

"Hi Jose, the listing is inaccurate as the Air Conditioning does not work and there is no hot water. I left the place after **the first night** while I paid for 5 nights. This should be refunded or I will have to dispute the whole charge with the credit card company and will have to leave a review."

 

Like I stated in the 1st post, he came in the 1st night at 2:30 am which was logged in our chat. He left on the 3rd night at 12:30 am, as seen in the 1st post where he left the message about 

leaving the apt for X reasons.

 

Clearly he was high or drunk when he wrote it both because if you read the 1st post, he states that he wanted a refund for the 2 remaining nights, then states at the end of that same message, that he wants a refund for the 1st 3 days. ........Then in the refund request he states that "he left the 1st night" in contradiction to the airbnb chat log time stamp, that he left on the 3rd night at 12:30am

 

At the end of the day, the support team sided with me after providing all the evidence. As per my rules, he also violated the guest limit, he thru parties and had illegal substances in my apt, proof that I provided immediately that morning.

 

 

------

However, Here's an issue that I have. I'm grateful for the swift response of the support team and the outcome. The guest account was also terminated but he was able to leave a 1 star review. I wasn't able to leave a review. 

 

But what bothers me is that his account was terminated but the review still is up. So since it was proven that he tried to scam Airbnb and me(thus his termination)...

 

I ask,  to who or how can I make a request to have it removed ? I don't have any issues with guest giving me any ratings, I always try to make my guest feel like vip, and I know things will not go perfect every time , but this guest is clearly a scam but also a Big Stain to my listing and the efforts I went thru to provide a great service for my guest in the past.

 

My ratings went down from 5.0 t0 4.83 . If it was from anyone of my legit guest, and I would not meet their expectation, I would and will take responsibility for it, but this guest doesn't deserve that right IMO.

 

Thank you all for reading and thanks to the Airbnb support team. !!

 

Thank you to everyone that replied and also read my post. I'm happy to inform everyone that Airbnb investigated my case and sided with me. 

 

This guest clearly tried to scam Airbnb and me, but the evidence I provided prove him wrong. But of course, I would like to present the details to anyone reading this. 

 

After reading his message I went to the apartment 1st thing in the morning and recorded the state in which he and his guest left the apt. Just as I knew already, they invited Working gals, had prohibited substances,  had parties, exceeded the limit of guest allowed and left a mess. I Immediately sent the video and the pictures to the support team. 

 

People like him leaving at that time of the night, was a clear indication of issues with working gals'. They usually have a dispute over money or something stolen, so they leave to a hotel and hide until they leave to the airport.

 

****

Here's where things got interesting a day later. He actually sent a  request for a refund of $350 stating:

 

"Hi Jose, the listing is inaccurate as the Air Conditioning does not work and there is no hot water. I left the place after **the first night** while I paid for 5 nights. This should be refunded or I will have to dispute the whole charge with the credit card company and will have to leave a review."

 

Like I stated in the 1st post, he came in the 1st night at 2:30 am which was logged in our chat. He left on the 3rd night at 12:30 am, as seen in the 1st post where he left the message about 

leaving the apt for X reasons.

 

Clearly he was hi*gh or drunk when he wrote it both because if you read the 1st post, he states that he wanted a refund for the 2 remaining nights, then states at the end of that same message, that he wants a refund for the 1st 3 days. ........Then in the refund request he states that "he left the 1st night" in contradiction to the airbnb chat log time stamp, that he left on the 3rd night at 12:30am

 

At the end of the day, the support team sided with me after providing all the evidence. As per my rules, he also violated the guest limit, he thru parties and had prohibited substances in my apt, proof that I provided immediately that morning.

 

 

------

However, Here's an issue that I have. I'm grateful for the swift response of the support team and the outcome. The guest account was also terminated but he was able to leave a 1 star review. I wasn't able to leave a review. 

 

But what bothers me is that his account was terminated but the review still is up. So since it was proven that he tried to scam Airbnb and me(thus his termination)...

 

I ask,  to who or how can I make a request to have it removed ? I don't have any issues with guest giving me any ratings, I always try to make my guest feel like vip, and I know things will not go perfect every time , but this guest is clearly a scam but also a Big Stain to my listing and the efforts I went thru to provide a great service for my guest in the past.

 

My ratings went down from 5.0 t0 4.83 . If it was from anyone of my legit guest, and I would not meet their expectation, I would and will take responsibility for it, but this guest doesn't deserve that right IMO.

 

Thank you all for reading and thanks to the Airbnb support team. !!

