Brand new host--horrible experiences

[Ann686]

Well, I think I'll probably be switching to Vrbo, after a very short time and some horrible experiences as an AirBnB host. This place just gets shadier. 

I started off as a cohost, working on the shadiest property imaginable; I was in a bad situation as I had just gotten out of the hospital after my roommates almost let me die of typhus. So I reluctantly took an offer to work 5 hours a day in exchange for no money—just a "free" bed in a hallway. I had to share the hallway with an old guy who snored like a battleship chugging through the Arctic. The old guy was supposed to be helping me clean, but he was a friend of the hosts, so they just let him live there for free, and I had to clean up after him AND ten paying, slobby guests packed into a 3-bed, with no help. The owners rarely appeared, and would not discipline my "coworker." It was absolutely foul. They agreed to give me the cleaning fees for a little while—which didn't help, because their filthy guests were mostly long-term—then quietly stopped giving me anything. But for some reason AirBnB lets them keep renting multiple properties while treating employees like indentured servants.

When I got my own studio apartment, I decided I wanted to make some money for myself. But it only got worse.

My very first guest, on his very first night, had a wild party in my tiny studio. They shattered a mirrored glass door in my apartment and punched a hole in my wall. It wasn't just a hole, though; they cracked the entire drywall panel. He left scattered glass everywhere and a huge mess.

This was less thatn 24 hours after I started hosting!

I had a $1000 security deposit, but what did AirBnB do?

Not only did they tell me I had to let him stay out the week in order to get the money for his stay—even though I was scared of the guy after he put a hole in my wall—they also refused to make him pay for the damage he caused.

He tried to fix the door, but it still doesn't work, and my entire closet (clothes and shoes) was full of broken glass. The dispute resolution employee—who was clearly on the violent guest's side, as they were both young men—googled "hole in drywall" and awarded me the first Google result--about $60!—for ALL the damage this person caused. 

Then they let him write a fraudulent review of my place to defend himself, claiming that it was dirty. Yeah, it was dirty because he was in it! My cat pooped outside the box because he and his violent friends terrified her too badly to cross the floor and go to her litterbox. The ad clearly stated there are cats in the apartment, but his based his complaints on... the fact that there are cats in the apartment. I worked for hours to clean it up for him prior to his visit, and had to spend $120 just to clean up his filth and broken glass. He claimed my ad was "dishonest," when it just didn't say what he wanted it to say.

My next visitor said my place was "OK," then gave it a three star rating just because. He said it was too small for him. It's Los Angeles! 

What does AirBnB do? Because of these two awful people, they not only left 90 percent of the repair and cleanup costs to me, THEY PAUSED MY LISTING.

Yep, they took my listing off the market due to two ratings, one which read "OK" and the other was from a violent drunk who wrecked my apartment. (I had provided them with extensive documentation of the damage and his lame attempts to save money by pretending to fix it; they didn't even look at the documentation, apparently, just talked to this creep and let him off the hook).

Going to Vrbo, and I suggest you do too. The guests there are not cheap, violent liars and the customer service doesn't favor the worst people. AirBnB is becoming a pigsty and they will NOT protect hosts from fraudulent and even volatile guests. (Unless they're awful hosts who treat their cohosts like unpaid indentured labor.)

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Ann686 

my advice is to rewrite your listing's description. This "street gang" attitude is not the way to attract good guests and it sounds very unprofessional. Make a bed, remove the cats from it and make better photos. Present your property and yourself in a best possible way and you will be treated much better.

[Mark116]

@Ann686  I was confused and I was looking at the Suzi listings.  So, your listing and your description need to be redone.  I can't really tell what the whole space looks like....you need a full on shot of the kitchen, living room/bedroom and bathroom so people can get a sense of what the space will be like.  You probably want it to be as neat as possible when doing the photos.  I agree w/the other hosts who have said you need to rewrite the listing.  You should also do a photo of the sofa as a sofa and also made up as a bed and make sure the text is very clear.

I still think you should NOT allow strangers in your apartment and leave the cats there, it is not safe for the animals.  You should take them with you wherever you are going when the place is rented.

[Ann686]

Oh, it was a very perky cheery description before all of this happened. I'm just going to delete this listing at this point and possibly start over. Elsewhere, ideally.

[Ann72]

@Ann686  Good luck with VRBO/Homeaway.  I put one listing there and have had 6 inquiries, three of which were blatant scams.  Two of the other three booked.  I'm pulling the listing as soon as the last guest leaves.

[Ann686]

That sucks, I'm sorry. Maybe it's not the best option.

[Sarah977]

@Ann686 An "entire apartment" listing really shouldn't be a place you normally live when you don't have guests, leaving your cats there when you have guests. I'm sorry you've gotten these loser guests, but I think you need to present your place differently and learn to vet prospective guests adequately if you're ever going to have a nice hosting gig. Good guests reallyaren't interested in booking a place that looks like the host normally lives there and just walked out the door so she could make a few bucks, they don't want to look at someone else's cat's litter box, etc.

