Terrible Guest made worse by AirBnB Support

[Marc715]

10 days ago I had someone rent my unit and then throw a huge party (completely against all my rules) and causing a lot of damage to my unit.  I notice the problem at 4 AM when I woke to more than 60 notifications that my basement door was being opened and closed.  I immediately reviewed the outside building security system and could see that people were being lead in from that door.  I logged on to AirBnB to get the guests info to call him and find out what was going on - but AirBnb had blocked his profile and I couldn't see his information or the reservation any more.  I called.  After 3 hours of being bounced from person to person I was told that they had contacted the guest and he agreed to leave in 30 minutes (which ended up being 2 hours and required to police).  The amount of cigarette smoke and marijuana smoke was so bad when the police first enetered the unit you couldn't breath.  They had even ripped the smoke detectors off the wall because they were going off.  There was lots of damage.

Ok - I get it.  If you do this long enough something like this could happen.  But the way AirBnbB handled this and is continuing to handle this is shameful.  They knew before I did there was a problem with this guest and they didn't alert me (which could have prevented a lot of the damage).  They were also completely unhelpful when I first called telling me they couldn't discuss the issue of why the guests profile was blocked and if there was a problem with him.  This lead to hours of trying to get the guest removed - I had no experience with this sort of thing and was looking to AirBnB for guideance before I had the SWAT team decend on my building.  I know this may sound petty but 10 days later I still haven't gotten AirBnB to pay me for the 1 night rental (only $245) - they keep claiming it is an "IT Glitch" - sending me to one department after another, promising callbacks that never happen.  So this is like getting spit in the face by AirBnB after all the problems I have been through with this.

[Linda108]

Wow @Marc715  that is a terrible situation for you!  Thank you for your post. You have two very nice entire apartment listings with great reviews.  Obviously you have some ways of protecting your listings with remote technology otherwise how would you have known until they were gone.  If I understand your experience, you tried to use the system to get in contact information and found both the profile and reservation notification were gone, right?  Do you recall the guest profile in terms of previous reviews?  Were there any negatvie comments?  Many hosts warn against single night, local guest bookings.  Would you agree?

More importantly, how do you know that this guest was known to be a problem by Air BNB?  How did the police react to your request for intervention.  

While I agree that Air BNB hasn't been as supportive as needed in this case, hosts can be helpful like you to provide this kind of detail.  Keep us posted as to the final outcome on your situation., please

[Marc715]

Hi @Linda108 ,   Thank you, I have worked very hard to give my guests a great experience when they stay in my units.  One is mine and one I manage in the next building.   Yes - I have alarms systems on the units that send me push notificaitons when any door is opened including the private closets I keep in the units.  I also have building camera systems that cover the completely outside of the buildings.  I spend 1/2 my month in brazil so I want to make sure I can keep an eye on things when I am gone.

When I got the request from the guest to stay it was last minute on a Friday night.  Last minute stays have always been a red flag so I insisted on checking the guest in personally.  In hind sight he did everything possible to avoid checking in with me by making his arrival time later and later (checked in at 9:30 PM), but I live on the top floor so I was here and made sure I checked him in personally.  I had a conversation with him and explained the rules he had agreed to - and specifically covered smoking and parties.  He said it was  only him and a friend.  If I remember correctly he had 4+ positive reviews and a government verified ID (don't let them stay unless they do that).  Unfortunately I can't see his profile any more so I can't tell you for sure.  He also did a 2 day rental since I require that.

After all is said and done my main issue is the way AirBnB handled this problem.  They knew early on this was a bad guy - maybe even using a stolen profile or stolen credit card (I don't know they won't tell me).  All this puts me and the other residents of this building in danger from criminals staying in that unit.  For everyones protection they should have assisted me early on with this problem.

The police were helpful but worried at first, there are very strict renter laws in chicago and you can't just evict certain types of tenants - the short term AirBnB has them confused.  But once they saw the drug use and heard the other issues they went in with GUNS DRAWN.  This is a very nice neighborhood and very quiet.  It was something out of a white trash cops episode.   Once comment the police did make was they are seeing more and more AirBnB rentals being rented for this type of thing and getting huge damages for the owners.

I will get through this and I will know that AirBnB Trust and Safety is not to be relied upon.  The insurance claim is not my issue.  My issue is they should have provided me with the information I needed to protect my unit in a timely manner.  When they knew there was a problem I should have been their first call.  Second - Pay me my D@#N money - you collected it up front from the criminals you let stay there and it has been 10 days - long enough to fix an "IT Glitch".  I have all the repairs out of pocket which are more than $1000 not including the furniture repairs (not sure what will happen there) - so at least let me recover some of that with the rental money you collected (this unit has been rented every weekend since we put it up) . Mostly through VRBO - but we get about 25% AirBnb.

[Lisa723]

@Marc715 @Linda108 it is widely known that Chicago, in particular, is having a huge problem with party promoters renting Airbnb units and trashing them. And it is shameful that Airbnb isn't quashing this.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/188885775174427/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/249143108558925/

[Marc715]

Hi @Lisa723 - it is shameful!  They knew hours before I did that there was a problem with this renter and they could have stopped a lot of this damage from happening.  I hate to think of the other problems that could have happened since there was obviously criminal activity involved and AirBnB did nothing to protect us.

