Crazy guest lied about BEDBUGS

[Evelyn694]

Hello, Folks -- A dreadful guest stayed at my place last week and canceled her stay unbeknownst to me about 15 minutes after checking in, which was 20 minutes after booking.  You can read more about it via the review I wrote of her, below.

I wrote this before seeing her review.  She claimed that there was urine, hair and BEDBUGS at my place!  This is a complete and total lie, and it is the kind of lie designed to take down someone's business.

I called AirBnb and they admitted she had provided no proof nor mentioned Bedbugs in her complaint, but they refuse to take down the review or even that part of it.

I have sucked up lies from crazy guests in the past, but bedbugs is a lie that you can't allow to stay on your listing!  That will drive people away like nothing else, and it's completely false!  Any ideas?

Here's the review I wrote --

Luna first wrote to me for a last minute stay in June. And by last minute, I mean an hour turn around, which I accommodated. She never took the offer, never wrote back. When she wrote for a last minute stay in November, I gave her the benefit of the doubt again. I sent her an offer at 5:30 pm, got no reply, assumed she flaked again. At 8:05, she accepted the booking and 8:06 wrote to me that she was on her way over. I received the messages at 8:15, raced back and made sure the room was ready for her, let her in. As soon as she walked into the room, she said it was too hot, so I turned down the heat and told her she could crack a window. She wrote to me shortly after checking in to tell me the place was really cute, and then asked for additional sheets, and I told her where to find extra linens. She told me twice that the place was cute and said nothing else. About fifteen minutes later, I got a cancellation notice from AirB, complaining that the apartment wasn't clean and offering her a full refund but blocking my calendar for her entire stay. I went down to the apartment, totally mystified. It was as clean as I had left it but it was freezing, as Luna had opened the window and ripped it off the track. It was dangling from the frame and the track was destroyed. I complained to AirB and asked to see evidence that there was anything wrong with the apartment or anything that needed cleaning. They refused to show me what Luna had turned in. I wrote to Luna and asked her why she didn't contact me directly, since I was right upstairs. I would have offered her a refund and been able to keep my calendar open but she wasn't even brave enough to talk to me about it, just made sure she got all her money back and that my calendar stayed blocked so I couldn't rent to someone else. I have very high ratings for cleanliness and now follow all Covid cleaning protocols.

[Sarah977]

You rally should read through a guest's reviews, ad reviews they have left for hosts before accepting their booking, but I guess you're aware of that now.

Just the fact that she made a last minute request before and then didn't follow through or even have the manners to communicate with you about it, would have made me decline to host her again. I don't think it's wise to give complete strangers the benefit of the doubt once they've already screwed around with you.

I would give the benefit of the doubt to some 19 year old who had one review stating they didn't clean up well before they left, because I would think they are young, and hopefully it was a learning experience for them and they wouldn't want another bad review.

So sorry you had such a bad experience. @Evelyn694

[Evelyn694]

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[John5097]

If you can provide more information on the mattress in question to Airbnb. Where it was purchased, its age, condition, if there are any comments on it in your reviews, what mattress encasements you use. I had a guest ask about the mattress after checking in, wanted to know if it had any latex as she had allergies. I was able to provide a link to it on Amazon and the company. As it turned out it didn't use latex. My listing includes the name of the mattress. My guest was pretty stressed and I assured her not to stress that we would work it out and provided all the information she requested. She left a great review and was so happy to have a place she could vacation. That made me feel good and glad I didn't write a negative review for her. 

[Evelyn694]

Thanks, John, but this guest was just being malicious and making stuff up.  We discovered after reading her reviews that she had a pattern of posting horrible lying reviews in order to get out of paying or to hurt hosts who had before that great reviews.  But your idea in general of taking things as information and not personally is great!

[Emilia42]

@Evelyn694 

I'm not taking this guest's word for it - she is obviously unstable by her review history. But do you have a zippered mattress encasement so guests cannot see the actual mattress? These are so important and I would recommend ordering one if you don't already have them. 

