new controls for house rules, can cancel reservation without penalty if guest breaks rules.

[Geff0]

Just received an email about the house rules update feature,and a message stating that:

"If a guest breaks a house rule, either before or during their stay, you can cancel the reservation without penalty."

However,

When you go to the "Cancel a reservation as a host" page  there is a section on cancellation penalties,and associated penalty fees,and extenuating circumstances.

This page should be updated to include the house rule without penalty clause. As it stands there is no mention of this new policy.

Or is is on another page??

Thanks for any info on this!

[Clay18]

Hi Matthew,

Thanks for asking.  This is really a very important and serious issue for many hosts.

What I really want is to not have guests like these in the first place and for Airbnb to do everything they can to deter guests from doing this. 

I can see why this immediate terminantion of stay is preferred to $ fines in that:

1. The guest is not allowed to continue their house rules abuse for the remainder of their stay, which can be quite nerve-racking for hosts to have to endure these type of guests wondering what other harm they are doing to their property.
2. There is no post-stay proof-of-abuse/guest-contestment process.  The guest is confronted and asked to leave immediately before they can do any more harm or retaliation.

I have clearly stated my house rules online and on paper for my guests, but still continue to get guests who do not seem to care about them at all.  Why is this still so prevalent?

This immediate-cancellation-of-stay sounds great to me and I think will help deal with the immediate situation and hopefully deter future repeated abuses, PROVIDING:

1. Airbnb make it very well known to the guest at reservation time that this is Airbnb's standard policy for breaking house rules and it will be strictly enforced.  Guests should not need to add threatening language to their house rules and scare off the nice people.
2. Airbnb Support imediately follows through with the host cancellation request and does not ask the host for proof that the guest "smoked in the house", nor consult with the guest to obtain their permission.
3. Airbnb provide a way to red-flag these type of guests as house rule breakers for other hosts to see.
4. Airbnb not allow terminated guest to review host
5. Most importantly, repeat offenders are likewise terminated from using Airbnb and their membership is cancelled.

What are your thoughts?

Clay

[Matthew285]

@Clay18 thanks for the informative response!

You have a lot of good thoughts about this. I don't know if you have had the chance to share any of your ideas with Airbnb, but I hope you get a chance to.

Regarding: "I have clearly stated my house rules online and on paper for my guests, but still continue to get guests who do not seem to care about them at all.  Why is this still so prevalent?"

is probably due to the simple fact that many guests do not read the house rules either before or after booking.

When guests book Private Rooms thinking they are getting an Entire House, or arrive looking for their private parking space when the host clearly says "No Parking" 4 times in their description, it is unsurprising when guests don't read the house rules.

Regarding point 2: "Airbnb Support imediately follows through with the host cancellation request and does not ask the host for proof that the guest "smoked in the house"": I do not think this is a good idea, especially when combined with points 3,4,&5.

If all 5 points were implemented, it would give complete dictatorial power to hosts without any due process. Look at it from the point of view of the guests. A host could, at any point, decide they wanted to be rid of a paying guest. A simple message to Airbnb would result in the guest being evicted without even the chance to find out what they were being accused of, and without the chance to review the host to warn other guests that the host is willing to throw guests out for no reason at all. Plus, they would be red-flagged so they could not book again. All based on a simple accusation with no proof required and without even the chance to answer?

If this were the system, I do not think I would ever travel via Airbnb.

For a system to be fair to both sides, there has to be due process. And the process should require that any accusation requires proof. 

As to red-flagging a difficult guest: I think a bad review from a host already accomplishes that quite effectively. I know that many hosts would not choose to accept anyone that has even one strongly negative review. And I would bet having multiple bad reviews effectively ends a guest's ability to book at any desirable listing.

We hosts need to remember that we are our own main line of defense. While Airbnb will generally not enforce monetary fines for rule-breaking, they are more willing to relocate guests who break rules, and that is a pretty powerful tool.

I do agree that it would be nice to be able to easily enforce monetary fines (which works on platforms where a proper security deposit is taken).

[Clay18]

Thanks Michael.  You make a lot of good points.  I definitely agree with you about most guests not reading the house rules.  However, we have experienced these same house rule issues with some guests with whom we have clarified specific rules prior to accepting their reservation.  They just don't seem to care and try to get away with whatever they can.

