Rule breaking guests that damage property, and retaliate in the reviews!?

[Joe2761]

I just had a guest who brought a german shepherd into my home.

The dog used the bed as a toilet, and ruined the bed linens, sheets. Lucky I had a waterproof mattress guard or that would be ruined as well. Then the dog used the carpet in my basement as a toilet and left several large piles of brown on the carpet. The guest made no effort to clean up these messes, and let it set into the carpet. To finalize this nightmare, her car leaked huge amounts of oil all over my driveway leaving several oil stains 10" in diameter. 

She is not leaving me a review yet, because she knows what she's done. The moment I send request for her to pay for these damages, I am certain she will retaliate and ruin my rating, ruin any chance for me to achieve superhost, and ruin my experience as a host with airbnb.

How is it that this type of behavior is allowed? Why does AirBnB allow guests to trash your home, and provides little to no protection?

I spoke on the phone, and was asked to "leave feedback" - the support teams at airbnb are extremely unhelpful and have no solutions, because airbnb obviously does not care at all.

[Anonymous]

@Joe2761   I can see from your profile that you're very new to hosting - just a few bookings in the course of the last month, but all very successful with great reviews. If you decide to continue with it, the first thing you have to get into your head is that Airbnb is only a listing service that's there to bring the bookings and take the money. They don't have your back when something goes wrong, they don't regulate guests' behavior, they don't protect you from anything whatsoever, and they don't care in the slightest how you feel about retaliatory reviews. 

I don't know whether a different platform is a better match for your expectations. But on this one, the hosts with the most success are the ones who are fully aware that they're on their own when it comes to enforcing rules and preventing damage. This totally goes against Airbnb's marketing, with the false sense of security that comes with the "host guarantee" and all the touchy-feely "belong anywhere, live everywhere" nonsense. But you're at a crossroads where you really have to reassess whether you've underestimated the risk you've signed up for by handing your home over to strangers from the internet. Plenty of third parties can profit from that, but you're the only one who actually cares whether it goes horribly wrong.

[Brian2036]

@Joe2761 

When a guest leaves you a crap sandwich, Airbnb would like you to eat it and beg the guest for the recipe.

If you are convincing enough perhaps someday you, too, may become a superhost and have even more to lose if you gag on the next offering.

We absolutely MUST do what we can to identify and discriminate against the abusers of our hospitality.

Our last guests’ dog ate an expensive wool hearth rug. He notified me immediately, offered to buy a new one, and when I showed him the rug on Amazon he left me the money when they checked out, along with an apology and a 5* review.

This is not only what we should expect, it is what we must demand.

 I suggest that if Ms. Dog Poop does not write a review, you wait until the very last minute to review her, rate her 1*, and explain why in a professional and dispassionate manner.

Airbnb is not likely to help you collect cleaning fees, but you don’t have to eat the whole sandwich.

[Angelo587]

I can well understand you. I had some young guests from Sweden who misbehaved and made several damages (scratches on the walls , etc.) I asked for a compensation to Airbnb and I got it (there was a deposit). The result was a "1 star review "from the guests (even if they didn't write a single word) and my request to Airbnb to remove it was unsuccessfull. I rent the apartment 15 times/year and one single "1 star review" is enough to preclude me the possibility to be a Superhost (although I get 14 "five stars reviews"). 

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

Superhost status and rating have no impact on the position in search or bookings anyway. Hosts should really stop trading ratings and reviews for money.

We all know guests don't read, not even the description, itinerary, check-in time, or instructions. I doubt anyone reads more than 3 reviews, and they are not even sorted by time of booking. And hosts can reply to them.

Airbnb was ( is? ) good in compensation for minor damages up to a few hundred $ so hosts should claim for it. The problem is with more expensive damages so having some extra home insurance would be helpful.

I am pretty convinced that 90% of all problems presented here on CC would be prevented if hosts could charge a real security deposit like VRBO and Booking.com did.

@Joe2761  bad guests are more likely to book a new listing with the inexperienced host. Maybe turning off the instant booking option would be smart. Or at least preventing new profiles without recommendations of previous hosts and ID verification to book instantly