[Evelyn694]

Friends, Romans, Countrymen/women -- LEND ME YOUR HOSTLY EARS!  It is a great day in history.  The first day I was truly supported as a host by AirB after many years of non support and generalized despair (a little like a sad marriage?).  I just would not accept a single BOT reply on the thread, kept using the word slander and demanding why a pattern of lying to get out of paying would be supporting the goal of trust in reviews, demanding that they read this woman's reviews to see the history, etc.  I flew like a butterfly and stung like a bee, and voila --

Hello Evelyn,

Thank you for your response. After a thorough evaluation, we have determined that it is in our community’s best interest to remove the review written for you by Luna for the reservation X .

This decision was taken because the review violated our policy.

Airbnb’s review policy guides hosts and guests to write reviews which are relevant and will help our community make informed booking decisions. For your reference, here’s a link to the review policy:

www.airbnb.com/help/article/2673

You can learn more about Airbnb’s review dispute moderation here:

www.airbnb.com/help/article/546

We apologize for any inconvenience and we appreciate you reaching back out to correct this situation.

Arthur

[Kae287]

So glad you got it removed! Only if it didn't take all your hard work and constant effort to be treated like the great Host you are, then this would be a better Airbnb world!

AirBnb if you're reading this, retrain your staff, abide by your own policies, and treat Hosts decently and with some respect! Are we asking too much?

[Kath9]

@Evelyn694  wonderful news! Well done for not backing down on this or as we Aussies like to say, 'good on ya, mate!'. Finally, Airbnb takes the side of a host! Probably nothing will happen with the guest though, so I truly hope your review of her still stands. Oh, and I love the story about your guests who sent stamps - how lovely! I guess its important to remember that most of our guests are actually wonderful, but sadly there will always be the occasional crazy bedbug guest.

[Kae287]

Oh no, I'm so sorry to hear about your experience! AirBnb and their support staff are the absolute worst when it comes to situations like these. Throughout my years of hosting, they provide the worst support in these kinds of situations and favor the guest even when they are lying. I've had mostly great guests but have had a handful of horrible ones. In a situation like yours, I had a booking for 3 guests but when they showed up, it was 6 guys in town for a bachelor party. They inquired if they could have "guests" over and when I said the booking was for only 3 and that they could not have "guests" over they said their friends weren't staying, even though all of them had luggage, and that they would not have anyone over. So against my better judgment, I allowed them to stay, not wanting them to be left without a place to sleep in the town they just traveled to. The next day, upon checking my account, I saw the reservation was canceled and when I went to check on the guests, they had checked out. Confused, I contacted Airbnb and they told me that I had canceled the listing and gave them a refund. When I said I did no such thing and that no one contacted me, not the guest nor Airbnb, they still continued to fight me on this. Upon their own investigation, it turned out that an 'Airbnb Support Specialist' went into my account and canceled the reservation on my behalf and gave them a full refund because they claimed that there were roaches in the unit. When I asked for proof, they could not give me any and then closed the ticket, thus eliminated my ability to even communicate with them. I was a Superhost with no pest issue before with glowing reviews and no cancellations. This cancellation also impacted my Superhost status and it took me 2 months of constantly reaching out to them to get my Superhost status back and to get only my partial refund back since Airbnb went against their own policy that states that guests must first demonstrate that they first tried to reach out to the host to rectify the issue. It's my experience that Airbnb goes against their own policies to give the guest whatever they want and they leave the host with any empty space, canceled reservation, and in my situation, they even blocked the dates the guest booked so I was unable to book anyone else.

I wish Airbnb would do something to actually support their Hosts with situations like these when guests change their minds and use lies and excuses that Airbnb does not even look into. I wish that they had competent support specialists who actually cared about Hosts that use their platforms and open up their homes to visitors. Hosts get penalized for canceling listings why shouldn’t guests, especially ones who deceit their way into a refund?

I too agree and don't understand how AirBnB doesn't care about stopping this type of pattern. But mostly, I simply don't understand why they don't actually abide by their policy about how matters like this should be handled. As soon as the guest contacts Airbnb, Airbnb should then contact the host before the reservation is canceled. Airbnb does NOT follow their own policies and I wish there were other platforms to use instead of them. Does anyone know any?

[Kae287]

I'm going to try to post my response and similar experience again because Airbnb removed it hehe. I guess they want to limit people being truthful. Not cool.