As to your comments about rule # 2:  I believe this is the policy of most standard hotels and what you agree to at check in, and if you violate important certain hotel policies, you will be expelled without a review.  Also, I don't believe hosts wish to easily terminate any guests for the financial loss they incur from cancelling the reservation, for the subsequent bad review and loss of future guests, nor for the hassle of having to evict someone.  It is the hosts property and I do think they should be allowed to reserve the right to expel or refuse anyone who does not comply with their hotel policies.  I do not think most people would have a problem staying in a place like this, because they understand and do intend to violate house rules.

[Matthew285]

@Clay18 what you say is very true.

I think my perception is somewhat affected because in reading many stories from guests on this board, one hears a lot of bad behavior on the part of a few abusive hosts.

It makes we worry to hand a weapon of such power to these few manipulative and abusive hosts. The bad hosts already can make life miserable under the current rules. I shudder to think what they could do with even more power.

But I know you are thinking of how to help the vast majority of good hosts defend themselves against the bad and abusive guests.

It is a balancing act.

[Dan247]

I don't think hosts should have to provide proof, Airbnb makes money by using the hosts' homes. If someone abuses my house, I get to say what happens to the guest. It is MY house afterall.

I could call the police if someone breaks the house rules and have them removed from my home. So if Airbnb doesn't have a good policy for guests then there will be lots of bad publicity for Airbnb when hosts are calling the police to have guests removed instead of Airbnb actually having a good policy when guests break rules, or steal from hosts.

[Shahbaz1]

Hi mattew you mentioned other platform where the security deposit is tanken. Which?  

[Mike1034]

@Mathew4 Recently I receved a guest who was new to AirBnb and wanted to book my place. I explicitly told him to read the house rules and if he agreed and he could book. He said that he read. During checkin, I told him rules of no party and no smoking signs are on the walls of almost all rooms. And he still held the party in the house and trashed my house, damaged a floor lamp, chair, and other things. They smoked cigarretes and weed and drank over 20 bottles of liquor. You never know what will happen to some people. I have no party and event rule on my post. There are still people asking me for the approval of their request for party use of my property.

I would agree with Clay's suggestion that AirBnb should provide host the right to immediately cancel the guests' stay when the house rules are broken. In addition, hosts' right to get part of the security deposit should be granted when sufficient evidence of rules-breaking is provided.

[Judit-and-Jesse0]

Hi Clay,

I agree on everything you wrote - especially the review part - they know they can damage you after they are the ones did the damaging and don't want to pay plus they also lie about it.

[Alexandra816]

Absolutely! I have clear rules about noise after 10PM, but since I can host up to 18 people, this is constantly a problem. There was one group in particular that had me receiving lawsuit threats from neighbors living even as far as 1 block away. After the second night of this I had to kick them out and to my surprise I had to return them the rent money. I have no idea why I should be the one penalized when guests break the house rules. Airbnb also allowed these guests to give me a review and, what do you know, it was my first non-5 star review (they gave me 1 star, of course). This policy makes no sense at all to me

[Cindy159]

My guest booked through instant book for two days and extended for 9 days after. However, he has been breaking the house rule and making too much noise throughout the whole night which seriously affects other people.  How can I terminate the reservation during the guest's stay? Does anyone know about the report procedure please? 

[Marit-Anne0]

@Cindy159

You would need to contact airbnb. And confront your guest in writing through the airbnb message system.

[Cormac0]

Cindy, this could be a ploy to get free nights as the payment will take a while to go through.

[Andrew21]

Hey guys, I made a video on how to change your House Rules. This could help people that are more visual. https://youtu.be/LIC0WzgoCx8

[Daljit0]

I think there is a much bigger problem to this. I just had a guest stay for 2 nights for 7 people. It actually turned out to be house party for over 50+ people and involved the police attending with compaints from neighbours. AirBnb did finally cancel the guests booking but after 3 frantic and stressful hours of providing evidence.

The problem which everyone is overlooking is even if the booking is cancelled by AirBnb...how do you get the Guest to leave ?! The police won't assist  as its a "Civil" and not "Criminal" matter . The police in my case also stated that as the guests were drunk they can't drive. Essentially you are stuck with the guests as you yourself could get arrested for trying to remove them.

Thoughts/views? 

[Letti0]

@Daljit0  I would be on the phone to the taxi company. Pile them in taxis to the nearest hotel.