Suspicious Guest

[Dave1025]

My wife and I are fairly new to Airbnb. We currently have a gentleman as a guest who behaves very eerie. At night he stands lurking in the dark corner of the entry way with the lights out, or in the dark corner of the dining room with the lights out, or in the middle of the dark hallway for long lengths of time. He often wears a hood looking down, staring at a door or wall. If we walk into the room he gets very nervous. Often he will go in and out of the house several times in the middle of the night, just loitering in the driveway or sidewalk. We want our guests to have freedom but we are not comfortable with him lurking in the dark or loitering in our neighborhood in the middle of the night. His behavior has made my wife and other female guests uncomfortable, as well as many of our neighbors very uncomfortable. He is very quiet but he just hides and lurks in the dark corners, or loiters outside and refuses to turn on lights. He has loitered outside during the day time just looking at the ground in front of our neighbors' homes. Everyone complains that he is just acting very freaky and suspicious.

He has complained about many of our posted house rules. He argues about obeying them and simply disregards some of them.

Once he left the front door wide open in the middle of the day (disregarding the sign that said please keep door closed - we have a new puppy), no one knew he was outside, but when we noticed the door was wide open we closed and locked it. Several minutes later he knocked - complaining we locked him out - when he was given a key.

We do not trust him. His behavior is so suspicious, The ladies in my home never know if he is lurking in a dark corner. If we turn on the lights he turns them off. I am constantly walking around in my own home with a flashlight at night.

He has 10 more days on a 28 booking but do we have options? We have complained about his behavior and yet there is no change. 

Suggestions? 

[Sarah977]

@Jessica-Jay-Dee0   Sorry, but you really aren't very good at explaining things clearly. It says "deposit forfeiture" in your house rules section on your Airbnb listing. 

What deposit?

And Airbnb won't let you keep the entire booking fee if you tell guests to leave. They will be refunded the unstayed days. Nor will they let you charge the security deposit for breaking house rules.

[Jessica-Jay-Dee0]

No need to apologize. Blessings to you and I wish you much success in hosting. 

[Anonymous]

@Jessica-Jay-Dee0 Your House Rules say that failure to obey the rules will result in forfeiture of the deposit, but nowhere in your listing does it say that you intend to collect money from the guest outside of the Airbnb platform after their booking is confirmed. If you try to do this and a guest reports you, you'll probably get de-listed.

And if you're under the impression that Airbnb is going to enforce a rule based on a fake deposit and charge the guest on your behalf when you complain, that is also wrong.

Your rule seems to be based on a misunderstanding of how Airbnb works. Obviously it hasn't stopped you from having some great success with your listings, but this would not be a viable solution if you had a real problem. 

[Jessica-Jay-Dee0]

I see the miscommunication. 

The word “deposit” only applies for my other short term platforms where deposits are collected. I will delete that word for Airbnb only and replace it with “entire booking amount.” 

This has worked for me in the past on multiple occasions, therefor it proves right as both a deterrent and a “real” rule to rent my home. 

Resolution has confirmed that guests agree to forfeit their amount if they break a house rule. Anytime I have asked them to type that they agree prior to checking in, I have always asked them to cancel on their end, vacate the property and contact Airbnb. I have usually refunded cleaning fees if they don’t stay long, but keep the booking amount based on this rule. 

[Colleen253]

@Jessica-Jay-Dee0 

“This has worked for me in the past on multiple occasions, therefor it proves right as both a deterrent and a “real” rule to rent my home.” 

Please, would you share how you’ve managed to evict Airbnb guests and give them no refund for unused nights, all while avoiding negative retaliatory reviews from said guests?

[Jessica-Jay-Dee0]

Certainly. I am cordial, assertive, remind them that they agreed to waiver of refund and unused nights on their end, and ask them to initiate cancellation on their end.  I refund their cleaning fee and if they are kind and extremely cordial/remorseful, perhaps another night, or the full. Airbnb has also helped moderate this. It is up to us what we enforce and how we enforce it, as long as we operate within the guidelines.