Oh no, I'm so sorry to hear about your experience! AirBnb and their support staff are the absolute worst when it comes to situations like these. Throughout my years of hosting, they provide the worst support in these kinds of situations and favor the guest even when they are lying. I've had mostly great guests but have had a handful of horrible ones. In a situation like yours, I had a booking for 3 guests but when they showed up, it was 6 guys in town for a bachelor party. They inquired if they could have "guests" over and when I said the booking was for only 3 and that they could not have "guests" over they said their friends weren't staying, even though all of them had luggage, and that they would not have anyone over. So against my better judgment, I allowed them to stay, not wanting them to be left without a place to sleep in the town they just traveled to. The next day, upon checking my account, I saw the reservation was canceled and when I went to check on the guests, they had checked out. Confused, I contacted Airbnb and they told me that I had canceled the listing and gave them a refund. When I said I did no such thing and that no one contacted me, not the guest nor Airbnb, they still continued to fight me on this. Upon their own investigation, it turned out that an 'Airbnb Support Specialist' went into my account and canceled the reservation on my behalf and gave them a full refund because they claimed that there were roaches in the unit. When I asked for proof, they could not give me any and then closed the ticket, thus eliminated my ability to even communicate with them. I was a Superhost with no pest issue before with glowing reviews and no cancellations. This cancellation also impacted my Superhost status and it took me 2 months of constantly reaching out to them to get my Superhost status back and to get only my partial refund back since Airbnb went against their own policy that states that guests must first demonstrate that they first tried to reach out to the host to rectify the issue. It's my experience that Airbnb goes against their own policies to give the guest whatever they want and they leave the host with any empty space, canceled reservation, and in my situation, they even blocked the dates the guest booked so I was unable to book anyone else.

I wish Airbnb would do something to actually support their Hosts with situations like these when guests change their minds and use lies and excuses that Airbnb does not even look into. I wish that they had competent support specialists who actually cared about Hosts that use their platforms and open up their homes to visitors. Hosts get penalized for cancelling listings why shouldn’t guests, especially ones who deceit their way into a refund?

I too agree and don't understand how AirBnB doesn't care about stopping this type of pattern. But mostly, I simply don't understand why they don't actually abide by their policy about how matters like this should be handled. As soon as the guest contacts Airbnb, Airbnb should then contact the host before the reservation is canceled. Airbnb does not follow their own policy and I wish there were other platforms to use instead of them.

[Sarah977]

@Kae287  "I'm going to try to post my response and similar experience again because Airbnb removed it hehe. I guess they want to limit people being truthful. Not cool."

Nah, this forum is just glitchy like that, especially if you are composing a long post. It didn't get removed- it just disappears into cyberspace. Try to remember to copy your posts before hitting Reply so you can then easily paste them back into a response box if that happens.

And that's really outrageous thing that happened to you, but it seems to happen a lot. Sorry you got shafted like that. Guests are gods who never tell a lie and hosts are just some annoyance Airbnb has to put up with.

[Pete69]

This story is another reminder to require at least one or preferably TWO day's notice to book. People who book last minute TEND to be people who live their lives haphazardly. Makes sense when you think about it. Responsible people book well in advance.

The only two guests who ever smoked inside my non-smoking suite had booked same say and the other the night before check-in day. Therefore I require two day's advance notice. The only exception is if a summer season weekend becomes unbooked -- however I'll jack up my rate a bit with one day left.

[Evelyn694]

I think we all want to be as careful as we can be and charge as much as we can, but when Covid started in the US, it started here, and we all lost jobs and rents at once.  I used to be much more picky but now sometimes I have to ask myself if I am willing to trade the risk of a bad renter for the $200, and a lot of times I am.  Also I have to LOWER my price for last minute stays in order to fill the slot, not raise it!  Not sure how that works for you and not me!  But definitely now I will read ALL the reviews before I consider anyone.  I didn't look carefully enough at hers. 

The two benefits of this fiasco -- I think I ended that renter's reign of terror, she has been flagged now by AirB.  And I discovered that there are a lot of nice hosts out there to talk to on this forum!  I've been renting since 2007 and never tried the forum!

[Emilia42]

@Evelyn694 I think @Pete69 makes some good points. Times are tough but be very skeptical of last-minute bookings. I just recently had an inquiry at 10:30 pm on Thursday for check-in on Friday. The guest was trying to book but Airbnb flagged the booking and prevented it. The guest asked if there was any way around this. Had the booking been for a month in the future I would have helped them, but not last minute.