In fairness they did email me telling me I could rent a hotel room if I felt unsafe there - but this email option was hours after the group had been evicted and it seemed pointless by then.

[Jess78]

!!!!!!! Blown away at their blatant disregard for you in this circumstance Marc.  Although, utterly no basement level of host treatment shocks me anymore. Can you say reckless endangerment?  I’d get a lawyer. 

[Marc715]

We are two weeks into this now and I can't even get them to respond anymore or even pay me the lousy $200 they collected for the rent.  I am so disappointed and shocked.  I work so hard to make sure every guest experience is perfect.  I had a mixup one day of a customer being delayed getting into here unit (her fault for not following the instructions) but I still messengered her a bottle of wine to try and make things better.  I don't want that from AirBnB .   Just my F$#&ing rent money they have already collected.

[David122]

I just had a similar situation happen.  The guest broke into my stereo that was disconnected and hooked it up.  Brought other unregisted guests onto the property and started blairning music at 2:45am.  To add insult to injury  they called Air b n b  and falsly accused me of having cameras and recording devices on the inside and outside of the property.  I DO NOT HAVE ANY RECORDING DEVICES ANYWHERE ON THE PROPERTY.

Air b n b  believed the stonner guest over me  although no pictures have been submitted  anywhere and have shut me off  from business during spring break.  My busiest time.    Now going on 5 days I am unable to reach anyone in Air b n b except one person who things this is a bad thing Air b n b  is doing.

Geez  super frustrated.

I no longer care to speak to any female women from other countries as they don't know english well and I call back until I get a male person that lives in the USA to help.  Air b n b  has really changed  over the last year.  Super hard to get anything done without getting passed to 3 to 6 workers.

really tired of this  crappy support.

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Marc715  I am sorry you had to go through this, it's every host nightmare 😞 Without real security deposits in place and Airbnb siding with a guest, we are all playing Russian roulette with our properties.

Same day - last minute bookings should be avoided. I've heard Airbnb needs 24 h to check user's account so if the credit card is empty or stolen, guests will be inside until ABB finds it out. When this happens Airbnb close guest's account and the host is left without the payment and guest contact info.

My opinion is - Airbnb should pay the host out of his own pocket or should not allow last minute bookings.

I've said this before and I will say it again - host should take photo IDs from every guest in the group before or during check in.

[Dave452]

This is awful. I live in Chicago and have been burned by the trend of partygoers too. I feel like I hear at least one story a day like this. There are a few social groups that have been set up to organize hosts against this.

There has also been a lot of conversation and wisdom shared within those groups as to how to avoid parties and bad guests in general. I did my best to summarize a list of the best.

Hope this helps.

https://www.airbnbsmarthost.com/blog/17-smart-ways-to-avoid-bad-airbnb-guests

[Marc715]

@Dave452 thank you for this!

[Marc715]

@Branka-and-Silvia0 I guess we have been very lucky over the last two years to only have had 2 problems.  I have never had to deal with AirBnB so I didn't realize how poor their customer service was.  So saddened by this.  It just makes a bad situation worse.  No wonder they are getting such bad publicity lately.  Every company has problems but you only start to hear about it when their resolution teams are failing.

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Marc715 

there are few new threads here on CC about security deposit changes. Unfortunatelly there are no details and everything is very blurry so we are not sure how will it work. But Airbnb has to do something about security deposits because it has become a "trash party booking site" .

[Marc715]

@Branka-and-Silvia0 I have done a number of things to fully automate my home.  It has a very good alarms sytem that monitors every door and can send me a notification when they are opened and closed.  The locks, garage door, thermostat, and smoke alarms are all remotely monitored via an app.  And the main apartment building is well cameraed at every entrace.  I would never invade a guests privacy with Cameras inside the unit or by the apartment door - but I am thinking of adding a noise detector inside that will alert me of a party.  What tipped me off to the most recent party was when I saw that the basement door had been opened more than 60 times between 1AM and 5AM.  that was a huge giveaway that there was a problem and allowed me to get it stopped before it was any worse.  Had I not taken and ambien that night I might have caught it sooner.  OR... if AirBnB had alerted me earlier that night when they blocked that user from their platform that there was a problem this never would have happened in the first place!

[Ron267]

Hi Marc , had them all  on Halloween night, thanks giving, sweet sixteen ,bachelor party,   Photoshoots , you name it. i kikthem all out before it’s started and keept the money !!  Airbnb is A website that’s all it is, They  benefit from our hard work and good hospitality . They will not help you or any body else besicly you on your own . Strict your policy so if time comes you can cancel reservation and only then you can call the police to evict them . Now Airbnb change the policy by NOT showing the photo of the potential new guest and that makes it more complicated. Check each guest who’s he and his reviews and be there to meet them .   It’s better to stay empty than have those scambags on you proporty. Good luck