Guest cancelled res, deleted account, then picked up key

[S43]

I am currently sleepless over a very strange issue that arose tonight. A guest cancelled their weekend stay at my home (actual Home with my possessions) around 3 pm today. I have a strict cancellation policy so he wasn’t refunded. I had left a key with my doorman for him. Since my calendar opened I got another booking for tomorrow, so I didn’t call my doorman to remove my key. At 10 pm tonight I get notification that the key has been picked up by the cancelled guest! I was totally confused and messaged on the app many times with no answer. Called Airbnb only to discover he cancelled his account and removed his phone number! I asked my doorman to call the apartment on intercom and no answer. I am completely panicked with a million possibilities of what is going on in my apartment right now from robbery to identity theft to hidden camera installation. I cannot go there until tomorrow morning and have no idea what to expect. Is he there? Is he dangerous? Etc. Has anyone experienced this and if so what actions did you take? I am going to call a locksmith and hopefully be able to get that changed ASAP. Stolen items i can deal with but not sure where to begin with the possibility of him hijacking any personal data. Or what are other possible outcomes I should be prepared for in this situation? Thanks in advance for any help. 

[Marzena4]

As much sorry as we all may feel for you, @S43, you must realise rather sooner than later how many possibilities for any kind breaches Airbnb gives with their rules, combined with all those remote locks, hosts not keeping their hands on their properties and so on.

This shared economy is going in the wrong direction... So you must secure yourself because Airbnb will NOT help you in such situations.

[Chris232]

@S43

If you have an unauthorised person in your property then you need to call the police immediately

[Fred13]

@Marzena4  Aye, an absentee owner leaving keys in mail boxes for anyone to be able to pick up I don't think is quite what the three young 'amigos' who started Airbnb where thinking. As people have streched the concept, Airbnb undoubtedly now realizes they can't control what 700,000 hosts spread over 191 countries decide to do. The day will inevitably arrive they will hand all controls to the host, along with all liabilities.

[Fred13]

@S43Best to go to your place ASAP with a locksmith in tow, and see what is going on and take it from there.

[Linda108]

I hope all works out for you, @S43.  Since the guest cancelled after picking up the keys and also closed his Air BNB account, there would be no way for you to reach him.  While it may be innocent your alarm is understandable.  Keep us posted as to how this plays out.

When you have a moment to consider the lessons learned, I would suggest you consider having a co-host check guests in when you are remote.  While you have to share the income with a co-host, it will give you some peace of mind that someone is available to eye ball the strangers coming into your home and respond to urgent issues.

[Laura1355]

This is my worst nightmare. I am a single woman and I live in my home with my 22 year old daughter who is always at classes or working. We have a lock box and I usually text the guest 24 hours before check-in with the PIN to unlock the lock box and get the key to my house. So far, everyone has never canceled and checked in got in the key and returned it promptly. But this could easily happen to me. I live in the property. So at least there's some protection and that I could easily get home from work and call the police and change the locks. But what else am I to do?

[S43]

Hi guys thanks for your support. I wanted to update that in the morning the guest himself phoned me and told me that his account had been hacked. I still ended up getting to my apartment and met him and he was totally nice and exactly who his profile said he was. He had no idea I was even freaking out this much. He just thought he was going about his booking normally. Of all the possible outcomes I hadn’t considered this one. In hindsight it was odd that someone would book 2 nights and pay if they had ulterior motives but was overall too scary to think straight. Anyway I’m very relieved and yes will hire a co-host because although I try to meet guests myself, when they ask to check in late in the day it’s not always feasible bc the whole point of Airbnb I thought was to sublet your home when you are out of town, which is what I do. My building staff is incredibly diligent and secure so I’ve always trusted them also to watch out for any fishy situations. Thanks again everyone. Hope you never have to endure such panic while hosting!

[Sarah977]

So glad it all worked out and good on you for getting back to this forum to let everyone know.

However, the whole point of airbnb is NOT to sublet your home when you are out of town, although some people do use it like this. The original model, although airbnb has veered wildly away from this, was to SHARE your home with a guest, be a host, make them comfortable, give them pointers about things to do in your area, etc.

[Fred13]

Great @S43, nothing like addressing any 'issue' direct and ~IF~ dealing with good people, they get resolved amicably.

[Kelly149]

This is a good reminder that technology is not without possible issues and we would all be wise to record contact info about all guests somewhere accessible (paper comes to mind). Glad this story had a happy ending. 

[Madison17]

OMG! How scary this must have been for you, I know I would have totally been freaking out as well and would have definitely called the police. 

I'm so happy to hear it all worked out fine though and that the situation was nothing like what we all would have thought could have been one of our worst nightmares. 

Honestly, my suggestion moving forward to not only avoid scary mixups and situations like this, but actual potentially dangerous ones that don't have such a good ending, would to be to get a good smart lock. 

We just got this new lock a couple months back and absolutely love it! It syncs directly to my AirBNB calendar, sends guests emails with key code and instructions as soon as they book a stay, disables codes at time of check out (and accurately lol), and auto updates itself for me. I don't have to do a thing or have to worry about keys or anything myself, it's awesome. It also has a dashboard I can login to so I can change and edit codes, adjust settings, etc. so that I'm always in full control when needed.

Here's a link to check it out, I highly recommend it.

https://www.amazon.com/AirLocking-Smart-Lock-for-AirBNB/dp/B0759NPC5Y/ref=as_sl_pc_tf_til?tag=airloc...