 

@Jose5045  

I would pursue getting his review removed. Guests who party and trash a place are not supposed to be able to leave a revenge review. Although hosts do have problems getting them removed.

 

Talk to Airbnb again, point out how this all went down, and that this guest not only trashed your house, but he has now been allowed by Airbnb to trash your rating, which was a solid 5*, and leave a dishonest revenge review. And that it's senseless that a guest they have kicked off the platform for his unacceptable behavior should have his lying review allowed on your listing and profile. That's just wrong.

 

Persistence, politeness and patience will often result in a decision being overturned. 

@Sarah977 Thank you very much! I will try to contact the main support agent who handled his refund request . If not, than I will open a a new support ticket. Thanks

@Jose5045  Let us know how it goes. The guest is bad enough to ban from Airbnb, but his review stands? Ridiculous.

 

@Sarah977  I will, but to be fair and to also apologize to you, I didn't inform you or anyone reading my last post, that the guest made the review before the issue was fully investigated and solved. As soon as he got the chance, later on the day of check-out  on Nov 8th , he immediately posted his 1 star review!

 

I also want to state that the issue was resolved two weeks ago, by the agent that handled his refund request,  so It's on me for not seeking to have it removed earlier but , in my defense, I had also received a message from another agent stating they were still investigating the guest.  I did received a message last week that the ticket had closed so Now is when I took the time to update this thread.  

 

What I'm going to do is respond to that review and defend myself by 1st noting that his account is suspended and put other details without being passionate about it. 

 

Thank you once again!

 

 

@Jose5045  Yes, that's what often happens when a guest is called to task for something, whether it's asking them to pay for damages, or extra guests they snuck in, or party trashings. They respond by leaving a revenge review. 

 

Although Airbnb hadn't finished their investigation, he already knew that you weren't going to accept his behavior and that if you left a review it would be bad.

 

Because they have now banned him, hopefully you won't get much pushback on them removing the review and rating he left.

 

But be careful about how you respond to the review or Airbnb might remove your response. Don't mention Airbnb's involvement in the case, nor that the guest has been banned. All you really need to say is something like, "This is a retaliation review left because the guest's egregious behavior was not tolerated. Please refer to my other reviews for an accurate picture of what to expect here."

 

A few hosts are adept at writing brief, sarcastic responses and might say something like "Yes, inaccurate is good description of this guest's review and terrible is a good description of his behavior."

 

Responses appear on your review page, and are for the benefit of future guests- they aren't interested in the details of some drama that took place with a previous guest. They just want to find a nice place to stay.

 

Guests aren't stupid. They don't believe every review they read, especially when it's an obvvious outlier among lots of good reviews.

 

@Sarah977 Thank you very much for your advice! I will go that route and keep it in mind in the future if another bad experience comes along. 

 

As I keep on reading more horror and scam stories from other host, I've decided to also take extra steps to discourage people like him from renting my place.  I will invest in a camera system to place on top of the outside entrance or on the front door aka ring doorbell, of course following airbnb's guidelines. 

 

I will also not take any reservations from accounts created within 30 days. 

 

As I keep reading those types of post,  I will implement more measures but I will also not let this guy make my place less accesible or too strict. Just a few more things to deter people like him. 

 

Again, thank you very much Sarah!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sarah977
Level 10
Sayulita, Mexico

@Jose5045  Some locations and listings seem to attract more bad guests than others. And entire place listings with off-site hosts are the most suseptible.

 

I just have a private room home-share listing and I've never had any horror shows- all my guests have been just fine, even the ones who had no reviews yet.

 

But for sure outdoor cameras for you would be a deterent, and I don't know how your price compares to other comparable places in your area, or whether you charge extra for guests over a base number, but $133/ night seems too cheap for a place that sleeps 6. That's only $22/night per person, which seems awfully low for a place like that with a pool, right on the beach. You can barely get a hostel room shared with 3 strangers, with a shared bathroom and shared kitchen for that in my town. You might consider raising your price so you don't attract lowlifes.

@Sarah977 My area, although popular,  has too many rental options ranging from Apartments, Hotels, villas ect.  We also have other tourist destinations nearby. I've been blessed to have my apt mostly reserved since I've started in April but If I had raised my prices too much, It wouldn't have been as successful. My rule for when I started which I still go by, is to have at least 20 out of 30 days reserved and  I mostly achieved that. But there are months were it gets dry so I do adjust and also negotiate a lot outside of Arbnb.

 

Above $130 people usually go to apartments that are consider luxury or luxury Complexes. Our apt while huge, Is basic but very cozy. I keep my prices fair considering taxes and commission.