Purpose of House Rules

[Luke68]

Hello Hosts,

Can someone confirm that there are actually no ramifications for guests breaking 'House Rules' if there's no damage to the unit? I recently had a guest who was smoking and had a dog during her stay, while my first two 'House Rules' are 'No Pets' and 'No Smoking' (there were ashes along the baseboards below the window and an open can of dog food left in the fridge). After reviewing the damage deposit claim process and a few other posts from other hosts, my understanding is that if there is no actual damage to report the host is not entitled to any compensation. What about broken 'House Rules'?

Thanks for any insight!

[Linda108]

If there is damage related to not observing house rules, then you make a claim, @Luke68.  If no damage, then you give a negative review for not following the rules.  What do you think should happen?

[Luke68]

I think a host should be able to charge penalties (from the damage deposit) for house rules that were broken. I understand you can write a negative review, but it’s quite easy for that guest to delete their profile and create a new one.

[Matthew285]

@Luke68 to be precise, Aibnb will not enforce *monetary* penalties for violations of house rules.

That means that even if your write in your house rules "$50 fine for smoking in the unit" and you catch the guest smoking, and the guest even admits in the Airbnb messaging system they smoked in the unit, Airbnb will not enforce the fine.

But Airbnb *will* allow you to kick a guest out for violating house rules.

So that means there *can* be ramifications for breaking house rules. These things *can* happen:

1. You, the host, can cancel the guests reservation mid-stay and require the guest to leave.
2. You can write the guest a bad review.

Okay, so that is not a lot of things. But it is more than *nothing*. And it is wildly inconvenient for the guest. Plus it could make it quite hard for the guest to ever book with Airbnb again. Hosts do not like to take on guests who have a review stating that they knowingly broke major house rules, to the extent that the guest was kicked out for it.

Tell the guest that breaking a major house rule will result in the cancellation of their stay (your current cancellation policy applies, so it might cost them money). Plus, be completely clear that you will mention in your review what the guest did and why the guest was evicted so that other hosts will know.

It is no fun to have to find another place to stay in the middle of your trip.

[Kelly149]

@Matthew285 While I agree with 99% of what you've written, I do not think that ABB CS will apply a cancellation policy to a reservation that a host initiates cancellation on. (cancellation policy is meant to apply when the Guest cancels -- if a host cancels, then it is assumed that you don't want the money)

So, yes, @Luke68 (or any of us) may remove a guest for breaking a house rule, but I do not think ABB will allow you to keep the guest's money for nights not spent. For me, it's fine, I'd likely rather have a bad guest gone than the money, but ABB will not enter that fight where a guest is out the money and has no place to stay - terrible PR.

[Matthew285]

@Kelly149 I think you are more correct than I am; I would bet that a lot or most of the time it would be hard to get support from Airbnb customer support in the way I describe.

The reason I mentioned that it *can* happen is that I read this discussion thread where a host *did* manage to get a cancellation (with penalty) for smoking:

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosting/violation-of-smoking-policy/m-p/546794/highlight/true#M1...

The host did get to keep the money according to his cancellation policy. I have no idea what the host said that made it work.

[Kelly149]

It’s certainly possible that if you catch the right CS on the right day then anything might happen. It’s probably better for hosts to assume that they won’t be paid and then be happily surprised if they are rather than the reverse. @Matthew285

[Luke68]

Thanks for the reply Matthew. So what I’m understanding is that the house rules are only valuable if you can catch the guest breaking them during their stay. I suppose that’s helpful to some, but I’m not around my listing while it’s rented out. Thanks again for the insight though.

[Matthew285]

@Luke68, yes, I forgot that in your situation you did not find out until after the guest had checked out.

In that case then, sadly, a bad review is the only real consequence for their bad behavior.

I have heard that this is why some hosts have *outside* security cameras: so they can at least catch sneaking in dogs or extra guests while the stay is still happening.

Does anyone make a product that detects smoking in the home?

Sort of like existing smoke detectors, but tuned to the small amount of smoke from cigarettes... and it sends the signal to the host, instead of just beeping.