[Ann686]

I've been using AirBnB as a guest for a long time. As a guest I thought that was the POINT of this service: you get to live in someone's actual house that they just walked out of, so you can experience the city or country from an insider's perspective, and they can recoup some of their rent. Not so you can live in a hotel room with a private kitchen and professional maid service for $60. I've had a lot of nice experiences in Europe that way; it depends on both the guest and host being nice people. But apparently it's been taken over by professional landlords and scummy college kids.

[Suzanne302]

@Ann686  I agree with you that I don't like the idea of people buying up multiple properties just to use them for STR.

However, maybe you should take a step back because you seem really, really bitter and that's not a good look for anyone. I'd be terrified to stay at your place after reading your listing. I know guests can be annoying but perhaps you are better suited for something else other than the hospitality industry? Please don't take that as an insult. It's just some people are better suited to deal with difficult people than others.

ABB origins are about homeshares (literally an air mattress in the living room), not someone stepping out of their house so they can get help with the rent.

This whole thread is one hot mess...

[Ann686]

I have been in the hospitality industry for 15 years. But I have never had my home drunkenly destroyed before, only to get zero support from the app or the community.

"ABB origins are about homeshares (literally an air mattress in the living room), not someone stepping out of their house so they can get help with the rent."

I see. So you're NOT doing homeshare "just so you can get help with [whatever bill you're paying]". You're doing it for CHARITY. How nice of you! You are certainly better than people whose houses are too small to do homeshare!

[Sarah977]

@Ann686  No, no one is doing it for charity. But some of us do it also for things aside from the $. As I said, the original idea was Homeshare. That means sharing a home with the host, not staying in a host's home while they go elsewhere, leaving their cats behind. Part of why some of us "traditional" type hosts do it is because we enjoy creating beautiful, welcoming spaces, and because we enjoy meeting people from all over the world. It's not just a way of subsidizing the rent, but of course the extra income is nice.

Some guy who was visiting the neighbor behind me knew I had an Airbnb room- he said "Your house looks really nice- you should just find some cheap place to rent and list your whole house, you could make a lot of money." I stood there with my jaw hanging open and said "Why in the world would do that? I didn't create a beautiful home for myself so I could go live in some little dump. There's more to life than money."

[Susan17]

@Sarah977 

"I stood there with my jaw hanging open and said "Why in the world would do that? I didn't create a beautiful home for myself so I could go live in some little dump. There's more to life than money"

Actually, countless thousands of hosts - myself included - have no choice but to do exactly that to keep the whole show on the road. Believe me, nobody in their right mind would willing choose to stay in a tiny little dump while someone else sleeps in their warm, comfy bed, in their lovely cozy home - but not everyone is fortunate enough to have any other option open to them, particularly those living in cripplingly expensive cities. People do what they have to do, to get themselves and their families by. Whatever it takes. 

[Sarah977]

@Susan17  Sorry, I do understand that and don't fault anyone who does this. Times are tough,and I was single mom of three raising them for 27 years- there were no frills, no dinners out, no expensive iphones, etc. My income was just enough to cover the expenses and it was really stressful.

While I was speaking to my own situation and attitude, I was more thinking in terms of the idea that money takes precedence over everything. I've read several posts here over time where people put their own apartments or houses up for STR, thinking it would be a great way to generate income while they themselves were away on holiday,  only to come back, walk in the door, and burst out crying when they saw the state the "guests" had left it in. These hosts weren't desperate for the $, they saw Airbnb as easy money, without understanding the risks involved.

And in the OP's case here, I don't think she understands what "entire place" means to people. It doesn't mean you leave your cats and their litter box behind. If the host lives in the space along with guests, that's a different story- the guests have to accept and adapt, as long as the host has been clear about the situation.

[Sarah977]

@Ann686  I think the original point of Airbnb was that you got a room in someone's home, or maybe just a sleeping spot, shared the kitchen, some other spaces, maybe had a private bathroom, maybe not. Got tips on places to eat and visit that only locals would know about. Didn't have to feel alone and somewhat lost in a new place. You were hanging with the host some of the time.

The concept of renting out an entire home, with all one's stuff and animals in it, while the host sleeps elsewhere, in order to make some $, is kind of weird to me. (And I also am really opposed to people buying up housing purely for the purpose of Airbnbing it through some property management company)

I'm actually pretty confused by your listing- you say it's a private studio, but you list separate rooms and it sounds more like a hostel situation. And do you stay there sometimes, or you live elsewhere? And who is Susan? Your listing says she's the host.

[Ann686]

Ah, you aren't looking at my listing. You're looking at the people I used to work for. Their listings are still in my account. I'm the Koreatown listing.

I used AirBnB a lot earlier in the decade, and the best experiences I had were always exactly what I'm doing: a local person lets out their apartment when they're elsewhere. What seems weird to ME is running a fly-by-night hotel or hostel.

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[Sarah977]

@Ann686  When I click on your profile, Suzi's places are the only ones that show up. I don't see any Koreatown listing.