Pet rule broken

[Michele255]

We just had our 2nd guest come and go after 3 nights in our guest house (which is not on our home property).

We have a 'No Pet' rule as we are sensitive to those having allergies.  I was not able to meet our guest when she checked in/out.  We also had so leave town the day she left so I was not able to do a detailed look around the house.  When I was able to go in and clean, I found a cat toy, cat dander in multiple places, small traces of kitty litter, few dry food kibbles, and 1 turd.  It has been frustrating as there was more laundry involved to remove the cat dander.

We did not put in a pet fee as we felt our rule would be respected.  Do I have any recourse with this guest at all?  I will definitly be adding an additional fee to curtail/prevent future guests from sneaking in pets.

She has not yet written a review for us and I am not sure how to write hers as I am very disappointed.

Michele

[David126]

@Rhonda58

Assistance Animals do not need to be declared.

[Alexandra85]

Do you mean service animals? Right service animals (dogs)  are considered guests - I think you can ask for written verification. That certification is usually provided by the trainers upon sale of the service animal.

[Leslie-And-Marc0]

I'm following this because i just had a guest bring a dog they didn't tell me about. I have cameras, so I saw it immediately. Then they claim its a service dog although it didn't have a jacket nor was it on a leash. There's leash laws in my town. What is the recourse for this???

[Matthew285]

@Leslie-And-Marc0 the laws covering service animals specify that you are allowed to ask two questions if a person claims an animal is a service animal:

1. Is the dog a service animal required because of a disability?
2. What work or task has the dog been trained to perform?

While you cannot require that the dog demonstrate the task, sometimes asking the question indicates the person does not have a ready answer, which would indicate the animal is not a service animal.

If they continue to claim the animal is a service animal, remind them that claiming an animal is a service animal has costs as well as benefits.

If the guests are going to claim that the animal is a service animal, then:

1. The ADA requires that service animals be under the control of the handler at *all* times.
2. The guest may not *ever* leave the animal unattended or in a situation where the handler cannot effectively control it.
3. If a service animal is out of control and the handler does not take effective action to control it, staff may request that the animal be removed from the premises.

This information comes from the ADA.gov web site. Look at Q27, Q28, and Q29.

https://www.ada.gov/regs2010/service_animal_qa.pdf

If the animal is truly a service animal, then the handler would have no problem complying with these rules; after all, they would have been complying with these rules in their daily lives.

Tell the guests that the same rules that allow them to take this "service animal" with them for free also allow you to assert these rules. Make sure they understand that you *will* enforce the rules fully if they are going to claim that this is a service animal.

[Wayne119]

What about an emotional support animal? I mean are they even trained to do a task? As someone said before, if someone wants to bring in a emotional support pig do we have any recourse? Are Airbnb rules seem to be different than the ADA rules. This is a joke to be sure.

[David126]

@Leslie-And-Marc0

Service Dogs are a tiny sub set of Assistance Animals and do not need to be declared.

AirBnB suggest that Assistance Animals should be mentioned but do not require it.

Assistance Animals do not need a jacket, leash or anything else.

If the dog is wandering on public property then that would be a matter for Animal Control.

Hope this helps.

[Barbara15]

I recently had a guest staying at my apartment who had a dog with him. The cleaning lady (after guests checked out) found some dog food in the apartment and heavily stained white towels and a big mess. I checked CCTV cameras of building entrance and found that the guest sneaked in with small dog, he was holding in his jacket. I have a No Pet policy which he obviously knew. I called airbnb requiring two things: 1 damage/extra cleaning compensation  and 2. Blocking the guests’s review in case it is much different from all other 5 stars reviews I have. Airbnb says i can go ahead and request the money from guest (although its up to a guest if he pays or not) and airbnb is not going to block any kind of review unless it violates airbnb content policy. So I am pretty much helpless in this situation. If I claim the compensation, I am afraid the guest will give a bad review, which is more harmful for my listing than a gain from compensation. Airbnb should reconsider these situations and if they are not covering pet damage themselves, they should at least block these type of untruthful reviews.  

