Undisclosed Dogs

[Michelle140]

So the people who stayed last night (instant booked that morning) brought two dogs with them without notifying me. Not only do I have a pet fee, but there are also extra steps I do to the home before pets will be visiting.

I think their third guest ended up sleeping out in their van (I was not notified of this, I was just making an inference from the extra third person space I set up having not been used). So the $20 for the third guest is the same fee as the $20 total pet fees. I do not have to wash the unused sheets or blanket, but I also had to set it up (which is not normally set up for use, so I'll still have to break it all down and put everything away), and I could assume he may have come inside last night to use other facilities? I don't know. I was not home last night, and only came back once they were already in bed.

Regardless, it will be reported in my review of them, since I feel they did me a disservice by not notifying me they were bringing two dogs, but I may not bother with trying to claim the pet fees. What do people think? 😕

[Michelle140]

As far as I have been able to tell so far, there is no damage from the dogs, but they did have one outside running loose unsupervised, so I don't know about poop being left. In addition, one of the dogs was not used to cats, so would playfully chase my cats whenever it would see any of them. They would also leave this one running unsupervised around the house (which I would say is not ok if the dog is inclined to chasing my cats).

[Susan-and-Joe0]

With each breach of my house rules, I feel it's prudent to mention it on a review and to advise airbnb. This keeps us all honest and hopefully more respectful. 

As you were only slightly inconvenieced, I agree that there's no need to pursue compensation. 

A slight rewrite to your house rules to the effect "while we welcome your pets, we need to be aware they're coming so we can make their stay comfortable too.  Please notify us in advance." might be helpful to avoid this in the future.

Good luck.

[Michelle140]

Thanks for the feedback. I had actually just submitted the review. I am on my 25th guest stay, so I've gotten harder with reviews (I used to always try to be nice, ha), and definitely felt it warranted mentioning in the review. The only reason I'm considering not asking for the pet fee is because I don't think the third person actually slept in the house, as otherwise it would be rewarding her keeping the information from me and would feel it in my right to request the fee. However, at the same time, I had guests last weekend who just used the room in the afternoon to change for a wedding, but didn't end up returning for the night. I did not offer them a refund (to be noted, they didn't ask), as I still had to do everything else involved in a stay aside from washing the sheets afterwards. My cancellation is flexible, at 24 hours, so it made sense to me.

[Karin38]

If the dogs had any contact with the bedding set for the third party than I would definitely wash them.  I was surprised that you allowed dogs since you have cats roaming about.  Not all dogs are going to be friendly 

[Michelle140]

The extra bed was in a separate room with the door closed. It does not appear to have been touched (it is not a mattress, but a pillowsac lovesac, so it would be pretty obvious if anything laid on it, as it gets squished flatter, ha; right now it's all fluffed up).

My cats are dog friendly. I have it detailed in the listing that dogs must be cat friendly. In addition, if dogs are coming, I put up a gate to my bedroom so they have a safe place, no matter what. I had not experienced people being inconsiderate and not letting me know they want to bring a dog yet =P lol. When I've been notified, I've always brought up the cats to confirm that their dog is used to cats.

I'm thinking about just removing that option at this point though. Not worth it.

[Karin38]

I do agree that your guest took advantage though

[Alice-and-Jeff0]

Where that person chose to sleep is really not your problem unless they didn't sleep in the house for cause.  Not sure why you would back down on charging them for this, but perhaps you are nicer than I am.  So for instance, if they had reached out and said, hey, we're going to be 3 people, but only 2 are going to sleep in the house, will you cut us a deal on the price, would you? 

Personally, I would send them a charge for the extra $20 for the dogs on top of keeping the $20 for the 3rd person.  While the situation is over, when they arrived with 2 dogs without informing me, I would have sent them away. It is obvious that these guests didn't read your house rules at all as it is clear that unannounced pets are not welcome.  I would not be inclined to give them a break simply based on their thoughtlessness. 

[Michelle140]

I'm hoping it wasn't because of any issue in the home =( They never let me know of any problem or sent me any questions or anything. They knew that my space was one queen bed and then the option of a couch or supersac in the living room, or the deck or loft (too cold for most people right now though), so it couldn't have been because it wasn't what they thought (though, who am I kidding, it still could be, ha, even though I confirmed with her beforehand where she thought the third person would be sleeping). I went to particular trouble to clean out a non-guest room so I could set up my pillowsac as a bed in there, since I knew I was going to be arriving late and did not want to bother them. I actually was not home last night when they arrived and did not get home until they had gone to bed, so I didn't know there were dogs until this morning when I heard them clacking on the floor (with my dog still asleep in my room, lol). My dog did try to tell me though, ha. He was particularly interested in smells outside the house and then was looking at the bedroom door intently when I was heading to bed.

What is my deadline for requesting the extra fees? Is it 24 hours?

Also, note that I have already adjusted my house rules from this experience, ha (I am constantly changing my rules as people do things I'm not happy with). Before it said in my listing only: "Dog and cat friendly pets which are well behaved and 100% housebroken may be accommodated for a small extra fee of $10 per pet, per night. Note that if they turn out not to be friendly to my pets, they may need to stay outside or I can help try to find a kennel for the duration of your visit. There is one home-based kennel not too far from my house which may be available." And then in the house rules it just said "If you are bringing your dog, poop must be picked up in walking areas" (which who knows if they did or not, since the dog was unsupervised outside) and "Visiting pets must be friendly with other dogs and cats and not destructive" (though this second one may have a bit more, I forget; I know I added the fee here due to the new ABNB rules, and a reminder about being housebroken, but I don't remember if I deleted anything).

[Michelle140]

I've just decided to not allow pets anymore. The risk is not worth the reward, and it doesn't seem to be needed or appreciated enough to help it be more worth it (only 3 of 24 reservations have had pets so far). I'm also annoyed, since their running loose dog out front killed one of my apparently not dog urine safe plants =P (I have a completely fenced in back yard, which does not have any "garden" of a sort which I would be concerned about, but the front yard is different).