Airbnb doesn't have a mechanism to enforce your House Rules

[Natasha3]

Say you rent out an entire unit where maximum 4 people is allowed. A guest tells you there will be 4 people but then security cameras caught 7 people. 

You call Airbnb to guide you with the situation and they asure you they have Zero Tolerance to House Rules Violations. 

Then you email your guest to remind that their booking is for 4 people and ask to make sure there are only 4 people in the house. Nothing changes.

Next day with a CX approval you send them a warning that every additional guest over maximum allowed will be charged $$ if they leave by 3pm that day, and $$$ after that. The guest silently chooses for all additional guests to stay.

Fast track through all the back and forth between you, the guest, CX#2  when it came to a Resolution Center,  a Supervisor who aproved their "resolved and closed case" told me the following:

• they will  apply only per extra person rate that you set in Pricing Sections even if the party exceeds an allowed maximum. 
• if you have a flat rate for your unit then Airbnb will charge $0 per any  additional guest over allowed maximum. 
• if your listing and house rules explicitly say $$$ per person exceeding maximum they will still enforce only what you set for extra person in Pricing Section. (For instance, I put a "prohibitive rate" for over max guests because I don't  want them at any price - nope, not gonna work).
• if you choose to terminate that rental you won’t be paid. (If guests violate your other rules and you choose to terminate their rental, the same is true - you won’t be paid out).

So basicaly, you are out of luck.

I'm stunned at how toothless Airbnb host protection system when it comes to guest abuses. If what she said was true (it runs against my experience in dealing with Resolution) then it's mindblowing how hypocritical Airbnb is telling they don't tolerate House rules violations. There is no mechanism to actualy make abusive guests face the consequense. 

I will continue to bring this issue to a higher levels but I wonder if anyone else experienced similar approach from Airbnb. I must tell I have mostly good things to say about airbnb CX but this case make me think it was a shear luck.

[Kelly149]

@Natasha3 Sorry Natasha this is a known issue. Go back a couple weeks and you'll see that @Farah1 had this very issue. 

This is a recurring problem that needs a better solution 

[Farah1]

@Kelly149 Just realized that you mentioned me here 🙂

@Natasha3 have you tried reaching out to them via twitter?

[Natasha3]

@Farah1 I did.

I was also persuing a CX who "resolved and closed" the case to connect me with her Supervisor, so I got a call from a Supervisor who approved the case, but not sure whether she called me because of Twitter or through a CX. She was quite condesending.

[Kelly149]

@Farah1 Glad you found this & I saw that Natasha found your original posting as well

@Natasha3 was there any change to how your situation was resolved?

[Jessica-and-Henry0]

@Natasha3

I haven't experienced anything like this yet, but I have seen a lot of posts from other hosts about this problem and it does worry me. The fact that having clear rules mean nothing and breaking rules has no consequence is scary. 

[Lisa658]

Hi @Natasha3

I would classify this as a "problem" booking.  These are the type of guests that you want to get rid of no matter what the cost to you is.  Getting rid of them by refunding unused nights is a cheap price to get your property back undamaged.  Problem guests shoud be less than 1% of the total visitors you host.

Is this a deterrant to their behaviour?  No.  Does it immediately solve your problem? Yes.

There is not any booking site that I know of that will not tell you to refund the guest to get rid of them.

Your prices may be too low.  As soon as I put prices up we have not had any issue with these "types" of guests.  It has been about 3 years since we have had to pay a refund for a guest to leave and I would have paid them double if I had to just to get the property back in good condition.

This is just part of the game and it really comes down to luck of the draw.  These rules apply through all the accommodation industry so I am not suprised that this is what AirBnB follows.  Logically it is the quickest and best avenue to a resolution and mitigates potential damages.

Lisa