[Linda-And-Richard0]

@Barbara15I would write a truthful review of this guest, stating they smuggled in a dog even though your listing states no pets allowed.  They broke your house rule, plain and simple.  Also state they did not leave the property in good order.  Just list the facts and say you would not recommend these people.  Give them a thumbs down so your fellow hosts will know to avoid them for future bookings.

[Barbara15]

Linda, thank you for your advice. That is exactly what I wanted to do, I was thinking to warn other host. But based on my experience, if host writes a review first after house is left extremely messy, guests realize that review is more probably negative and they will either not write any review or more probably write untruthful one just to blame host. So I am not writing any reviews yet, until he does or only the last day.  And I am also going to report his profile. The question is: what airbnb really does to protect hosts in this situation? If they do not cover damage, they should at least call guests and explain that they violated house rules and fine them, or block them or just do something. I am  super host, he is super sneaky guest, i am right, I even have video evidence but so what? He still

thinks he outsmarted me. Airbnb doesn’t care. They still allow his review to ruin my 5 star rating. What a pitty!

[Terry54]

The point is, it should not be up to the owner to use the Resolution Center to collect a Pet Fee. That lets Airbnb off the hook. There should be a Pet Fee Option similar to the Extra Guest Fee that establishes the cost up frontm requiring the guest to accept it in advance, and requiring Airbnb to collect it. LETS ALL DEMAND THAT AIRBNB SOLVE THIS PROBLEM!

[Terry54]

Today  I sent this the Resolution Center:

I do not understand, and have never received a clear answer, why Airbnb does not provide a pet fee (or pet cleaning fee) setting. Other hosting services do. Clearly this is not a technology issue but a policy issue. We allow pets but they require more cleaning, cost more to host (waste bags for example), and can do minor damage such as scratches on surfaces that are not worth a deposit claim but overtime accumulate and must be repaired. I simply want to know why Airbnb does not have such a fee -- what is the policy reason?

Do not tell me:
1) you can charge through the Resolution Center. We don't have to do that for the standard cleaning fee or extra guest fee so, why for pets? Completely illogical.
2) That "we're looking into it." I and many other hosts have been told that fore years. It is simply not true.

[Signe11]

If AirBnb won't allow owners to collect a pet fee up front, they should not be in the business of renting entire houses. My house is in the mountains of North Carolina. I charge a pet fee with no complaints or violations from tenants. I have to charge the fee because i have to pay my housekeeper an extra $50 just to clean up after the pets. I was stunned to find that there was no way to add the fee during the listing process. Not sure how I can handle this because 9 out of 10 tenants brings at least one dog.

[Nanxing0]

Some people with pets just don't understand how important it is for hosts to ensure a pet free listing. There are so many people allergy to pets and I have had many guests asking me to ensure the property has never been occupied by someone with pet. For those guests I can only tell them that we have strict no pet policy with no exceptions, but I can't be sure if there's a disgraceful guest who sneaked a pet in, or if anyone had brought in service animal and didn't tell us. We have family members allergic to pet as well.

[Helen3]

Do you not have CCTV or similar @Nanxing0 ?

That would allow you to see whether you guests are sneaking in additional pets (or humans for that matter).

If there is a service animals you do have to accept them but you can put conditions in place such as saying that as a service animal the animal must not be left at the property without the person they are supporting. You can also ask the guest what tasks/activities their service animal supports them with.

[Nanxing0]

@Helen3 I have all means of surveillance that cover the entrance door and outside of building but I can't keep checking the recorded videos all the time. Anothing thing is that even if I know who bring pets in, there's not too much I can do other than informing the guest. I'm not too concerned about fining the guest unless the pet causes damage, but the possible problems caused by the pet to other guests. 

For service animals, I understand it's our obligation to allow them and usually official service animals with certificates are well trained so they don't mess around. However there are still people allergic to animals and I'm worried if a guest with service animal is allowed in while another guest in the same building is allergic to animal, that the service animal triggered the allergic reaction of the other guest, who will be responsible for that? It never happened on me before but I'm not sure if it's going to happen one day.